Frank's group and mine did indeed have breakfast together. His was leaving Florence this morning for Venice. He apologized for not getting back to me but he'd had a major headache all day and he'd disconnected from technology. Not a migraine, but a bad one nonetheless. Asked me what we were going to do today with our extra time in Florence, and I told him we would do the Duomo museum & Bargello and that I'd already arranged the tickets and times. Also a group lunch at ZaZa. He congratulated me on my problem solving. I thanked him again for changing the schedule, he asked which hospital Mamma was in – he'd send a plant. Hugs and cheek kisses goodbye.
After making sure everyone had their bags ready for transfer from the other hotels, along with the ones already in the Excelsior because they would have to change rooms too, my ducklings and I went wading out into the weather. It wasn't storming at that moment but the reports called for scattered showers and thunderstorms. We were armed with umbrellas. It wouldn't be absolutely unbearable in rain. Unless it was absolutely torrential downpour, but I wasn't going to dwell on that.
To minimize exposure to the elements, we would walk 5 minutes to the Bargello and see the museum, walk 2 minutes to Santa Croce, spend time in the church there, walk 10 minutes up to the Duomo and Baptistery, go to the Duomo museum behind the church then walk 10 minutes to ZaZa for lunch. If things were really awful after lunch I would call cabs to transport us all back to the Excelsior. This was a more linear route rather than do an orientation walk and then off to the museums. They would be outside 15 minutes at any given time, maximum, even in the rain.
All in all, we didn't get hit with too much rain. We made it to the Bargello when it started sprinkling. We were there for an hour and in light rain we went to the church at Santa Croce. It had stopped while inside and we got to the Duomo complex okay. There was a downpour while we were in the Duomo museum but it had slowed enough to safely get to lunch on time. ZaZa had a fabulous menu put together for us: ribollita soup, tuscan beans, grilled vegetables and a choice of roast chicken or pork medallions (either one with an amazing sauce) and torta della nonna for dessert or cookies. Fabulous hearty food for a cold rainy day. We got back to the hotel a little wet but it wasn't that bad all in all.
The rain really started coming down about 3PM. Thunder and, lightning and completely sideways water from the sky. The winds really picked up. Everyone was on their own for dinner and I'd hazard to guess that most ate in the hotel.
My magicjack was not behaving well and I started to get frustrated. The device displayed on the computer screen that it was performing an upgrade but the hotel's connection was a little too slow and it took a dump in the middle of the upgrade. History told me I would need to contact them and have a technician help me out, and I just was not in the frame of mind to take care of it then.
That night I got a phone call from Mamma via Marco's telefonino. Yay. She sounds worse for wear and she complained about the food, but I wouldn't expect differently. That's the good news.
The bad news is from the Cinque Terre and Ligurian coast. We dodged a bullet. Towns flooded out and mudslides. La Spezia got hammered, and Monterosso, one of the CT towns was completely overrun in mud and water racing down the hillside to the sea. It has covered the town completely. They aren't sure how many may have died in the flashfloods. Cars washed down the hills, some into the sea below. Vernazza had rivers of water as well. All they had at that point was reports so far, no footage, but there was no gas, electricity, or water in these already isolated towns and the incoming roads were all blocked with trees and debris. An awful situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment