Firenze

I took my day off at Guido on Friday, and traveled to Florence! The plan was to deliver some of Guido’s wine to one of his buyers, a restaurant right next door to the Duomo in the Center, and meet Megan there for some authentic Florentine cuisine at lunchtime! Then Megan would come back with me for the weekend at Guido and family’s in Poppiano. Because I was on foot and the wine was rather heavy, I decided to make the delivery as soon as I reached the Duomo, at about 9:30am. I found the restaurant, and tried in my extremely limited Italian to communicate with the shop owner that these were samples, and that they were for him, to see if he wanted to make an order later. The owner, an elderly man, simply would not hear it, and yelled at me, and sent me away. It was awful, I was trying so hard to make the delivery for Guido, and to make him understand that I was just the messenger. I was very polite, but he yelled anyway, and I just had to leave. So I cried and called Megan. She had overslept, but as soon as she heard the desperation in my voice she hopped out of bed and was on her way to the Termini in Rome to catch the fast train to Florence! I must have sounded really pitiful. :) Once I knew she was coming to me, I spent the morning walking around Florence, doing some casual sightseeing at the Duomo and a pretty little not famous church and did some window shopping. 

 

 I had gelato and two blood oranges for lunch and was feeling a little better about life when Megan found me sitting in the sun right smack in front of the Duomo. I was so happy to see her I nearly cried! We hugged and squealed and hugged some more and then found a restaurant (NOT the one with the mean wine man) to eat and talk and breathe a bit. 

 

Megan brought gifts from home: early Easter presents and a letter from my family!! It was the best gift ever, and made me feel terribly homesick but also so happy and loved!

 

 My Bella Megan

We walked around Florence until time to leave for the bus station. We did a little H & M shopping and bought postcards and stamps to send to our families and had the famous Florentine waffle. We almost missed the bus to Poppiano, and Megan finally understood and could sympathize with me about the dreadful service and customer service at the Florentine bus station! They were rude to her too, and she speaks the language! 

Finally home at Guido’s, we tell our stories to the family. Guido immediately gets on the phone to yell at the man who yelled at me, only to find out that the yelling man was the owner’s father who has gone a little mad and is notorious for being less than accommodating to people!

 

 Megan in gorgeous Toscana!