The game plan for Sunday: See something in Florence before 3:30 train to Lake Garda. The problem? Luggage. The train station being 40 minutes walk from the hotel was a problem. We wanted to take the bus to the train station, leave our luggage there, and then walk around. However, we left the hotel to find out there was a marathon going on in Florence and no busses were running. So were walking with our bags once more.
Instead of going all the way to the train station, we stop at Palazzo Vecchio museum and not a moment too soon. After we bought tickets there, it started pouring outside. Luckily they let us check our big bags but not without ensuring we had tickets to the museum multiple times.
The Palazzo Vecchio museum had a big part in the Dan Brown book Inferno, so we both wanted to see the actual space and the Dante Alighieri death mask. (BTW: Italians love Dante, seriously there are multiple streets named after him everywhere we go.)
Pretty ceilings, pretty views, saw the mask and discovered it might not even be Dante. Its okay, I like palaces.
Before leaving Florence I had two tasks: buy salami for papa and a leather bag for mama. I didn't want to leave these tasks for Lake Garda because I didn't know what the shopping situation would be there. We went to a meat and cheese store right off the Ponte Vecchio so probably we go ripped off but oh well. I got me some truffle sausage and we ended up eating lunch there too since it started raining again. Four crostinis for lunch:: olive pate, artichoke spread, spicy olive spread, and something truffley but not quite sure what that black paste was.
I was worried about buying the bag. There are so many places that have "genuine Italian leather" but I certainly don't know what is and isn't real. I generally gauge by the price, assuming more expensive is better but then I'm not sure if I am paying for a popular brand name that doesn't mean anything to me. I always check the stitching to ensure I don't buy anything poorly made. Luckily, on the way to the train, we stumbled across a little street market--my favorite place to buy items. I found two nice bags (yes, thats right Mom!) because I want Mama to have options when she goes out.
So finally we make it to the train and I realize we don''t really have a way to get to the hotel in Lake Garda. The website gives driving directions and tells me where to take the train, but the train arrives in Desenzano and we are staying in Manerba...about 25 minutes by car... There are no instructions on how to get to Manerba from the train. So I'm like "Hey, I don't have to plan everything! Lets wing it!" Except secretly I'm like hmm umm but how do we get there.
We were running out of Euros at this point too. Side story: I always change my money before I travel but when we went to Poland, Papa got a better exchange rate in the center of the city than I did at the bank. So I risked it and brought cash. I believe this was a mistake. The exchange places were out of control in Italy. We found only ONE out of a lot of exchanges, that offered a decent rate of .75 when the actual exchange is closer to .82. Some places were giving like .58, really silly. The best exchange we found was pulling money out of the ATM so most of my cash was never used. I ended up using my credit card most of the time. But we were leaving Florence with two euros and a hope that there would be a bancomat upon arrival in Desenzano di Garda.
We are on the train to Desenzano but there is a transfer in Padova. Except our train is supposed to arrive at 5:07 and our new train leaves the station at 5:18....11 minutes is plenty of time. Nope!
The train we are on says "5 minutes delay" then 6, 7, 8...14 minutes delay. So we start looking up alternate trains. Will there be a next one? Will we have to buy new tickets? Will the ticket people be open to help or closed since its sunday? So for an hour, we watch the amount of delay change between 10-14 minutes. Even if we get off of this train while the new one is in the station, can we find the platform and run to it with our bags fast enough? Were nearing 5:18, the train is slowing down, Adam is on line to be the first out the door, I'm waiting to find out what track it will arrive on from the display in the train car. We arrive to the station at 5:18 on track 3, we exit onto the track and the train we want is delayed two minutes and will arrive on track 4, we don't even have to move. YES. Train crisis averted.
Next worry: how will we get to the hotel? We arrive in Desenzano and there is a taxi phone number outside of the station, which Adam takes a picture of. We want to rent a car, but all the rental places close at 6pm (we arrived at 6:21). So we have to travel to our hotel which is about 25 minutes from where we are and then to rent a car, we will have to return tomorrow. Walking to the center of the town, dragging my luggage behind me. Not really hungry, but thinking we should eat before taking the taxi since we don't know if there will be food near us in Manerba di Garda.
Nice little restaurant: Ristoro ? where we have pizza, wine, and a little salad bar. The waiter is very very nice and offers to call a cab for us at the end of dinner. The taxi arrives, the driver is nice, we know its about a 25 minute drive and in Italy the meter starts before you get in the car. They start charging from when they start the ride. So the meter is in plain view and already at $9 when we get in the car. As we start driving, this meter is going up so damn fast that Adam and I were both sweating in the backseat like, this is going to be a $100 cab ride. I looked at the clock and in two minutes, the price had doubled to $16. I think for the entire ride, we both stared at the meter going up. Thank goodness, he took a wrong turn and shut the meter off at the end. Considering how quickly the meter was rising, it ended up not being too bad at $40.
The hotel/apartment is nice, Michele is the owner, he shows us around, everything is good, then: MY PHONE IS NOT IN MY BAG. AGH. I tear everything out of my bag, I run to the desk to see if I left it downstairs, I'm having a nervous breakdown for sure. We don't have the name of the cab because we didn't call them so Adam looks up the number of the restaurant. I get them on the phone and yell to them in English with a few Italian words that I lost my phone. They pass the phone around a bit and finally I think our waiter comes on and he says that I left it at the restaurant. THANK GOD. He asks for Adam's phone number and the conversation was something like this
Me:"Two Zero One"
Him: "Four Six Seven"
Me (louder): "No, two zero one"
Him: "Oh! Four Zero One"
Me: "Uhh...due, cero, uno"
Him: "Ok ok, due cero uno"
Me: "Eight Eight Five"
Him: "I cannot understand you!"
Me (sweating because I don't remember how to say eight and I can only think ocho but I know thats not right): "Otte? Otte Otte cinque"
Him: "What you saying?"
I'll leave it there. By the way, I now know its "otto" and I just let the man repeat whatever numbers. The most important part her understood. I will get the phone "domani" (tomorrow) at 11am.
Lake Garda is beautiful, but more on that next time.
