We've been told about these mystical, make-believe strikes that happen in Italy all the time. Usually with buses and trains, etc. Today, we started our fall break trip at 9:30 am and headed to our train. After a few switches we made it to the Pisa airport where our flight was schedule to depart from at 2:55pm. I run up, excitedly, to the tv screen with departure times to make sure our flight wasn't delayed and to my dismay, I see "CANCELLED" in beautiful flashing letters. We were a bit scared, but decided to get to the bottom of it.
After talking with many different Ryan Air employees, Amanda doing some calling back to the states, some phone calls to people left at the villa, internet searching and more, we find out that Italian Air Traffic has gone and strike from 12-4pm and our flight will not be departing from Pisa today. So, we get in the rebooking line--a super long line in a room that was like 90 degrees. Well, Amanda, Abe, Julian, and Laura got in line and the other Laura and I laid on the ground and watched our stuff (and napped!). The news came that we would be flying out at ten in the morning the next day, so we packed up and got on a train back to Florence. Shoot!
Once we made it back to the Villa we all did some relaxing in our respective rooms, printed out our boarding passes for tomorrow's flight, and then went out to eat. We had made reservations for Tijuana, a Mexican restaurant in Florence for 7pm. At 6:15 we left the Villa, got on a train at 6:29 and arrived in Florence at 7:26 and made it to the restaurant at 7:45ish. But, besides the really long bus trip and being late for super it was great! The food was really delicious and we had "margarita azure" (blue margaritas) that tasted quite a bit like a blue raspberry slushie, so I loved them! :)
The bus ride home went quite rapidly and now it's nearly 11 o'clock and we are all heading to bed early so that we can get up and leave the villa be 5:15 am to try and get to London...again!
I just thought I'd give everyone a quick update on my day that seemed jammed pack...although, in reality, it was completely unproductive...and I didn't make it to London yet! We were out some money for train tickets to and from and back to Pisa, a bus ticket to downtown London from the airport, and possibly some money for our hostel...but I'm determined to make it to London tomorrow, no matter what it takes! :) Peace and love from Florence!
By the way, in Italian Sciopero means strike!
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