Fabulous Firenze

We leave for Florence today. First thing's first though - breakfast. The breakfast that comes with our room is no continental breakfast - it's much better. Fresh fruit salad; yogurt; meats (we have learned about a meat that we haven't heard of that resembles a sort-of ham, called speck and sliced so thin that it feels like silk); hard-boiled eggs, and they are kept warm in some sort of hard-boiled-egg warmer...that's the only way I can explain it; muesli; and pastries. It's a great way to start our day to the last two villages of Cinque Terre - Manarola and Riomaggiore. We couldn't hike to them like yesterday because the trail beyond Corniglia is closed from the land slide a few years ago, so we took the train. We left our luggage at the front desk for the day and we picked it up later. I experienced a whole new type of toilet in Riomaggiore - there was no toilet. It was a whole in the ground. There was a sort-of porcelain basin on the ground with a whole in the middle, but it isn't something you can sit on. It did flush though. Weird! There were a couple of women that walked in and then walked out again - they didn't even want to try it. Our last stop in Riomaggiore was in an art store where we bought a colourful silk screen painting. It was expensive, but it's another piece of art for our new house to remember Italy by. Oops, I ended a sentence with a preposition - please forgive me. The painting is being shipped home because we don't want it to get damaged. We thought we had missed the train back to Monterosso, but we arrived just in time. Good thing for us that the trains are late on a regular basis. When we arrived in Monterosso, we bought some souvenirs and had a bite to eat before catching the train to Firenze. We are now on the train and we have decided not to go to Pisa today. We don't want to check into our hotel after dark. Maybe we'll take the train to Pisa another day. There is a well-known market in Florence that we will go to tomorrow to buy leather goods - more carry-on luggage to carry all of the things we have bought. I'll definitely have to buy a leather purse or three. I'm going to have to down size my purse collection at home. I have heard that Florence is known for its leather. That is why I didn't buy a purse in Venice... because I was holding out for Florence. Maybe we should buy a purse for Arrigo too ha ha. He is enjoying carrying the urban man-bag I bought before we left home. He's feeling quite at home - all the men carry them here. We are meeting up with Sara, Arrigo's cousin, and if she has the day off tomorrow, she is going to come to the market with us. I'm sure she'll be able to show us where to go for the deals. I'm looking forward to meeting her. After I meet Sara, I will have met the entire Monai family - all 65 of them, and that's only an approximate number. Today, whenever I stopped in a store to look at clothes, Arrigo simply said "Florence." I knew what he meant - Florence will have better prices, and I can't spend all my money in one place. He was right. He knows me so well. There will be better shopping in Florence. Rose, too bad you aren't here...we could shop up a storm! We're here. We got lost as soon as we got out of the train station. We eventually found our hotel and the front desk attendant speaks very good English. Complimentary coffee and croissants and happy hour from 6:30 to 7:30. I think it's free too. The hotel room is nice, and the bathroom is huge. The other hotels we were at were much smaller. A laptop is even supplied. Finally, maybe I can post some pictures, but the only problem now is to get them from my iPad to the lap top. Oh great, an Italian keyboard!!! We went to a restaurant called Tratorria La Burrassa. It was a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant just down the street from our hotel. We both had Tuscan Tomato Soup - nothing like the soup we have at home. It was very thick and tasty. Your spoon would stand up in it. It was the best soup we have ever tasted. Arrigo had lamb and I had Tortelli with porchini mushrooms. Delicioso. It wasn't very expensive. If Archie Bunker were Italian, he'd eat at this Tratorria for special nights out. After dinner, we explored. I can't even begin to explain how massive the Duomo (basilica) is. I could just sit in awe and look at it for hours. I didn't have any idea what to expect, but maaaan, is this impressive. You can almost feel the blood, sweat and tears that went into building it. It is constructed of brick and marble and took 140 years to build. Amaaaazing! So much history. WOW! There was a lot of entertainment in the square and tons of activity. Sara is meeting us tomorrow and going to show us around. It turns out that the market is open every day. We already have our eye on a piece of luggage to bring all our new stuff home in. Turns out I can't add pictures. I'll post pictures to Facebook. Oh, and by the way, I'm never using this blog again after this trip. I think it is outdated and there are better blog sites out there. Ciao of now.