Florence (lunch in Lucca)

Today was absolutely gorgeous with endless sunshine and warm breezes. I was up early as my nose is still stuffed and down to breakfast before 9am.  The staff her at the hotel are wonderful and the guys at the restaurant know me now and have my little table ready. They call it my table which is very sweet and since I’ve been sick they make me decaf green tea which is very soothing and I’m sure doing a world of good for my healing.

I headed to the train station because I had wanted to do some touring around the smaller towns I had on my list but I just wasn’t up to all the changing of trains and such so I took a short ride to Lucca for lunch and to walk around the Botanical Gardens there which I hadn’t done when I was there before. I had such a nice lunch at this little café, Risto-Bar Caffe, and then back to the train station to go to Florence for the afternoon. I’ve been to Florence several times in my life but it’s still so worth seeing and it was nice to just walk around and with the exception of the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo area the city was pretty manageable. It’s not like Rome, Milan or Genoa, there is definitely a slower pace and a more civilized sense about things. The Duomo is still one of the most magnificent I’ve ever seen. I love the green and pink marble they used and just the intricate details and the traditional striped pattern. It’s a remarkable sight to behold and I particularly love the side view. I didn’t go in this time as I have been in many times before and was even there for mass 11 years ago with my Aunt Sheila and mom.

 

The Piazza della Signoria is one of my favorite parts of the city with the fountain and statues all around. There are so many details that you could never get bored going back to see something you surely missed in the last visit.  I got a few shots of the Michelangelo’s student’s rendition of “The David” which although not as good as the original is certainly still impressive with the Palazzo Vecchio standing regally behind it.

I walked for a while along the river and through the city streets before heading back to the station to head back to Montecatini. A very nice group of Red Cross Army Band members got on in Florence as well each carrying a large musical instrument including a trombone and drum. They play in Florence on the weekends in the warm months I was told by one of the men who heard me speak and started asking questions about New York. He was very nice and was saying how the group has been playing together for 10 years now and that they’re all old, in their early 50’s. I said that’s not old, I’ll be 45 and he just looked me and shook his head and made a few complements and then added right after saying how young I look “But I’m married.” Now I’m not sure if he thought by giving me a compliment I would get the wrong idea but I had to laugh to myself because I wasn’t thinking that at all. But anyway he shook my hand when he got off at Pistoia to change trains for Pisa.

I’ve met so many different people along my trip, it’s incredible the diversity and how interesting they all are. And one of the first things most people ask about or speak of when I say I’m from New York City is 9/11 and the World Trade Center. Today a couple from England who were heading to Pisa for the day asked right away if I lived near there and was I there that day? And this man from the band asked about it as well.  I guess I never realized how one of the major things people think of when they hear New York City is the tragedies. It’s certainly something that still touches everyone around the world and I see it in the eyes of the people asking that they genuinely feel so much sadness for us still. It’s a very, very small world when you think about it and more so now with so much access to media and internet.

By the time I got back to Montecatini it was 7pm and time for dinner so I found this great place with a large outdoor seating and no smokers around. Interestingly the place was packed but with mostly American’s. I thought that was so strange when I sat down and started hearing Midwestern accents and southern accents. And there was even another single women who had the small table next to mine. I’m not sure where she was from as she only said a few words to the waiter when she was ordering but she was clearly American.

So it was a long day and I’m exhausted but feeling a bit better from all the fresh air. I promised myself I would rest tomorrow but we’ll see. I get so anxious to see as much as possible but I don’t want to overdo it and be sick on the cruise.

Montecatini Terme Day 3

Yesterday was a good day for relaxing since I really didn’t feel well. My throat was still sore and my nose was all stuffy so I took it a little slow and did the cute city train ride that takes you all along the town’s most interesting places in about 40 minutes. It’s the same kind of train they had in Baden-Baden and really in so many little towns I’ve been to. It was completely packed with tourists and Golden Agers who are still running around the city enjoying all the festivities their program provides. We have the whole Netherlands contingent and they’re very loud but funny. And they all wear their matching orange exercise wear.

After the train ride I walked a bit and got lunch at this wonderful café. I had a small plate of pasta which was perfect because I wasn’t that hungry and right after I got there the place go so packed I felt claustrophobic.  I just couldn’t believe the amount of senior citizens that packed into a tiny bar area where I was sitting. I would have sat outside but in Europe people can still smoke in outside eating areas so it’s so unbearable to be out there even though I would much prefer to enjoy the gorgeous warm weather and breezes but I just can’t handle the smoke. Anyway, I was sitting at a small table near the bar inside and the hordes of people, at least 30 or so crammed in around me to get a quick coffee. And no sooner had they all arrived then they left. The Italian seem to down their little espresso shots in one gulp.  But a few stragglers were left behind in a table next to me. This one women came over to me because I was reading Agatha Christie’s “Time of the Flood,” a wonderful mystery paperback I had bought at a thrift store or something before I left NYC. Anyway, she came over to ask about the book so we chatted a bit. She is from Isca, an island near Capri and each year she comes to Montecatini for a relaxing break. She spoke pretty good English and was very social and very sweet. She was traveling alone now, I have a feeling her husband has passed on, but I do think it’s great that in her probably 80’s now she comes all the way up North on the main land to vacation by herself.  She was staying at the hotel next door and was at the café with a group who were also staying there.

She and the group left so it was pretty much just me again and I finished my delicious pasta and finished reading the book. I was just planning on leaving the book at the library at the hotel where others deposit their finished books but thought maybe that women would enjoy it since she was an Agatha Christie fan.  So I pulled out my little sticky not pad and wrote a note for her and brought it over to the hotel to leave at the front desk. She was wearing these fabulous large, bright pink sun glasses so I figured I could just describe her and say she was from Isca and they would know who I was talking about. Well no one was at the front desk but I recognized several of the people she was with outside just chatting in the fresh air so I told them I’d like to leave this for the women with the pink sun glasses and at first they all looked at me funny and they one man said “Oh, Francesca, se!”  So he took the book from me and I went on my merry way and as I left I heard them all commenting on the book and talking about Agatha Christi.  According to the introduction in the book Ms. Christi’s works have been published in over 100 languages so clearly a great common ground for readers of all nationalities.

So my next stop was the Redi Thermal spa where I hoped I would get some relief from my congestion.  The spa is in a brand new building and has three pools. One large one you can swim around in and the other two that are smaller and U shaped. Those pools are for circulation and you are suppose to walk between the hot one and then go into the cool one and do this over and over again until you feel light headed I guess. Most of us just found a jet and relaxed with it pulsing against our backs alternating between hot and cool pools.  I have to say your heart rate does go up and one hour is really just enough or you get too lightheaded and nauseous.  The water is very salty and full of wonderful minerals and your skin feels amazing afterwards.

This particular spa also has water aerobics in the big pool but you have to pay extra for it and my heart rate was too elevated already to risk doing that.  But before I got out I observed something interesting. When I first walked in the pool area I noticed two big pods, one that was clearly a bath tub of some sort and the other which was taller, more narrow and had two steps leading up to the front door which I wasn’t really sure what it could be. I knew I had read about the spa having water bicycles but I couldn’t imagine who that would work. Well anyway, about 10 minutes before I was ready to get out a women came in and was lead by the spa attendant to the pod. Mind you this pod looks a lot like a Dr. Seuss Whoville home and the front door I mentioned above, has a window (it looks like the door to a washing machine) that is pretty large. The women, who was wearing so much makeup and had her hair all done up was clearly not going to be swimming in the pool so when she opened the pod’s door and climbed in I was mesmerized to see what was going to happen. The attendant turned a few nobs and the women legs started moving making the motion of riding a bike. I couldn’t see any peddles but that was it looked like through the front door window. Then the water started rising in the pod and I could see her peddling faster and faster. So long story short there are these pod machines where you ride a bicycle in while your legs are submersed in water, cool right?!

To recuperated from the spa I took a very slow walk back to my hotel and checked email and got rid of my wet bathing suit.  And, while on the bus tour, I saw a small spa that did the fish pedicures. If you followed my blog of two years ago when we were in Liverpool, England you will remember that spas where you put your feet in a glass basin of water that holds about a hundred tiny fish who like to eat dead skin.  So I headed over to take a look and it was exactly like Liverpool so I treated myself to a lovely, albeit strange when you can feel them nibbling away, foot treatment.  The women working there said it’s new to Italy and the Italians won’t do it. She only really gets tourists and they just began in July but are doing well. So many people stopped to look at me and point and I tried to convince them to come in but no go. One Italian couple came in and asked questions but in the end they were to afraid. It really doesn’t hurt it just feels strange. But my feet are so smooth and feel fabulous, they really should get this in NYC!

Having had a pretty relaxing day I was now hungry and still feeling all stuffed up so after leaving the fish spa I spotted a sushi place (this being the first non-Italian meal I’ve had since I arrived) which was reasonably priced and turned out to be delicious. And he brought me lots of extra wasabi so I could clearly my nasal passages. I do this in NYC too whenever I have a cold, that wasabi is a miracle worker in that respect.

And you’ll notice there are not pictures for today because I just forgot, sorry.