Day Trip to Florence
So even if living here isn’t realistic, this will definitely not be our last visit as a family to Lucca. And if at all possible, we will stay here in this apartment every time we visit. Not only are we smack dab in the middle of the action (those of you who require either an early night or a quiet night sleep would not do well here), but we’ve made fast friends with the owners of the deli across the street, the restaurant owner below, the owner of the beer garden and the owners of the wine shop. They truly do make you feel like family right from the start…
We ventured out of Lucca and in to Florence via a 1.5 hour train ride. We arrived in Florence with no particular plan. We got there too late to visit any museums (lines were too long), so we opted to walk around and explore. The mercatos were of particular excitement to the kids. One of the shoe vendors had a big stack of broken down empty shoe boxes out on the street and you would have thought my kids struck gold. They each carefully picked out a few box lids that spent the next four hours serving as a racetrack for little toy cars, a table top for their snacks, and a sled – just to name a few.
The street vendors in the Mercato were a disappointment … overpriced leather that they were unwilling to discount, horribly cheap knick knacks, tacky t-shirts and an overwhelming plume of cigarette smoke. Thus far in our journey I hadn’t really noticed many smokers … evidently they’re all in Florence.
There were quite a few really nice boutiques (the Chanel store was amazing), but even more stores that you would find back home. I don’t recall seeing many mainstream stores when I was here last, but they’ve certainly arrived in droves … Disney, H&M, Champion, Levi, Sephora, even Foot Locker. I’ve noticed that even in the small clothing boutiques they often have t-shirts with words on them written in English.
While we are on the subject of fashion, there no longer seems to be a big difference in fashion between the Italians aged 30 and younger, and the same back home in terms of style. I do notice a difference in how the age 50+ age groups dress with the Italians dressing in more subdued colors and often in linen and the American tourists wearing loud patterned prints. The trends right now are very similar to what we have at home, with purples and fuscia everywhere. The Italians are more bold with their taste in shoes, which is why I’m always like a kid in a candy store in this country! And yes, I have bought a pair of shoes, but only one (so far). Actually because most of the styles are what we can find at home, I haven’t really been that tempted. And so far the shoes I have really liked have been too pricey …
After walking around all day we decided to have dinner in Florence before heading back to the train. We found a tratoria that had outdoor seating without an enormous table service charge. The kids wanted to share macaroni and cheese, and even though I warned them it wouldn’t be like their beloved boxed Annie’s, they still wanted to try it. Turns out it was penne pasta in a gorgonzola cheese sauce with walnuts. Fia devoured it but Vinny traded pasta dishes with his dad and opted for the penne bolognese. Both kids ate every last morsel … by far the largest meal they’ve had in recent memory.
For some unknown reason, our 1.5 hour train ride home turned in to two very long hours but we finally made it back at about 10:00pm. With both kids in bed, I’ve settled down to blog and do some laundry, while Hugh is across the street at the beer garden watching the world cup.
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