Florence, Rome and Barcelona

We are on our third day in Barcelona, but I will backtrack and tell you about our last couple of days.

Florence

We took the train (about an hour ride from Sienna) into Florence on a Saturday 20 Oct and we were worried about how busy it was going to be in the city.  However Saturday is a great day to visit Florence if you are going to ride the hop on-hop off bus – there is no traffic!  We rode around once and saw all the gorgeous sights, 

then got off near an area we wanted to explore.  We noticed a charity function going on in a building and thot this would be a perfect place to spend “Georges”…  As we walk in, people say hello to us and offer us dessert and coffee in English!  What are the chances – we have walked into an English speaking Methodist church! And there is a man making and selling balloons!  Too funny!  

 We wandered and shopped, walked on the Ponte Vechiccio, and ate then hopped back on the bus to ride to the top to take this panoramic photo.

Back to Sienna by train and we had a weird hamburger in a fast food place at the train station.  B adventured through a huge grocery store and I played with a puppy… lol!  As we payed for our ALL day parking – 2 euros (not quite $3) we commented it was the best bargain in Italy! Ha!  As Florence is our favorite city I will post more photos than usual...

Jess come get arrested in Italy!  LOL!

on the Ponte Vecchio in front of jewlery store - Maddie, B was gonna get you something but there was toooo much jewelry to choose from...lol!

what more could a Georger want?  Free wifi, a place to spend georges and yummy gelatto!

oh no! B ran out of money again!  I wonder how that happens?  lol!

St Peter's Basilica in Rome

Roma

Sunday we drove to Rome – about a 3 hour drive, however B had booked a room at the Crown Plaza on the outskirts of Rome and the directions we had were lousy.  We drove in circles for about 45 minutes, checking road after road but we knew we had driven more than 600 meters…  We finally asked at a Holiday Inn and found out we had turned around about 2 blocks from seeing a hotel sign!  Ugh!  It was quite stressful, but B & I managed not to yell at each other – too much!  Lol!  The Crown Plaza has a Roman Spa with sauna, Jacuzzi and pool inclusive, so we put on our suits and relaxed.  CP also provides a shuttle into Rome so we took the evening one in and found a restaurant in a plaza and dined “al fresco” once again…  I will miss our outside dinners when we return to TX as I hear it is cccold there…  The next morning we went back into Rome and the shuttle drops you in the Vatican plaza…  It is an amazing sight which we only viewed from the outside as there was a humongous line up of people waiting to get inside and see the Sistine Chapel…  We meandered over to the Red Bus and once again toured the city.   

B studies map and listens to tour of Rome on the Red Bus

We did get off once and walk over to the Trevi Fountain so we could throw and coin and wish to return. 

B makes a wish

us at the Trevi Fountain

 

 

 

 

Colosseum

 Rome is an amazing city with lots of history, archeological sights and incredible architecture but I wished to return to Florence…  I didn’t feel as welcome in Rome and the city is a bit dirty but the food all over Italy is mostly great!  We are gonna have to cut back from 3 course meals when we return – lol!

one of the most interesting sights on the Barcelona tour

Barcelona

Last Tuesday we drove to Civetivechio and boarded the ferry.  It was an adventure getting our 8 pieces of luggage to the ship and on the ferry as they don’t offer porter service…  We arrived over 3 hours early (as we had to return the rental car) & made certain we were in the right place.  One of the crew was returning and we pointed at all our luggage saying we would pay for help and he said, “wait here until they let you board – I will return…”

He did and brought a friend with him so we managed just fine – what a relief!  He even helped us disembark – it was sooo worth it!

Brian booked a Holiday Inn about 40 minutes outside of Barcelona – it is free using his points, so we figured it was cheaper using taxis than paying $150/night in Barcelona (hotels are EXPENSIVE here!)  Turns out there is a train about a 7 minute walk away that takes you direct into downtown Barcelona…  The taxi driver (we played tetris with our luggage in a tiny cab) almost the same amount of trouble finding the Holiday Inn that night as we had in Rome finding the Crown Plaza…yikes!  I was looking forward to a nice dinner but there is nothing around the hotel – so we ate at the hotel…  Food was good – we ordered a vegetable stew & that is what it was: veggies only with lots of artichoke – yummy!  I ate mine and part of Brian’s – when the waitress cleared our plates I complimented her on the first course saying I have eaten half B’s too…  She said, “I saw”…lol!  So later when she brought the lemon mousse for dessert – which was fabulous, better than any dessert on the ship – B ate half mine…  I whined at the waitress and she cleared plates, coming back from the kitchen with another serving of mouse, scolding B, “only for her…”  lol!  But she brought two spoons…  The next night we just ate pizza here at the hotel but we were talking about the amazing mousse(which was not on the menu) – I told B not to tease her or she would try to get some…So we never mentioned it – BUT we still ended up with lemon mousse!  Incredible!  We made balloons for her and the cook – she was an adorable waitress…

The weather has turned cold and when we took the hop on-hop off bus in Barcelona it even rained…  Florence and Rome tours were about an hour or so to go all around – Barcelona is 2 hours and not much of interest…  I am not that much impressed with this city…  Today we went back in on the train and went to the casino.  I played poker for a couple of hours and B played slots.  It was fun sitting at a poker table again even if half the players spoke only Spanish…  I had lousy cards for about an hour and half, then finally won a big pot…  I was 10 euro ahead and B had won 6 euro, so we left and went to dinner.  I had a HUGE pot of mussels and they were really delish!  Tomorrow we board the Liberty of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship.  We sail for Ft Lauderdale stopping at 3 ports in Spain & 2 in the Canary Islands.  I will say “adios” for now…  Happy Sailing