Day 2 in Florence, Italy. No formal miles walked, though we ran 4 miles and walked several tourist miles, visiting the Ponte Vecchio, and the Uffizzi Museum (unbelievable Renaissance art! ). Tomorrow, we’ll visit more museums (statue of David, etc.). Saturday, we take the train to Lucca where, on Monday, we start our walk to Rome!

Sophomore stumble?  What’s that? While we were cruising on our sailboat, the stories of shipwrecks would be heard a few times a season. Invariably, it was NOT the rookie sailor (Freshmen), nor the seasoned sailors (Seniors). Rather, it’s the sophomore class that gets into trouble!  They’ve had some success under sail and become a bit too cocky (hubris?). These guys are the ones who don’t double check the charts, the weather, local knowledge, etc. The result is, unfortunately, an unexpected grounding or a very rough ride … that could have been avoided if they were just a bit more cautious.

So, what’s that got to do with us? Remember that 2 paged list that we proudly showed in an earlier post? We should have read it better!

We arrived last night with about 40 € in our pockets, which is enough to get us to our hotel where we could search out an ATM to increase our cash kitty. Since several of the more remote locations we will visit on our walk are cash-based, having a supply of Euros is critical.

One more background note: On these trips, we don’t take our full wallets/purse. We use a money belt, instead, for security. Into the money belt we load ONLY what we need: 2 credit cards, a medical card, driver’s license, ATM card, passports and cash.

So, this morning it was time to get cash. And then I remembered; I forgot to pack my ATM card! Crud! Oh well, Diane has hers, right? Nope! We both forgot!

No ATM, but we have credit cards, right? We can get cash that way, right? Sort of. We never set up the cards for cash withdrawal … A call to Visa tells us that, with your passport and credit card you can go to any bank and they’ll give you a cash advance.  Not in Italy! We visited several banks and the answer was a consistent, No!

The last resort was the infamous money exchange booths! For only a 370 € charge, they will gladly give you 300 € 🤑! For those keeping score, that’s an instantaneous 23% interest charge! Ouch! Here’s that hard earned cash (and infamous money belt) :

Now to avoid that charge next time, we requested a Pin from Visa. Unfortunately, they only give new Pin’s by mail to the home address … in 7 to 10 days! We ordered one, nonetheless. Our most kind friend, Barb Raffee, has agreed to check our mail for this … every day until it arrives. She is a saint!

And we, we’re the called-out, cocky Sophomores who have been taught a proper lesson in preparation! There are always lessons to learn 🙄.

Chao!