Florence was the best of times, and the worst of times.
Let’s start with the best…
When we pulled into Florence, Micah and my mom were craving non-Italian food. We opted for Indian, and it was great. Our waiter was a darling college-aged kid. After talking with him for a bit, we heard his story…and it was incredible. He had left Bangladesh for a better life in Italy. He was attending college, as the first in his family. He worked hard to send back money to his family. He and Pippi really bonded, because he has a little brother her age that he doesn’t know well, except for the FaceTime calls they share. He brought out little treats to Pippi — including a free dessert, and they became fast friends. Through his story, he talked about his mother with the utmost respect…calling her “his heart”. You could tell how much he loved his family at home. Later in the conversation, he told us he was going to try to visit his family next year, but in the meantime, he was earning money to send back to his mother for a surgery she needs. He was just the happiest and sweetest son, trying to make things work for his family. We were all so impressed by him…he was awesome! He also shared Pippi’s overbite.
When we left, my mom got into her purse and gave him 40 US Dollars. She said…”this is for your mom”. When he received the money, he had huge tears well up in his eyes. Then, we all had big tears well up in our eyes. He could barely contain himself, as he thanked us profusely.
When we left, all of the kids were obsessed with Buillon.
We all decided that nothing overrides the great feeling you get, when you are able to do something kind for someone else. Our kids wanted to go back the next night and the next! I asked for Buillon’s family’s address in India, but he said they don’t have an address. (I think they are extremely poor.) I told him I wanted to send his little brother a box of treats, but he said he wished he could tell me where to send anything, but it would never get to him. I hope Buillon’s family is well taken care of. And I hope that one day, we meet back up with Buillon.
Today is Father’s Day!!! Happy Father’s Day to a great one!
The next morning we woke up in our AirBNB in Florence.
It was a great place. Big and spacious and clean enough.
After a good sleep, we went into downtown…and Nonnie treated us to a horse and buggy ride — a great way to see all Florence has to offer!
This church was incredible.
Michaelangelo’s David was shocking to the kids — but still a masterpiece.
The artists around town were highly talented.
And the window shopping was great.
But after being hot and wiped out…we headed back to our big and cold AirBNB…
only to realize that our idiot guy had locked us out, becuase he wanted another 60 euros from us. The story is long and detailed…but in a nutshell…Cosimo the owner decided to start nickel and diming us three days before we got there. Micah and he settled on the outcome, but because he was drunk when they settled and didn’t remember, he decided to lock us out the next day. We sat for three hours while we tried to get it all figured out with AirBNB and Cosimo. It was a total joke! The jerk wouldn’t let us in the place to get our stuff, and he wouldn’t even respond. Finally I called the police, and they came. (Yes…our third encounter with the police on this trip!)
you know who showed up three minutes after the police?
Cosimo.
The police were helpful, and agreed that he was a real bad dude. When we got out of there, we found out that Cosimo had stolen 100 USD out of my mom’s coin purse. He also threatened me every time Micah left the room with, “Your husband thinks he is so clever…..”. He was a wreck. So we got out of there, drove for hours…and finally at 2am ended up in Venice.
It was a travelling nightmare — and AirBNB is investigating it all, for our refund and him getting kicked off the site.
But not all was bad…
At 1am, we discovered my mom had been walking all day with a tootsie roll in her shoe!
It gave us our biggest laugh of the entire trip!
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