In Inferno, a 2013 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown, symbolism professor Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with a head wound and no memory but kept hearing a woman's voice repeatedly saying, "Seek and find.”
For us, this entire trip was an experiment in compromise and endurance. As we cross over the three-quarter century age milestones, we realize that we are running out of time, energy and physical capacity, but we are still hearing the voices saying, “Seek and find.”
Our goal was to turn back the clock on missed travel adventures. First, was the last minute COVID-cancelled 2022 Viking cruise from Barcelona to Venice with stops in Marseille, Cannes and Monte Carlo. Then, when our beloved dog was terminally ill, we had to cancel a three-week “Living in Italy” Smithsonian Journey trip last September.
This blog posting describes the next chapter of our grand travel experience. After a marvelous but hectic week in Paris and a relaxing luxurious cruise through southern France, we added a one-day stop in the Cinque Terre, Italy before arriving at our final spring 2024 adventure in Florence, Italy. We could have taken a bullet train from Avignon to Milan and then on to Florence (if we had been smart) or a direct flight there. But Bob, the dreamer, thought it would be much more interesting to travel by train along the French Riviera sea coast through the cities we had missed on our cancelled 2022 Viking cruise (Marseille, Cannes, Monte Carlo, etc.) on our way the Cinque Terre.
While waiting for the first train transfer in Arles, we met a young co-ed, Maire, who spoke English well. Maire was nice enough to show us how to scan our tickets and find an open seat on the train. In France, the trains did not assign seats but the Italian trains did, which we learned later the hard way.
Half way to Marseille from Arles, our train suddenly stopped and after some time, a much slower train on the track next to us also stopped, and some passengers from our train got off and got onto the other train. Maire, noticing we hadn’t moved, told us the French announcement said to transfer to the other train. So with our two suitcases and two backpacks we headed for the already crowded train. We scrambled to find luggage space and seats. Fortunately, a young lady gave up her seat for Carolyn and a young man reluctantly removed his backpack from another seat for Bob. While Bob had a seat, he had to hold two suitcases on his lap for two hours while Carolyn had the two backpacks in hers until the next train transfer in Marseille. All luggage space was full.
In Ventimiglia on the Italian border, we switched from the clean, quiet French AVI train to a slow, dirty, hot and noisy Italian train. But, the worst part was that all three of the toilets were locked and unusable making for a long three-hour train ride to Genoa.
When we arrived in Ventimiglia, an Italian train agent told us because the French train was late getting us there we had to buy two new train tickets for the Italian trains. It was no use arguing, as we found that in both France and Italy, the attitude was that the customer is always wrong. Furthermore, the ticket agent in Genoa sold us a ticket for the wrong train station. We only found out when our train for Monterosso was nowhere to be found on the departure screen. Thus, we had to buy two more new tickets for a train headed through Monterossa del Mare a hour and half later. However, this did give us time for a well needed restroom visit, glass of wine and cheese burger.
Even after all of the day’s trials and tribulations, along with lack of sleep, Carolyn remained in good spirits. It must have been the tranquilizer Bob slipped into her glass of wine.
During the Genoa stop, Bob called the hotel in Monterrossa to tell them we would be arriving late and was told as long as we checked in by 10 PM, it would be fine. After nine stops on what seemed like a very slow train, we arrived about 9:30 PM. Fortunately, the hotel clerk had a cab waiting for us so we arrived just in time to check in and carry our luggage up three floors to our small room before she left for the night. Otherwise, we might have been sleeping on the street in this charming fishing village. Ugh!
This long day was a real test of our physical endurance, patience and stress levels. In case you were not counting, it involved nine transfers including seven different trains and two taxis to reach our hotel in Monterrossa while carrying about 90 pounds of luggage up and down multiple stairs while seeking signs in French or Italian to find our next train or taxi. This train travel day brought to mind Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell. Here is Botticelli’s orginal painting of the Circle of Hell, which we later saw in the Uffizi Art Museum in Florence.
After a good night sleep, a great breakfast and the call to “seek and find” we discovered why a visit to Cinque Terra was so highly recommended. While our venture there was almost entirely in the rain, we were not disappointed.
Here is a quote from the Lonely Planet guide book that best captures the essence of Cinque Terra.
“So pretty that it inspired a Disney movie (Luca), Cinque Terre ("five lands") consists of five startlingly photogenic fishing villages on Italy's northwest coast, their candy-colored houses stacked down the sides of ravines and on top of cliffs. With sea, great food and wine, jaw-dropping views and photo opportunities at every turn, this is everything people love about Italy.”
For the size of the five towns in Cinque Terre, there are crowds everywhere, even when it is pouring down rain. There was standing room only on the trains that transported tourists from town to town.
