I haven't driven in 6 weeks... yikes!

This morning the family and I left the beloved city of Venice.  Our next major city stop... Florence.  After our breakfast and checking out of the hotel, we headed to the vaporetta station.  Our mission was to get back to Marco Polo Airport, where we would pick up our rental car.  We arrived at Marco Polo to the Avis kiosk at 10am.  There was no line, so we were able to immediately get our car without any hassles.

Once we got the keys, we headed out to the parking lot to get the car.  The car was a silver 2011 Ford Kuga (pictures of car to come shortly).  It is a sporty little SUV.  Our first little mishap was trying to figure out how to put the car in reverse.  We were able to ask a guy working how to do it, and surprisingly he was Canadian not Italian.  Once we figured out how to put the car in reverse, we were able to head out into the open road.  My mom packed the GPS system with her belongings, so we could navigate through Italy.  Instead of renting a GPS system, we were able to purchase the Italy Garmin Maps through Garmin to help us out.  Our first stop of the day was Ravenna.  The family was a little worried since I had not driven in over 6 weeks.  I was able to pick up on a lot of Italian driving techniques, such as learning how to create a three lane road when there is only two.  I was able to give the family the full Italian driving experience.

An Italian Race Car Driver... look at me go!

I went to Ravenna last weekend with the Boccaccini's, so I was the tour guide for Ravenna today.  I took them to see Dante's Tomb, Piazza Popolo, San Vitale, and more.  It was really neat because I was able to show them where I would live if I moved to Italy.  After we left Ravenna, we drove to Florence.  We took the scenic route through the mountains.  The mountain drive took about 2 hours, and it was absolutely amazing!  I drove through the winding roads.  There were times where we wouldn't see civilization for miles, then all of a sudden you would find a little town hidden away.

The mountain drive

After about a two and a half hour drive, we got closer to Florence.  We were a little worried about driving through Florence because of Rick Steve's warning.  He warned that there were zones where you needed a special parking permit to drive.  Lucky for us, I contacted the Hotel Hermitage to get the directions.  When we got into the city of Florence, I got a little worried driving.  It was hard to read the road signs, so we were going off the GPS and the directions given by the hotel.  As we drove along the river in Florence, we headed towards the Ponte Vecchio.  We drove places where I thought cars weren't allowed to go, but guess what... we made it to the right place in the end.

We were able to follow the hotel directions pretty well.  We followed the directions up to the end where it put us in front of a little bar and eatery, which was the same street level as the hotel.  One problem... where was the hotel?  We couldn't find it.  I stayed with the car while I sent Charlie and Kathleen to look for the hotel.  They came back about 5 minutes later.  Their question was, "What's the name of the hotel?"  I was like really, you have been looking for a hotel not knowing the name.  As I began to say the name of the hotel, I ended up reading the name of the hotel off the building behind where they were standing.  Who would have thought that I ended up parking right in front of the hidden entrance of the hotel?

So we made it!  After getting settled into the hotel, we headed out to dinner.  We found a little trattoria that was absolutely delicious!  It was the best food we had throughout the whole trip so far.  After dinner we took a little walk across the Ponte Vecchio and along the river.  It is great to be in another city of Italia... Florence!

Charlie, Kathleen, Me on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence