Florence & Vatican City

After all the thrill to catch the train experiencing Paris evening traffic and finally finding that it is cancelled, we reached Florence. Do ready my previous blog about the journey here.

This blog is about a day in Florence, don’t be shocked I know its way… way… to less and a day in Vatican which is a country.

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After reaching the Florence station which is called as ‘Firenze Santa Maria Novella’ we tried to figure out how to reach our guest house ‘Affittacamere Benedetta’. It was Just 1 Km walking and 10 min via Tram, there is stop just outside the main station and the stop to get down is next one named ‘Porta Al Prato’ and from there it is around 300 mts.

We got little confused due to Google Maps directions and took us some time and few calls to reach there but we finally managed to reach.

It’s a small guest house which I think has around 4 rooms and our room was the last one and was quite specious or say huge as per normal room standards we have seen in India. It has all the basic facilities and as the owner did not provide any b/f he has arranged some ready to eat stuff which was complimentary ? and such a nice gesture.

Even though room was big but there was only one source of natural light and that was also covered with heavy grill and room was very dimly lit. Over all only drawback in this room was the bathroom and light, light I have already mentioned and bathroom was way too small. Just to compare we use to have bigger bathroom in our flat in Mumbai.

As we travelled for more than 10 hrs. (Bus + Train), so we decided to take some rest and then go out to explore. As this place is in the city so it is near to all the tourist places and market. He suggested one place to eat and that was good and not too costly was not a tourist trap.

Our luck was not that great as first we missed to book the ticket for the Dome which is top of Cathedral of Santa Maria Del Fiore. It has specific timing and slots as it’s a small space on the top and as per the pics the view is Amazing. Other thing that happened that day was rain.

As soon as we reach the main area of the Cathedral it started raining and we didn’t have any umbrella or rain coat, so after taking shelter in front of some shop for some time we finally return to our guest house and it continued to rain for rest of the day.

So, in all we stayed in our room and didn’t see much in Florence ☹ but what ever we saw was beautiful and we need to go again to explore more.

Next morning, we had a train to catch to reach Rome. Rome was 2-day trip and my brother in law and his family also joined us there. This was the first time we had planned something together and it was fun with all the kids.

They were supposed to come by evening, and we reached in the morning. Here we have booked an Airbnb. It was a 1 BHK flat with 2 beds, sofa, kitchen with utensils a washing machine etc. It was a good place with few drawbacks. This place was little far from the center, but tram/bus station was near by.

After taking the keys of the flat and fresh up we stepped out to go to Vatican via Bus. In Paris and here as well there is one good thing about the bus is there is space to park your stroller.

It was amazing seeing live what we have seen only in TV. Once again, we missed the opportunity to book the fast access tickets and on the spot were way to high to visit the museum and basilica ☹. For Basilica there was a huge line to enter and with my little one it was quite difficult to stand in one place for that long.

So, guys do book your tickets early and be there on time as everything work as per slots.

There were so many people that I was afraid to handle her alone otherwise we could have thought of standing one by one. So finally, we just clicked pics from outside and had some snacks at one of the local stalls then went back as my brother in law was about to reach the flat and we only had 1 key.

Rest of the day we spent with family chitchatting and relaxing as we were meeting after a long time.

This is how our first day ends in Rome.

Stay tuned for last 3 days of our trip, in which we covered Rome, Venice & Amsterdam.

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