So the girls headed out about 9:30am and at checkout time I went down to sit on the nice sofa in the lobby and work on my Sunday School lesson: finishing editing and abridging the story of "The Other Wise Man". The story had been too long for the class time, so I went over it again and cut out more sentences and phrases, without losing the story. It had started out at 14 pages, in dual columns with English and Italian, having already cut out a lot of stuff. After I finished, it was down to 10.5 pages, which takes just over half an hour to read, good enough for the 40-minute class.
The Walkers, a senior couple here from Frankfurt to help with the temple open house, needed toner cartridges for their printer. Their German account with Amazon wasn't working here, so the Balzottis asked me to order it for them. People always assume that one Amazon account will work everywhere, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Their toner will take over a week to arrive -- Prime also has a different meaning here!
Chiara and I headed out to the Uffizi gallery. Their website said the first reservation was for January 4, so we decided to just go the old-fashioned way and show up. It took about half an hour to walk there. The line was enormous, the entire length of the gargantuan building, then around the corner. I left Chiara in line with her WiFi hotspot (so we could communicate with WhatsApp) and went to see if she was even in the right line. This line was several people deep, too. I found a short line right in front of the admission door, with a sign that said it was for making reservations today. I waited awhile with about twenty people in front of me. All of a sudden, they started letting us in. Within five minutes I was at the ticket window, but the woman told me the reservations were for the next day. This was our last day in Florence, so I turned to leave. There were barrier cables blocking my exit, so I asked the man how I could get out. He looked at me and said in Italian, "you have a cane." I had a walking stick folded up in my hand, because my knee has been bothering me. Anyway, he continued, "You can't wait with that cane. You need to go in now." He waited while I phoned Chiara (didn't work, so I messaged her with WhatsApp) and then he miraculously took us both in. They also showed us where we could take an elevator to the top instead of climbing hundreds of stairs. We really enjoyed the pieces of art that the Rick Steves app pointed out, plus some others. It's an overwhelming and wonderful place. A Japanese woman asked Chiara if we were listening to a tour on our phones and very happily downloaded it for herself.
I have to share another fun Chiara-ism from Pisa. We were walking back to the station, almost a mile, and Dee was trailing behind us, as usual. This is a long-standing (very minor) conflict between us. She says that it is because she is shorter and can't keep up, which is true. However, it doesn't seem to matter how slow I walk, she just likes to be 10-20 feet behind, which makes it difficult for me because I have to always turn around to see if she has stopped to look at something (not that that would ever happen :-). So I muttered something to Chiara about how Dee always liked to be behind, regardless of speed. Chiara's classic response was: "walking slow is her superpower!" That made me laugh out loud. In this case, there was no room for me to walk with them, since the sidewalks are narrow.
Once they got back to the hotel lobby, where I was happily camped with a nice outlet nearby to plug in my laptop, they asked if I wanted a sandwich from the shop down the street where they had just eaten toasted sandwiches and a pistachio cream-filled pastry. My messages with pictures didn't reach him until we had already returned. Chiara went to get me one, which I ate while we hung in the lobby until it was time for the train. We arrived at the station just over 15 minutes before the train was to leave, with it about to pull into the station. As we entered the station, Dee noticed that she had left her walking stick at the hotel. Chiara offered, but I went to pick it up, walking fast, which felt good after sitting for so long. Dee felt really bad about it, but it was only about 5 minutes each way, and we managed to get onto the train just as they started announcing it was time to depart. Bottom line: the walking stick giveth, and the walking stick taketh away, but all is well that ends well.
We all napped on the ride home. From the Roma Termini station, we walked to the Institute, put our stuff into the car, and drove home, arriving before 6pm. Immediately Dee and Chiara started doing laundry, with a bunch of loads to do and, more importantly, to start drying on the racks. The girls also went out to the supermarket to get some food to have in the house. We got salmon, ingredients for riso al telefono, and for the asiago-bacon-apple grilled cheese sandwiches. The salmon was from the fishmonger at Conad, a woman. She included fresh parsley with the salmon. We got fresh crusty bread, cooked over wood. The bacon was round and sliced in the deli. Of course, we also got a few interesting rolls and cookies to try. Chiara learned how to use the scale. At that particular market, the customer has to weigh and label each item. We also stocked up on vinegar, which I use to clean off the hard water. I also use it to rinse my hair. I wash it with my standard shampoo and sometimes use conditioner. Then I use baking powder dissolved in water, followed by diluted vinegar. It's wonderful! I went down to pick up some Amazon packages the Balzottis had retrieved for us from Paolo and had a nice chat with Anziano Balzotti down in the piazza. They wanted info on our hotel in Florence for when some of their kids come to visit in February. We highly recommend it: Hotel Porta Faenza, on Via Faenza near the station. BTW, in our room, we finally realized (after four days) that the wood-framed niche was in fact not framed with wood -- it was 3D faux painted!
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| No wood required! |
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| At work in our spacious kitchen |
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| There are also apples inside the sandwich. Chiara loves the Italian breads and cheeses. |
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| Florence! |