Hi everyone,
I’m just writing this real quick from an Internet Cafe in Florence, Italy. I’ll have to keep it short cause I don’t have much time, but for those of who who’ve been sending me updates from home, keep em coming. Thanks.
Florence is hot. I mean scorching hot. Then again, so was the French Riviera, and Barcelona . . . in fact, practically everywhere I’m going is insanely hot. At night it gets to be quite comfortable but midday is a nightmare to walk around. I can’t wait till Greece and the beach.
Last night we drove into Florence from Antibes on the French Riviera. That was beautiful. On the way down to Florence we stopped at a French perfumery, then we stopped in Pisa to see the leaning tower. It was, well, a tower that leans. I can’t help but wonder what all the sidewalk vendors would do had the tower been built straight. We took the must-take picture pretending to “hold up” the tower and moved on.
Florence is really something. We started the day at a leather factory, where we sat through the requisite sales pitch. Then we had some time to ourselves in the city. I helped Elie hunt for a leather jacket, but that was easier said than done since she had a specific idea in mind of what she wanted. Finally, it was mission accomplished, and I sure hope she’s as happy with it once she gets it home as she is now!
After that we met back up with the group for a free walking tour of the city. We saw the statue of David (the outdoor replica), a bunch of what one of the girls on the trip calls ABCs (another bloody church). The churches are all beautiful but after a while they all start to look the same. Then we headed to the Academia to see the actual statue of David, which looked just like the replica only we had to pay to see it. Not sure why we bothered, but now I can say I saw the real thing. After lunch, Elie and I actually walked down to see Florence’s great synagogue. It was closed but we saw the outside. It looks like a church. Speaking of churches, tomorrow we’re getting up really early to drive down to Rome and the Vatican to see some more churches.
It’s hard to believe I’ve only been gone two and a half weeks. It feels like so much longer, but at the same time, the trip is flying by. Tonight we’re having an optional dinner, and then going out to a club to party. It’s fun going places where we meet people from other Contiki tours.
Everyone on tour is really nice and I’m learning lots of Australian slang. More so than any of the languages of the countries I’m in, anyway. France was fine because I speak French, and I got by on my Cegep Spanish 101 in Barcelona, but Italy is interesting. Most of the touristy areas, everyone speaks English anyway. But I’m sure I’m going to come home saying “G’day” and calling friends “mates” and punctuating every sentence with “niiiice” like the Aussies on tour do.
From Rome, we’ll be heading down to Greece and I’ll try and send out another update at some point. I’m on my tenth roll of film already, so I’ll have tons of pictures assuming they come out well.
For now, miss you guys lots and hope everyone’s having a great summer wherever all of you are. I want to hear about all the trips and stuff that you guys are all on when I get home.
Take care and ciao!