On To Florence, 2013

After Ravenna, we drove through clouds and rain and mountains past Florence to Greve-in-Chianti (I swear I am not making this up) and the nice sosta there to meet friends Rick and Kathy, fellow travelers, actually far more experienced than we, with whom we meet up every couple years on some continent or other. Last time was in Mountain View, CA; before that, Mantua. But I digress. We had a great afternoon and evening, swapping stories and information. Kathy edits the monthly World Wide Travelers newsletter for The Escapees, and Vicki is one of the contributors. Vicki fixed her veal Aosta and pasta, and Kathy brought a salad and delicious pecan pie (pecans from Texas). Next morning, Rick installed a new fuel filter on our van, something we don't trust to just any mechanic; particularly me. We parted, they to the west and then south to Rome and Fiumicino for their fall/winter sojourn back in the States, we back east to Florence and more of Italy. Alas, unlike previous meetings, I didn't take pix.

Riot in marble at the Duomo/Baptistry/Campanile

And the usual riot in humanity, even in mid-October; OK, a
lot of these people probably thought it was Mardi Gras

Still probably a good deal for people with limited time (3-4
days), but, wow, a 40+% increase?! This time we are here in
order to savor the things we like, see a few new things, not
in a hurry; so we demurred; diesel costs more in Italy, about
$1 more per gallon, but we have seen no other vast increases
in costs here; the main advantages of the Florence Card are
1) you get free bus/tram transportation for 72 hours, and 2)
you don't have to stand in lines to buy tickets/get in...but
there are work-arounds for those issues, particularly if you
have time

"I'm sorry," the Angel is saying, "but your
Florence Card expired 20 minutes ago"