Still More Successful than Hannibal

What a travel day! After a lovely final day in Nairobi, puttering around museums and cafes, we boarded our flight to Paris. We landed just a little late, around 6:30am. Our departing flight for Florence was set to take off at 7:15am. Anyone who knows CDG knows that 45 minutes isn’t a ton of time to get from 2E to 2F, clear immigration and security and make it to your departure. Needless to say, we were hustling.

Fortunately, thanks to the Sky Priority lane and the ability to use the e-gates for customs, we made it through relatively quickly. Sadly, at some point in the process my watch disappeared – maybe left behind, maybe swiped by security (weirdly, it hasn’t checked in with the “Find My” system). We made it to our gate right as boarding started. And then discovered that our flight to Florence was no longer a flight to Florence, but instead a flight to Bologna. Apparently big storms combined with the very short runway at the Florence airport meant Air France invoked a plan B.

We did indeed make it to Bologna, but the plan seemed to kind of fall apart there. We stood around for 1.5 or 2 hours before a young man (presumably from Air France?) rounded us up and took us to a bus. The bus did eventually take off, and we made it to Florence about 3.5 hours later than expected. And from there, we eventually got our rental car (despite some scolding from the Hertz employee about our tardiness).

We decided to pop into Florence for a bit, to pick up the bag of clothes we sent with Kat’s sister Steph. The storms had cleared and it was a gorgeous day. And boy was Florence busy – just absolutely jammed with tourists. It felt like how the worst days of summer would have been a few years ago. Lines out the door at all the restaurants, etc. Hard to believe it’s October!

We met up with Steph and the family, then popped into the Apple Store so I could replace my watch. After crunching the numbers, buying it in Europe and claiming the VAT refund worked out the same as buying it at home with sales tax. And what would I do if I went a whole week without quantifying myself?

While I did my purchase, Kat found us a place for a late lunch, and we had some pasta and antipasto. Then we walked across the Arno to get some gelato at La Sorbettiera. Then it was back to the car for the 30 minute drive south to San Donato, our hilltop village for the week.

It was a relief to be out of Florence, and into the quiet Tuscan hills. San Donato is just another tiny town with a semi-illustrious past, and now home to some tourists, a few locals, and great views. It’s got two restaurants, a couple shops, and a bar. It’s going to be perfect! We did a lap of town, and had dinner at the fancy restaurant, along with everyone else in town.

I’m really looking forward to our week of exploring the Chianti region, going slow, and thrashing our little Lancia Ypsilon up the hills.