Today is rainy and cold. For the moment I don't have any classes or obligations on Fridays, which is nice, so I got to sleep in some and hang around in my pajamas all morning. The bus drivers are on strike today (we were told that this happens periodically, but this is the first one since we got here)--which was mildly inconvenient, but not as bad as it might have been, since I didn't have anywhere I needed to go, and it's the kind of day where I'm perfectly content to stay home and read/catch up on email/etc.
We did need to get lunch at some point, though. Our house is too far from the center of Florence to walk in the rain (on a nice day I might try it), but I checked online around 11:45 am, and discovered that the buses would be running on the normal schedule between noon and 3 (there had also been a brief window of time in the morning), so Sofi and I caught a bus into town (we double checked with the bus driver about when the strike would start up again, just to be sure we wouldn't have to walk home) to get lunch from a pizza/foccacia/bread place called Pugi's in Piazza San Marco, reccommended to us by a Smithie who was here last year (for the record: it is FABULOUS), and ducked under the loggia of one of the nearby buildings to eat it and watch the traffic (pedestrian and auto) in the piazza (I think the building is the seat of the Architecture department of the University of Florence?). We then walked a few blocks to the Sede, stopped at a cafe for hot chocolate (for me) and ice cream (for Sophie), picked up some things at the Sede (all the while keeping an eye on the time), and then caught a bus back home in plenty of time. I'm not sure what happens if you're on a bus at 3--do they just stop wherever they are, or do they finish the route? Or do they just not start any route that won't be finished by 3?
So it was a nice day. Tomorrow the whole group is taking a bus for a day trip to Pienza and San Gimignano, and Sunday we're going to a soccer match, which should be excellent (and also intense. Emilia says Italian soccer fans are completely insane. Soccer matches are also one of the rare occasions where large groups of Italians get drunk en masse, and getting into the stadium is like checking in for an international flight, complete with passport, multiple security checks, and the no-water-bottle or pointy objects rules. It should be interesting...).
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That's ok Em - put on your hockey persona! arghhh! That'll help you blend right in.
ReplyDeleteI've read about the bus strikes in Italia -- they sound rather civilized, actually...(unless they do indeed just stop the bus at 3 and make everyone walk the rest of the way).
Just got news that there won't be any fans from Napoli (the other team playing) at the game tomorrow. They've been banned for misbehaving. This seems odd to me--I mean, really? You can ban all the fans from Napoli en masse like that??? Maybe I'm misunderstanding... we'll see.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the strikes seem very civilized. And it only lasts for a day (or at least, this one did)--and then, point made, everything goes back to normal, rather than the "we strike until we get what we want" that usually happens in the US.
It's always really interesting when public transportation goes on strike and you don't know about it. We almost got stranded in India when the taxi drivers went on strike!
ReplyDeleteThe soccer match sounds exciting, and a little terrifying. But why do you have to have a passport? Do they think that people without passports will make more trouble?
Turns out the point is to have a undeniably official photo id, which for us foreigners means a passport. As a general rule, my smith ID is fine when I need photo id (oddly enough, since most places in the US won't accept it...), or, failing that, a photocopy of my passport. But security is REALLY tight at soccer games, because they've had issues with violence (ie, people have DIED) in the past.
ReplyDeleteYikes! But since you're posting, I guess you didn't die. Did anything catch on fire, like it did at that game that Rachel went to in Denmark?
ReplyDeleteNope. It was actually fairly tame, because the Napoli fans were indeed disqualfied en masse, so there was only a small section of Napoli fans who managed to get in anyway (you have to buy tickets for the game from the office in the city you live in, so they simply didn't sell tickets in Napoli for this one (and the ticket has your name on it, and you have to show photo id). The only Napoli fans who got in are the ones who live in Florence). Besides, Napoli/Firenze is not one of the big traditional rivaliries. Not that there wasn't shouting and swearing back and forth and what have you, but compared to the usual for soccer games here, it was practically a polite picnic in the park.
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