We had a few hours in Parma before our train left. So we spent our time packing everything up and then went around the city and saw the sights.
Finally, it was time to say our goodbyes to Noemi, Perla, and their families. It was crazy to think that I'd only known Noemi for a few days. But in that short time, I had grown to admire her. It was also crazy to see how well Liz and Perla understood one another now. I'm not sure if Liz's Italian got better or if it was Perla's English, but those two could carry on conversations with ease.
We made our way to the Parma train station and hopped on a train to Firenze (Florence). While Marco had friend/family connections for the rest of our trip, this was the only place he didn't know someone we could stay with. So we were staying in a hotel.
Let's talk about Italian hotels here for a minute. Because this one took me by surprise. I was expecting a large, stand-alone building with a lit-up sign proclaiming itself as a lodging establishment. But instead, we walked up to a door that looked like all the other doors in a long line of buildings. Inside was a small courtyard and stairwell. From the people coming and going, I was positive we had gotten lost and come to an apartment building. But I soon found out it was a normal hotel. One floor was the hotel and the surrounding floors were apartments.
But the thing that got me excited was the elevator. It looked like it was straight out of a 1940s movie. A metal cage with wire surrounding it, you could totally see inside the elevator and watch as it made its ascent. It even had manual folding doors. I held back my squeals of delight because Marco and Toby were so obviously not impressed with this very cool elevator.
So I'd be cool about it as well.
Then I looked over at Liz and saw her smiling knowingly at me. She absolutely knew I was ecstatic about the prospect of this one-of-a-kind (to an American) elevator.
Unfortunately, the elevator was so small that we had to make several trips to get our luggage up to the hotel. But hey, that just meant more elevator rides.
Finally inside the hotel part of the building, I was surprised when we were shown our rooms. Marco and Toby's room had four beds in it. Liz and my room had three. Marco explained that these were the smallest rooms available. So, while technically we all could have fit in one room, I was more than happy to have boys' and girls' sections.
And, eek! Our room had shutters!
But the bathroom was another story. I have never yet been in a bathroom so small. Yeah, it had a sink, toilet, and shower, but we almost had to sit on the toilet to use the sink. And the only thing dividing the shower from the rest of the bathroom was the shower curtain. As in, the shower floor was also the bathroom floor with nothing delineating the two. Liz and I made concerted efforts to keep the shower curtain closed when we used it, but it never kept all the water in the shower area. When we showered, the entire bathroom got wet. Also, it didn't have a fan and, since the bathroom was so small, it filled up with shower steam within minutes. So we showered with the bathroom door open. But we decided all of that was okay because it added to the Italian experience.
At least, that's how Liz and I felt. Marco and Toby, on the other hand, didn't like their teeny bathroom. Toby was a big guy and having to contort himself around the toilet in order to use the sink was not fun.
After our walk from the train station, I was eager to explore Firenze. Ancient buildings and duomos seemed to be everywhere. I was disappointed when Marco told me the day set aside for Firenze wasn't until later in the week.
The plan was to see Firenze, but also use it as a home base for several day trips. Over the next several days, we'd see Pisa, Siena, and Lucca. I was excited for the next day; we were going to Pisa. Marco also mentioned Lucca, but I'd never heard of that city before and discounted it as a small, probably boring city I wouldn't be interested in.
Let it be known that Lucca is one of my very favorite cities in all of Italy. Well, at least all of Italy that I've ever been to. Our family visited Lucca last year and I fell in love with it all over again.
We unpacked our things and Liz and I opened the gorgeous shutters. Those silly hotel people had them all closed up. I wanted to see Italy and hear the noise of the traffic. So we opened those shutters up wide and enjoyed all the ambient noises while we unpacked. Finally, Marco suggested we find a place for dinner.
"Let's walk around and see if we can find a bar to eat at," he said.
"Good idea," Toby agreed.
But I was shocked, "You want to eat at a bar? Can't we just find a restaurant or something?"
Marco and Toby looked at each other. "No, let's do a bar. It'll be faster and cheaper."
I looked to see if Liz was concerned about all of us hanging out at a bar. I mean, hadn't we traveled to Italy with two returned missionaries?! Since when was taking us to bars okay? But Liz seemed fine with the idea. So I decided to be okay too. And then, when they took us to some seedy place, teeming with questionable characters, I'd tell them that was exactly why I hadn't wanted to eat at a bar.
Besides, I thought bars just served drinks. I was sure that once Toby saw the lack of food at the bar he'd want to find a restaurant with me. He ate a lot and was perpetually hungry. No way would snacky bar food keep him happy.
