April 15

.

This morning was our last morning in Florence.  My sore throat was sorer, when I woke up, alas.  Our train to Milan was at 1:00 pm (the European habit of using a 24 hour clock is so much more sensible than pm and am!  Just like meters are much more sensible than yards.....).  Anyway -- our train left at 1:00, or 13.00, so we didn't have to bounce out of bed at the crack of dawn.  Or struggle out -- which would have been more likely!

We got up, had yogurt, took showers, checked email.  My daughter wrote a bunch of postcards (I mailed my last ones from Florence last night on our way to dinner).

It's looking like I'll check a bag to come home -- something I basically never do.  We have acquired some jam and some honey, and I bet I'm not supposed to carry those on the plane.....  I decided that if I was checking my bag, I'd be happier if I had a strap to go around it, so all the stress wasn't on the zipper....  And I wanted some more cash, in case I decided to take a cab to the airport, say, rather than wrestling with all the stuff and figuring out how/where to catch the bus....  It's a short ride, as I understand it, so if I can leave right from the hotel, I may just do that.   

We managed to get all of our desired errands run, including finding some breakfast -- I had a pannacotta (sp?) with some kind of preserves and a strawberry on top, and a caffe latte.  At least, I think that's what it was.  It was a glass of hot milk, with a tiny cup of coffee poured in, and a dash of cream.  I was informed yesterday that if I was going to stir the foamed milk into my capucchino, as I had been doing, that there was no point in getting a capucchino at all, since the whole point of a capucchino is how hard they work to keep the foamed milk on top (and maybe make designs on it).  Oh.

So I had a latte this morning.  I think.

My daughter had a capucchino and a croisant-like pastry with cream filling.

My throat was less sore after all that than it was when I got up, but it's still sore now.  Yesterday evening it was sore on the right side, and today it's been sore on the left side.  Maybe tomorrow it won't hurt at all.............  Cross your fingers for me?

After breakfast we found an ATM, and RIGHT next to it was a luggage store.  They had straps, and they were having a sale -- if you bought something, the next thing was half off.  So I bought a cute luggage tag.  My idea of a fun souvenir.......  (As always, pics later.....)

We got some mozzarella/tomato/arugula sandwiches to eat on the train, and took one last walk through the market.

We went back to the apt, and made sure we had everything all packed up (and any dishes we'd used washed and put away).  The guy was supposed to show at 12:30.  When he was 5 min late -- we were about to call him and say "Hey, we have a 1:00 train to catch!" when he showed up.

He looked around and pronounced everything looked ok.  He asked us if we'd had any problems.  The long skinny lighter thing for lighting the stove was out of fuel, I think, which wasn't an issue after good ol' ZaZa (restaurant) gave us some matches.  Otherwise, no issues.

(Digression -- of our three apartments, one had a self-igniting stove.  From IKEA.  Both of the other stoves had to be lit by hand.  I wonder what the percentage is, in Italy, of gas stoves that need to be lit by hand......
End of Digression.)

We hustled off to the station and caught our train.  We weren't able to sit together, but we survived somehow, and both got off at Milano Centrale (which was the last stop for that train).  It was the fast train.  There were little tv screens over the aisle, telling where we were, how fast we were going, how easy it would be to rent a car at our destination, etc.  I took a pic of the screen showing that we were going 292 kilometers per hour.......

I was, alas, on the sunny side of the train, and was seriously dehydrated and hot when we got here.  We walked to the hotel, which was farther than I wished, and I filled and drank my 20 oz water bottle right down.  It has taken me a couple of hours to feel more normal, after feeling quite fragile and not wanting to do anything except sit and drink more water when we got here.....

Since my daughter joins her buyer's tour tomorrow, she wanted to grab her one opportunity tonight to go downtown and see Milan's cathedral and main square.  It's about a 40-minute walk, and I was afraid that if I went I would just be a drag on her ability to do it.

So she went and I stayed here in the room.

She found a restaurant in her book that looked promising, and is only a 10-minute walk from here.  The plan is that she'll be back by 8:00 (or 20.00), and we'll go eat.  At this point, I am feeling like eating is a possibility.  The restaurant in question has risotto -- comfort food for sure......

Before I forget -- I am leaving the netbook (on which I have been blogging) with my daughter (who will be in Italy for more than two more weeks).  So I'll have no way to blog tomorrow.  Supposedly I can use the ipod/phone for that, but I don't know how and am not sure I'll feel like arguing with it.

So don't be surprised not to hear from me until Thursday.  I leave here on Wednesday, and get home on Wednesday, but can't imagine I'll have the oomph to do any blogging until Thursday.

Buona sera!



In order to facilitate chronological traversal of these posts, here is a link to the next post.

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