We totally made the right decision!  Its cold and windy outside, but the sun is shining brilliantly and not a rain drop in sight.  Phew.  Big sigh of relief!

After breakfast, we head down to the theater to wait for the tour to be called. We aren’t pulling the Haven card and having the concierge take us down because we know the drill on how to get in the front of the line.  So we have to sit in the theater and wait? It is either there or up in the Haven lounge, and we’re just not confident that will buy us any time.

Today though, for some reason, the ShoreX procedure is really discombobulated.  The tours are being called really slowly, ours ends up being 30 minutes later than the meeting time.  Don’t know what’s up with that, but we still manage to get out to the bus first and snag the seats right behind the guide.  And then we wait.  And wait. And wait some more.  Oh, the people!  Waddling out to the bus, can’t even get up the steps to the bus.  And some couple, man dressed in shorts, woman with a cane who can barely walk get on the bus last, and then can’t make it down the aisle to the remaining seats – which of course are all the way in the back.  Sigh. 

In the end the ask if they can sit in the guide’s seat – which he lets them, and now he has to squeeze in with the photographer.  But, to their credit, they do thank him for letting them sit there, knowing it is causing him if not a problem, at least inconvenience.

And finally, we are off on our hour and a half drive to Florence.  The guide – Sharif (yes, named after Omar Sharif) is adorable.  He gives us lots of interesting info as we make our way up the autostrada toward Florence.  The photographer hands out the selfie sticks – yes, this tour is called let’s take a selfie in Florence and Pisa – and yes, we are totally embarrassed to be taking a “selfie” tour – and no we don’t plan to use the stick for much besides a weapon – but hey, it gets us off the ship to places we haven’t been for a while and it was one of the cheapest tours available.  We pair up our remote shutter to the camera and are ready to go in a jiffy.

Once at the bus park (which I remember vividly from the first time we visited Florence as it is about ½ a mile from the city itself), we pile out of the bus and start our long slow trek toward the Duomo square.  I’ve been telling Ed half these people will not make it into Florence from that parking lot, and I’m just about proven correct.  I mean, we have a lot of mobility challenged people on this tour.  I’m guessing they didn’t read the description or do any research as to how much walking this would be.  And maybe I’m being a little harsh, because we do know the area and knew exactly what to expect form being here before.  But still. Sadly, people wait way too long to travel – or just don’t really understand their limitations. 

We finally make it to the square, and oh my God!  The people!  It is jam packed with people.  You could barely take a selfie if you wanted to – although the stick does make a good weapon!  LOL.  We’ve been so spoiled with the lack of people everywhere we have been so far, this is a huge shock to the system.  You can barely take a picture, let alone a selfie.  Sharif has given us 20 minutes to roam before herding us to the restaurant for a snack (yay! This was not mentioned in the description, so we are thrilled; I had actually brought a couple of apples and some bread with us just in case we didn’t have time for food – on a 7 hour tour, we’d need some little snack) and we use our time as wisely as possible, getting away from the bulk of the crowds to try to snap some photos of the Duomo and bell tower. 

Crowds or not, this is still one of the most gorgeous buildings in the world.  The marble, the art, the statuary, everything is exquisite.  If it weren’t for a) the freezing wind and b) the people, we could stand here all day just gazing at the façade, finding different features and views to examine. 

And yes, we take an obligatory selfie.  But honestly, the stick is very valuable to get the camera above the crowds.  I love it for that reason alone.  I can just stick the thing up there and eliminate all the people and particularly the heads of people in my way.  May have to reconsider this thing……hmmm….

We’re back, standing in the sun, long before our 20 minutes are up, and ready to follow Sharif around the corner (the first tour bus guide left some of her mobility challenged passengers there already – that’s how I know where it is) to Buca Niccolini, a little restaurant near the Duomo.

We get the scoop on bathrooms from Sharif, and Ed pops in the upstairs room while I follow everyone downstairs to save seats.  We have a lovely snack (and it is what the Italians eat as their snack between breakfast and lunch) of mortadella sandwich on this special bread (forgot the name) along with a really nice chianti wine.  And for me to say it is a really nice wine, you know it must be good, because as everyone knows, I don’t like reds at all.

