We had discovered two years ago in Paris that Jeff is not at all interested in art, particularly impressionist or new art. In the Orangeri in Paris he mocked Monet’s Water Lilies, saying he could have done the same thing, easily. He and Jackie were so disruptive we worried the docents were going to ask them to leave. You can imagine what I was thinking in bringing him to the Renaissance Art capital of the world to see a little art. We only had a day, so delving into any detail would be impossible. Good thing, because getting deep in art is not Jeff’s thing. We boiled it down to seeing David, walking through the Medici Palace, climbing to the top of the Duomo, walking to the Signoria and the outside of the Uffizi, then the Ponte Vecchio with a last stop at Santo Spirito. And that is what we did.
We got up about 7:00 am and were on the road about 8:15 am. Sally and Jeff snoozed while I drove. We parked at Sansovino Tram Station, as we had when we picked Jeff up, and rode the tram to Santa Maria Novella train station. From there, we walked to the Duomo, then up to the Accademia where David is housed. We arrived at the ticket booth about 11:15 am, exchanged our vouchers for reserved tickets, and got in the reserved ticket line. Our tickets were for a noon entry. We entered the building exactly at noon.
Although there is other art in the building, we knew our client and went straight to David. Jeff was impressed, at least that is what I read into his detached countenance. We walked around the magnificent sculpture, admiring it from all angles. We looked at “The Prisoners”, the unfinished statues of Michelangelo that line the hall leading up to David, trying to raise an appreciation in Jeff. Jeff does have the advantage. He went to the Carrara marble mines first, then to the sculpture garden/workshop and finally to David, so he got to see the progression from mountain to block to finished product.
Our stay in the Academy was 15 minutes. We were headed to the Duomo ticket office next, to get our tickets to climb the Duomo. We decided to walk by the Medici palace first and just peek in the courtyard. We did, then stopped for pizza across the street for lunch. We remembered our Duomo Dome climb to be at 2:30 pm, so we had plenty of time. After our quick lunch, we headed for the museum, thinking the office to be there, but soon realized it was next to the baptistery. I presented our laser printed vouchers to the man there and he said they were all we needed. I pointed out that we had a dome climb reservation at 2:30 pm, but the tickets did not show that. Luckily for us, the man was very kind and they were not busy. After about 10 minutes of searching on my phone and talking with him, he got one of the men behind the help desk to log into the site with my name and order number and printed my dome climb reservation forms. I thanked him profusely, then noticed the dome climb was at 1:30 pm, not 2:30 pm as I had thought. I looked at my phone. 1:25 pm. This is cutting it close. Jeff and I walked briskly to the line to hold our place while Sally went to the girl’s room. She caught up with us in the line about two minutes before we went through the gate and into the church.
Up the spiraling staircases we went, embedded in the solid rock wall of the church, around the balcony at the bottom of the dome, then up the sloping dome onto the roof and the cupola. We had to wait about 5 minutes to make the final climb onto the roof because so many people were coming down.
We spent about 10-15 minutes on the top, viewing the city and talking to people, then headed back down, running into a few bottlenecks of people going up and coming down, trying to squeeze past each other in the very narrow pathway.
Once down in the street, we headed for the Duomo museum to take a quick look at Ghiberti’s bronze Baptistry doors, Donatello's Mary Magdalene and Michelangelo’s Pieta. 15 minutes tops, and we were back on the street again. Now we headed for the Senioria and the free water on the side of the building. When we got there we found a long line. We walked to a nearby shop and bought three bottles of water, then walked past the Uffizi Museum on our way to the Ponte Vecchio. We stopped to sit in the shade of Cosimo III’s elevated walkway between the Pitti Palace and the Signoria for a gelato, then continued across the Ponte Vecchio toward Santo Spirito.
