The Museum and The Gelato Stop

Saturday, September 12, 2105

We had a casual morning where each couple did their own thing. Can you guess what that was for each couple?

              Tim & Chris:                     Off to the laundry to clean clothes for the cruise

              Chan & Michele:             Off to do more shopping

              Steve & Debbie:              Visit the Galileo Museum

Sounds about right, doesn’t it? There are two noteworthy comments here.

1)      Tim sweet talked a girl at the nearby laundromat into doing his laundry for the second leg of the trip. The whole scenario brought back memories of Tim’s Notre Dame days.

2)      About the Galileo Museum. Steve and Debbie got to the entrance (there was no crowd for one) and found that the entry fee was 8€ per person. WE didn’t have much time and Debbie was suggesting that I go in and get my science fix while she waited outside. Steve didn’t like the idea and there were no benches or any place for Debbie to sit. At that very moment a women was going into the museum and asked if she could help up. We said we were debating whether both of us should go in or not. She said, “You should go in. It is well worth it.” We explained about Debbie’s visual impairment and not wanting to waste 8€, blah, blah, blah. The women, Karen, said, “Well since she is visually impaired, she gets in free and you, Steve, get in free as her escort!” It turns out that this women 9who was American) was one of the curators of the museum. She told the people at the front desk about the situation, and the next thing you know, Debbie and I are getting our own private tour of the Galileo Museum. There was lots of cool stuff inside for die-hard math-types, including the actual telescopes Galileo used to spot the moons of Jupiter and provide visual evidence that the earth is not the center of the solar system (which was heresy back in those days).

Anyway, it was our day to drive from Florence to the port where our cruise started. This was Civitivecchi, just about 40 miles north of Rome. When we met our driven, he immediately stated, “No Inglesé.” Steve sat in the front seat this time, and we were on a mission to get the best gelato in all of Florence, which we knew was on the way we had to go. Steve was able to communicate that we wanted to stop just over the bridge at the gelato shop. With some gestures and spelling and careful pointing, our driver got it! We got over the bridge and across the busy street, and in true Italian fashion he just stopped the van right on the street corner. We piled out, got our gelato (it was very good), and got on our way. Later on the 3 hour drive, Steve was able to gesticulate “toilettes” at which point our driver understood and said “peet-a stop-a.” We all said, “Si!”

We arrived at Civitavecchia and boarded the ship without incidence.