Florence and Rome in 3 days!
- Laura J
- Oct 18, 2019
- 6 min read
Welcome and thank you for joining me again to ready about my travels! Sorry I disappeared there for a bit, the beginning of the school year is always extremely busy. On my last blog, I talked about our time in Paris and today I will tell you about our time in Florence and Italy. Let me begin by telling you that Florence was the most beautiful cities from all the ones we visited on this tour and it is the one we spent the least time in. Sad right? Well, it was not supposed to happen that way. We were supposed to have a whole day there and a bit of the next morning but sadly life happens. Continue reading to find out more about our misfortunes.
After our free time in Paris exploring the Latin Quarter, we loaded up on a bus heading to Gare du Lyon to board an overnight train from Paris to Florence. Our train departed at 7:15 and arrived in Milan at 6:00 am. Let’s talk about this overnight train experience! I have never been on an overnight train and all I could imagine was the trains I had seen in Harry Potter and how there would be beds for us to sleep on. So we were told there would be 6 people per compartment. Ok, 6 people, not bad, this compartment must be rather big I thought. It was not big at all. The compartment had two couches on either side facing each other. If two people were sitting across from each other, their knees were touching. The top bunks were out but the middle and bottom ones were not fully out for people to lay down.
The compartment was tight! There was enough room for all of our luggage! That was great! Once we pulled the middle beds out and adjusted the bottom ones it got even smaller. The space between the bunks was very little. When I was laying on my side my shoulder almost touched the top! I feel like this is coming off a little negative but I am just trying to paint a picture of our situation for you. The experience was lovely! It was amazing. It was like nothing I have ever done before and I would definitely do it again. Was it comfortable? No. Did the community bathroom smell? Absolutely! Were there showers? Definitely not. Although the atmosphere was not all that, being so close to others gave us the opportunity to talk and get to know each other. It gave us the opportunity to laugh when someone bumped their head and build stronger relationships with each other. It’s something that we could not experience in Texas.
From Milan, we would transfer trains and take a different one to Florence that would depart at 7:35 am and arrive at 9:30 am. So, we were expecting this two-hour train ride after our overnight experience. Little did we know, it would take us a bit longer than that to make it to Florence. Before I get into that let’s talk about sleeping on the train. The train had outlets so that was a plus. It also had great AC which is super important during the summer. The problem was that for some reason the train would stop for short breaks throughout the trip and when it stopped, the AC would turn off because the whole train would turn off. It would get very warm during these breaks. Also, the train went through Switzerland, so we were warned that during the night we might be woken up by swiss guards checking our passports. Luckily our Tour director took care of that for the group and we were not disturbed by the guards during the night. Alright, here is where things get interesting. We arrived in Milan as scheduled at 6 am. We had breakfast at the train station and were ready to board the train for our 7:35 departure. We saw that our departure was delayed for 30 minutes. Ok, 30 minutes no big deal, let’s just hang out here, it will be fine. We wait for 30 minutes and then the delay goes up to an hour! When it went up to 1.5 hours we decided to have a seat. Our tour director learned that someone had set fire to the train line in Florence and all trains to Florence were delayed. To make a long story short, we waited at the train station from our 6 am arrival until 2 pm. At 2 pm a bus finally arrived to take us to Florence. The ride was about 4 hours. Once we got on the bus, we were all very excited to finally be heading to Florence. BUT! Alas, our misfortune did not end there. We drove for about 45 minutes and a pheasant hit our windshield! The windshield shattered! Not completely but enough for the first couple of rows to get glass on us. I was sitting in the 3rd row and was also affected by the glass. We stopped the bus at the next rest stop and had to stay there until another bus came to pick us up. I think it took about an hour for the new bus to show up. Once it got there we got on the bus and were relieved to finally continue our long journey to Florence. About 10 minutes into the drive, a rock hit our windshield and cracked it! Luckily the damage was not severe enough to stop us. At this point, the entire group just laughed at what happened. It seemed like we had the world against us. However, we finally arrived in Florence and our luck began to change. All we had time for was to have dinner, take a short night walking tour and go to bed to depart for Rome the next morning.
Even though our time was short in Florence, it was my students’ favorite destination as well as mine. We had the most delicious dinner when we arrived. We started with an appetizer of fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. Our main dish was chicken in some red sauce and some very delicious potatoes. To top it off we had tiramisu for dessert.
We spent the rest of the evening with a local guide taking a walking tour. Florence is known for its leather goods, so during the tour I had to sneak away to buy a purse! On the walking tour, we saw a replica of the statue of David, many street performers and a stunning view of the river.
Florence was a stunning city and I cannot wait to return and experience more of what it has to offer. The next morning, we headed to Rome but before we left Florence, we went up to a high point to get a beautiful view of the city.
Our bus ride to Rome was about 3.5 hours. Upon arrival, we went straight to Vatican city and toured the Vatican museum as well as St. Peter’s Basilica. It was truly an amazing experience to be in the same area where the Pope is. As a Catholic, it was an experience I will cherish forever. We were able to see the Sistine Chapel and that was also a moment that left our group speechless.
After our tour of Vatican City, we had free time in Piazza Navona. The location was great because we were able to walk to several tourist attractions. We had some gelato and then made our way to the Trevi Fountain. Most of my students did not know what the Trevi fountain was until I told them it was where Lizzie McGuire threw her coin. We met back up for dinner and then after dinner had more free time. During this time I took the kids around to see the Trevi Fountain at night, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and do some souvenir shopping. Be warned, that being in Rome means walking quite a bit. Comfortable shoes are a must as well as a water bottle because it is very hot. After our free time, we headed to the hotel to rest up for the next day which would be our last day.
The next morning we took a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. I don’t think I have ever sweated so much in my life. We walked a lot and the sun was not on our side. Although the weather was not comfortable, it was worth it to see the inside of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.
The rest of the day we spent in separate groups. Part of us signed up to take a cooking class so they learned how to make tiramisu and gelato. The rest of us just had free time to explore Rome.
This brings me to the conclusion of my European trip. Thank you for following along as I tell you about my trips to London, Paris, Florence, and Rome. The experience was amazing and what made it even better was being able to share it with a group of students. July 2020 we are heading to Switzerland, France, Italy, and Barcelona! I hope that I have given you some useful information for your future travels and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. I would love to help in any way I can. Until next time!
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