Because of the rain, we decided to catch a direct train to Florence that left two hours earlier than the tickets we had bought before we arrived. About half an hour into the trip an announcement in English said that anyone with tickets for routes or times other than this one would be asked to leave the train at the next stop. The ticket taker walked past us several times but never asked to see our tickets so we thought we were safe. After the Pisa stop, a different ticket taker asked us to show our tickets. These were on Bob’s phone, which was turned off to save the battery. After five minutes of nervous fumbling, Bob was able to show him the (wrongly-timed) tickets. After a quick glance, he said OK and was on to next passenger, saving us from being stranded in some small rainy Italian town, buying more tickets and seeking another train!
Santa Maria Novella Station Firenze in Florence is the largest train station we have ever seen. By the time we got to the our hotel six blocks from the train station, we were ready for a quiet dinner and a glass of Italian wine.
L’Ostena di Giovanni was recommended by our Sun Lakes friends, Jim and Dianne Barry. Carolyn had a squid salad and Bob had a wedge salad (top middle) with a fantastic cream sauce and bacon. These courses were followed by their fabulous seafood stew.
Other restaurants outside the hotel provided more generous-sized portions, especially when it came to pasta. Most of the restaurants had waiters that understood English or would bring us an English menu. The exception was our last night at Portezza da Basso, when the waiter in broken English asked if I wanted spaghetti and meatballs. What he did not tell me is that the meatballs and spaghetti were served separately. Then he asked me something in his broken English and I thought that he asked if I wanted Parmesan cheese on my spaghetti. I said yes but what was served was a second big plate of pasta.
There were many vendors selling a variety of tempting colorful, fresh food items. If only we had many more days and our own kitchen in which to cook and enjoy these delights!!
Outside the Duomo, this was typical of the crowds we encountered almost everywhere.
The Baptistery, as with many ancient cathedrals and churches, is generally separated from the main church. The separation of the two places originated in the first centuries of the Christian era, when those not yet baptized were not admitted to the Eucharistic celebrations that took place in consecrated places of worship.
Compared to Paris, the city of Florence was much smaller so we walked everywhere. However, there were also throngs of tourists everywhere, as well. One special day included a walking tour of the significant sights whilevhearing talesvof the Medici family who made Florence famous.
According to Wikipedia, the Medici family “was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici, during the first half of the 15th century.” They were able to bring Florence under their family's power and created an environment in which art and humanism flourished. They and other families of Italy inspired the Italian Renaissance. After seeing the Netflix series, Medici, it was fascinating to see where they actually lived.
The Ponte Vecchio was the only bridge to escape destruction during the Nazi retreat from Florence in 1944. Legend has it that the Fuhrer himself ordered the bridge’s salvation, considering it too beautiful to destroy. It has mostly high end jewelry shops now.
The bronze statue is Perseus beheading Medusa by Cellini standing in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria. According to Greek legend, anyone who looked at Medusa turn to stone.
After Bob’s promise to not plan visits to three museums in the same day, we unexpectedly visited three museums the same day including the Academia. The other two were much smaller including the most interesting museums of the entire trip — the interactive Leonardo da Vinci museum and the Medici Museum detailing the history of this famous influential family.
The da Vinci interactive museum exhibits machines and mechanisms that actually work, all designed by Leonardo da Vinci. In addition to those shown below, we operated a Catapult, Worm Screw, Hydraulic Saw, Printing Machine and many other da Vinci inventions. It was amazing to see all of the inventions that this dyslexic man invented that are still used in mechanical designs today.
As we approached the end of our long trip, many times in close contact with crowds, the inevitable happened and Bob picked up a virus. His downtime was short lived, but enough to modify our tour schedule of Florence. In order to make the most of our time, we prepaid our museum passes for both Paris and Florence. After seeing the long lines that we were able to walk right by, it was worth the extra cost. As a part of the Florence museum pass, we had a 24-hour Hop-on-Hop-Off bus pass, which Carolyn used while Bob stayed in the hotel room recovering. She had a good time exploring new parts of Florence on her own.
Lessons Learned
1. So much to see! So little time! It is fun to plan to tour many sights in foreign lands, but age is catching up.
2. You can only eat so much pasta, pizza and gelato and not put on pounds.
3. In the ending of Dan Brown’s book, Inferno, a virus is released in Florence that supposedly will make one third of the world’s population infertile. I believe we may have been infected, as our testing so far seems to confirm this possibility, but more testing is still needed.
4. Traveling internationally is a humbling experience. The unexpected language barriers and travel challenges made us grateful for our every day predictable lives. These challenges, however, helped us realize that with clear thinking, helpful strangers and an open mind to different ways of doing things we can enjoy and relish visiting other cultures.
5. We realized what a tiny place we occupy in the world, and how much we don’t know.