Everything went fine. The Shuttle brought us to the station St.Maria Novella. Pablo’s grey curls were to be seen from quite a distance, and a taxi drove us to our quater: an old big house of well-to-do citizens where two almost feudal apartments were reserved for us. The living room has the size of normally three of them, in the sleepingroom fit podiums of two metre hights connected by elegant staircases; long especially fixed curtains and the narrow built houses from the opposite of the street cause a permanent dim view of everything. We needed some days to get used to all this glory, as well as to all the difficulties with the dishwasher, gas, adapter, TV and so on. After a prepared lunch (Pablo had just thought of everything) we ended the necessary bureaucracies, moved into our sleeping rooms and had a good rest.
Early evening we spent with Pablo and Maria Grazia (one of the exchange seniors of Cesvot) and her husband in a little Trattoria with such an atmosphere that we felt at home in a very short time. The waiters were very polite, the food excellent (pasta and a special Florentine meat dish) as well as the wine. We couldn’t have imagined a more friendly welcome. Afterwards Pablo showed us around the inner city in the evening: a dream of lights mirrored in the river, palaces, bridges, narrow streets and wide places where inborn Florentines, merchants, tourists who obviously celebrated one of the first warmer evenings spent their time. (Christa does not agree because she froze bitterly).
Why does the Ponte Vecchio still cross the river untouched? We learned that: Hitler loved the bridge and ordered not to destroy it – contrary to all the other bridges of the city.
Freezing a little we returned to our apartments – maybe it wasn’t one of the first warmer evenings?