A Bus Tour of Rural Tuscany for the Price of a Firenze Bus Ticket.

So we arrived in Firenze about 4 P.M. and tried (unsuccessfully) to find a decent map of the city to locate our hostel.

No decent map of the city being available, we got a rough idea of where we were headed and purchased 1 hour bus tickets to head for the street off which our hostel was located. We jumped on the bus heading our way (14) and tried to keep our eye out for the bus stop signs.

After nearly 15 minutes, we were starting to worry that we'd missed it, and 15 minutes later as we passed the "No More Firenze" Pictogram on the side of the road (city limit signs here are just the city name with a slash through it) we realized we were right. But once you're on a bus that makes a big loop, you might as well take it back to the station and try again. We realized just how much of a mistake we'd made when we found ourselves 10 miles further out, with beautiful vistas of the rural Tuscan landscape all around us!

When we finally made it back to the station, an hour after we'd left, we decided to acquire a better map, then try again. After trying all sorts of people including information desks and even the police office, we did acquire such a map, and sans tickets (there was no way, we realized, standing at the bus stop, to get ticketed on a night like this) we tried the bus system again.

The reason we weren't worried about ticketing was that approximately half the population of Firenze decided they desperately needed to ride the 14 that night, and the 14 simultaneously decided that this meant it should run only ever 45 minutes.

Standing at the stop, we discussed where we thought we were supposed to jump off the bus, and an incredibly nice young Italian girl named Mardi, who is studying and prepping her dissertation on an English author in a series of trips to London, offered to tell us when to get off, since she was taking the 14 as well. We thanked her profusely and joined her, and maybe 450 other lucky people, on the first bus that came by.

It was absolutely packed. Barely space to breath, and we, with our giant packs, felt like bison moving among a flock of annoyed ducks. Some of them were very kind, but even with their kindness at each additional stop, as more people pushed on, we found ourselves pushed towards the heart of the bus, and away from the exits. Finally worming our way out on Mardi's signal turned out to be a feat, but we managed!

After we jumped from the bus, we found ourselves free on the streets of Firenze and ready for food and rest. After getting moderately confused and finally consulting the index on our map ("what do you mean our map has an index?" were my exact words, after we'd wandered, lost, for a while, confused about our street name) we found our hostel, and after buzzing in at the ground floor, we headed up a flight of stairs for, we hoped, some good food and a quiet night of rest.

We had no idea what we were in for.