Days 16 & 17: Leaving the eat-ernal city

Day 16: Seeing all of the major sites in two full tour days in Rome left us with a free day; our only for the trip if you don’t count our unplanned Iceland free day. We turned off all alarms and got some much needed rest. We skipped coffee and breakfast and went to a local market right by our apartment to wander around. We really wish we had more room in our suitcase....so many charming things we'd love to take back. After the market, we headed to lunch. 

Birra Yumetti!

The calzones were huge! This must be why Rome is known as the eat-ernal city!

Aw, even our olive oil and balsamic vinegar are feelin' the love!

After another amazing Italian meal, we went to a local cat sanctuary that one of our guides told us about. Emily really wanted to go there after hearing about it. At the sanctuary, they spayed over 6,000 cats just last year! They also take in cats with special needs. The girls spent time petting the cats and giving them lots of love.  Emily in particular really has a soft heart for the disabled and homeless (both pets and people).  

We grabbed our last Roma gelato and then went back to our place to pack up for our train to Florence the next day. It was nice to have a slow day to just walk around the city and enjoy the vibe one last time in Rome.

Day 17: We woke up early Saturday morning to deal with a hair emergency. The night before, Sherri and I were planning on clipping (cutting? trimming? just a little off the top?) my hair. She's been cutting my hair pretty much since we met! The clippers completely died, so I headed out to a local barber only 4 minutes from our place. Everything is walking distance from our apartment! I got a quick clip accompanied by a straight razor shave of the neck and sideburns (cool!) and I was on my way. The barber assessed me as American and dutifully doubled his price. 20 euros…..but I got my hair washed and my head massaged, so I felt that was probably fair. I paid him, he gleefully accepted money from another sucker tourist, and I was on my way. It was my first time to a barber in over 25 years! 

Our AirBnb owner messaged me the other day and asked if I wanted transportation to the train station. After the craziness of the bus and the uncertainty of the public transportation strike when we arrived, this sounded like a much better option. Our taxi picked us up outside of our place and we had a nice, easy ride to the train station. We got to the station with plenty of time to spare, but reminded the kids that there are unknowns and unexpected situations that crop up when you’re traveling (especially in another country!), and that it’s better to be there way early than 5 mins late. 

We took the hour-and-a-half train to Florence and then walked to our apartment, which was only seven minutes away. One thing we did not anticipate was that the cobblestone streets would start to tear up the wheels on our luggage. Most of our luggage is pretty good, so it’s not suffering, but the wheels on our big bag are shredding and I feel I’m pulling it more than rolling it at this point. Hope it makes it the rest of the trip! 

Wes: blogging; Haley: reading and listening to music; Ashley: sleeping; Emily: pondering; Sherri: taking pictures (shocker!)

They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something. Ashley is a master sleeper.

Our apartment is really nice (you can see the Duomo de Firenze from our windows!), but unfortunately has vaulted ceilings, which means it’s tough to keep cool. Knowing that we were traveling in the summer, we made sure all of the places we booked have A/C, but the effectiveness of the A/C varies from place to place. We gave this A/C a C. 

View from our apartment window. So nice!

We got settled and then went for our one meal of the day. As you can see, I had to make up for not having a lunch beer by having a super-sized dinner beer.  After dinner, we had some gelato (I know, you’re shocked!), headed to the grocery store for some staples, and then went back to relax and do some laundry. Another pretty chill travel day! 

You'd think we're in Germany already!

We always split stuff...fun to try different things on the menu!