Weekend in Firenze

Jonny C arrived in Firenze just after 7pm and I met him at the Hilton Hotel. I have stayed in nice hotels before but I think this one seemed like the greatest place in the world after a month of hostel life. I hadn’t seen Mr Cavalier since we developed an unhealthy addiction to KFC twisters and saw Canada beat the Swedes in OT in Pardubice, Cz back in Jan ’08. There we were in another European city ready to go out and see what trouble we could cause. Our first order of business was to hit up the grocery store and have ourselves a meal of fresh Italian bread, meat and cheese along with some nice Tuscan wine. I’ve never been much of a wine drinker but I’m amazed at the quality of the rotten grape juice that you can get here for only a few Euro. We set off to the city centre to find a pub to bunker down for the evening. We settled on the Old Stove just across from the Duomo. It was just the two of us on the patio catching up and swapping stories for most of the evening…that was until we went inside. A group of young American college students approached us as we were in line for the 1 washroom. It was a typical traveler’s discussion until the decision was made to buy shots. A sign above the bar read “3 tequila for 5 Euro”. That made our decision easy and a round of tequila for the group was purchased. One of the travelers revealed that she had never tried tequila before, so she was warned in advance. To our surprise she proclaimed her love for the taste and ordered another round. She was warned again as to the dangers of the Mexican export. A second shot was consumed and a third ordered. A final warning from us went out, but she disregarded our veteran advice and shot back a third glass. You hear of fast cars going from 0 to 60, well she went from 0 to wasted at about the speed of a Ferrari. Her group responsibly took her back to their hostel. Wherever Kelly from Cali is I hope she now understands the potency of tequila. After another pint and a ridiculous adventure to find a taxi we made it back to the hotel and called it a night. I think Mr C must have snuck some extra shots while I was in the washroom as he was in rough shape the following day. He struggled through our visit to see the world’s most famous naked man (Michelangelo’s David) and just stared at his salad at lunch. He did manage to hold it together long enough to help me get a photo with the renowned statue, despite the cries of “no photo” from the 4 foot tall middle aged security women. After an afternoon nap he was rejuvenated and back in business. Our second night out in Florence wasn’t as eventful as the first, but definitely an enjoyable evening. We found ourselves on the patio of an Irish bar (those Irish set-up shop everywhere). Not long after sitting down we joined a table with an Aussie, a Scotsman and a Newfie. The Scotsman and the Newfie had been going to art school in Firenze so they took us to one of their favorite local bars just off the tourist trail. We spent the evening talking mostly about music and travels, and came to the conclusion that Wonderwall by Oasis is the greatest sing-a-long song of our generation. The following morning Jonny headed back to Milan to resume work on Monday and I went out to the stadium to take in the Fiorentina vs Lazzio Italian Serie-A football(soccer) match. Once again European sports fans proved they are in a different league than us sit in our seats North Americans. The crowd didn’t sit down and spent the entire match in song. The away fans had their own section blocked off by giant plexy glass walls caged away from the home town crowd. Lazzio won the match 2-1 so the Fiorentina faithful went home disappointed. One final sleep in Florence and I was off to Cique Terre. Not part of my original schedule, but based on the stories of other travelers it was something I could not miss.