Day 22 9th May 2011

It’s mornings like today that I know Hostels are not for me…I had a tour booked at 8:15 which required me to be at the meeting spot at 7:45… Now at home that might seem a sensible time…in Italy when nothing happens before 10 and people trying to sleep in, I am sure they didn’t appreciate me packing my bag from about 6:00 am…
Not to mention I still have a blown fuse and don’t have a mechanism for navigating back to the Vatican museum…

I managed o pack and got everything back in the car and somehow made my way to the Vatican using my iPhone. When I got there I rang the car rental company emergency number and they were adamant they should tow the car away…It took me 5 minutes to say NO, I just need assistance to get someone to replace the fuse… and not tow the car as I have my luggage there…
Message finally got through and they directed me to an alternate office where they can attend to “my problem”.

Now the Vatican tour was rubbish, for starters the tour guide had an axe to grind with the Vatican and was very bitter where she basically bad mouthed everything about the Vatican, the pope, the church…somewhere in there was someone requiring therapy to get over her anger situation… She was extremely knowledgeable and far too efficient…we literally zoomed past the whole museum and the Sistine chapel in less than 1hr racing past everything. Then no one wanted to hang around her for the Basilica tour (not surprisingly) and so it ended.

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/CSN/CSN_Main.html

I drove back to Terminali and was about to get the car replaced when they figured it’s easier to replace the fuse…Big mistake that I let them do that as the fuse blew again 100 kms into the next leg to Florence.

There is one lesson I learned from my wild youth not to drive when I am tired and as I was starting to nod off, I pulled over in a rest area and slept for 45 mins, which somehow made me feel worse.

I got to Florence and thanks to a tip from Alex was to find my next accommodation (the Hostel he described was full) but the hotel next door had a vacancy and so I plonked my butt there.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/florence

I started walking around town fairly swiftly and it didn’t take long to discover the river and witness that amazing Tuscan sunset. I am completely in love with Florence and in hindsight should have spent an extra night there as it was flawless…The street musicians/performers were grand (to the point I bought their CDs) The museum was open til midnight and at that time of night you had t all to yourself (pretty much) The bars were all full and lively and I guess that was the reason that I walked around for 8 hours again before I made it back to the Hotel and I was worn out.

The next decision was should I or shouldn’t I head to Cinque Terre it was over 100 kms in the wrong direction to Venice and probably a bad move considering how worn out I am starting to feel.