Well the last two days have been absolutely Italian and wonderful.
So yesterday we arrived in Florence pretty early in the afternoon. We had time to store our luggage (out in the open mind you, which was a little nerve wracking) and grab a sandwich before a walking tour. We saw the three main squares (including the famous churches, Duomo, the political area, and the bridge). It was a really nice day out and I’ve already seen most of the sights of Florence, but our tour guide was good. Afterwards I got gelato (and found my new favorite flavor, pistachio) and met up with Ryu!
As a group we went to a leather store and learned a little about it’s quality and how it was produced. I bought a nice black wallet too! Ryu and I continued to walk around the city and buy souvenirs before we went back to his very quaint Italian apartment. I met hit roommates and one of them, Leon, came to dinner with us at an Italian Restaurant. It was delicious, and right across the street I saw a sign for Strongbow and Bulmers (at an Irish pub mind you) so we went there afterwards. We decided to meander through the city some more and got gelato at Grom (one of the best places according to Julia, and it really was!!!) Also yes, I did have it twice in one day! I was getting tired, so the boys walked me back to my hotel, which was really nice and fell dead asleep.
The next morning Lindsey and I woke up fairly early to go to a Western Union so she could get more cash. It ended up being another huge fiasco because her middle name wasn’t written on it, so nowhere would give us the money. Eventually we decided to go to the market anyway and I told her I’d pay for her. We had a ball in the market! We haggled and everything! I got a bracelet, another suitcase, and a gift, and she got a purse and scarves. We decided by this point that we had spent enough money, so we were walking back to the hotel when we passed Massimo’s Leather! (Julia told me this guy was wonderful, but I couldn’t find it the day before). Well, he was great! And soooo nice! And he was giving us all sorts of deals, so I ended up buying a super cute red leather purse (originally 90 euro, got it for 50!) I was mad I had already bought the wallet because he sold them for 30 and I bought my (last year’s style) wallet for 55. He was just super nice and gave us hugs and asked us about our lives and everything.
Then it was back to the bus for a SUPER long ride to Rome! And then a funny thing happened. Last year (about this same time) I was here with my grandparents and we were coming back from Florence to Rome by car and we got a flat tire and had a whole car fiasco. So what happened today on that same highway? Saverio’s bus starts making noises and we have to stop 3 times (we now have a new bus and a new driver, which is sad because we all loved him). But seriously? What is it with me and traveling!
Get to Rome, check in to a less than desirable hotel (it’s all these dark colors that don’t match) and take a shower. Well the shower overflows, and the whole bathroom is an inch deep in water, and they tell us they can’t fix it till tomorrow, so we have a mini pool!
We headed on a train and subway to get into the city for dinner and went to eat with Kelci and Ashley (which was really fun!). We ended up sitting next to this woman from San Francesco named Jane that talked to us for about 30 minutes about her life. I have never met such a character!!! I will try to sum up the highlights of our convo. She was celebrating her 70th birthday, we said “oh you look so young” she said “well I better with all this plastic surgery!” She is a tour guide and has a house in Mexico and butt loads of money. She’s been to Hong Kong 72 times. So then she begins saying things like “follow your passion” “stay single, you don’t need men, I’m on my second divorce. I got drunk and got the first one to knock me up, marry me, and then divorced him, and the second one was one of my high school students who had a lot of money.” She also said such things as “If you have sex with a man, you can get whatever you want from them” I could keep going on because she was just so entertaining, but I think you get the drift! So anyways we headed back to the hotel before the train stopped running with some of the boys.
Basically Rome has people everywhere and so many street vendors that try to sell you stuff, but also a lot of Americans (much like Florence) which makes it super easy to get around. When in Rome, do as the Romans do! Getting my history fix tomorrow!
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