May 18 and 19 May 20 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31 June 1 June 2 June 3	Saturday 5/18/02 and Sunday 5/19/02 My flight was scheduled to leave about 4:30 pm, so I got to the airport in plenty of time. The local agent was unable to get me any of the other boarding passes that I would need (Cincinnati to Paris and Paris to Florence). Tri-Cities just doesn’t seem to provide many services these days... Security was at its usual level. They kept my backpack under the x-ray for a bit longer time than usual - they couldn’t figure out what was down one side of the pack. Fortunately, none of the film “fogged”. So they had me open it. There they found 60 rolls of film, stacked neatly along the left third of the backpack. Other than commenting on the amount, there was no further hassle. Boarding time finally arrived - the plane was late arriving from its previous trip - and I was the only one selected for the random full search.... So, again the backpack got opened and I got the wand treatment. The security woman had a sense of humor, however, and I was soon on my way, arriving in Cincinnati exactly on time. I found my gate and waited for the agents to show up. They finally arrived and I got checked in for the next leg. No, she couldn’t give me a boarding pass for the Paris to Florence leg because those can only be given out within six hours of boarding time. It was an eight hour flight... Bill Manning showed up shortly after I got checked in. He’s on the same flights I am the rest of the way to Florence. He also had to get his boarding pass at the gate, which is very unusual. And he also got his boarding pass on to Florence!!! I didn’t find that out until too close to boarding time or I’d have tried a different clerk... As usual, Bill arrived hungry, so we headed back to the food court to see about getting him something to eat. He wolfed down a sub and it was time to board. The flight to Paris was smooth and fairly uneventful. The movie shown was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I stayed awake for most of it, but dozed off just before the ending. Good thing I’d already seen it. The flight was very quiet - no rowdy drunks or anything. The meals were eminently forgettable - dinner and breakfast. We arrived in Paris on time, for a change, and began the mad dash to make the connection. I had argued with the agent at Voyager’s International (the one arranging the trip) that there wasn’t enough time allowed for a connection through Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, but she wouldn’t change the flights. To make it worse, we had to find the Air France ticket agents so that I could get a boarding pass! We finally found the correct counter, after three wrong turns (I think Bill got tickled about me continually muttering “I hate de Gaulle”), and I was told that I was too late - the flight had been closed. - she’d be happy to book me on the next flight (three hours later). One must check in at least 45 minutes before flight time to ensure there’s a seat. Well, I had just gotten off a plane and had gotten there as quickly as I could. She checked one other screen - I was checked in. All I needed was a boarding pass, which she quickly printed out and we headed for the gate. They had already begun boarding and were about half way through the process when we arrived at the gate. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Florence at last! We claimed our luggage and looked for an exchange. Of course, it’s now Sunday and most of the airport is closed. Bill found an automated one, but it wouldn’t take his money. Fortunately, I had gotten some Euros before we left the States, so I paid for our taxi ride (Bill paid me back). The taxi drove directly to the hotel, through some very narrow streets. The hotel (Torre Guelfa) is nicely situated. It’s in the historic portion of Florence, just a short block from the Ponte Vecchio (literally, old bridge). The photo on the left shows the Ponte Vecchio from a distance. Across the top of the Ponte Vecchio is a covered walkway. This was originally built to connect the Medici’s summer palace (the Palazzo Pitti) with the older one (the Palazzo Vecchio), where most of the city business was attended to. This covered walkway allowed them to move back and forth between palaces without having to mingle with the unwashed masses or get rained on or step in the mud and other stuff in the regular roads. These days, it’s an exclusive art gallery. The hotel itself is located on the third floor (fourth, if you count floors in American), which is a bit unusual. We squeezed into the tiny elevator - Bill, me, our two rolling duffles, and both backpacks (no one else believed we managed to get all that into the elevator) and checked in. The hotel also has the tallest privately owned tower in Florence. It has a nice view of the city and we would take advantage of it in the days to come. It’s a small hotel, almost run like a bed and breakfast - twelve rooms total. We got checked in. My roommate was already there. She and Judy arrived a day early, hoping to alleviate the effects of jet lag. This is Michelle’s first photo trip - a present to herself for her fortieth birthday, coming up about a week after the trip ends. And she’s a fairly new photographer. She has a borrowed camera that she’s using and lots of questions. She’s also very nice. She left for the sitting area to write some postcards