Our stay in Florence has come to an end. Which is likely for the best since we need to quit shopping or will never get our suitcases on the plane. We have had great weather for the start of the trip but now it looks like nothing but rain. Rain yesterday in Lucca wasn’t so bad but dealing with luggage on a move day will not be fun in the rain.

Our apartment was in the no vehicle area but we had seen taxis drive through so ever hopeful that we could get door to door service. Sadly that was not to be. We tried Uber which has limited use in Florence but they wanted to meet off the Main Street which was farther than the side street around at the back of the duomo. I took our trash out and saw several taxis at the taxi stand so I thought we should just go there. We lugged our luggage through the rain to the taxi waiting at the stand. It was empty. We waited several minutes (felt like hours) getting drenched on the side of the street. Several taxis passed but all had passengers. I guess everyone wanted a ride on a rainy morning. So back to Uber. We got the same driver who I canceled earlier because of where he wanted to pick us up but I thought it would be better this time since now we were standing by a road instead of in the pedestrian area. But no he went back to his original pick up suggestion and we waited even longer for him to get around to us. So moral of the story take the first ride and go where they want you to. It was a bit farther but we would have spent way less time in the rain.

Hoping that our adventures were over for the day we caught our train to Orvieto. I suggested and picked Orvieto because it is a white wine region and I remembered it as being super cute when I visited briefly for lunch back in 2004. Well it is a little smaller than I thought and so the travel mis-adventure continues.

The train went smoothly and we arrived to Orvieto somewhat dry. We follow the signs to the taxi stand but no taxis. I try to call for a taxi get a recording and nothing else. The women selling train tickets were exceptionally unhelpful and offered no assistance. Our apartment was right by the duomo so I went to ask the bus driver if he went to the duomo but no he did not. He at least told me to ride the funicular up and take a bus to the duomo up there. I also here from the apartment host who suggest we take the funicular and bus so I go get Christina and we lug our luggage across the parking to the funicular and buy our tickets. It had been raining but now it was pouring.

From the funicular the bus was easy and pulled up soon after we arrived. Several kids were waiting obviously for another bus but didn’t stop them from blocking the door. I am sure Christina and I were entertaining as we hauled our bags onto the bus. Good thing we didn’t have to walk because it was straight up. We would have never made it. It was bad enough getting there from the Duomo.

We’re soaked our bags are soaked but we have found the apartment and are inside. Now we just have to make it up two flights of stairs. I really thought we were going to die but we made it. Workout complete for the week.

The apartment is nice and clean and has a great view of the Duomo. We clean up a bit and head downstairs to the bar that is right below us and order a bottle of white. They saw us dragging our suitcases so maybe they felt sorry for us because he gave us a slice of pizza. We also got the standard potato chips and peanuts to munch on. Potato chips seem to be the going snack for wine drinking in Italy. We enjoy the bottle so order another and continue to recoup from the stressful travel day.

After our wine snack we head out to see a bit of the town. It has gotten dark and some things are closed but we find a few stores to visit before heading to dinner. The restaurant was a little strange so we got a pizza and a little more wine. We could have bought cups with our names on them but sadly no Rebecca or Christina. We considered picking Italian names but in the end we decided we did not need something else to carry home.

Our host met us back at the apartment to show us how everything worked an ask for payment. Always read the fine print on booking. It said pay the owner but I did not realize it had to be cash. We just barely have enough cash to pay. We shopped too much in the Florence markets.

The long travel day is over we have a bottle of white and we are finishing a bag of chips and some chocolate we brought from Florence. Alls well that ends well.

Fingers crossed the next travel day goes better. We have hired a driver to take us to our Rome airport hotel so hopefully that will go smoothly.