Poggibonsi - day 5

April 16, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

We seem to both be a bit paranoid about being late for flights, so checked how long the taxi would take – possibly up to an hour. So we got up at 5.30, ready for the taxi on time at 6.15, and were at the airport by……..6.30! What time did we need to be there? 7.40. But, both of us were happy with that.

Once on the plane we did have our 2 aisle seats next to each other. But when I went to sit down, the lady next to me asked if I would swap with her husband who had an aisle seat on the other side of the plane. I agreed to that (she got me on a nice Fiona day!), but then when I went to my new seat there was a kerfuffle about a double booking. So I said I am not interested in swapping a seat which is double booked. The cabin crew then got a bit confused as to who actually was booked in the seat, but finally solved it, and then I stayed nice Fiona and sat in the new seat. It was a 6 hour flight which went smoothly, and we arrived at Roma.

Again because we don’t like missing flights or trains, we had factored in a possible flight delay, so we then had a 2 hour wait at the airport before we could catch our first train into Rome, then 20 mins to find our train to Florence, and then it was a very short 10 mins to try and find the platform for our final train to Poggibonsi. We weren’t quite sure how we would work out when we needed to get off the train, but the helpful train guard spoke English, and had an ipad with the route on it that Jody took a picture of. It was a short walk from the train to a restaurant, and we had our first authentic Italian meal which was really nice. Jody ordered a glass of wine which came in a little jug, and was 250mls for $3 NZ. I had bruschetta, and beef cooked with red wine and pepper and peas. Oh yes, Jody did have some food with that wine – lasagne.

After our meal we asked for a taxi. I had thought it might be a bit of an issue to get one, so was great for the restaurant owner to try for me. He rang 4 different individuals to try and get one, and we had a choice of 20 euros with a 40 min wait, or 30 euros for now. Of course we chose now! So off to Hotel Semifonte which was a bit average, but lovely and warm. Quite a bit chillier here than it was in Dubai.Read more