This morning Tom, Marion and I caught trains to different destinations. Tom and Marion headed back to Rome as they fly home on Thursday. I took the train to Florence as my flight back to Toulouse was from Florence. I planned to spend the day in Florence before my flight home.

When I arrived in the Florence train station, there was lots of security and different contingents of what looked like officials. I waited around to see what was happening and a special train arrived. It seemed like half the Italian military general staff and a cardinal were on the train. The dress uniforms and metals were all very impressive. I am not sure you will see it all in the video but I tried to record it.

Later at lunch, I heard jets fly over and you could see tails of red, white and green smoke, the colors of the Italian flag. Also, all the historic sites were free. I am guessing it was some kind of holiday but it is not listed as one of the national holidays.

I spend a couple of hours wandering around and seeing the historic sites. I did not go into any of them as I have spend lots of time in Florence and seen most of it multiple times. I lived in Verona as a child and my mother used to take us to Florence for the weekend quite often. I have also been several times as an adult. It was fun to wander around and see things again.

I had lunch at a restaurant that Tom and Marion had eaten at a couple of times during their time in Florence, the Osteria dei Pazzi. It is near the Piazza Santé Croce. Mateo, the young man who manages/owns it, was very friendly and excited when I told him Tom and Marion had suggested it to me. The food and atmosphere were very good and fun.

The owners had a very interesting private wine collection that seems to have labels of historic people and things. I am not sure exactly what it represents but was interesting.

I had bruschetta and pappardelle with mushrooms. I added a glas of the local red wine.

I wandered around after lunch seing more of Florence. I made sure to go to the Loggia Market so I could rub the boar’s nose. Legend says if you rub the boar’s nose you will return to Florence. It has worked for me many times so I made sure to do it this time.

After my wandering, I caught the tram out to the airport. The tram ride was about 20 minutes from the train station and was easy and convenient.

As had been my usual for this trip, the first leg of my flights home was delayed but it did not really matter as I had time between flights to spare so it did not mess up my return. Florence airport is small and very manageable.

I am always amazed at the size of Europe and the convenience. I was in three countries in one day. I started out in Italy, had a layover in Germany and was back home in France. The flight from Florence to Munich was about an hour and the flight from Munich to Toulouse was about two hours. In the United States an hour flight might get me over one, possibly two states. Two hours would be about the same depending on where in the United States you were. In some states, Texas or California, it would not even get you out of the state.

It was a very fun and great trip! I am really glad I went to Italy to meet Tom and Marion.