La Linea Gialla

In front of a David replica.

The Duomo

One of the doors on the Duomo.

Another view of the Duomo. 

We took the train to Florence this morning after eating more bread and Nutella for breakfast down by the marina, just as we planned. The air smelled so, so good. While we were sitting on one of the trains, Taylor pointed to something out the window, a sign saying, among other things, “La Linea Gialla”. We’ve been hearing this for days over the loudspeaker on the train platforms and we’ve really enjoyed shouting it while we’re at the train station. It sounds really pretty in Italian, so we’d say it while gesticulating in an Italian fashion and joke about saying it on the streets. Turns out all it means is “the yellow line”. Also on the train we got even better views of snow-capped mountains, still part of the Alps. It’s breathtaking.

When we got to Florence we ran into a bit of a problem as we decided to walk to the hostel rather than take the bus, which is the only way I had directions for. This turned into me and Taylor not speaking to each other and walking on opposite sides of the street, but we got to the hostel in one piece. I’m sitting in my bunk right now and I’m pretty sure there is a performance space or something right on the other side of the wall because someone was singing opera for about an hour to a wildly enthusiastic crowd followed by some guitar sing alongs. It also smells like incense...perhaps that is because this used to be a convent. Actually now they are praying…maybe it’s evening vespers? At 11:30pm?

After we dropped our backpacks off (they seem to be getting heavier), we walked quickly to the Duomo where we were to meet one of Taylor’s friends who has been working in Italy for the past couple years at a winery. We told him we’d meet him at the Duomo, except we failed to specify where and we were half an hour late, and the building is huge. Rookie mistake. I didn’t know what he looked like, so Taylor told me he looked Italian…that was helpful. But we found him! And he was wearing duck boots from L.L Bean, just like me. Best shoes ever, even if the Irish boys didn’t like them. People here have been staring at my feet, and I felt out of place, but Taylor’s friend says a lot of Italians really like them.
            We went inside the Duomo, strolled all around the city center, posed in front of a replica of David, crossed the Ponte Vecchio, and finally sampled some gelato which we ate in front of the river. Delicious! After that we walked around some more, but I was freezing, so we found a little coffee shop where I finally ordered a caffee, which is espresso, and enjoyed it thoroughly. By 5:30, we were hungry, but in Italy people don’t eat at 5:30. They eat at 8 or later, and nothing is open until then. So that didn’t work very well. Eventually we found a pizzeria with pretty cheap pizzas and it was actually warm in there. Seemed like a fairly American place, however, seeing how they were playing American pop music. We ate to Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

Tomorrow we’re on the move again, this time to Rome where we’ll settle for a couple days.