Florence: mini flightfest.

[Agne]

Yesterday Claudio and I, Marco and Helen, Ottavia and Alessandro had a great time all together in Florence.
We didn't fly to Florence (we got there by train) but I like to consider it another "mini flight fest".
We met at the train station, then we decided to make our way towards Santa Maria Novella. We gave Marco the responsibility of showing us the way.:D
After visiting the church we had lunch all together in a restaurant.. ..somewhere in Florence (I don't remember).

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_665_rid.jpg

After lunch we continued our tour of Florence.

There were cows everywhere:

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_666_rid.jpg

The cathedral:

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_667_rid.jpg

Piazza della Signoria:

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_pzza_signoria_rid.jpg

Probably there was something inside, but..it was closed.

So we decided to see Dante's house.

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_dante_rid.jpg

But it was closed. Italian museums closed for Christmas holidays. Obvious.:fuming:

We made our way towards Ponte Vecchio, a bridge with lots of famous jeweller's shops.. that were closed, of course. Bah!

Helen and Marco (who smiles, happy to see that the jewellers are closed): :D

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_Marco_Helen_rid.jpg

Ponte Vecchio:

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_pvecchio_rid.jpg

Group photo near the "Uffizi":

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_gruppo_rid.jpg

Alessandro, Ottavia, Helen, Marco, Agne (Claudio is taking the photo)

The museum is OPEN ! Let's go !

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10030/normal_uffizi_rid.jpg

Time flies and after visiting the museum we walk to the station, tired and hungry.

Thank you guys for the great day, I hope to meet you again.
Marco and Helen, enjoy your holiday in Italy and have a nice flight back to the States!

[Passenger Mark]

How cool is this!

I am glad you all were able to get together!

Thanks for the report and photos Agne!

[WillFlyToDisney]

Oh what a fun day! So glad you guys got together.


:)
Kelley

[aerobat]

Great report, Agne!! Thank you! The pics are beautiful.
Marco, it's sooo nice to see you enjoying yourself between flights. :happyguy: Now, don'tcha be fretting over the flight back home. You'll likely have some more work to do up there (and that's as it should be), and you will again be successful (and maybe it's time to redefine 'success' also), because you will pull out some tools and find that they lead you to states of increased comfort with flying. That's the big secret about this process, and now it's out.:shocked: :lol:

[MarcoAviator]

Agne: nice meeting you and Claudio in person ... it is funny how you make yourself a mental image of someone you meet online until you actually meet them in person. somehow I never thought of you as ... Italian. Maybe your written english was so good I always thought of you as anglo-saxon for some reason... you have a Emilia accent that kinda nails ya :D . Do I sound Roman to ya? :D

Aerobat: not even thinking about the flight honestly. I am more concerned abouty all the stuff I need to take care of when I get back from vacation and I am pushing that away from my mind right now. I need this vacation and I got no time to waste on the flight or the business waiting for us back home ... it's so nice to be pampered ... and waking up knowing that you are not going to work ... but you are going somewhere OTHER than work for once. No thanks. Enjoying myself and I'll keep it that way for as long as I can manage.

PS: I am hopelessly losing that battle with food. Too much yum-yum and not enough will-power.

PS2: me and Helen slept for 14 hours the night after.

PS3: what's with the metal cows everywhere???

[Rebecca]

Well, these pix and the "tour" make MY day!!!! You all are showing that it CAN BE DONE!!! People can fly to very cool places and have wonderful times together. And wonderful food!!!

Thanks, Agne and crew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, Marco's got the method ... stay in vacation mode as loooooooooooong as possible!

http://takingflight.us/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif http://takingflight.us/forums/images/smilies/hyped.gif http://takingflight.us/forums/images/smilies/happyguy.gif

[kari]

PS3: what's with the metal cows everywhere???

LOL, the cows are touring Europe for some reason, visiting all sorts of cities. We had them in Manchester a year or two ago. I can't remember why though!

[Agne]

Agne: nice meeting you and Claudio in person ... it is funny how you make yourself a mental image of someone you meet online until you actually meet them in person. somehow I never thought of you as ... Italian. Maybe your written english was so good I always thought of you as anglo-saxon for some reason... you have a Emilia accent that kinda nails ya :D . Do I sound Roman to ya? :D

Yes you do ! I like the Roman accent !
It was weird speaking Italian after months of posting in English.

... and waking up knowing that you are not going to work ... but you are going somewhere OTHER than work for once
to VELLETRI? :D

PS2: me and Helen slept for 14 hours the night after
We were so tired! I didn't sleep on the train: from Florence to Bologna the guy in front of me was reading a book in a loud voice... From Bologna to Cesena I was near an old man who looked like a maniac, staring at me and making strange sounds with his mouth. :shocked:

PS3: what's with the metal cows everywhere???

I found this link about the cows (http://info.cowparade.it/)