Un viaggio a Firenze, una città che adoro (Or, A trip to Firenze, a city I adore)

Yesterday, we went to Florence.  

Il Duomo,
Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore

Or, as the Italians would have you believe it's called, "Firenze".  I think we can blame the English for messing up that spelling.  I'd feel bad about calling it Florence if the Italians didn't think the capital of France was "Parigi". 

That ain't right.

Anyway, the short version of this story is that I love Florence, and yesterday was a great day.  If you like that type of summary, just continue to scroll through the pretty pictures and be on your way.

The long version of the story goes a little something like this . . .

The route from Urbania to Firenze feels like it was laid out by Billy from Family Circus.














See?
Exactly the same!  At least it feels that way.
Actually, look more closely at that map. Each little squiggle is likely a sharp turn or a switchback.

So now imagine that someone let Billy design a two-lane road on the side of the mountain. There is one lane in each direction, both no bigger than they need to be (and remember, Italian cars are small) with less than a foot of shoulder on each side.  Billy's cute little detours and backtracks are actually blind corners and switchbacks.  First this road goes up the through the Appenine Mountains--out of Le Marche and into Umbria--and then it comes back down into Tuscany. Little Fiats zoom along this road, and despite encountering those zooming Fiats around blind corners, serious cyclists love it, too.

Now imagine you're traveling this road in a 60-passenger bus. 

For over three hours.

Ha.

Hahaha.

Now take a deep breath, Mom, and take your meclizine.
(Actually, that prescription would have come in handy yesterday.  I still don't get motion sick, but we had 2-3 students, who started out in the back of the bus, that really regretted their seat choices.)

mappa di Firenze
Naturally, not to scale.

Firenze is absolutely worth the trip.  It's the first Italian city I ever loved.  It's a university town full of so much history and so much art, that when the Allied troops sent an art historian throughout Italy to identify and locate masterpieces that should be protected from aerial bombings, the historian simply said the entire city was a treasure.  The Allied forces never bombed it.

The Piazza del Duomo is magnificent.

So is the Uffizi Gallery, an art gallery full of work by Botticelli, Titian, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Caravaggio, Raphael and a gazillion other Italian masters.  (They even showcase a few non-Italians, too.)

And there is, of course, Michelangelo's David at the la Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze.

And the Ponte Vecchio.

Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge

And leather.  Oh, the shoes and purses.  Oh, the smell of really good leather.

Pardon me, I need to take a moment.

Honestly, the only problem with Florence is that so many other people know how amazing it is.  It is full of tourists, many of the American variety.  You might here more English spoken there than you would on the streets of New York.

Yesterday, Florence gave us a WARM welcome with a high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Weather.com tells me that was 18 degrees warmer than normal.  Seriously, Firenze that wasn't necessary.

Pardon me if I look a little wilted.
We walked over five miles in the heat.

All in all, it was a good day with good people and EXCELLENT shopping.

At 5:30, we met up at the bus, loaded up and headed home.

We were about 15 minutes away from the Family Circus road when I heard a boom and felt it under my bus seat.

Oh, dear.  Oh, no.  60 people now need to pile out of the bus an onto the side of the road.
And wait.

And wait some more.

Speaking of things that aren't right.

First, the upside:

1. No one was hurt.
2. It was still light outside.
3. We had cellphone service.
4. We hadn't yet started on the Family Circus road.
5. It was neither a front-most or rear-most tire.
6. It wasn't as hot on the roadside as it had been in Firenze.

There were two possible solutions to our problem. First, a service truck could come within the hour and replace the ruined tire with the spare. If there was no other critical damage to the bus, we would reload and head on to the Family Circus road and Urbania.

Our bus driver frantically
calling to find a solution.

If, however, the tire explosion had created some critical damage to the bus, we would need to use the second solution which included waiting for another us to arrive from our bus company so we could load up the second bus and head on to the Family Circus road and Urbania.

Except . . . that the bus company is based out of San Marino and it would take two hours minimum for the new bus to arrive.  The new bus started in our direction immediately JUST IN CASE.

Except . . . the new bus would only hold 57, and we were 60.  So once we knew if the first solution failed, someone would need to drive the 9-passenger van that's owned by Centro Studio Italiani from Urbania (a 3 1/2 hour drive) to come pick up the stragglers.

And by stragglers, I'm quite sure I mean the faculty who agreed to wait, on the roadside, while our students were safely on a bus.

We had a polizia chaperone.

Millikin students patiently waiting.

It was definitely time for prayers and positive thinking.

In the end, the spare went on and no further damage was found.  So we loaded up and headed home, not quite two hours later than we meant.

We arrived safely in Urbania, grateful and relieved, richer for the experience even if lighter in the pocketbook.

Arrivederci, Firenze!