3 days in Italy!

Time to update everyone on the goings on with Kathryn and Debbie in Aix! Well – we actually didn’t spend much time in Aix this week because we went on our first excursion. Our host family was out of town all week, so it was a good time for us to go as well.

We chose Italy – Florence to be more specific for our first destination. We were a little surprised at the cost for the train tickets, but when we realized it would take 12 hours to get there, we understood. We left our apartment Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. and arrived at the hotel in Florence around 6:00 p.m. Kathryn did a great job finding us a hotel right by the Ponte Vechio – for only $45 euro per night – and it included breakfast! It wasn’t the Ritz, but the bed was comfortable, the coffee was hot, and we were right in the Centre Ville! (We did have to share a bathroom too, but that turned out to be no problem - there are advantages to traveling during the low season – very few tourists.)

Tuesday we had reservations for the Academia Museum at 9:00 a.m. and being so early, we got to view Michelangelo’s “David” all by ourselves!!!! From there we enjoyed the beautiful day – and the view from the Duomo-tower – we climbed 420 some stairs. The day was clear and I think Kat got some superb photos. In the afternoon we visited the Uffizi Museum, had a slice of pizza – a coffee – a gelato – with sharing our lunch was only 10 euro. Before heading back to our room we stopped to have a glass of wine – and met some very nice locals. The lady sitting next to us had a real Jimmy Choo purse (if you don’t know what that is – I didn’t – ask someone in their 20’s). She worked for Jimmy Choo in San Francisco for 6 years and just transferred to Milan, but was in Florence to visit her mother. Our evening ended in a Pizza place where we had a fantastic diner and visited with a family from Australia.

Wednesday morning it was raining – what a difference a day can make. We took the train to Pisa. The tower was still leaning, and it started to rain there too, but we took our chances to head to the coast - to Cinque Terre (where Mike broke his leg!) It was another good move – it was beautiful when we arrived. Not many tourists – and we couldn’t hike between all 5 towns because of slippery trails. We had a good dinner at the one and only restaurant that was open. We stayed one night – again Kathryn did an awesome job – only 50 Euro and it included breakfast again – and we had a view of the Mediterranean! We hiked for a little bit, but then figured we better start the big trek home. From Cinque Terra we went to La Spezia, from La Spezia we went to Genoa, Genoa to Nice, Nice to Marseille and, and, and….We were supposed to go all the way to Aix – however our train wasn’t to arrive until after midnight – and it was the wrong station in Aix. Not knowing what the taxi situation would be – and not wanting to walk 10 kilometers at midnight – especially when we had no idea where that station was in respect to our home – we decided we had three choices – get a hotel – take our chances with the train – or take a taxi. We both agreed on how much we were willing to pay for the taxi – and we soon found out it wasn’t enough – but a few minutes later the taxi driver came after us and said one of the drivers lived towards Aix – and he would take us home for the price we had suggested. God is good. Home never felt so good. We were in our fast asleep in our own beds before our train would have even left Marseille!

We are back into our work schedule and have had two very productive days since we’ve been home. We work everyday, but that is okay – the little excursions will make it all worth it!

One of the other guests at our apartment introduced Debbie to an older, local woman. They are meeting once a week for study and conversation. Kathryn is working on a computer program to help her learn more French also.

Au revoir until next week- Deb and Kathryn