Our third day began early. The Globus tour is run very efficiently and everything is time sensitive, so it was impressive to see that in fact everyone had their bags in the hallway prior to heading down for breakfast at 6:45 as directed. Well, almost everyone. We gathered in the marble lobby as a group before spilling out onto the stone path along the Grand Canal. We had a sort of "role-call" before departing in order to make sure we were all accounted for. This is when we came to realize that Aphrodite, the only solo traveler, was absent. The Vadnais, having adopted her into our family were scrambling to call her cell-phone and text her. It was hilarious and I'm sure fairly embarrassing for her when she eventually appeared in the doorway, having obviously overslept and almost entirely missing the departure.
We boarded a water taxi and made our way to our bus. This would be our primary means of transportation between stops for the next week. I was a little anxious, having traveled by bus in Costa Rica quite a bit where I learned that I was apparently quite prone to motion sickness. But this was no Costa Rican bus. This was a very modern, comfortable and well appointed vehicle. Plus, we started out in the front! We would rotate in a specific order each day to ensure that everyone got a chance to sit in a different spot. This method eventually broke-down somehow, but for now we were all on the same page and ready to head to our next destination, which was an old vinegar farm called "Leonardi" just outside of the town of Modena.
The drive only took a couple hours but the temperature change was noticeable and it would only grow increasingly hotter throughout the trip. The farm actually reminded me a lot of the wineries we see in Northern Michigan. The grounds had obviously been modernized in order to appeal to broad tour groups such as ours, but the interior of the actual operation felt authentic and almost ancient. I knew very little about the process of vinegar making, and was again quite interested in the specialization of such an enterprise. I took notes as we listened to the explanation. The casks were blended and rotated in such a way as to ensure that the aging process was accurate and uniform. They were rotated in graduating sizes and as I inspected labels and dates, I was again struck by the age and staggering span of generations that these products are comprised of. Also, the expense. One of the racks of vinegar was owned by the Royal Family of England. And at roughly 20,000 Euros per litre, my quick math told me that one small rack of casks was worth a quarter of a million dollars! We were then "treated" to some samples of this high end vinegar. Obviously the kids were not particularly impressed. But explaining to them that a single teaspoon was worth $75 made it somewhat palatable to them.
After touring the cask room, we went in to the shop and restaurant area where we ate a nice lunch of breads and cheeses and olives accompanied by bottles of cold lambrusco wine. This was a pleasant treat, as I was unfamiliar with the light fruity and effervescent nature of this particular blend. It was also the first time getting to actually know some of our traveling companions. I hate to judge people by their willingness to have a drink any time of the day, but the reality is that those are generally "our people".
We weren't staying in Modena however, and following lunch we piled into the bus for the 2 hour bus ride to Firenze (Florence) where we would be spending the next 2 days (mostly). Though I struggled to stay awake in order to take in the scenery and observe all of the differences between Italian and American highway travel, I was wine-tired and took the opportunity to snooze a bit.
Arriving in Florence was different than the last couple times I had been there. Every inch of Italy isn't a post-card. And even though the outskirts of cities are sitting in ancient footprints, they have been modernized to absorb things like buses, and traffic and contemporary life. Our hotel was about a mile outside of "old Florence" as I'll refer to it. It was a really nice, modern hotel on the roadside and after going through the laborious process of checking in with 40 people, we convened as a family for a determined excursion into Florence.
Rosie had gone to school here, and once having located the doorway leading into the courtyard of her school, she had her heart set on having dinner a very specific restaurant. This was actually the first night that we were allowed to figure out our own dinner. While this sounds great in theory, the reality of navigating any foreign city with a group of 9 tired, and hungry travelers inevitably leads to chaos. This is why I have in my notes "Chaos dinner at Meat and Fish"... It was hot and late in the day by dinnertime and as it turns out, Rosie's restaurant felt a lot more like an exclusive hipster speak-easy for vampires than a "dinner for family of 9" kind of place. While we argued among ourselves, and I think with the hostess, I found a nice spot right next door which ended up being really great! It was called "Meat and Fish" and we clumsily found ourselves eating there. Moods brightened throughout the dinner and we continued to explore Florence in the early evening, enjoying gelato and tea while our heads spun in order to take in the immensity of the architecture of this medevil town.
We wandered back to our hotel as the evening grew dark and Christie and I spent a little while in the patio bar where we conversed with part of the other large family that was traveling in our group. They were from Tennessee and there were 4 grown kids with their step-mother and the patriarch of the family who was in the concrete/construction business. I actually would've been curious to know what he thought about the stone work we were constantly being exposed to, but I never did ask.
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