Confessions of a Hobbyist: Oh, the places I've been ... (Part III)

... and the things I've seen!!!

(Day 2 - Rome to Florence to Mestre (Venice). October 2, 2009)

After 2nd night in Rome, traveling begins again.

I had booked the night's stay in Venice. Turned out it's not really in Venice, it's about 10-20 minutes away in a place called Mestre.

I had tried booking train tickets from Rail Europe while I was still in the States. After figuring out all the schedules, and about to pull the trigger, I found out that you have to be in the States for at least 3 working days after you book the tickets. They FedEx the tickets to you.

Since I didn't have 3 working days, I just left on faith that I could get tickets at close to the same price at the station, and that there would be seats available. This may seem obvious to some people, but keep in mind that I had never traveled in that area before. I did call the Rail Europe representative, and though they were marginally helpful (didn't give me too much confidence), I really had no other choice.

The plan is to take the train to Florence, and spend a few hours there. Then, back on a train and onto Venice.

Woke up, had breakfast, checked out, and took the bus to the metro and went to Termini (the main train station).

I was mentally tired from carrying and taking care of my camera gear all day in Rome, and I decided that I would spend the day with as little luggage as possible (I still needed to get everything to the train)

Waiting for the bus.

At Termini.

My train to Florence.

Some scenes from the train trip:

Arrive at Florence

As I mentioned, I was tired of carrying my camera equipment with me so I checked in everything at the train station. Just carried my phone, and took some photographs with that.

Bought a local map, and went walking in the direction of the crowd (and the water). Just out of the train station.

Took a quick pic of Via Del Giglio (last name of a friend's wife).

Ran across this structure. I had seen a TV show about a painter from Turkey who was born blind, and without any formal schooling, learnt to write and print. He became a painter as well. He is able to show perspective perfectly. As a test, he had been brought here, and given a model. He was then able to draw it perfectly.

I had forgotten that this was in Florence, and was a good surprise to see it.

The next two photographs are shown (I could have photoshopped them into one) to show both the sky and the scene. The camera's dynamic range couldn't handle it, but to the eyes it was a beautiful sight, with the beautiful architecture and sky clearly visible.