Day Five Paris – Firenze

Another day of travel. Our morning began very early when the alarm clock went off at 5:30 to get us up and ready for the early morning train. We have gotten used to navigating the city and the Metro from the couple of times we have ridden it, so it wasn’t that much of a challenge to go across central Paris to our train station.

The path of the train ran us out of Paris and through the Alps, which are totally amazing. I can’t wait to come back and spend more time the small villages. We entered Italy via a tunnel that I believe goes under Mont Blanc and emerged just above the Winter Olympic Village above Torino.

I was quite nervous from the time we passed the Torino games gate until we finally pulled into the Torino station as I had been put in charge of a lovely older woman who didn’t speak French or Italian so I had to make sure she got off the train at the right stop. The station and the main village are a good distance from the mountains so I had been quite nervous about her somehow having missed the station. I started thinking about how we were going to help her find her way back to Torino from Milano. In my mind, I was ready to sacrifice one of my Eurali pass days to get her back. Of course in the end she made it to the correct station and off to waiting family.

As we crossed the border, the Italian police began to make their way through the train checking for passports, etc. For the first time I felt on the wrong side of a language barrier. I know very little Italian with no formal education in the language facts that were made all too obvious when they came through and I was hoping that they might speak French.

Upon arrival in Firenze, we set out to find our hostel. We had hoped to arrive the following day on the night train but, there were no seats available. So, we had to take the day train and it caused us to arrive into Firenze a day early. From first impression, Firenze seems nice but incredibly American. We encountered more people speaking English in the time between the train station, hostel and restaurant for dinner than we did the entire time in Paris. I don’t know if it is because the tourist season hasn’t really begun in Paris or if it has something to do with the idiotic French boycotts, but I was really surprised.

Not only that, we really tried to avoid the tourist parts of Paris and live with and like the Parisians. Our Paris hotel was fortunately in a very local part of town and we were able to avoid most tourists even though we were right near a train station. Here in Florence, the main tourist area is right by the train station and few visitors probably leave the area of the center of town with the Duomo, central market and like 98% of the Hotels. As we sat having dinner, there were street performances going on and the performers would come in asking for money. It was kind of nice but the whole thing had a Disneyland does Florence feel to it.

I am sometimes conflicted as a traveler. I want to see all the things that a city is known for but I want to do it as a “local” would do it. While it is fascinating to come to foreign cities and look at them as an attraction, I think it is even better to realize that people actually live in the cities. There are real people living their lives around those of us who are just guests in their city, in their homes. That is also what really frustrates me about tourists, including myself, who travel to a country with no working knowledge of the language. Each time we interacted with an Italian, I wanted to begin by apologizing for my very broken Italian and promise to learn more and study my phrase book. I don’t want to be the type of tourist that expects the world to bend to my ways and my home culture.

This is also the reason that will not go to a McDonalds or any other American restaurant chain while traveling in Europe. I hate to get on a soapbox, but I refuse to contribute to the idea that all the world should be the same. The few times we have gone to a market I have tried my best to not buy brands that I know. I try the local brand, which I know is often nothing more than a façade for an American name brand, and try something new. I want to travel for the differences not similarities. It has been sad to see, particularly here in Florence, the lack of differences.

The Europe I remember visiting as a child was totally different than the Europe I find myself in today. My last visit took me to Hungary a nation behind the Iron Curtain of communism. I remember to this day crossing the giant fence and the guard towers as we crossed the border into Hungary. I know that this is the Europe of the past but things were different there, not just like a ride in Disneyland. I know I am preaching to the choir, or at least I hope I am, but if you take vacations with big package tours, do the best you can to escape and see the places you visit for what they are, and try to experience them as the people who live there do.

That is all for today, Ciao.