I priced out options for the places were were going and it was going to cost a fortune. Then I priced flying internally on European airlines as recommended by Rick Steves and others. It literally cut the price in half for both of us. So that's what we did.
However, we had to fly 2 different airlines with a change in Madrid, and we had to pick up our luggage, go through customs, etc. in Madrid. And we had to get to a totally separate terminal to fly from Madrid to Florence. It was a bit of a struggle, but we finally found our way through both the Lisbon and Madrid airports without killing each other, and arrived in Florence almost on time.
The arrival in Florence was a little strange as we landed out on the runway, had to be bussed to the terminal and it took forever for the shuttle to come. Then we spent quite a bit of time waiting for our luggage to be delivered while sniffer dogs were sniffing around all of us. Welcome to Italy.
The terminal in Madrid was super modern, but the food was typical airport terminal food, mediocre at best.
We took a taxi to our apartment, the Casa Nicola. It is on the top floor of a building right across the street from Santa Croce, my favorite church in Florence and just about anywhere else so far. It wasn't as high up and the stairs weren't as steep and narrow as the place in Lisbon, but it was still a challenge.
The last flight up is secured with an iron gate. That was a good thing. Although our apartment went from front to back and had good ventilation (along with great air conditioning), the apartment at the top of the first landing did not, so the people there often left their front door open as well as the one on the street so that they could get some circulation. We constantly closed that door, only to find it open again the next time we got to it.
This is Trout behind the gate.
This is looking down from the gate.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of the place because I knew I was going to link to it for this posting, but I was fascinated by the ceiling. It's a very old building and the ceilings were low on this top floor. You can see a beam in the middle with a wood ceiling on one side and a brick one on the other. This is in the living room.
Our bedroom on the front of the building had a very high ceiling and was all plaster. The peak of the roof was in the little hall where you entered the apartment. The bedroom was to the left and the rest of the apartment was to the right. Off that hall was a storage area up some winding stone steps into the roof peak. I should've taken a picture of that, but I didn't.
The bathroom was actually next to the kitchen and off the living room. Its ceiling is brick.
As is the ceiling in the kitchen.
The kitchen had a spiral staircase up the the terrace. I only went up there a couple of times. It was very pleasant but not worth the effort of trying to carry coffee up when the view was almost the same as from the kitchen.
There was a nice little table and chairs to use.
And some nice sub-tropical plants. In the place with the AC, there was a great cat who hung out in the plant holder under the window a lot of the time.
Like I said, the views from the kitchen windows were just fine.
Then I got it. Apparently they work better for pigeons in Florence than they do for doves in Tucson.
They were a little difficult to reach over to hang out our laundry. I used a kitchen towel to cover them. It was just enough to keep them from acupuncturing me while I worked.
The famous leather school of Florence was right across the street from us. It is housed in the former monastery connected to Santa Croce. This is the view from our bedroom. We looked, but didn't buy.
There were lots of restaurants, but Trout mostly noticed the vehicles parked on the street.
The view at night was interesting, too.
Ramona and Aidan were suppoed to arrive at around 6:00 pm on Friday night, but there were issues with landing in Florence, so they had to land in Pisa and then be bussed to Florence. They took a taxi and finally made it to our place at about 10:00. Fortunately, there was a recommended restaurant, Baldovino, right around the corner and it was still open, so we all got something to eat before going to bed. Interestingly, Baldovino was the only place I used the bathroom on the whole trip that had what I would call an ADA toilet -- at least in the women's bathroom.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera to focus for some reason, so this is pretty blurry.
