Black Rooster Country - day 1

 The Classic Journey's portion of our trip begins.

We meet the guides, Anita and Johnny, and driver Antonio in the lobby of our Florence hotel, along with 13 other travelers.  Off we go.  First stop, Greve.  For lunch. 

The black rooster on the side of the building means we are in Chianti Classico territory!

Giovanni Verrazzano - the guy the bridge is named after

Fellow travelers

Back on the bus and off to our first walk.  A couple miles.  Up and down.  Wide lanes and narrow paths.  Smooth and rocky.  "Anita, you didn't tell us it would be like this!  What's with all the uphill?!?  ...and rocky ground?!?"  Poor Anita...

Our first walk.  Where is started.

...how it went

...almost there.  Forests and vineyards.

Black rooster...wine barrels...I believe we have arrived at a winery!

"Anita, what's with the black chicken?"  "Chicken?!? It's a rooster!  I'll explain later..."

Winery tour

Wine!

Here, we learned what Chianti Classico was and we had our first tastes!

Back on the bus and off to our first hotel. It was an old farm whose buildings have been converting into a lodging.  The buildings, room and food were all first rate!  ...and the grounds weren't too shabby, either. Here's a taste.

Agri-tourism has saved Tuscany.  Many old farms that would be insolvent, have bolstered their income and gotten tax breaks by hosting tourists.  We get to see how these farms work.  The farms get too keep on farming.  Everyone wins.

Day one is in the books.  Black Chicke...uh, Rooster and all.

Florence Italy, Part One.

After we checked into the hotel we had some time to wander around.   A very short walk from the hotel was the Arne River.

Ponte Vecchio bridge over the Arne River

Right next door to our hotel was - Bascilica di Santa Trinita.  

A very nice church - one of many we'd visit

Like nearly all churches in Italy, this one has frescos.

Ancient frescos

Stained glass

Just outside the hotel was Santa Trinita Piazza.  The column in the piazza is from 1560 gifted to Florence from the Pope Pius IV.  It somehow celebrates justice with the rise of Cosimo Medici to the position of Grand Duke of Tuscany.  Spoiler alert.  The Pope was a Medici himself.

Some old Florence street scenes

Motorcycles and scooters everywhere.

There are some strange things about the building below.  Second story.  Two window and an arch.  Why not third window?  Arch over door doesn't fit against trim under 2nd floor windows.  Ground floor window and room lap over into next building!

I think they might literally have everything here.

Narrow streets and narrower sidewalks.  This scene is misleading.  Florence was jam-packed with tourists.

Saturday morning we took a walking tour.  It was largely about the Medici family history that helped give rise to Renaissance in Florence.  Briefly, the Medicis farmed sheep. Got rich. Started banking. Got very rich.  Tried to fit into democratic city-state Florence.  Eventually just plain took over.

Front to back.  Baptistry, Duomo, Bell Tower.

Tell us, Gabriella!

Duomo is more "by Florence, for Florence, of Florence" than it is about God.  Lots and lots of secular "heroes of Florence" on the facade. 

Leslie and Eric showed up on plan and on budget.  We met them and went to Duomo, Bell Tower and Museum.  The inside of the Duomo is nice, but certainly not the most impressive we'd see.  The distinctive is the dome.  

It was designed by Fillipo Brunnelleschi to be self-supporting as it was erected.  At the time, the largest dome ever built. The weight of cupola on the top helps hold it together.  The original ball on the cupola was worked on by Leonardo DaVinci as a teenage apprentice.  Full disclosure:  The original was struck by lightening in 1608 and fell off.  The current one is the second.

Under the floor are the remains of the two previous buildings built on this site.  One was from the Roman era.  The other was a church razed to built the current one.

old and new church

Mosiacs

After the Duomo, it was time to climb the bell tower!   Well, for Eric and me, anyway...

Great views from the tower

Looking south.  City Hall tower at left.

Well, SOME of us climbed the tower.  Others had Limoncello Spritzes

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Eye-level view of the dome.

The museum was next.  The artifacts in there were generally the originals and patterns for the statuary on the Duomo facade.  They replace the originals with replicas in order to help preserve the originals.

