The journey to Florence was an exercise in patience. We took the bus back to the Aix TGV station where we caught the next train. Buying my tickets ended up taking 40 minutes because they have this line for people who’s trains are leaving in 15 minutes. Every time a train gets close to the station they call up these people who are leaving soon and those of us who don’t know when we’re leaving get pushed back in the line. I finally got to the front and the ticket lady said she can’t book tickets to Italy so I’ll need to go to Nice and get them there. I didn’t have any choice so that’s what we did. The TGV was a double decker which was a little weird because if you don’t know TGVs lean into the corners. Leaning into the corner when your on the second floor of a 150 mph train is a little strange at first. A few hours later we’re in Antibe and the train just sits. Seems it broke down. There was a long message in French which I or the English people in front of me didn’t understand. A French lady next to me was kind enough to translate. The train had broken down and we needed to exit the train and take a TER train to Nice. Following that tidbit of information was about 300 people bailing off our train for the TER. We got a decent seat for the 10 minutes to Nice. This put us in Nice about an hour late so we missed our connection. The advice of the ticket lady was to catch the next regional train which would take us over the border to Italy. Once in Italy we could ask an Italian ticket agent if there was a train that would take us to Florence. The idea was that there may be trains that show up in the Italian computers that don’t show up in the French ones. So off we go to catch our third train of the day. We arrive in Ventimiligia 40 minutes later. I go to the ticket booth (see note above about never using the ticket booths in Italy) and even though there was a train coming in 10 minutes he refused to book us on it. He instead booked us on a train that arrived an hour from then. Ticked I went to the machine (again see note about always using the machines in Italy) and it showed the train in 10 minutes had space and was the same price – Argh! Having about an hour to burn I decided to see if I could get any money from a bancomat. Next to the ATM was a phone center so I went in and asked if I could call the hotel in Florence.

They said I could and helped me with the number. The lady at the hotel said it was ok that we were arriving late and they’d wait for us. Now we had money, our hotel was cool and a train to Genova. I found food to eat and we waited, things were looking up. We rode a train to Genova, another train to Pisa and yet another train to Florence. One bus, six trains and 14 hrs later we were in Florence. I chose to not take my Italy guidebook with me since it was extra weight and Italy is easy anyway so we didn’t have a map. That would have been ok had the map from our hotel reservation printed correctly but it didn’t. The address printed but not the map image. I just stopped by a newsagent and asked to purchase a map, he sold me the map and gave me directions. Thirty minutes later we were at the Hotel Tina which looked like a dive but turned out ok. The room wasn’t much but it had enough beds, was decently located and included breakfast. We slept… then we explored Florence, the darling of Tuscany. I have to say that I’m disappointed in Florence and probably shouldn’t be but I expected more. Everywhere I go in Italy I find cities that look just like the last one. Maybe France has spoiled me because they’re all different but Florence is basically Rome without the coliseum. Don’t get me wrong it’s as good as any Italian city but there just isn’t much to write about after being to a bunch of them. We found the Etruscan museum which I really wanted to see. After looking at all 8 small showcases we left disappointed. Apparently the Tuscan people aren’t that proud of their Etruscan ancestry. For dinner we decide to take a train to Modena again so we could eat at the place we missed last year. After paying 40 euros, sitting on a train for 90 minutes, walking for 30 minutes we arrive at a closed eatery. Seems we’re never going to eat there. Back on the train to Florence to arrive to tourist slop served in a restaurant professing to be Italian. We went to Italy and never had decent Italian food. To be honest I’m getting tired of Italy. The towns all seem the same, the people are very superficial and vain. I think if I were invading Italy I’d bring a bunch of mirrors. When the Italians saw them they’d put down their guns and start combing their hair. Another thing these people smoke like chimneys. Haven’t they heard the results from all the studies? The smoke in restaurants, they smoke in train stations, they smoke around babies. They smoke everywhere! Half the time they’re just standing around with the cig between their fingers like it’s a part of their wardrobe. Let’s see, shoes, pants, shirt cigarette, sunglasses…. I attempted to pay for my hotel room before leaving and my card was denied again. I switched to by backup and it worked. I transferred more money to by backup and sent an email to my bank. Later I got an email back from my branch manager saying that she was going to contact accounting and let them know that I was going to be out of the country for two months. I let her know I’d already done that and it hasn’t helped. We’ll see if she’s successful. I’m getting it figured out how to work around bank cards getting turned off. When I get back I’m going to research banks for one that’s travel friendly.

On to Croatia.. I was glad to take a train to Ancona to catch the ferry to Croatia. Our train to Ancona arrived 5 hrs before our ferry was scheduled to leave. I didn’t stress the ferry thing because we’d landed in this port before so I knew where it was even without a map or guidebook. We’re getting good at the ferry thing and it went without a hitch. We were one of the first people on the ferry, we got a cabin with 4 beds, we grabbed decent seats on the top deck and we had money unlike last year. The previous year we ended up withdrawing our maximum because Jadrolinija doesn’t take credit cards and using our toilet money to buy water. This year we were prepared. We got on the ferry at 8pm and it was supposed to board at 9pm so we had our pick of space. We were starving so we went to the restaurant (yes these ferrys have restaurants!) and ordered spaghetti which was ok. During dinner we hear a huge clanking noise and the front of the ship go down. The kids thought we were sinking but the waiters in the restaurant didn’t even bat an eyelash so I knew they weren’t worried. After about 10 minutes more of clanking sounds that sounded like a huge diesel engine trying to turn over the ship started to turn and head back to Italy. Another 5 minutes they got the engines running and pointed the bow toward Croatia. I had to explain to Jade that even if the engine stopped the ship still floats and we’d just wait for someone to come get us. It’s the Adriatic Sea, not the Pacific Ocean… because of the issues with the ship sleeping that night was interesting. The mind is a powerful thing and it’s hard not to let it wander when your in the middle of the sea with no sight of land and the boat nosediving into the water every once in while.The boat actually did arrive in Croatia on time and we were ready. We got up at 5:15 ate a free breakfast and were ready to leave the ship at 6:00.