Firenze aka Florence

We spent the last few days of our trip in Florence. We disembarked the ship in Civitavecchia at 5:45 am on a Sunday. We walked to the train station planning to go to Florence through Pisa. We had heard about a train strike during our cruise and learned that the strike was still going on. The ticket agent asked us to come back in a half an hour and she would have more information about the situation. When we returned she sold us tickets through Pisa expecting but the trains would run. She called us back minutes later and said the strike was continuing. I thought for sure we would be stuck in Civitavecchia.


We decided to get on the train going to Rome hoping that we could connect their for Florence. We lucked out and made the connection in Rome on a high speed train. We ended up in Florence almost 3 hours before the time we would have if we had gone through Pisa. This also meant that we were able to go to church in Florence. We rushed to our hotel, changed, and caught a taxi to church. My dad had served part of his mission in Florence and Brother Cuffaro, his close friend, had arranged for Daniele Santurra to meet us outside the church. He showed us into the sacrament meeting. I didn't understand much of the meeting but the spirit was definitely there. We met the missionaries after and were invited to stay for a pot luck lunch. It was good authentic Italian food. My dad reconnected with a few people. I'm not sure of the last name of this family.


This is Maria Theresa Bocca's husband and daughter. I met Maria Theresa's mother back in Torino on my last trip.


This is Daniele Santurra and his parents.


Daniele gave us a ride to the Cuffaro's. The last time my parents saw them was back in '84. There was a lot of catching up to do.

After visiting the Cuffaro's, Daniele gave us a ride to Michelangelo Mountain. The views of the city are spectacular from up there.

We spent the entire next day shopping. I may be solely responsible for the death of a cow. I bought a lot of leather goods (1 leather jacket, 2 pairs of boots, 3 purses). Nothing cheers me up more then the smell of leather.

This is the Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge"). It has beautiful jewelry shops all along it.

Daniele told us about a shoe store where all of the shoes are made by hand. It was amazing. We bought a couple pair and met Francesco.

We also discovered the best gelato shop. It was two bridges down from the Ponte Vecchio. The prices were very reasonable and the gelato was delicious. I ate this fragola (strawberry) for you Sarah.

This was taken the day we started our trip home. Our hotel had a beautiful deck area that we ate breakfast on. Florence was good to me this trip. I can't wait for my next trip back.