Arrival in Florence

So, we are here, finally! After a 24 hour trip. We left my parents house at 11:00 am EDT, October 30th and arrived in Florence at 11:00 am EDT, October 31st. The kids did great! Our last flight was from Madrid to Florence and a very cute elderly couple from Spain said they were the best behaved kids in all of Europe! Ok, so I dont believe them, but they were really very good. We never had a moment to spare in any of our connecting flights. When we got to JFK, after going through immigration and customs we went directly to check in for our next flight, stopped at a book store to buy a new Mitch Albom book, and then went to our gate. We had time to eat some pizza and then on to Madrid. We mostly slept on that flight, except Guy, then got into Madrid, went through immigration and customs, took a bus to our terminal and then had to pay more for our excess in luggage. In Meridiana, since its a "local" flight, only in europe, you are only allowed 20 kilo (50 lbs) per person, we had 8 pieces of luggage which were all weighing close to 50 lbs each. A task my husband took on, so that we WOULDNT have to pay. So it turns out we were 87 Kilos over and we had to pay 12 euro per kilo. You do the math! Once we made it through the gate we had time to go to the bathroom and then on to our plane. Our arrival in Florence was pretty quick, small airport, but very efficient. Getting into the Palazzo was pretty surreal, its a beautiful place, a mix of old with new. Beautiful furniture, amazing floors and ceilings. Our apartment is called "Cellini", its a two bedroom, two and a half bath, with a big terrace, from where you can catch a glimpse of the Duomo and the Campanile. I will post pictures of it all! Anyway, got to go, I will keep on writing as we go. Need to tell you about the first dinner! WOW!