Day 8: Florence in the rain and other crank-inducing events!

Florence in the rain is beautiful…when you’re undercover…and extremely inconvenient when trying to fit the most sightseeing into your final moments of a great city as you can!

I checked out of the hostel, went to the café across the road for a croissant and café macchiato for brekky, walked around in the rain, tried to find the bus at the train station to head back to Palazzo Pitti for the costume exhibition, and in the end stood under the eave of a shop and texted people back home. It was time to wrap things up in good ol’ Florence, and move onto Rome! (Europe is clearly bringing out my inner poet).

I had booked a train to Rome for 4:30pm, and it was presently around midday, and I’d realised I’d double booked the Gallaria Borghese in Rome for a 5pm entry. I weighed up the options…miss a highly recommended gallery, entry price about €11, and stick with my current train time at a sunk cost of €27, or acknowledge the accounting principle that a sunk cost should have no part in your future investment decisions and fork out €44 for a whole new train ticket and make the gallery on time for 5pm. I decided on the latter, and purchased a new ticket for a 1:30pm departure from Florence. I got to Rome around 3pm, but had for whatever elusive reason gotten off one stop too early at the Tiburtina Rome station, rather than Termini, eventually found the bus, and arrived at the hostel. New Generation Hostel in Rome was absolutely fantastic! Beautiful room for four people, little nooks to get cosy in, and for the poor souls who usually have to climb a vertical ladder for the upper bunk a delightful little staircase. I got changed and refreshed, and tried to get to the Borghese but was running late, struggled choosing the best transport to get there, arrived cranky, and knocked that bad boy out , wang-less statues and duck-embracing ladies, in about 20 minutes. My apologies to all those people that recommended seeing the gallery – I know it to be amazing, but sometimes the lateness-induced-crank overrides logic.

Walking back to the train station, it started to rain, so a quick taxi trip was needed, and the delightful driver made an excellent suggestion on somewhere near my hostel for dinner, La Forchetta (The Fork?) which would become my local lunch spot for the next two days as well. He had dined in the restaurant as a boy with his father, and had fond memories of the restaurant…and now, so do I. I ordered the most amazing cannelloni al forno (ricotta cheese stuffed tubes of Italian love, with a rich tomato sauce), followed by veal schnitty (totally superfluous since I was already full), and white cake with a shot of limoncello, which you dunk the cake in. The ‘house wine’ was €4 for a 375ml carafe which I left unfinished. It was nap-time.

I got back to the hostel, fully prepared for a 2 hour nap, and met my three new roomies! Marta, from near Milan in Italy; Carlos, from somewhere near Madrid in Spain, and Yogish, from America. Conversation flowed, and whilst I needed some rest and an early night in preparation for the first of two massive days in Rome, they prepared for a night out on the town. Plans were made to head out the following night with Carlos and Marta, and I greatly looked forward to the company and chats.

Daily Summary:
Rain-induced spontaneous (pricy) schedule amendments – 1
World record time for one of the best galleries in Rome – 20 minutes
Cannalonis consumed – 2
mL of house wine consumed – 310
New roomies - 3

Value of a good nap to get rid of the crank….priceless!