From the roof of the museum

Sunday, we managed some more sightseeing before gathering for our tour at 1 PM.  Leslie, Eric and Patti found some more churches to visit.  I found a really nice model railroad call HZERO!  

An overview

Stunningly well done train shed

Container port

Accurate model of US military cemetery just outside Florence

This model railroad was features some superb modelling on a par with Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg Germany, although much, much smaller.  The whole layout is about the size of a single room at Miniature Wonderland.  The operations were very well automated - lots of trains on the move at all times.  

But, now, it's 1:00 PM, and time for the Classic Journeys group to muster at the hotel.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (shuttle vans?) - Italian Style

Getting there is half the fun?  Sometimes.

Sometimes, the adventure you choose isn't the one you get, but it's still an adventure.

This year the adventure is Italy.  A one week Classic Journeys tour starting in Florence and a few days in Rome ala carte.  We are travelling with my cousin Leslie and her husband, Eric, again.  (We did Switzerland with them a couple years ago.)

Since jet lag is real, we like to get to the destination a day or two early.  So, we book flights for October 2nd, arriving Rome, direct from Atlanta, on the morning of the 3rd.  Leslie and Eric are coming the next day. We plan to take the airport train to the main Rome train station, Roma Termini, and then catching the high speed train, Frecciarossa, to Florence.  Should be pretty easy.

Man plans.  God laughs.

Three days before we leave, Google causes me to stumble on news of a general strike in Italy on the 3rd.  They are planning on shutting down all intercity and suburban train service.  Well, that's a problem!

Problem solving mode:

1a. Stay a day near Fiumicino Airport in Rome and then continue to Florence on the 4th.  Pros:  don't have to deal with strike.  Cons: Have to find such a place to stay.  Have to deal with packing and unpacking for a day, rides to and from airport.  Potentially lose the cost of a night's stay in Florence by cancelling too close to check in.

1b. Find a way to Rome and stay near the train station there.  Travel to Florence on the 4th.  Pros vs 1a: Perhaps a bit of time to look around Rome near train station.  Cons: Finding a place to stay and getting to train station the next day.

2. Fly from Fiumicino to Florence.  Pros:  Gets us to Florence on time with least hassle.  Cons:  Have to deal with more airport schlepping.  Uncertainty of flights and costs.

So I start working on option 2.  I find a flight.  There are only three a day, but the middle one works.  It's expensive, and nearly full.  It's an ITA flight the goes six hours after our flight is due into Rome.  I download the ITA app and book the flight, refundable, after jumping through all the usual fraud prevention hoops USAA make you jump through.  Are you, you?  Are you really making this purchase of something so far away and so expensive.  We'll send you a text!  Do you have the USAA app?  You can verify there!  Just get through all the steps before the ITA app times out and ditches your attempted reservation ...and this is the easy way.  I get it done. We have a plan.  It costs six times what the train would cost, but...it's a plan.  (Spoiler alert.  This is not the last time we resort to "throw money at it" problem solving mode on this trip)

New wrinkle.  The day before we leave, I start reading about the strike.  It's not EVERY train, just most.  Suburban trains will run during rush hour.  Not helpful, except maybe airport train will run?  More reading.  When they did this last month.... LAST MONTH? They do this often?... there was a list of other trains that ran.  More reading.  There is a list of trains that are supposed to run.  More digging.  a good number of the Frecciarossa trains will run - about half.  However the the Trenitalia app still shows everything running.  I take a look at availability on a train that is on the "supposed to run" list.  There are still a good number of open seats.  So, I decide to wait.

We are at the airport, waiting to board.  I take a look at the Trenitalia app.  Now, it shows the trains that won't run as unavailable - or at least that's how it seems.  Maybe we can book a train?  I look at a likely candidate.  Still some seating showing.  I decide to wait.  After all, we have a flight.

A few hours out of Rome, I check again using Delta's pretty decent onboard wifi.  The train we want comes out of Southern Italy and has departed it's origin station.  I decide to book it, refundable, of course!  I find two forward facing coach seat together, and after jumping through USAA's hoops again, book them. 

 I decide to try to cancel our ITA tickets through the app.  It won't let me. Something about purchase in different country than you are trying to cancel.  Call agent.  Ugh.  And, by the way, your flight has been cancelled and we've rebooked you for TOMORROW!  

