Italia 2006

Im sooo far behind on my writing, but Im going to try my hardest to fill you in on the latest news. In the last entry I described my adventures in the Amalfi coast, but I wanted a new entry just to tell you about our journey home. Well now it has been 2-3 weeks since my trip to Amalfi, but not even a year from now will I have forgoten this eventful day.
We started our day early, leaving our hotel at 1030 to get on the bus to the Capri center. On our way we came across a little shop that sold handmade sandals. There my friend and I bought a pair of gold hand made sandals that the little old man (who looked like Gipetto) molded to our feet. After our exciting purchase we continued to the bus stop. Little did we know that there was a marathon that day, and because of that we had to wait an hour in a long line to get on the bus. By this time we decided just to go straight down to the port, since we had not yet purchased our train tickets. After a windy nauseating 30 minute drive down the hills of Capri we arrived at the port and got on the next boat to Napoli. The boat ride was not as bad as I thought it would be, but it took a good hour to get to the port of Napoli. As soon as we got to Napels, I was shocked with how dirty the city was. Supposively its the most dirty and unsafe city in all of italy, so you can understand why we wanted to get out of there fast. We found our way to the bus that took us to the train station and took a 20 minute drive on a filthy tram. We arrived at the train station at 2:00, and the next train to Florence was at 4:30. We bought the tickets and headed over to McDonalds to get lunch and to wait for our train. At 4:00 we headed over to our bin and waited for the train. 4:25 rolls around and our train has yet to come, and there are hardly any people at our bin. Suddenly we realize the bin must have changed, and run to the schedule to see where our train was-we were right the bin had changed. We started running to the changed bin, but when we got there it was just leaving. I wanted to scream, but then again, at the same time, I wasn't surprised that this would happen to us. Frusturated we went to the desk and asked if we could exchange our ticket for the 5:00 train-full. The next open train was at 6:45 and we would have to pay 30 extra euro. Fed up we agreed and waited another two hours. To make sure we didnt miss this one we got on the train 40 minutes before its departure. After a two hour ride we arrived in Florence. The next challenge- finding my bus. At the train station we seperated, me not knowing where the heck I was supposed to go. The last bus out was at 11:25 and it was now 11. Panicking I looked everywhere for my stop. Finally I found it, and of course, it was right next to all the gypsies. Guarding my bags and waiting anxiously, I saw my bus approaching. Finally. The rest of the way was smooth sailing and I arrived home around midnight. The whole day was an adventure, but I learned alot about public transportation in Italy.