As we checked in last night we learned that there would be a time change the following moring, with us loosing an hour. Yes, not only did we go through our own time change in the states, and struggle through jet lag for 2-3 days, we now have another time change. This caused us to wake up a little later than usual.
We also had the very nice surpise of an e-mail the night before from one of the main credit cards we are using while here saying there was some supicious activity on our card. We had tough time trying to get a collect call into our credit card, so we had Tim's sister try to call and determine what the problem was. She was not allowed any information, but was told that it could be an issue that the card company just didn't know we were traveling. Tim was certain that he had called and let them know of our plans.
We finally got through to find out that someone had double swiped our card, i.e. we paid for a purchase using the card, they took our card back and swiped once to pay for our purchase, then a second time in a second machine to gather the information on our card. They then swiped a second blank card to store our information on, and used that card at various places in Rome to make almost $6,000 worth of purchases. Yeah us! As if we had not already had enough drama, now we needed to deal with this. It was easy to dispute the charges as we were in Florence by the time they were made, but was a pain to have to waste time getting it sorted out.
As we left the hotel, we bumped into an outdoor antique market that had been set up overnight right outside of our door. There were 3 blocks of wall to wall vendors, with a lot of different things for sale. We spent about 2 hours slowly cruising up and down the aisles trying to see if there were any good finds that we would be willing to pack back to the US. If Michelle lived in Florence, she would have bought much of the furniture there. As it was, she was seriously thinking about trying to get a set of 6 Danish looking chairs into her luggage. :)
We meandered our way to the train station and caught a train to Pisa. Once there, we walked to the monument, all the while experiencing off and on showers. So for people who bring 2 unbrellas, 4 rain ponchos and 4 rain jackets, we were woefully unprepared. As in we had none of that. But we did have the ability to stand in doorways until the rain subsided and lucky for us, it was off and on showers. After the tower, we stopped for pizza at a local cafe. While we were there a man came in to use the phone. He had just been pick pocketed, and needed to call the police. It added a little drama to the afternoon, and we were glad, for once, that it was not our drama! We were hoping to hit the beach too, but by the time we finished with the Leaning Tower, we were all exhausted and decided to head home.
On the train back to Florence we were in a compartment (the last one on the train) with a couple who had obviously just finished with a long bike ride. They were the serious riders, with the fancy pants and shirts. Their bikes were road bikes, and obviously not cheap. They put their bikes on the bike racks on the train, then went past the handicapped compartment and took a seat in our compartment. During the train ride a gypsy woman came by begging for change. She then hid in the handicapped bathroom. We knew she was there because she had not come back through our cabin yet and the handicapped bathroom door was locked. The next thing we know, as the train is stopped, the woman biker is screaming at the man, and running off of the train. He jumps up, runs off the train, then back on the train, grabs his bike and takes off riding in one direction while she goes running down the platform in the other direction. It turns out, her bike was stolen, and she just realized it at that stop. She thought someone took her bike and was trying to find them. While they are both running down the track searching, the train pulls away. A few stops later, Tim figured out what happened. The gypsy took the woman's bike and went into the handicapped bathroom with it to hide. The woman biker realized her bike was gone, she and the man got off of the train in search of it. The train then pulls away. At the next stop, the gypsy got off of the train with the bike and road in the opposite direction of the train, so no one on the train would see her leave with it. Pretty smart, and made us realize that, yet again, you should never be separated from your belongings and should always be on your guard.
Once back in Florence we had kababs again for dinner (what can we say, they are delicious!) did some laundry, made a facetime call to Zander and fell asleep. Tim and Michelle are convinced that the homesickness has been kept at bay because we are still able to see Zander each day through facetime. We can also get pictures and short videos of him from Tim's sister Susanne (thanks Q!).
What would we all do without modern technology! More updates to come on our most recent days, stay tuned!
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