Ariston Florence

... s historical center. We began our one hour walk at the Duomo and finished at Ponte Vecchio. There were numerous sites in between providing details of Florence's political and social history. While the City itself was not as impressive as others we've visited on this trip, the sheer inspiration it provided for the rest of Europe to awaken from the Middle Ages made it well-worth a visit. Kate grabbed a delicious gelatto for the walk ...

... we walked toward an Italian restaurant whose famous salad made my mouth water. Our guide told us about it our first night and I had been thinking about it ever since. We found this tiny restaurant in the twisted streets of the old Jewish ghetto and unfortunately, they weren't open yet. Oh, hum. <br><br>So we continued onward to the Colosseum where the blue skies provided an amazing backdrop to this richly historical site. Our Rick Steves ...

... close to some artworks and then to stand well back and have a good look at them. You can't always do this if there are swarms of people crowding in front of each work. Especially the very famous/popular ones. And in the Uffizi there are ridiculously famous artworks in every room! It is insane how much amazing art they have in there!<br><br>I have visited the Uffizi before, when I was ten, but I don't really remember it at all, so it was like seeing everything for the ...

... find out how we get to Sammy and Steve....the guy wasn't too much help so we're just going to wing it tomorrow and hopefully we end up in the right place! After we got all the major things out of the way, we spent some time on the internet downloading some pictures onto here (as you may have noticed in my Africa blogs), and then headed back to the hostel for dinner. We met some really nice Aussies today that are staying in my room, so ...

... was tired of being harassed by tourists...just like the other old lady by the station. Her husband then came out from the apartment and she yells at me, "look look he can speak italian, why don't you ask him?" and she yells some rapid french at him.<br><br> When I look at these two incredibly well-presented women, I wonder why are they so arrogant, so rude, so loud mouthed and so unpleasant. I have talked to italians dressed in an old cardigan and trousers and they had ...

Rented an apartment in a villa which was at the top of a mountain (like most villas in Tuscany), however, our journey to the top was not on a paved road which made for some challenging driving. The villa was really nice with its own pool and great view over the countryside. The owners also provided fabulous meals in their other ...

... travel, we passed just out of Pisa the town that Pinnochio orginated in explaining all the Pinnochio wooden toys we saw all around Pisa...there is indeed a Pinocchio land if any one cares to visit. On the way to Florence we had a lot of tour guide information given to us, and apparently only local guides can guide us. If Calvin is seen to be "guiding" and not just "directing" then he gets a $600 Euro fine! We lobbed at our hotel around 4.15pm ...

... tired Katharina found her way to the gite after spending the night sleeping outside. Apparently the noises we heard in the night were deer in love (read: heat). They sounded much like sick dogs and woke us all up. Katharina was sleeping out there and not sure what was about to attack her... fortunately the deer only are interested in furry four legged creatures their own size.... that's hard to come to grips with when you are sent ...

... While we're sitting there this lady walks up, drops her two bags asks us "what is you from or where is you?" or something like that in half Italian and English. We say Siena because we thought she said where are you coming from and then through charades we figure out she's saying "are you from?" and Wil replies, The US. She crosses her fingers like an "x" to us, takes two steps back, grabs her bags and walks away. We're all a quite shocked! John finally ...

... market. It took Tom and ,yself some time to find it because of an evil cursed map, but we made out all right. We then had dinner, and went out clubbing. It was a space themed club, one that they set up pretty ,uch fro, tourists. I pretty much danced the night away, you know me being the party animal that I am. But then it was up bright and early to say good bye to Italy.