Europe 2013

Days 1 and 2

Things are off to a bit of a rough start for our European vacation.  We understood that taking our cell phones to Europe would be expensive and a bit distracting.  For the purpose of relaxation and to save money, we left them home and suspended the accounts.  When we got to Florence and tried checking our email on our computer and iPad, our Google account didn’t trust our efforts at signing onto the account from such a foreign land, and won’t let us into Shari’s mail account, and only a portion of mine.  I can get email, but only if I sign on through the internet to the google website.  Email was to be our way to communicate with friends and family, and it will be a bit more difficult.

The good news is that the flights were better than we remembered in past years.  We still have not figured out how to sleep on a plane, so we arrived tired.  Once on the ground in Florence, our energy level spiked for a few hours from the excitement of being in Italy again.

I tried to clear all the thousands of touristas for the Duomo picture event!  Got most of em.

After sleeping like a couple of logs in a quiet forest, our second day was spent walking the uneven streets and taking in all the sites and people.  Some of the streets remind us of why we  avoid renting a car in the big cities.  Some streets are so narrow they would make a good bike trail and the sidewalks a foot path.

After a couple hours of exercise and window shopping, we tried a new restaurant that was highly recommended by our son, Lee.  As it turns out, it is seen very favorably by Frommers, the travel guide folks, as well.  It’s one of the oldest continuously operated restaurants in all of Italy, having been in business since 1869.  In Italy, you don’t judge a restaurant by it’s street facade.

It is a popular place, so you occasionally have to share your table as we did with Gary Lum from San Jose, CA.   

A restaurant in business for 144 years must have some endearing attributes.  They have a chicken dish grilled briefly then pan fried in butter that is outstanding.  The chicken and the steaks are grilled on an open wood fire in the kitchen.  It was a nice start to the Epicurian part of our vacation!

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