while I got my stuff settled. Our room is fair sized, by European standards. It’s big enough for two twin beds and not much else. There was room by the window (overlooking an air shaft - that's our view in the two photos above) for my duffle and other stuff, so I just worked out of the suitcase for the time we were there. I was quickly settled and joined Michelle in the spacious sitting area. Judy soon joined us and we left, looking for something to eat. We walked down to the end of the block to a self service place they had scouted out earlier. It was just fine for lunch. They had huge salads and I had a plate of tortellini with peas and a cream sauce. Very good! Then we walked around the immediate area for a while. First over to the Piazza della Signoria, a large square in front of the town hall. Town hall has a nice tower to it. The piazza is full of statues, including a replica of Michelangelo’s David, the Neptune Fountain, and the Rape of the Sabine Women. There were a bunch of statues there. The photo to the right shows some of them. Then on through the walkway (left) that separates the two halves of the Uffizi, one of the major museums in Florence. The building was originally built to house the municipal offices - uffizi literally means offices. The walkway is lined with statues of famous Italians, including Dante, Michelangelo, Galileo, Americo Vespuci, Leonardo da Vinci, and others. The photos below show some of these statues. At the end of the walkway was the River Arno. From left to right (wrapped around) are statues of Galileo (and an unidentified Florentine), Niccolo Machiavelli, Dante, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Where we intersected the river here is the best view of the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge in Florence to survive the Nazi retreat in World War II. It’s covered with small shops (and has been for centuries). By tradition, these are all jewelry stores! This photo (left above) shows the old-fashioned door of one of these jewelry stores, which wasn’t open at this hour.. The photo on the right shows the door latch for another store. We continued along the Arno to the bridge just past the Ponte Vecchio (the Ponte San Trinita), then headed back to the hotel. We had essentially circled the block. Besides getting acquainted, we spent a lot of time talking photography. I hope we didn’t scare Michelle off..... We had just gotten back to the room when Bill knocked on the door. He was ready for a walk and wondered if we wanted to join him. We were game, so off we went again. That four flights of stairs seemed to get higher every time we climbed them.... We took off in a slightly different direction, winding up by the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence. It’s a beautiful building. Also in the piazza by the Duomo is a building called the Baptistry. Evidently, in Medieval times, you could only enter the church if you had been baptized. Thus, the baptistry was built outside (or even under) the churches of the time. This baptistry has some famous doors, called the Gates of Paradise, gilded doors carved by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and named by Michelangelo! They’re quite impressive. Back to the hotel and settled the rest of our stuff. The whole group met in the sitting area at 6 pm to get acquainted and to meet our guide for the next ten days. There are five participants in this tour, four of whom are continuing on for the Venice extension. There’s Michelle, my roommate. She’s a nurse from Cincinnati making her first photo trip. There’s Judy (retired), from Massachusetts. She’s been on a couple of other photo trips with me, including the trip to France last year. There’s Shirley (also retired), from near Philadelphia. She’s about the same age as my parents and, while she’s traveled extensively, this is her first photo trip. There’s Betsy (also retired), from Mansfield, Ohio. She’s been on several photo trips. This is the first time we’ve traveled together, however. And there’s me. Our guide is Ursula. She’s from Switzerland originally, but married to a Florentine and has two children (a girl, 19, and a boy, 18). Her primary job is with the Florence symphony. She plays cello and her husband is first flute. We would learn a lot about Ursula over the coming days. They have a city apartment and a country house and the country house has a nice rose garden. She estimates about 125 roses.... The welcoming reception was very relaxed. I kept nodding off.... Between us, we managed to polish off a bottle each of red and white wine. This was accompanied by some antipasto, which included cold cuts, cheese, panini (something between a sandwich and a pizza - ham and cheese between a pizza like crust, then baked and cut into squares), and a couple of different kinds of crostini - slices of bread lightly toasted with various toppings. And for dessert, yum!!! We got to try vin santo for the first time. It quickly became a popular choice for dessert. Vin santo is a very sweet dessert wine, almost too sweet to drink by itself - served in something the size of shot glasses. It’s served with some almond biscotti - something that will break a tooth, if you’re not careful. However, neither is meant to be consumed alone. You dip the biscotti into the vin santo and eat that. Absolutely delicious! We didn’t stay up much longer. I fell asleep quickly and slept quite well.... Next...