Once is the Santo Spirito piazza, we found a bench in the shade near a restaurant I had the wifi password to and quickly checked for Vodefone outlets and a few other information items we sought. Then it was into Santo Spirito for a look at Michelangelo's wooden carved crucifix he did at the age of 18 for the prior of the church. Weird, but again like last time, no one was here. We paid our €3 each and entered the room where it hangs. We were alone. With the throngs of people clamoring to see anything with Michelangelo’s signature, it is weird to find this piece hanging in solitude. We enjoyed the moment, then exited the building and began our way toward the Santa Maria Novella train station via the shopping district. The hours were advancing, so it was time to go to the Vodefone store and find out what happened to my 10 Gb of data.
In Venice, on the island of Lido, I visited a Vodefone store and purchased 10 Gb of data, for a month, for €25. I was told to wait two hours, and when a text came, then turn on the cellular data. Seems weird it takes two hours, but I followed instructions. A text came, and I turned on the data. Four days later, when we were conveniently long gone from Venice, my Internet stopped. I called the salesman, Marco, in Venice from Bagni San Filippo. He told me it was “impossible” to help me unless he had my iPad in his hands. Bull Shit. So for the entire time of the week of the wedding, I have had no cellular Internet. Only wifi when in our place or at the Caldwell’s. Today, I was going to find out why and get it fixed.
It took us about 10-15 minutes of wandering through the labyrinth of stores under the train station until we found the Vodefone store. After waiting 10 minutes for someone to help me, I presented my story. The sales clerk asked to see my text messages from Vodefone. After she read them she said I turned on the cellular data too soon. I said I followed their directions and waited two hours for their text and then turned it on. She told me it was not the right text.
We bantered back and forth, somewhat heated at times, about what a stupid business model this was and that I wanted my 10 Gb reactivated. She told me she couldn’t because the store in Venice sold it and she did not. Jeff very forcefully asked her if her shirt said Vodefone on it. I said she represented Vodefone, the same company that sold me the bogus plan and she needed to fix it. She said she could not. Jeff came back with “In America, the customer is always right.” Why should we buy from Vodefone if this is the way they treat their customers? She had no answer, only that Vodefone would not let her give me back my 10 Gb.
Finally, I asked her who her competitors were. She told me “Wind” and “Tre”, both with shops in this mall and she pointed me in their direction. Even if she had given me 10 Gb for €2 I would not have dealt with this company again.
We walked down the mall to the “Tre” (3) shop. Again, I waited for 10 minutes, then the clerk helped me. 30 Gb for €25. 2 minutes to activate. One month time limit. No issues. As I write this, it has worked for 28 hours. We will see if these guys are any more honest than Vodefone.
With my iPad now working again, and me a happy camper, we caught the tram back to the car to get Jeff’s pack. It was now 6:30 pm and time to get him ready to catch a bus to Mannheim to visit Joel. We rode the tram to our car, got his pack and rode back into town. We saw a Kabab place across from the train station and had dinner. Still one of my favorite meals! Now about 7:30 pm, we walked to the address given on the Flixbus website, but saw no evidence of bus traffic. We asked a taxi cab driver where the buses were. He sent us down the block and around the corner. Here we found the place where busses gather, including Flixbus. We had about an hour to kill, sitting on the curb. With my renewed Internet, we cruised the web, text messaged a conversation with Mike Morgan about Joel’s accident and cancelled wedding and performed other highly important and meaningful tasks. We also talked with a girl seated next to us.
Jeff’s bus rolled in at 8:40 pm, loaded up and just like that Jeff was gone. We walked back to and through the train station, loaded on the tram and rode back to the car. We paid the parking fee and used Google Maps to guide us back to Bagni San Filippo in the dark. I had forgotten how nice it is to have the Internet while on the go, it had been so long since my service crapped out on me.
We arrived back about 11:30 pm to our wonderful place, now quite empty and quiet with Andy, Tabitha and Jeff gone. Andy and Tabitha flew to Nice, France tonight to continue their vacation. I caught up on a little Stephen Colbert on YouTube, then hit the sack. Sally did some Facebook posts, then also fell asleep.
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