F*#@ING Florence

The heading says it all. But please, read on:) Sarah and I arrived in Florence, a short trip from Venice on a comfortable train. We stepped off and were immediately bathed in sunshine. We had booked a room here during our stay in Venice; it was a little out of budget, but it looked like a castle. 15 foot ceilings with murals, a moonlit swimming pool, wifi and breakfast,this place had it all. Not to mention, the walk there was nothing short of breathtaking as "le duomo" was the main landmark that beaconed us to our new home. As we rounded the beautiful domed church and began up the marble staircase we recognized from our booking online, we both bubbled with excitement as we stepped up to the reception desk of our new home. THIS IS WHERE THE TABLES TURNED! As it turns out,the confirmation letter we received was shortly followed by a cancellation notice! (we never knew of the cancellation as we do not regularly check our mail due Our limited wifi access. As it so happens, we arrived on Florence during a five day long weekend and it seems we are competing with every family in Italy for a hotel room. Our hotel could only accommodate us for the night. Not the three we had originally booked. Our hotels wifi did not work,and we needed to try and find new solutions to our impending homelessness, and fast. We pretended to be guests at a different hotel and sat on their couch for the next five hours trying to piece together our next few day. We did manage to book another room in florence, but when we called to confirm it we soon learned it wasnt available either. Rooms had booked up fastel than the hotels could update or keep track of. It was hopeless. Florence was booked solid. Cinque Tera was booked solid. I picked up a cardboardbox and practiced sleeping in it, Sarah did not laugh. We considered going to Greece early but all the travel to come back just seemed silly. Well, without going too far off track we figured we could find a room in Pisa, and we did. Pisa here we come, Stay tuned, Pat and Sarah