Our Pharmacy comes through again!

Today was a day to do our errands and jobs. "What jobs?" you might be asking yourselves! Well, first of all we needed to do laundry. We do have a washing machine here, but no dryer. So we washed two loads of clothes (2 hours per load) and then we put them in these plastic bags we have and carry them nearly a mile to the Laundrette where we use their dryers.

Job two: go to an Internet point so that we can print out some documents. Of course we have our laptop here and a wonderful wireless connection (that we're NOT stealing, by the way!), but we have no way to print. We received our cruise documents by email and have to print them to check in.

Three: To Mail Boxes Etc. to send a package off before we leave Florence on Saturday.

Four. Go find a medical lab to get my blood checked. Our wonderful pharmacy here, told us about a lab over by the train station. We found their website and MapQuested it, and took off on a hunt. We found it pretty easily and were totally blown away by this place. Now I have seen the insides of many a lab and let me tell you, far and away, this was the best I ever seen!

This place was like a hotel. You are greeted at the door by a concierge. We asked to speak
English and she introduced us to another concierge who specialized in English. We told her that I needed my INR test for my blood. She knew exactly what I needed and asked if we wanted to do it today or come back later? Right now would be preferable, I said and she called someone and then said that will not be a problem. The concierges were dressed in very professional looking, matching suits. She took us over to the cashier windows where there were about five professional looking cashiers waiting to help (all dressed in suits). The filled out some computer screens, asked me if I would like the results emailed to me (sure!) and asked for 10 euros for the test. Gee whiz--I pay more than that just for my co-payments at home! (By the way--all of this without even showing them a prescription for the test)

Next the concierge took us upstairs to the lab and gave me the form to give to the lab. Their automated system had already assigned me a number in line and it had already sent this automated dispenser, the type of test I was having, and it plopped out the type of tubes needed for the test--already labeled with my name and number. The technicians were wearing normal white lab coats and the whole process was handled very efficiently. While we were there we even noticed the cleaning staff came through the office emptying trash cans and even they were wearing a color coordinated coat that looked kind of like bell hop!

Anyway, it was a very interesting experience and by the time we had walked home (stopping for a sandwich) my email was already there with my results. I was totally impressed with this place!

We're planning on bussing to some "hill top towns" tomorrow and so we should have some stories and pictures for you then. Print this post