Flo Rence

We made it to Florence! We've been here since Friday and although we miss the unique water-city that was Venice, we are happy to see taxis with wheels.

The day after we went on the bike adventure on Lido, we behaved as true Venicians. We climbed to the top of the San Marcos church (yes, we average 300+ stairs a day) and had a great view of the city. We then saw the bell tower that we "had to climb", so we got some water bottles to prepare for our journey, and then found out there was an ELEVATOR!!! This made my day. After a short trip to the top, we got yet another amazing view of the city. We were then treated with a front row seat to the ringing of the noon bells. Let's talk about loud.

After a slight hearing loss, we fed the pigeons in San Marcos Square, which is the only place to legally feed birds in Venice without a 517€ fine. Angie was not so keen on the idea, but was very brave and gave the birds a piece of bread while they were literally all over Rebecca and me. They figured out we were getting the pieces of bread from a bag, so they started going after the bag. They sat on our heads for no apparent reason, and liked to hang out on our arms even when we had no more food. This was quite funny and I recommend watching the video on Rebecca's blog of it.

After that, we had some lunch. I got a little adventurous again and ordered something I'd seen on every menu in Italy so far: french fry pizza. Best decision ever. We were then fueled up for our next strenous task, a gondola ride. It was a little expensive, but totally worth it because you get to see the city from a totally different view point...AND you look cool. We chilled at the hotel for a bit (literally chilled because it was fire hot outside), got some dinner, and finished our chill evening with a drink by the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. We did get to test out some of the games Angie made up for the kids she'll be working with on the mission trip, so it wasn't a totally chill night.

The next morning, Angie left us for Prague :( But, she informed us that she got a Czech me out! shirt too, so we'll all be modeling them the next time we're together. Our trip on the train from Venice to Florence was once again eventful. A train to Florence left Venice every hour, so we hopped on one, thought we were in heaven when we sat down with 2 seats for each of us in an air conditioned car, and got comfy for the 3 hr ride. We then were told to leave our seats because we didn't make reservations (which are apparently required haha woops). So we hung out in the dining car with some Canadians (woo Steph!) our age and played Uno. I won 2 games, Rebecca won zero. Woot! Haha jk.

We caught a cab to the hotel, lugged our over stuffed bags up the 40 steps to the hotel (which is more of a boarding house), and relaxed. Apparently our room is the only one with AC, so praise the Lord on that one. However, we do have the loudest bed ever and the craziest shower ever. The shower has 2 doors that don't really close, and it's on the same level as the floor, so the whole bathroom gets flooded whenever you shower. It's pretty funny, and challenging, but mostly funny.

Since we've been here, we've enjoyed gelato every day (duh), some fabulous meals, and interesting street shopping. I'll try to get a picture/video of this, but there are lots of illegal street vendors who sell strange things like dancing pieces of paper that are folded to look like cartoon characters. The way they dance is they are secretly attached to a boom box and the vendor by string (that you can't see), so they try to convince you that they are magic dancing paper things. Hilarious.

Yesterday, we got lunch from a big market. They sell all kinds of meat (including cow faces...seriously), cheese, fruits, and veggies. So we walked around and got all kinds of goodies and relaxed at the hotel while watching 13 going on 30. We then hiked up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo (dome), which was an adventure in itself. It wasn't just a spiral staircase like in Notre Dame. It would switch from spiral, to regular, to very steep, to "seriously we have to do that?" every few minutes. But we did get a great view of the inside of the church dome and the city itself, so that was great. Later that night, we picked our dinner spot by accepting an offer from a waiter for a free limoncello shot if we ate there. The dinner was really good (penne with a spicy tomato sauce for me, lasagna for Reba), and the after dinner shot, which is inteded to cleanse your palate, did its job. We then went to a place where we had seen a sign for karaoke, went downstairs where everyone else was, and were told that it was a private pub crawl, so we couldn't hang out down there. LAME. So we went back upstairs to hang for the rest of the non-cool-clubbers (in no AC land), waited until karaoke was supposed to start, and left because no one was left after the pub crawl departed. Rebecca decided she didn't want to sing to the bartender, and I'm thankful for this because she wanted me to sing some Journey with her. (phew)

Today, we went to the Boboli Gardens. Thankfully, we did not run into the bad guy from Harry Potter like we did in the Versailles gardens. We tried to go to the science museum and the Baptistry, but both are closed today. So we're taking it easy until our dinner reservation at a place that makes an incredible steak with a blueberry sauce (according to Reba). They eat a lot later here. Our reservation is at 7:30 and that is when the restaurant opens. After dinner, we're going to find a place to watch the Euro Cup finals between Germany and Spain! We're not sure who to root for, I'm thinking Germany, but we'll see who the crowd wants and go with them. We were going to watch it at the karaoke place, but we decided that they are not cool enough for us, so we'll find a better place.

Oh and we just ran into 2 girls from our Sound of Music tour in Salzburg on the street in Florence! How crazy is that? Answer: Very crazy, Emily. Well that's about all I got. I'm sure everyone at home is getting ready for the 4th of July. We'll be celebrating it by taking a tour of the Vatican! I have a red, white, and blue dress set aside already. Ciao!

(side note: this internet cafe won't let us upload pics or videos, but I'll try again later)