Day
11 Saturday, May 17
FLORENCE TO VENICE
We got up early and packed.
Left the villa around 8:30 and drove into Florence.
The traffic should have been light for this early on Saturday morning,
but it wasn’t. We had mapped
out where the Avis Office was. We were depending on our GPS, but the streets
were not cooperating. There were
several very complicated circles, one way streets and streets that had been
barricaded. We went around and
around with the GPS taking us back to square one and starting over.
The GPS computer lady was spouting off in her broken Italian accent
street after street. I was spouting
off words that I won’t write on this page.
I thought TomTom GPS was going to blow a circuit, I knew that I was.
Our TomTom had never failed us. I
was about ready to get out and abandon the car.
We finally got there. The
Avis office was on a little narrow street which had a small Avis sign in front
of a small garage door. Inside
was a very large garage. They had pity on us and didn’t charge an extra day
because we were a few minutes late.
The result of this nightmare in Florence traffic occurred
about four months later when we received three fines for driving in restricted
zones. Two of them were in the
same spot at the same time. I
had a number of communications with the police in Florence via email.
It ended up costing me about $380.00.
I told them what I thought of their system.
I suggested that they plant a tree in the plaza opposite the train
station in my name for the $380.00 that I had paid with the following
inscription: “Given by a fellow traveler in your fair city who was lost and
was FINED….three times”.
We had read of similar experiences in the Washington Post and several travel
sites. Florence may be the seat the enlightenment, but they sure are
"un-enlighted" as to how to show courtesy to visitors to this
wonderful city. It sure has left us with a very negative feeling towards
Florence and ever wanting to go back.
After turning in the car, we walked several blocks dragging
our suitcases to the train station. We
ate lunch at McDonalds in the train station, and then caught the 11:40 AM train
to Venice and arrived at 2:15.
We bought a phone
card as our telephone wouldn’t work and called the landlord.
He said to come on. We caught
a vaporetto and got off at Ca’ d’ Oro.
Through a small street we reached Strada Nova which was a major street.
We had to walk several blocks and crossed two small bridges to get to our
apartment. The area of apartment is circled in
green on the map on the right. We had rented our apartment months before
from www.Papaverorentals.com.
It was locat
ied at
the end of the narrow street. There
was an iron gate which was the entrance pato to our apartment.
It entered into a small court yard. Our
door was on the left and directly in front was another iron gate that led to a
large grassy lawn belonging to the apartment on the right.
At the far side of the grassy area was another gate that was access to
the canal and boat dock for that apartment.
The landlord met us and showed us the apartment.
It was very nice and located on the ground floor.
In addition to the locked gate at the entrance, the main entrance door
had two locks. One was a dead bolt
and the other was a rather elaborate affair that sent a bar up through the top
of the door frame and one into the floor as well as side frame.
The apartment had
a large living room with an eating area. There
were two windows that looked out into the neighbor’s lawn.
Separated by a folding door, was a small kitchen.
We had two bedrooms, one rather large and the other much smaller. Our
bedroom had a canal running right outside the two windows.
It proved to be rather comforting to hear the sound of the water when we
were in bed. Every once in a while a
small boat would go by.
We unpacked some and then went in search of a grocery store.
We had done our research and knew the name and location of the grocery.
We found it several blocks from our apartment on the Strata Nova.
The store was rather large and had a good selection of fresh meats,
cheeses, wines and other goodies. We got breakfast stuff and some snacks.
On the way back we stopped in a bakery and got some pastries.
After taking the food back to the apartment, we went out in search of
dinner. 
We found a small
café on the Strada Nova where we had a drink, and then went to another
restaurant which was nicer for dinner. Even
though it had outside dining, it had started to drizzle and had turned cool so
we chose to eat inside. I
had pasta with scallops and mussels, and my wife had pesto spaghetti for
starters. We shared a delicious bass
which was filleted at the table. It
was a very nice dinner.
It had stopped raining so we decided to go to San Marco
Square. We took the
vaporetto…. getting on and off at the right stops.
We walked around for a while. It
was nice to be back in St. Mark’s square again.
We didn’t stay too long as we were both tired.
We had a lot of suitcase carrying and lifting today.
