Italy day 1: Florence

We have flown from Atlanta to Paris, after a rescheduled flight that left 2 hours later than we expected. Fortunately, we had enough time in Paris that we made our connection to Florence. We didn't get to see anything in Paris other than the airport, but it really made me appreciate Atlanta's airport! We landed in terminal A, but our connecting flight was in terminal G. We followed the signs to G until they led us out to the road. On the road was a little map that showed a shuttle bus route leading to B, C, D, E, and F... but no G. Eventually we discovered that G is kind of its own little tiny airport about 5 minutes away by bus, and not on any map, but we found the secret G shuttle bus and made our connection with plenty of time to spare.

We passed over the Swiss Alps on our way to Florence. The view of the mountain peaks jutting up over the cloud cover is amazing, so we pulled out the camera from the overhead bin and took a few pictures. Lisa and I have been working on photography concepts in the airport - we took a few dozen test shots of my shoes while learning about aperture, image stabilization, and shutter speed. I now know every smudge of dirt and grass stain on my shoes.






We arrived in Florence and took an exciting taxi ride (bicycles beware!) to our charming little apartment at 22 Corso Italia. We were greeted by Marilena, a tiny wisp of a pregnant woman, who gave us a little tour of the apartment (will post pictures as soon as I can take some in daylight), and we set out to explore Florence. We walked along the river at night, passed by many beautiful buildings that we must return to during the day, and discovered Osteria Santo Spirito, an outdoor cafe in Piazza Santo Spirito on the south side of the river. As you can see, the waiters in Italy are quite cute (as are the waitresses, but I didn't get a picture).



We shared a very satisfying appetizer of bruschetta with chicken liver paté, and for the main course we had ravioli and sliced beef with cheese and salad.






While we were eating dinner, a two-man band came by and serenaded the cafe. It was the perfect first night in Florence.



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