september 21

maureen reportng.we went to the uffizi museum this am.this whole place is an emotional rollercoaster of such beauty i cannot even find the words to descrbe it.after the museum we walked across the ponte vecchio and up a hill where we had lunch near the poggio.great deli sandwiches ,a great variety of italian cookies and a nice chianti in plastic cups.we ate overlooking the city.we then explored the side streets of florence.in the late afternoon we took the local bus to the small city of fiersole.WOW, the panoramic view was surreal.while we were waiting for the bus to go there an older italian woman sat by judy and I and chatted away to us in Italian.She was sweet and very animated and she didn't seem to mind the language barrier.on or return trip from fiersole to florence a mean bus conductor yelled at judy and i.we did not realize that we had to machine stamp our transfers.all i did was tell him that we showed the bus driver our passes and that set him off.do you understand english? he kept asking...i guess he deemed me the friggin village idiot because he then got right in judy's face asking do you understand english.....he was a mean mean man...two old italian ladies that were sitting down then grabbed judy and pulled her up into a seat...they had a more difficult time hoisting me up and a little old man had to help push me up into the seat...they all gave judy and i looks of sympathy.we had a wonderful dinner at la giostra restaurant this evening.complementary champagne along with a fantastic appetizer plate that included duck pate.it was the best meal i have had in a long time. ciao