Tuscan Hill Towns Day 2
Tuscan Hill Towns
DAY 02 - May 06, 2005 - Arrive Florence, Italy & Reception
Daylight began to seep around the window shades around 5 AM as we were crossing over Iceland. The plane was quiet by this time as the flight crew were having a little rest and the passengers in the cabin were either asleep or watching the last movie of the flight.
They began serving breakfast at 8:00 AM Frankfurt/Florence time and again we were the last to be served. It was not a problem as when we finished were on our approach to Frankfurt Main. We disembarked on the A concourse and had to walk & ride over to B. We went through immigration at this time, after walking through all of Concourse A and much of B. Very interesting procedure.
We had about an hour so I worked on the journal while Gennie read and then went to meet six ladies from California who are part of our group. We recognized their yellow OAT tags attached to their bags. When boarding time came, we were taken downstairs and walked to a bus to get on our aircraft out on the tarmac. It was raining and the temperature was in the low 50's. Cool day in Frankfurt.
The flight was great until 10 minutes out of Florence when the aircraft was bumped all over the sky. In all of my flying, car trips and ocean voyages, this was the first time I was felt sick. Very interesting… Fortunately, we landed and after a 30 minute wait to get our luggage, ours was one of the first out. We went through the doors for nothing to declare and were greeted by Giulia (Julia) our tour guide. We waited for a little bit for everyone to come through and then she put us on a small van to go to the hotel, the Strozzi Palace Hotel in the heart of Florence. She also mentioned that we would meet as a group at 6 PM for an orientation meeting.
We were rapidly taken to the hotel where Gennie checked us in, Room 42 - an immense room with a great view of the cityscape and A/C. I got our luggage, took them to our room and began to unpack as Gennie tried to contact our son, Eduardo who is studying here for the 2005 year. After getting our phone activated we asked him to come over and in 10 minutes he was here. He took us for a walk around the area, getting an ice cream, taking a lot of pictures and just catching up on the 4 months we have not seen him. At 5:30 we returned to our room where he was able to use our internet, how nice it is, while I took a shower and Gennie relaxed.
At 6 we went to the reception area where Giulia , was waiting for us. She gave us a brief overview of the trip. We asked questions which she answered very well. At 7 we were all invited to try some of the canapés she had for us with wine, sodas and water. Around 7:30 we were on our own, going back to our room to get Eduardo to walk back to his apartment to get Ciça and her 8 year old son Pedro. We had some things for all of them so we enjoyed seeing them open the packages and play with the new things.
About 8:30 we left to get dinner at the Gusto Leo where the ladies had salads and the guys had calzones and pizza. We talked, enjoyed each other's company and at 10 PM went to get dessert, ice cream again at the Perché No!. We walked back to our hotel checking out the store fronts, the night life of downtown Florence and seeing a lot of young people walking and enjoying the cool evening air. We showed Ciça & Pedro our room and talked a little more and they left to go home and see one of the new movies I had brought for them and we to organize our things and finish this journal. Gennie hand washed a few things while I typed.
Accommodations: Strozzi Palace Hotel
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