The Trip Part 4

                                 
We decided to sleep in on Wednesday morning. We'd walked SO much the previous 3 days that our feet were so sore and we were exhausted. We rolled out of bed at 9:30, had breakfast and packed everything up to head to the ship. It was nice. We needed to re-charge a bit.

The plan was to take a bus to the train station and then a taxi to the port. We loaded our suitcases onto the bus and we were on our way to the train station....so we thought. The train station was the last stop on the route so we rode for half an hour. We had one more stop until the train station....and you guessed it. The bus driver was like, Screw you guys. I have other plans.

He stopped the bus at this park, got out and started flirting with this woman at the park. She must have been his side chick or something. Cute lady - tight jeans and long black hair that cascaded down her back. We just sat on the damn bus and watched the bus driver lean over the fence and give this lady googly eyes. I can appreciate that you're trying to get a piece of ass, bus driver guy, but can't you do it AFTER you drop us off at the train station?

My husband was like, "We are hiring a car to take us to the airport when we get off. I don't care how much it is. Seriously, that's what we are doing."

We got to the train station and made our way to Civitavecchia. I leaned against the window as the city turned to countryside which turned into seaside. It was so pretty. We arrived to the cruise terminal and it was empty. It was 3:30 and check in started at noon so we were pretty late. It was the best thing ever. We walked right in, did our stuff in 10 minutes and were on the ship. I will always check in late from now on. We sailed on the Norwegian Epic which was a HUGE ship.

We had a late lunch and then went right up to the top deck and jumped in the pool and rode the water slides. It was sunny and beautiful, they had live music. We were living the good life. After the ship disembarked we got dressed for dinner.

The Epic has like, 20 restaurants. It was crazy. We decided on Asian. The kids were so excited about the food. That's the best part of cruises, you order what you want and as much as you want because it's already paid for. We ordered a ton of food and sampled each other's meals.

There was a sweet old lady sitting at a table next to us and she complimented my daughters. She was telling me about her children and grandchildren and how fast they are growing up. I smiled at her, "You know, it's so funny because my kids keep getting older but I stay the same age." I believe it.

After dinner we explored the ship and made our show reservations. Then, we headed to bed because we wanted to get off the ship early to get as much time as possible in Florence.

Oh my God! Florence! LOVED LOVED LOVED! As beautiful as Rome but less crowded and much more walkable. I had purchased advanced tickets to Santa Croce because that's where Michelangelo is buried, and as I mentioned earlier, my oldest daughter has an obsession with him. We had a map and we let our 10 year old be the navigator. She loved it. She felt so important. We walked along the riverfront and admired the views.

She successfully navigated us to Santa Croce.
 
We walked through and admired the art and architecture and of course, the tomb of Michelangelo.
 
                                            
Also, Galileo's tomb is there and a monument to Dante. My husband is a Dante fanboy so we was pumped about that. There is a museum attached to Santa Croce and beautiful outdoor spaces and we spent hours there.

We had lunch at a tiny restaurant outside of the square and I had slice of lasagna that melted in my mouth. My husband had spaghetti and meatballs that were out of this world. So good.

Our youngest then navigated us to Dante's house which had a little museum. It was cool enough. My husband was REALLY into it. He is obsessed with Dante. He's read Inferno like, 20 times. He downloaded it on his phone to listen to during long commutes. He's read Dante's biography and knows random facts about him. Weirdo. I don't know how he got so stuck on Dante but he was in heaven.

We went to see the Duomo. Although, we didn't go inside. It was MASSIVE.



We watched some street performers and then headed to Mercato Centrale. On our walk over there we stumbled across a square with a carousel.
                           
"I'm riding it," I told my husband.
"Really?"
"Yes. I don't care if I'm old. I'm in Italy and I'm going to do all the things."

The girls and I were so excited. We shelled out our Euros and we picked our horses. We rode up and down and around and I admired the building behind us and the square. It made me so happy.

We resumed our walk to the Mercado Centrale. On our way we came across a big outdoor flower market and a courtyard of art and statues. That's a thing in Italy. We made our way to the market and ordered desserts at the bakery and we walked up and down the booths and window shopped.

We let them pick out a few (inexpensive) things. Then, we headed back to the ship.

We were at dinner when the ship disembarked and we watched Florence fade into the distance. Next stop: Cannes, France and the time I went topless on the beach and which caused my 10 year old to have an actual nervous breakdown.