Day 1 The arrival in Florence had virtually immediate drama after a long boring flight, a 45 min hike through the Frankfurt airport to our connecting flight to Florence gate and an uneventful flight to Florence. The baggage arrived, no problem, we went to the bank machine for Euros and I withdrew Euros. Anabel attempted to withdraw cash and the machine ATE HER CARD! There was no bank, just a machine and the lady at the airport information desk confidently assured us that there was NOTHING that could be done.  A minor meltdown, reassurance from Annette and me that we could bankroll Anabel and we left for our apartment, settled in and headed out to explore and stave off the exhaustion of 24 hours with no sleep.   

 Dining room of our wonderful apartment

                                            

                                                            Living room                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Our neighborhood is away from the main tourist madness and we went out to explore and buy a few groceries. A couple blocks from our home we stumbled across the oldest church in Florence, the Basilica of San Lorenzo built in the year 373!  Then we rounded a corner and saw the Duomo for the first time.  Annette swooned in ecstasy supported by us. We wandered around the Duomo a bit, found the grocery store and THANKFULLY an excellent gelateria where we bought enough gelato for dessert after a dinner of salami, cheese, bread and wine, followed very soon after by a 9PM bedtime.

Basilica of San Lorenzo built in 373