So we walked down several streets in Firenze. I forgot about my bar worries as I tried to soak everything in. The streets were teeming with life and not only was the architecture stunning, but I loved hearing all the different languages surrounding me.
Marco and Toby kept stopping at several small restaurants, looking over the menus, but we never went in. Confused, I asked, "I thought you said you wanted to eat at a bar? What are you doing?"
"These are bars. We're looking at the menu prices. These places are tourist traps and too expensive. Let's keep walking."
Those places were bars? They looked like normal restaurants. That was the day I realized that a 'bar' in Italy is more like a small mom and pop American restaurant. Yeah, you could get alcoholic beverages there, but mostly an Italian bar is just a small casual dining establishment. Basically, exactly where we wanted to eat.
Finally, blocks from our hotel, we found a bar to Marco and Toby's liking and settled down to order. By this time, I had learned two things about ordering at Italian eating establishments.
#1: Have Marco order for me. At this point, he knew I didn't want to continually eat pizza and that I couldn't stand mushrooms. It had only taken him a few days to figure out my likes and dislikes and, since the menus were always in Italian, it was faster to have him do my ordering. Usually he'd come up with two or three things he thought I'd like, explain what they were, and then let me do the final choosing. It worked every time and I thought every meal I ate was delicious.
#2: Always, always always always, be very direct about my choice of beverage. I had to order 'aqua minerale.' If I didn't tell them the 'minerale' part they always brought me aqua frizzante and that dang water made me dizzy. Super dizzy.
A bit of Liz info probably no one is interested in knowing: carbonation makes me dizzy. I don't know why, but it does. People think I'm some kind of health-nut because I don't drink soda. But really, it's because when I drink it I get super dizzy and can't walk a straight line. So me drinking carbonated water when I was already dehydrated was not a pleasant experience.
Anyway, we all ordered and enjoyed relaxing our feet. Then the food came out and we stuffed ourselves silly. Of course, Marco had ordered the perfect thing for me. And he was cute too. Gosh, I was such a lucky girl to have him as a traveling companion/food orderer.
By the time we finished, it was late and we were tired. We started walking back when Toby took me aside.
"What's going on with you two?" he asked.
"Toby!" I looked to see if Marco was paying attention to our conversation. He wasn't. He and Liz were ahead, laughing about something. "Nothing's going on. Why do you think that?"
"Oh, he's totally into you."
"What makes you think that?"
He rolled his eyes. "Liz, I'm a guy. I can tell."
"No way. He's just being nice. See? Look at Marco and Liz. He's talking to her. Does that mean he likes her too?"
"That's different. But you wait, he likes you. I'm totally right." Toby raised his eyebrows and gave me a knowing look.
When we returned to our hotel room, Liz and I told the boys goodnight. We unlocked our door and turned the light on. But our screams soon brought Marco and Toby running back.
"What are those things! How do we get rid of them!?" We were freaking out. Our entire room seemed to have suddenly become home to half the flying insects in Italy. Mosquitoes, dragon flies, and flies were flying everywhere, coming through our opened shutters.
Yep, we had forgotten to close those dang shutters. And, being Americans, we had also forgotten that our windows didn't have screens.
Marco and Toby shut the lights off and tried to get the insects out. Marco caught several in his hands and threw them to their deaths against the hotel room walls.
Let's talk about the walls in Italy for a minute. I don't know what they use, but Italians don't paint their walls like we do. I mean, they do paint them, but the paint they use is totally different from ours. As in, it isn't washable. If you wash any part of a wall, the dusty paint comes off with it. It's totally impractical and not Mr. Magic Eraser friendly at all. But that's how they do it. So when Marco dashed the insects against the walls, all the blood and guts stayed there. Yeah, totally gross.
Finally, Marco and Toby got our shutters closed and then gave us a lecture about closing them in the future. Yeah, we'd remember. After an experience like that, who could forget?
Everyone said goodnight and we went to bed.
The next morning I would find out that, despite their best efforts, Marco and Toby had missed at least one mosquito.
Part 15
Ahhh I want to see that postcard!! So cute. I remember getting those from you. And doing those puzzles in the newspaper over breakfasts. :)
ReplyDeleteNice post with interesting photographs! Thanks for sharing it. You just reminded my NYC trip of last year. We visited a historic venue NYC too and a wedding was going on there. It was very pretty and I am thinking to book that venue for our wedding ceremony.
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