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Pregnant after a Loss
Karen1998
member
****erinlovesdavid****
Karen1998
member
I'm sorry I'm a total lam-o and didn't respond to your question about where were were going in Italy. I meant to and then got caught up in the last minute stuff before we ran to the airport that night. We planned to go to Rome and Florence, with day trips out of Florence, but ended up adding Milan on the end.
We, like thousands of others, got caught up in the Heathrow incompetence, so our flight home was canceled and we had to find another one. We were lucky enough to get one home late on Christmas Eve from Milan, so we hopped the high speed train from Rome to Milan.
We also only ended up doing on day trip to Siena. We wanted to also go to Volterra, but I forgot to pick up the bus schedule while we were at the bus station. This proved to be fortuitous as the day we were going to go (we decided to wait a day) was the day it snowed in Florence and people got stuck on the highways and trains were stuck on the rails overnight. Florence reacts to snow like we do here - everything shuts down. Thankfully though, the restaurants stayed open so we could get something to eat. It's also beautiful there when it snows.
I also say my favorite sign ever, and unfortunately didn't take a picture. We were walking through the San Lorenzo market a few days later and the vendors had scraped ice from the streets into a pile several feet high. It was dirty, nasty ice. They took a box, flipped it over, and wrote in Italian (my translation of what they wrote): "Courtesy of the City of Florence, free Granita for all!" That had me howling for quite a while and really fit the Florentine sentiment about their local government and services. Trash was everywhere and everyone was grumbling about city services shutting down.
We also managed to miss the rioting in Rome (we left the morning of Berlusconi's speech - which ended in riots - and the vote of confidence was the next day - which ended in riots). We were actually staying about a block from all of it, and had breakfast at a cafe across the street, so we really barely missed things. I asked the cabbie why there were so many police in Rome (as I don't remember ever seeing a presence like that before) and he told us about the Berlusconi vote. It was all over the papers and news that night as well.
We also missed the riots in Milan (student rioting this time). We heard the group coming off of the subway and actually changed our path. We then heard the police going after them a few minutes later. We'd noticed that the Carabinieri had their riot gear out earlier that day so we wondered if something was up.
Needless to say, it was an interesting trip! I also saw tons of gypsies in Florence, which is a first for me. I've spent quite a bit of time in Europe and especially in Italy and only seen them in Paris before. They were all over Florence. We didn't see many in Milan, but did have some issues with guys refusing to go away and stop touching us in the main squares.
So anyway, I hope that answers your question! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I'm so glad to see you're a second tri girl now!
BFP#1 4/17/10...EDD 1/6/11...M/C 5/28/10
BFP#2 11/19/10...EDD 8/4/11
Squeaker born 7/30.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: ****erinlovesdavid****
We were soooo glad to be home - I almost kissed the customs guy. I also missed our u/s appointment, but have a new one on Thursday - crossing fingers!
Oh wow - the day after the Pope's funeral must have been something. We landed on the 8th, which is the (and I'm going to mess this up) celebration of Mary's Immaculate Conception (the conception of Mary, not Jesus, as I understood it) and a national holiday. It's also the official kick off of the Christmas season (and their Black Friday). It was pretty crazy!