When in Rome...

I should start by saying in my last post, I spelled Colosseum wrong. I kept seeing all the Italian signs and messed up on my spelling in my post - it was a combo of English/Italian.

Well, we finally made it to beautiful Florence...but before I get to that, let me tell you a bit about our last night in Rome.

Jason, Lauren, Allen, Jen and I decided to be like the locals...so when in Rome.....

We left our hotel about 8pm and took the subway down to Piazza Navona. We were here during the day but it is even prettier at night. The piazza has three huge fountains all lit up and is surrounded by amazing restaurants, artist stands, Gelato shops and more. We went down there looking for a nice restaurant and it's pretty funny to see all the places trying to get us to come and eat their food. Well, of course we went to the place that had the nicest patio overlooking the piazza with a musician out front (plus they threw in some free champagne). We started the dinner with a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine. Then, we proceeded to order up a few more bottles of wine (not realizing they were $25 each for the house wine)! We had a great dinner that consisted of Roman meatballs, fish, and more. Dinners here typically last a few hours so we had plenty of time to drink wine and laugh. We got our bill at about 11pm and about fell over but the shock wore off quickly as we realized we needed to check out a true Roman Disco-tech (plus the wine helped absorb the shock). Our waitress wrote down the name of good club and so we grabbed a cab who drove us to a location that is still a mystery to me but the place was jumpin! It was an open-air outdoor disco where I can honestly say we took the stage - literally! Yes, the dumb Americans got up and danced on this raised dance floor (stage) with a huge techno screen behind us - I thought we were pretty good dancers and the locals seemed to enjoy us. It was soooo much fun and the pictures are well worth the headache we all had the next day! We finally got back to the hotel around 3.30am - 4:00am in time to grab about 3 hours of sleep and catch the bus to Florence. It was a rough morning...the five of us all slept on the bus for the first 2 hours...the other four on the bus who didn't come out just laughed at us. We knew we had to go out atleast once in Rome and tear the town apart! We did!!!

The drive to Florence was incredible....the mountain range is huge (comparable to Alaska) and the Tuscan hillside towns are the coolest thing I have ever seen. We finally arrived here at about 2pm yesterday and we checked in to our hotel - The Hotel De La Pace. We are up on the top of the hotel (5th floor) and the A/C wasn't on.....I have to admit I was getting a bit crabby until we opened the door to our room. Jen and I totally lucked out. We have the corner room with a nice open aired bathroom (huge window). We saw what appeared to be a deck through a huge patio door and when we opened it...paradise was waiting. We have a double sized deck on the corner of the fifth floor. To the right are the incredible mountain ranges and to the left, a birds-eye view of the Duomo!!!! (For those of you not familiar with the Duomo, it's the cathedral shaped dome building in the top picture of Florence to the left of my posts). I think we officially have the best view in all of Florence! Even though the A/C isn't turned on yet, the nights cool off. There are no screens on the windows here so you just sleep with the doors and windows wide open where birds can fly right in (I didn't see bird poop on my head or bed this morning so I am guessing we didn't have any visitors at night). The rest of our group is on the fifth floor as well, some with patios, others not. It's pretty funny when we are all in the hotel because it's just us on the floor so all our rooms are open-doored like a college dorm.

After we got settled, Jen's professors came back down and picked us up for a walking tour of all the major sites. They took us to Gonzaga's campus which is only 2 blocks from the hotel. This is where Jen will have class each morning. Then, we walked down to the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Vecchio, Uffizi Gallery, etc. We finally split up about 6pm and Jen and I grabbed a sandwich for dinner. We hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch so I was getting a bit hungry. We checked out a few shops and then it was back to the hotel about 8pm. We hung out on our patio until 10pm and then decided to call it a night. I woke up this morning and sent Jen off to class and then I went down and grabbed a quick breakfast and brought a cup of coffee back up to my patio and just sat out there and soaked in the quiet pleasures of Florence. This afternoon we are going to a few piazzas and a couple of churches. I will meet up with the group in about an hour or so and then we're off. This place is so amazing...every corner I turn something new and incredible is waiting!

Oh yah...and in tradition:

Yesterday's lesson learned: bring plenty of deodorant from home. Jen learned this lesson the hard way and was able to share her learnings with me. She only brought a little stick and went to the Farmacia (pharmacy) to buy more yesterday and a little bottle cost her $10. Now I know why the Italians don't wear it - they can't afford it!!!!

Until later...ciao!