Travel Brisbane to Florence

There are many routes from Brisbane to Europe and almost all the services are excellent. It’s usually difficult to choose from the selection of airlines for the main route from Brisbane to London as there are so many airlines flying that way. There are fewer airlines that have a one stop service to Milan which is the airport I chose for my trip to Florence.

I chose Eitihad and was very happy with the service and the flight in a nice Boeing 777 despite constant slight turbulence all the way. Alas, my journey  on this day, had an additional stop in Singapore.

But I hate flying on planes not just because of the turbulence but because of the engine noise. Credit to Etihad, they supply earplugs on their 777 flights. So I was sitting in the tail with earplugs covered with headphones bumping all the way to Singapore and then on to Abu Dhabi.

On the way, I heard THE most romantic “real life” story involving Sainsbury’s I have EVER heard. After meeting – in Sainsbury’s – many years ago, the couple – one an Oxford Don and the other a surfing Australian lawyer – recently encountered one another again on Facebook. Unfortunately I have heard that the lawyer has since gone back to being a ‘beach bum’ but the Oxford Don has become the world expert on one of the greatest authors of all time. It’s very sad.

I was also was called “sexy” by the most engaging 24 year old I have ever met in Abu Dhabi.

Thank goodness we had an airbus on to Milan and I had a seat in front of the wing. An amazing view of the Alps as we descended into Milan airport. A good quiet flight and smooth because our route through Iran enabled us to escape from the turbulence over the Gulf. (Again flying over all those beautiful Persian cities reminded me of a wonderful time of my life forty years ago – my goodness … forty years!!)

I’ve never had a dog turn its nose up at me – even made its handler ask me where I had come from! I think the reason was because, in the absence of any deodorent because of the regulations, I had sprayed myself with so much ‘eau de Etihad’ that I smelt like an airbus loo.

EU passport holders get through customs very quickly in Milan so we were soon on the Eurostar to Firenze – not as smooth as the Etihad airbus but certainly more spacious.

A short discussion on ‘Anti-Epic in James Joyce’ with a Comparative Literature scholar from Siena University and we were in Firenze with our scholar catching the express bus to Siena.

That beautiful door on the Baptistry!! That amazing market!! Walking those narrow streets with those old paving stones(rocks!). It’s mad March!! Crazy weather!! . We even saw snow on our walk.

We bought far too much. The food here is SO good. There are still tourists around even in this cold weather. Thousands of small motorbikes line the streets throughout the city and almost all the cars are small. Smartcars seem more popular here than in Australia and we even came across a some small electric cars. The ‘Jamie’ type of bike now seems more popular than the old type of motor scooter and they seem to come in all sizes. But they are still just as noisey and just as Italian as they have always been!!