We land, get shuttled over to the terminal from the tarmac, go through passport control, get luggage and are on our way to find the Leonardo Express train and it's 30 minute ride to Rome.  But, since we have hours until our train, we try to find an ITA ticket counter and get our refund.  We find one.  They can't do it, either. Really? But, they give us a number to call.  Great. 

We find the train ticket vending machines in the concourse and a Trenitalia agent says she's not sure when the next train will run.  There's a strike, you know... So, off to find the train.  They allegedly sell tickets on the platform.  Just as we get there, we find what turns out to be a travel agency that sells train tickets.  We ask.  They say they don't know when the train will run, also, but.... they'll sell us a van shuttle ride to Roma Termini for 20 euro a head.  That's about double the train, but a certainty.  We book it.  Good decision?  Maybe.  Bird in hand, etc.

About 20 minute later, we're on the van.  Jammed full for the one hour trip.  It's here we find out that Rome traffic and driving are mind numbing.  In my most aggressive driving mode, I don't think I would last 20 minutes.  Motorcycles and Lime scooters weaving in and out. Lines on road are suggestions as are speed limits.

We're dropped off a block from the station, passing a marching line of protestors, and walk to what's the side entrance.  There are police with riot shields everywhere.  Only one doorway is open and we file in.  Inside, there's a long corridor running parallel to the platforms that has a big food court, car rental agencies - with long lines, and...an ITA ticket agency!  Okay, let's try that refund!  Nope,  they can't do it either.  Call.  

The ITA counter at the trains station has a calm place with a few seats, and we have time, so we call.  Amazingly, little wait time, friendly agent who talks to her computer constantly, and appolgizes to me for it, constantly, but gets it done.  100% refund.  No fees or anything.   One problem solved.

Now, we have to wait for the train a couple hours.  We wander around and find the passages from this side concourse we're in to the main concourse and waiting room are closed and locked.  So, we bump outside and walk there, once again, lots of police and only one doorway open.

The station is mobbed, and you can see from the end windows, the bus corral at the station is where the union protest is happening.

Lots of protestors!

What do they want?  Higher wages?  Better hours?  It's a trade union that's striking, after all. Nope.  They are supporting the Palestinians.  Okay... I don't get it. But, here we are.

People are stacked up at ticket booths and machines trying to find a seat to where they want to go.  I check our train is still running, more or less on time.  A bit of sleuthing and looking around, it seems to me the station is having a hard time finding tracks for arriving trains.  Things are not on plan.  Lots of trains on station platforms not going anywhere.  

Most of these trains just sat here the entire two hours we waited, despite the station having departures about every 3 or 4 minutes, on average.

Fast trains of several types.

Our train finally arrives, about 20 minutes late.  

We board.  People have started stacking bags in the vestibule.  We add ours to the pile and find our seats.  The train is 100% full, but we are on and settled. 

Our train arriving

On board.  Seated.

Winding our way out of Rome

A conductor comes by.  Are those our bags in the vestibule?  Yes.  You have to move them.  Ugh.  Will they fit in the overhead rack?  I don't think so, but....  I lift and try.  It fits.  Just barely.  The other one fits behind our seats.  Now, to get on that high speed track!

Nope. Protestors have blocked the junction and the train has to take the "old route".  65 mph maximum it seems.  Not the 155 mph for the new route.

The old route did have some scenery.

Sooooo close.  That's the new HSR route right there!

I am not bored.

About half way there, there's a connection from the old route to the new and we scoot over and get up to speed.  

We arrive about an hour and a half late.  The only good thing is we won't have to wait to check into the hotel.  Florence's station is mobbed, too.   As was the taxi queue outside.  Out hotel is a half mile away, and we decide to hoof it.

Florence Santa Maria trains station.

With Google maps as our friend, we wander the ancient streets of Florence to the address of our hotel.  Can't find it.  Walk around the block.  Nope.  Call the hotel.  Turns out, it's across the street!  Maybe Google maps isn't out friend?

We check in.  The hotel has a rooftop bar. 

We grab a snack and a glass of wine.  We have arrived.

BTW, Frecciarossa means "Red Arrow"  Cool. 

A Brill "Bullet Car" on SEPTA's "Red Arrow" line from Philadelphia to Norristown.  Circa 1980.