We had a busy day of walking yesterday but last night I thought it would be nice to go out and see what the nightlife is like in our neighbourhood.  A walk along the river gave us images of the buildings we have come to know so well in the daylight, now in the night light.  What beautiful images they were.  The streets were lit up to ve almost like dusk instead of late night but the sky and water were black.  Lights shone on both sides of the river spaced closely together so they made almost a spotlight.  The water was calm as it seems to always be so the reflections were as clear as the buildings they represented. People walked everywhere and we commented on how we are getting brave to cross the streets against the lights as the locals do.  When we first came to Spain and Italy, we waited for the green light to tell us to cross and thought how stupid people were to walk on the red.  Now we do the same but we call it impatience.

The moon was just a tiny speck of a crescent in the huge black sky and I was pleased that it showed in the picture below.

This morning we walked to the downtown area again to buy tickets for the Duomo and the Accademia Museum where the statue of David is found.  We were told that if we just wanted the main part of the Duomo it is free and that we could get tickets right at the museum for David.  While we were close to the Duomo, we thought we’d just go see it.  We were amazed when we saw that the line up at the entrance went for blocks and a sign said, “2 hours from this point”.  We were told the church opens at 8 AM so we decided we’ll come back early another day.

When we were in Spain we met a couple from London who told us about a walled city outside of Florence about an hour away called Lucca.  They told us not to miss it so after some internet searching and reading, we decided that our best option to get there was by bus.  We knew where the bus station was so we stopped there to buy tickets.  Now, you’d think the bus station would be the best place to buy bus tickets, right?  Nope! The agent waved his arms at me and pointed saying something about across there by the McDonalds. He was very impatient when I asked him again and with more arm waving and a frown, he got me to leave. There is no customer service here for sure. We knew where the McDonalds was – by the train station, of course.  So, onward we went. Inside the train station, I spotted a sign for bus tickets.  Ah hah!  I was onto something. The lady at that post sent me to the Tobacco shop across the station and when I got there, I realized she thought I had wanted city bus tickets so back into the last line I went.  This time, she told me to go to the travel agency in the far corner of the station. Once there, I again saw a sign that said bus tickets but the lady there told me to go outside, across the street and the bus ticket office was beside yet another McDonalds.  WOW!  I could have walked to Lucca by this time.  A very nice lady helped us at the final place and we finally had our tickets. Nothing is easy! We even went and checked where we are to get on the bus to make sure we get there on time.  That all checked out.

Joey had a bit of an incident this morning.  She had gone downstairs to the washroom at McDonald’s.  There are few public bathrooms here so you use them when you see them.  She had just stepped up to the sink to wash her hands when a lady pushed her aside, nearly knocking her over, and proceeded to wash her hands, actually one hand,  in Joey’s sink.  Joey said she just stood there with her mouth open as she was so surprised.  The lady finished up and left.  We have run into all kinds of rude behaviour like this. We think maybe there are so many people here in a small area that if you aren’t aggressive, you don’t get anything.  Like the little runt puppy.

I think we are both quite tired.  We have been away from home for almost five weeks and have been going full force almost every day. My hips are giving me trouble with all the walking and we tend to rest more often when we see a bench, which isn’t often.  We are home resting this afternoon before our big day tomorrow. I feel like I’m coming down with a cold so am taking lots of Vitamin C in hopes the bug will leave me alone.  Maybe it can take a bus somewhere.