Well, we kept the spirit of black friday even if we weren't shopping with the crowds. Let's just say this…I woke up with a cold sore today and that may be the highlight of the day. :-) We had mostly chaos and hastle today...can we get a refund on day 7??? This morning (a little after 8 am) we got ticket for a train to Tuscany to a town called Arezzo. We went to find the platform we were supposed to be on and it wasn't listed...We were getting worried that we might miss the train since it was only a few minutes before departure time and we were still scurrying around trying to find some answers. Finally a platform number was posted on the departure board, and we rushed over to load on the train. At that point we realized that we had no clue which car of the train we were supposed to be in. We asked some people since we couldn't find a conductor, and they sent uas to a car where the seat numbers we had were already taken. So we ended up just grabbing some empty seats and waiting to be kicked in the right area. That never happened....they didn't even punch our ticket until 3/4 of the way through the journey...several stops later. It was very weird. I do have to admit that the train ride through Tuscany was gorgeous! It was a drizzly day, so there was mist hanging down along the mountains and the countryside was richly green with vineyards interspersed.
When we got to Arezzo I bought bus tickets, only to find out that the bus didn't run to the plaza we wanted to go to, and we needed to walk. We got some instructions from a man at the bus stop who had more English skills than our Italian but that's not bragging rights. We headed the direction that he seemed to be saying and ended up a couple of blocks off the mark, but we eventually found it. We then climbed a steep street up to a church that was supposed to have magnificent stained glass windows. There was a small park behind it with a view over the entire valley, so we took a few pictures before going into the church. Then it started to rain....well, "throw it down" is more appropriately describing it (as our friend from London said the other night). It was dumping and blowing and we were trying to take shelter in the trees until it slowed down. When we finally got the courage to just push through the rain to the front of the church, we stepped into the doorway just as the curator stepped out. He was locking the doors for their midday break from 12:30 to 3pm. No stained glass for us! So we trudged our way down the 20 slick steps and the grade 6 incline of the cobblestone street until we finally found a small restaurant to take haven in for lunch.Lunch was an adventure in itself. We were clearly no longer in tourist country…nothing had English subtitles, so ordering was a guessing game. I order salad and lasagna since it was safe that I knew what it was…or so I thought. The lasagna was of a recognizable form, but the taste and content were novel. The beef in it was shredded and it was somewhat greasy, but it was okay. Heather, on the other hand, had ordered what she thought was an alfredo pizza only to have a tomato-based fish stew over croutons delivered. She turned about 7 shades of green when she got the first fishy whiff of it (she is not a seafood fan). We traded plates and she took my lasagna. The one success of the meal was that we both liked our desert.After lunch I stepped into the restroom to "take care of business". The toilet area was separated from the sink by a sliding door…a fact that later became important. I did my business only to find that there wasn't any toilet paper and I had to snatch a napkin form the sink to wipe. Then I went to the sink to wash my hands and the water wouldn't start. I had stood there at the sink waving my hands for several seconds (it had to use automatic sensors since there were no handles) only to finally realize I didn't see any sensors either. I looked under the sink to realize that there were red and blue pedals on the floor that you step on to run the water. I did that and then turned to the door to leave. I turned the handle and tried to slide the door several times to no avail. I was trapped in the bathroom! I tried to strong arm it one last time putting my full body into it…and it pushed out….yep, the exit was not a sliding door…it was just regular.We left the restaurant and walked back to the train. My umbrella was broken by this time and dangling into my face. We went to buy the tickets, and the agent wanted to book us on a train that was at 3:12 pm rather than at 2:05 ten minutes later because it made some extra stops in small towns. We told her to put us on the 2:05 because we would at least be on the train where it was warm. We got on the train for our 2 hour and 45 minute ride, but after about an hour we stopped in Chuisi (one of many stops) and everyone in our car got off. Then Heather heard the engine kill and we realized that everyone on the train had gotten off. We started working our way up to the front to find a conductor, But then the engines came on and the train started to back up. We ran towards an exit and found we were locked in. After a few "choice" words and moments of panic, we saw a worker on the platform and we frantically pounded on the windows. He stopped the train and let us out. He said something rapidly in Italian and pointed to the other side of the platform where some people were standing. We went over there and asked one of the passengers if it was the train for Roma he was waiting for…he said yes. Evidently, we were supposed to make a train transfer…would have been nice if the agent had told us that when we bought the ticket!!!So then we got on the 2nd train, not entirely confident that all was well. We rode through several towns that we had not seen during our ride to Arezzo…which would have been a bonus if we hadn't been afraid that it meant we were headed to Venice. Finally we reached was was looking like Rome, and the sign about the platform said Roma Termini (our stop), so we started to get off. But it didn't look like the station…turns out it was just the departure sign for the new passengers telling them where to get on the train. We hussled back onto the train before it left and two stops later lept off to kiss the ground when we were finally in a place we recognized! I came back here to write this, and in the process the computer dumped it twice…this is actually the 3rd version of the saga. Heather went to the post office while I wrote and her key wouldn't work when she tried to come back in. We are supposed to go out for dinner now, but I'm not sure either one of us are brave enough!!!! I think it is a HeeHaw day....if it weren't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all.
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