Now that we are in our new apartment, we've been to IKEA three times in the last three weeks. Once, before we moved in, Simone drove us there and we bought some things that we knew we needed. And this week, we've been twice: Monday and today. Simone wanted to join us both times, but was too busy fixing his place up.
I called the taxi company Monday morning to make sure that I could call them to have someone pick us up at IKEA and drive us back to Florence afterwards. The IKEA is out in Osmannoro, which is near the airport. When I called and asked for a station wagon grande, I kept my fingers crossed that we could fit everything in it. We had two square boxes, a few flat boxes, and at least four bags filled to the rim. Luckily we fit everything in the taxi and didn't have to call another one.
After we got home on Monday, I realized that I picked out the wrong poltrone (chairs). I saw a stack of boxes and didn't realize that one side was one color and the other side was the other color. I knew better, but somehow just forgot. After being at IKEA for over three hours already, I was exhausted with the crowds of people and the overwhelming selection of items.
We were going to go back this morning with Simone because he really wants to go back to IKEA, but last night I realized that the boxes wouldn't fit in Simone's car. I was a little happy about that because Simone wanted to go as soon as IKEA opened and I was already tired from getting up early for other appointments this week.
We called a taxi this morning to come and pick us up to take us to IKEA. The fare wasn't too bad, about 15 Euros. When we went on Monday from the taxi station in Piazza San Marco, the fare was a little lower.
We arrived and I went to the counter to return my two chairs. The last time I returned something, they gave me a buono (voucher). But because I forgot to bring my five 10 Euro coupons from IKEA, I wanted my credit card to be reimbursed instead so I could use my coupons for today's purchase.
The guy asked me if I wanted a buono and I told him that I wanted the money put back on my card. "Hai aperto questa scattola e non posso farlo. Ti posso rendere la metà in contanti e l'altra metà su un buono. Ti va bene?" (You opened the box and I can't do that. I can give you back half in cash and the other half on a voucher. Does that work for you?"
I agreed after he told me that "il buono non scade mai." (the voucher never expires). My coupons were expiring in a week and I really wanted to use them up.
Afterwards, I met up with Dave who already had the two poltrone on a carrello (cart). There was hardly anyone in line.
?When it was our turn, I handed the woman my five coupons and then handed her the buono. "Mi dovevi dare il buono prima, signora." (You were supposed to give me the voucher first, ma'am.), the woman said to me, shaking her head. "Mi dispiace, ma non lo sapevo mica." (I'm sorry, but I didn't know), I said to her without smiling to hide my guilt.
She tried to call someone and they said that there wasn't anything that she could do because the coupons are seen as cash. I told her I was sorry again, but I didn't want to be too nice because I didn't want to pay out of pocket when I had enough on the buono and with my coupons.
She finalized the sale and then redid it all for me. "La prossima volta, devi dare prima il buono," (Next time, you must first give the voucher), she said to me as I was leaving.
I didn't want to tell her that if I gave her the buono first, she would have taken all of the money off of that first and then I wouldn't have been able to use my five coupons. "Buona giornata, signora," (Have a nice day, ma'am), I said as I left.
We went outside and called a taxi, which came rather quickly. The man said it would be ten minutes, but it was more like two.
We paid almost 25 Euros for our trip back and the tassista (taxi driver) just plopped the boxes onto the sidewalk and drove off. He didn't help us like the last tassista we had on Monday. When I asked him if he could help us take our purchases up to our portone (front door), he said, "Ma che scherzi..." (a Florentine expression that means "of course").
After we got home, we quickly assembled our two poltrone. It's so satisfying to get something home, put it together without a hitch, and see that it fits perfectly into the place we planned for it. We sat in our poltrone and couldn't believe that we made it to IKEA and back in an hour and a half! Now that I found out that there's a free navetta (shuttle) from the Florence stazione (train station), we might go back to buy a few more items, but maybe not until after Christmas.
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