Ok. Enough of that. We’ve got a trip to finish.
If you’re still with me, it was morning in Florence. Early morning. It was time to catch the train.
Trudy and I got up well before the dawn, packed our bags and walked to the train station pulling them behind us, grateful for the sidewalks however narrow, because if we had been pulling those suitcases along the cobblestone streets, the whole city would have been up to see us off.
As it was, there were surprisingly many people arrayed around and in the station. Not surprising for a society that has an efficient train system, I suppose. Gotta be in Milan by morning? Catch the A train. (A good way to start the day, no matter how you look at it!)
And we had to be in Milan by morning. So there we were, outside the station in the dark.
Now, let me say a few words about McDonald’s.
Did you know that their colors in Europe are green and gold? Yes. It’s true. Their livery there reminds one of, say, Subway sandwiches. Secondly, did you know that you can’t get breakfast at the McDonald’s in Florence before 7:00am?
Like… what!?
This had been our fallback plan. If it was too early to find something real for breakfast, we figured it’d be a sure thing to stop in at the 24hour McDonald’s that was just across the street from the station. Wrong. Hamburgers and fries for breakfast? In the dark? No. No. And no.
The fair and industrious Trudy found a bakery a couple doors down, and we were ready to head north.
More on that later.