Travel in Europe: A Few Notes on Trains & Hotels (also, our arrival in Florence - March 7, cont'd)

We watched the sun set and the Italian countryside fly by from a First Class Tren Italia car on the trip from Naples to Florence.  After just 2 inter-city train trips (Rome --> Naples and Naples --> Florence), we were completely sold on train travel in Europe.  If you're planning a trip around Europe, we strongly recommend a Eurail Pass (http://www.eurail.com/home).  There are a variety of options at many different price points, so check out the website and see what fits your trip. 

A side note to our American readers: If you're planning a car-free Europe trip (this is very feasible, so don't be scared to do it), remember that the train will, most often, bring you straight into the center of the city.  For most of our European trip, we would take a high speed inter-city train, leave the station, and walk less than a mile to our hotel or hostel.  In contrast, airports are often banished out into the suburbs and reachable only by cab or public-transportation tango.

Do be aware that, as trains replace airplanes for much inter-city travel, individual ticket prices are typically in the high-double to low-triple digits.  Keep in mind, though, that you won't be paying extra baggage fees or hefty taxi fairs.  For shorter trips, you will also save time, since there is no check-in, security screening, or lengthy boarding line.  Of course, a Eurail Pass will help reduce the cost, if you use it to its maximum. Just bear in mind that many of your intercity trips will require reservations, which themselves carry a small fee, anywhere from 3 - 20 euros per ticket, depending on the country.  

 

The Eurail Pass is accept by *most* national train services in Europe, but bear in mind that each of these is separately owned an operated, and thus has its own regulations, reservation policies, and fees.  Despite the lack of continuity, we had few problems with our pass.  Typically, when we arrived in a new city (disembarking at the central train station, of course!), we would immediately find the ticketing office and make reservations for our departure.  Rather, Kee-Min would go make the reservations, while I watched our bags.  Standing in lines with full hiking backpacks can be dangerous...for the people behind you.  We tried to keep everyone safe, by keeping the backpacks out of lines - and turning around veeeeeeery slowly the rest of the time! 

 

Practice makes perfect, and by the end of the trip, we had our system streamlined: Exit train - find ticket office - make reservation/watch bags - find Tourist Info Center - obtain map - exit station. 

In short, we are train-traveling converts.  Consider this: Our train pulled into the Stazione di Santa Maria Novella (the main train station in Florence) around 9 PM.  We walked this route to Hotel Scoti:

Train station to Hotel Scoti: less than half a mile...

The Hotel Scoti was a great find for our Florence visit.  The hotel itself is on the upper floors of an old apartment building-turned-office-building-partially-turned-hotel.  As is common for the smaller hotels in Italy, the building itself is not a dedicated hotel, but rather shared by the hotel, an attorney's office, and possibly a third professional office (I can't quite remember).  This seemed a little weird to me at first, but I quickly got used to it (and promptly forgot, until this very moment, that such a set up is quite rare in the US).  The other offices/businesses never caused us any problem - and frankly, always looked deserted at the times we were coming and going.

The Hotel Scoti is located along a very upscale shopping street in the center of Florence.  Just standing on the street, pulling open the enormous wooden doors to the fancy marble-fronted building made me feel almost famous. Or rich.  I mean, seriously  - this was my first stay in a hotel located "Just after the second Prada boutique."  Indeed...  

Our room was small and simple, but more than sufficient: comfy bed + clean bathroom.  There were common rooms with places to eat, relax, and watch TV.  We got a great deal on the room (off season) and were 100% happy with our stay.  However, I should note that if you are looking for a luxury experience (sky high marshmallow mattress, stark white bedding, big room with break-taking view, every amenity, etc.), this isn't the place for you.  But it is a comfortable room in an upscale area, and no more than a mile or two from nearly everything Florence has to offer.  Our only mode of transportation in Florence was our feet.  Doreen, the owner, is an Australian transplant who moved to Italy and opened the hotel.  Although language was seldom a problem at hotel reception desks, we enjoyed chatting with a native English speaker for a few minutes.  She asked about our trip and our plans for Florence, offering suggestions and assistance, should we need anything.

What we needed at that moment was a snack, and a sleep.  Kee-Min had already scoped out a dinner spot, less than two blocks from the hotel: the Obika mozzarella bar. You can check out their website for now, but be sure to come back tomorrow for a quick review of what we enjoyed there!