Mon April 28 - We arrive in Florence

I meet up with Marian & Harry at JFK Airport in NYC.  They had gotten there a few days early to spend time with family.  I flew in the day before and spent the night at a hotel near the airport.  Toby is meeting us in Florence later.

After a l-o-n-g plane ride, we arrive in Florence about 9:30am.  We find out we can't get into our apartment until 3:00 pm.  It’s raining and we are hungry and tired. 

We find the Mercado Centrale (Central Market), which is open, and people are having coffee and pastry. Vendors are making sandwiches and pasta for a bit later. We find someone who will make us sandwiches, so we each have one--crustless bread, with veggie, meat, or tuna filling. It doesn't look like much but it was surprisingly delicious.  We have our first cappuccino. 

We walk around the Duomo area. Lots of colorful umbrellas, and many, many people. Lines to get into everything.

We make our way towards the apartment address, Via delle Terme, 27, near the Piazza di Santa Trinita.   Finally we meet Marta, who gives us one set of keys to the apartment. We beg for another set, explaining the we don’t all want to go everywhere together at the same time. She calls Max several times, but apparently this is an impossible request. 

The apartment is beautiful, with very high ceilings and many mirrors. Also white leather furniture. The loft “bedroom” that I had planned to use is up a winding iron staircase, and an adult cannot stand up in the area. Fortunately, the living room sofa folds out into a comfortable bed so I am happy.  And, there are three bathrooms.  No complaints! 

Toby arrives that evening and we go to dinner in the neighborhood.  The meal was adequate but probably the least memorable dinner of the whole trip.  However, the vino rosso is fine, we are excited to be there, and all is well.  Added bonus....when we got back to the apartment, there's an extra set of keys on the table. Yea!  (TIP:  From this experience we learned to always ask for an extra set of keys which we were able to get in our other two apartments too, but only because we specifically asked.)