Florence Italy

Well, we have arrived in Florence. It is 4:30 in the afternoon. Deb is asleep and I did nap for a couple of hours. The time in Florence is 6 hours ahead of home time, so our bodies are telling us that it is about 10:30 in the morning. We left home at about one p.m. yesterday morning and we had slept only a couple of hours before arriving here.

The first flight from Toronto to London was wonderful. We flew business class so we had lots of room, and our seats could lay flat. We should have gotten a few hours of sleep, but it was a little early for sleeping. We were greeted with a glass of champagne and given a dinner menu. Our four-course dinner had at least three choices for each course. Deb and I both had poached salmon with asparagus, tomatoes and aioli. It came on a full tray along with a herbed roll and risotto. It seemed to me to be a complete meal in itself. Then came a lamb shank with herbed potato wedges and green beans. The lamb shank was actually chipped lamb sliced from a roll. It was delicious. I gave up. I couldn't even try the cheese tray that was meant to be the third course, nor the mixed pastries that were supposed to wrap-up the meal. Maybe we didn't sleep because we were too busy.

There was no difficulty getting Vera on the British Airways flights and it was easy getting through Heathrow airport. An agent met us with a sign so we certainly located her easily. Five minutes later the paperwork was done and we were on our way. We could not find the pet relief station until we were almost too late to catch our next flight to Florence. Then Vera refused to do anything.

The fight to Florence was on a much smaller plane with much smaller seats. Our bodies now told us it was bedtime, but we just couldn't get comfortable. Finally, we arrived (elevenish) in Florence. Here we found nobody to inspect our import papers for Vera. We simply walked out of the airport without any questions asked. When we met our driver I told him that I had to go back in so we could be legal. We went to an information counter, but they told us we didn't have to do anything. We had already escaped customs. Since I couldn't find "the right people" and Deb was in a hurry, we just left. We drove around Florence for a little while and then we were delivered to our hotel. Deb went to sleep immediately and I have been napping and puttering.

When I opened our room window, it was obvious that we were in an old section of town, just around the corner from the Duomo, Florence's famous Cathedral. I' going to have to wake Deb soon so we can find something to eat.

Oh, and these show the view from our window.