A Big Day in Florence

It’s Sunday and hot here in Florence, although it's a dry heat with very little humidity. Still that hasn’t kept the tourists off the streets, although we have gotten the sense since returning home this past week that there seem to be fewer tourists here than in April or May. We can’t put our finger on it of course but the lines seem to be significantly shorter and the groups fewer and smaller than this past spring.

Anyway, we are back into the groove here after a whirlwind trip to the US. It’s an odd feeling (odd feelings seem to abound here of late), it’s an odd feeling but we just can’t get over how strange it is to “visit” the US and then “return” to our home (what there is of it) in Italy. Mind you it feels good, real good in fact.

Our flights back through London from Boston went off without a hitch or delay and both Susan and I as well as our luggage arrived safely in Rome Thursday late morning. We then caught the Leonardo semi-Express into Rome’s Termini station, found the closest fast ticket machine and got our train tickets for Florence. After an half hour wait we boarded our train and by a little after 3 pm we were schlepping our bags to our apartment, which we found to be a bit on the warm side. Indeed, Florence had been suffering from some unusually hot weather earlier in the week and the previous weekend had seen temperatures over 100 degrees F – and so we counted ourselves fortunate that it was just in the high 80s when we got home.

We unpacked, fiddled with getting the air conditioning working and then walked across the street to the OK Bar where we sat outside, had a bite to eat and drank a little white wine. It was so nice to be able to just relax for a change – and in fact we spent the next several days doing just that, relaxing and sleeping late and staying cool. Aside from a couple of trips to the various markets to replenish our larder we did very little. Our neighbors are all gone on holiday – they asked us or rather Susan to water the plants in the hall – and there seems to be no one else staying here right now, which is actually quite nice.

It’s Sunday and the Big Day for football (soccer) fans around the world but particularly for those here in Italy – which is I suppose is just about everyone. This evening Italy and France play for the world championship. Unlike the “World Series” in the US which means just the US (well OK and Canada) the World Cup does in fact involve quite a few countries of the world.

So tonight we will leave the comfort of our air conditioned apartment and brave the heat. We will meet up with friends Melinda and Dave at 7 pm and the four of us will settle somewhere to watch the people watching the game. The word on the street is that there is to be a large screen put up on the Piazzale Michelangelo so we might try there – and what a place to watch the sunset from the hills overlooking the Arno valley.

Sounds like a good deal all the way around.