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Today was a travel day, with a start in Naples and a hoped for finish in Florence. We left the hostel in Naples around 9 AM and grabbed a tram; it dropped us near the train station. We found and boarded our train around 10:30 AM and zoomed off towards Rome. It was very full on the first leg of the trip, and I stood in the middle between the 2 first-class cars. Erin gave up her seat to an older Italian lady with a reservation, and then I gave her my seat.

At Rome we took on some Americans: one family from Hawaii and another couple from Colorado (Roger and Michelle). Roger reminded us of Kelly, even before we found out that they were going to bike around Umbria and Tuscany (our friends Kelly and Elaine biked around Spain not too long ago, and also biked Australia before that…).

Random Italian scenes: out the train window I spotted 4 or 5 guys in a green field shooting arrows at round targets. Archery! Also, I spied lots of water buffalo waiting to be milked for ‘real’ mozzarella cheese. Sheep as cream colored dots in bright green fields. Silver shimmer of olive groves next to the gnarled and twisted trunks of budding out grape vines.

We crossed many rivers, and passed through many, many tunnels. On arrival in Florence, we tried two different hotel booking offices but they only had very expensive options because Monday is yet another Italian holiday (they just had one last week) so the town is swamped. Finally, we left the train station and found a booker on Via Nazionale. He reserved us a room at a bed and breakfast out of town. It was about 30 minutes by bus to a small town named Scandicci. The B&B owner, Anunzia, picked us up herself and drove us to the beautiful country house that was to be our home for 2 nights. Such a beautiful and tranquil setting. A great place to recuperate after Napoli. A short siesta, a long shower and we ambled down the country lane into town. Once purely agricultural, Scandicci is now a suburb of Florence. Clean new apartment buildings lined the clean streets, under spring green trees. We devoured a delicious thin crust pizza and began the ascent to our palace on the hill. Tired but happy.