Sounds totally fabulous. Jealous, jealous, jealous, me. :(

We are hanging out in D.C. for the weekend. We did the new Air and Space Museum out at Dulles this morning, and then caught a couple of new exhibits at the National Museum of American History, followed by dinner at Union Station, which included an emergency evacuation procedure. We still don't know what was going on, but it was interesting.

Wish we were there, ;) but we are just too slammed for a 4 day weekend. We could barely squeeze out a 2.5 day weekend.

Got back home this afternoon....hard to believe I woke up in Florence, Italy this morning. Where's that gelato & tiramizzu when I need it??!!
I soooooooooooooooooooo need to find a job in that town...I have truly fallen and fallen hard for that city and that area!
**A fantastic "arrival" dinner at an outdoor cafe' Thursday night
**A great hotel room with a view of the Duomo right outside my window, breakfast everyday on a terrace overlooking the city
**A friday morning historic walk around Florence (literally, we went everywhere!! If it's a major stop in florence, we went there), with an excellent guide (a double art history/architecture major, showing us florence!!),
**A very educational trek thru the Uffizi (led by an artist!), then another thru the Academia (David says "hi", by the way)
**Another outdoor cafe for dinner;
**A fantastic and never-to-be-forgotten cycle ride through the Tuscan countryside with spectacular views of Florence and a great lunch at a cool little mom & pop traterria w/ the BEST pasta & Chianti, then a ride over to a family vineyard, then it's feet-off-the-pedals for a refreshing coast downhill back into town
**An elegant rooftop reception at the Dedehans/Dorlee/Leonard palace, followed by that incredible dinner
**A relaxing breakfast visit with the crew over at "Chateu Dedehans" for
**Strolling the Pitti Palace & Boboli Gardens
**Hearing the Benedictine Monks do Gregorian Chant at the monastery above Piazza Michaelangelo
**A climb up the Duomo Campinelle for spectacular views of Firenze at Sunset, another outdoor cafe dinner (a la Radiocycles)....
**All with lots of stops for fresh cappucino's, gelato's, tiramizzou's, croisaants, deli sandwiches, etc.

And, I truly enjoyed the GREAT company of a fantastic group of flyertalkers!!!!

Please tell me we're doing this again next year!!! :D :D :D
I've got a lot of pictures of all this great scenery that shall be posted soon

As if we weren't already unbelievably jealous. :rolleyes:

I dream of Florence.

Sounds like a normal day to me in Florence. Glad you enjoyed, now I need to get myself there and soon!

Yes, indeed, before the throngs, masses, & multitudes of tourists get themselves there! If not soon, then sounds like an opportunity for a Firenze-knowledgable-FTer for a Firenze Do II to be planned :D :D



A HUGE thanks to Dedehans for all of her efforts in lining up the restaurants, the top-of-the-terrace reception, etc., and in keeping us all up to date on everything!

I agree! Thanks, dedehans. A great time was had by all. I just got home, a little tired, ha! a LOT tired.

I am home too, WAAAY tired.....

Our group was absolutely wonderful and our individual ways of absorbing all the wonders that Firenze offers made it even more special. We had wonderful experiences to share. I, who have been to Firenze many times, really delighted in listening to all of your thoughts and observations. Skye1, I just loved reading your previous post......

Biggest thanks must go to Aaron Kaupp and his staff at the Palazzo Magnani Feroni www.palazzomagnaniferoni.com for all his assistance in getting the 2 restaurants and putting on our reception on the rooftop on Saturday night....and to Stefano, the owner of 4 Leoni for the special attention the staff paid to us at our FT dinner......Hey, Radiocycle, was the "Happy Birthday" singing cool or what?

To those of you who should have been there, we missed you. To all of you who were there, love ya bunches!

Yes, that reception was wonderful!
Thanks for the website. It has a "contact us" link on it that I'll use to zap off a "thanks" to Mr. Kaupp.

My own Freddie? That would be a hoot! :D

A lot of folks asked me how I did this odyssey. I think they mean logistically, so here are a few details. It includes a lot of contingency planning.

My BOS trip was booked to return to TPA, and I had 9 hrs scheduled layover in TPA. So I booked a room @ TPA airport Marriott. There were 4 later flights sched from BOS - TPA, so I figured I had plenty of time. Well, there was bad weather in ATL (surprise, surprise!) so when I got to TPA only had 6 hrs, 3 of which I wasted sleeping.

I was more concerned about returning late from SIN and missing outbound for FCO, so I packed bags for all 3 trips. And if my return from SIN was late, I was going to stay in DTW and start FCO trip from there. I was afraid I would be forced to check my rollaboard and lose it on one of my trips, but the closest I came was on BOS outbound, the TSA said it was too big, but it fit fine in size-wise so off I went with my bag in tow!

I had been concerned about someone weighing my bag and forcing me to check it due to weight. So I bought a new rollaboard that was 6.5 pounds compared to 10 pounds for my old rollaboard. I planned to put my small heavy items in my backpack, and my pockets if necessary. I weighed the bag packed before I left, so I knew how much weight I had to play with in case they weighed my bag on return, but no one did.

I ended up on an earlier flight NRT-DTW, so I got home from SIN early and had 21 whole hours @ home. Wasted about 10 of them sleeping. Then had an uneventful trip to/from FCO and train to/from FLR.

Or maybe they wanted to know how I survived the trip physically. I have to admit, I took naps every day in SIN & FLR, but otherwise survived OK (I think).

This was all training for my new job, which involves a lot of domestic travel. Maybe I'll get burned out on work travel and want to cut back on my F/T Do's (and save a lot of $$$). Or maybe I'll be able to catch more domestic Do's. Stay tuned! I may be coming to an airport near you!

You looked alot better than you deserved to look, considering your odyssey, girl! Must have something to do with your sturdy constitution of being a Michigander... ;)
Hope you and KLC enjoyed the Uffizi on Sunday....

The Grace of Mrs. Radiocycle in high heels on cobblestone streets
 

A special Freddie should be created for the very elegant and graceful Mrs. Radiocycle (Eva) for her extreme skill of navigating the cobblestone streets of Firenze after dark in a delicate pair of high heeled pumps.........

We had a great time @ Uffizi, then took the tour bus around town.

I'm sure KLC will post soon with her adventure on return. She returned last nite, still waiting for her checked bag. :(

Photos
 

Here are the first of the photos from the do -

http://www.klcphotos.com/FTFirenze/

We had a wonderful time in Florence - thanks to Dedehans for handling all the arrangements!!

As MsEverywhere mentioned, I arrived home without my luggage. Long story, but basically the Alitalia rules put me in a Catch 22 leaving Florence. Hoping to see the bag sometime soon!

OK, have plans been made for Florence in 2006? I can't miss out again.

Count me in for 2006 too! Sounds like a great time.

Totally OT MsEverywhere, but what brand/size rollerboard did you buy?