While a nice little break, we can’t wait to get out of there.  First of all, we are all slammed in together, and of course we are eating, so no masks.  Of course, people are stretching it out so they don’t have to put them back on. The people who sit across from us plop down and immediately say, oh thank heavens, I couldn’t breathe with that mask on. Oh, come on.  They are from…you guessed it…Florida.  The woman asks us if we are going to Miami -to which we say, well, yes, we are on the ship with you, so of course we are. Duh.  (Although we’ve been told people are getting off in Lisbon, that remains to be seen.) They are also shocked that we need to have more PCR testing done while on the ship.  And then start talking about when we won’t have to wear our masks on the ship any longer, saying “It’s the Captain’s discretion.”  Yeah, it is, but since the NCL Breakaway (our ship’s duplicate sister ship) just sailed into port with 17 COVID cases, we’d be a little surprised if the mask rule was lifted.  But who knows?  That all remains to be seen.

At any rate, we aren’t going to sit around and debate their idiocy, so we excuse ourselves and head outside for more pictures and to wait in the fresh air for the continuation of our tour. 

As we are there, a taxi pulls up and takes one of the other bus passengers back to the bus – apparently they couldn’t walk any further.  One down, however many more to go.  The group finally coalesces around Sharif and we head off to Uffici square to view the David statue, with more free time that we use to walk around the block, perusing things at the little market stalls and remembering our first time in Florence where had the most expensive cappuccino ever -8 Euros each.  Found the restaurant right on the square where we remember.

Then it is off to view the Ponte Vecchio – not go there, but just get a view…

…then the “death” march to the bus.  Sharif says it is ½ a mile, but we’re thinking it is closer to a mile.  Or more.  It is really, really far – not for us, but for this crowd, ay yi yi.  Shorts man has asked Sharif to arrange a taxi for his wife, and now 3 others need a ride as well.  Sharif shows us where the bus is located, and we’re off.  We don’t need to lollygag with the rest of the waddlers. About 6 of us head out at the front of the pack and make it back to the bus with lots of time to spare. Fortunately we were smart and brought water bottles with our names on them to leave in our seats (our bus seat run in in Costa Rica with the idiots who we call Viillagers remains firmly in our mind).  And rightly so – the lovely couple who sat across from us at lunch grab seats next to us- which aren’t theirs.  He even tells her he had to run to get them.

When the lady who was occupying that row of seats gets on the bus, she looks perplexed and asks why they are sitting there.  He explains they were in the back and wanted to be up front.  So this works out well.  She replies, for you it does!  OMG.  Fortunately the lady behind us is by herself as well and offers this lady a seat.  We then get into a big discussion with them about seat “robbers” and how it is so impolite, and in the future always bring a water bottle or something that you can leave on your seat.

Bus protocol.  Nobody gets it.

With that we head for our last stop in Florence, up the hill to the viewpoint where we can see all the city stretched out below us.  20 minutes here and we are back on the bus, heading toward Pisa.  And apparently our little chit chat with the ladies about people “stealing” seats on tour buses has made an impact.  The interlopers are back in the back, and our lady friend has her original seat back. Some things work out well!

The ride to Pisa is easy, but here again, the walk into town is not.  Another taxi is arranged for our mobility challenged guests and the rest of us follow Sharif to the gates of the historical city.  We have 40 minutes here, which is great.  There is enough time for photos and a beverage stop! We figure it will be expensive – it’s Pisa – but what the heck.  We find a table right across from the tower and settle in for a nice wine and beer – plus little drink snacks.  And bonus – the cost is reasonable!  So we relax and people watch as we sip our drinks, finally leaving the cozy little table to join the waddlers back at the gate for our ride home.

Even though it was a selfie tour – it actually was a nice day and a good way for us to get out and do something at least since the Italian government is being so bizarre with it’s cruise ship passenger rules. 

Tomorrow – France!