Tricksy Firenze

Today, we really slept in again. I was up at about 11 and I decided to sit in the living room and read again, with the windows open. It was just about heaven, especially when I got some Nutella to snack on. Then when the roommates finally got up, we decided to get moving and finally left around 1:30.

We were planning on going up to the Piazzale Michelangelo but it was raining and foggy so we decided to save that for another day. So today we just walked across the Ponte Vecchio and walked around on the other side of the river. And I took some photos (finally, I know) so here's some of them. I'll have all my photos uploaded on the Shutterfly site (theadamsfamilyescapades.shutterfly.com) but here's a sampling of them.

We walked around for a bit, seeing such sights as San Spirito and possibly old-time bath tubs. We also saw some beautiful views of the Ponte Vecchio and of the streets in general. Really, almost every corner or intersection is worth taking a picture of. We also walked through the market in Piazza

San Spirito, which is people selling homemade goods that's not as much food. We saw preserves, clothes, bread, soaps and tons of other stuff. And then, when we went to leave the market area, there was a wooden board set up for us (well not just us, obviously) to cross over the huge

puddle. Oh yeah, and it rained today. Early in the morning, when I was reading, it was pouring. Which was nice ambiance really. And even though the windows were open, no rain really got in the apartment. So, after walking around San Spirito, we walked up another street and came

upon the Palazzo Pitti, which I had never heard of before, but it's huge! We were so surprised and amazed. We, of course, took lots of photos, including silly ones of us. There was another weird lion fountain with an old bathtub that we particularly had fun with. One of my roommates even

dared to get close enough to kiss the lion, but after looking at the water, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the Plague, I decided to just pat the lion gently on the face. And when I struck this oh-so-clever pose, one of my roommates said, "Oh yeah, just being casual eh?" which is why I'm laughing in the photo. These girls seem awesome so far and I'm definitely excited to meet our other roommates in about two weeks. One girl keeps saying she hopes they're from Australia, which would be awesome!! But I doubt it. It'll be nice to have some new blood though. After

meandering around the Palazzo Pitti for a bit (including creeping on some tourists that were dancing for a camera in the middle of the piazza), we decided to wind our way back to our apartment and find a place to get some lunch on the way. We walked back across the Ponte Vecchio,

stopping of course to admire all the jewelry, and cut through the Piazza della Signoria, which is where a copy of David is. I have to tell you, David is incredible. It's hard to believe it's even real. Definitely excited to see the original. We ended up back around our apartment and found all these really neat things. For example, a panini stand that looks delicious, a kebab place (in case I get tired of paninis, pizza, and pasta) and a supermercato!!! I'm probably way too excited about the supermercato but it's so close and it's open every day and it's like a block

away from me!! We ended up grabbing lunch at a caffe right up the street (when I say up the street, I mean towards the Duomo) from us. Me and my roommate split a calzone (not the greatest thing I've ever had, but still pretty good) and I had my first Coca Cola. The Coke here is not as sharp or acidic as it is back home. Of

course, it's still pretty good. Let's see, I'm posting this before dinner so not sure what the plans are for that yet. Tomorrow our pre-session starts. Walking tour in the morning and Italian review at 4:30...yikes. I hope it comes back to me pretty quickly. I'm getting better at it, but mostly I'm good at vocab words. I've seemed to forget how conjugating things work and all that stuff. Hopefully, it comes back fast or else they might demote me to Italian 101 again. Eh, we'll see. No point in stressing about it right?? (Pfft who am I kidding I was built to stress out about things). Currently, I'm sitting in my living room with the window kind of open to hear the ambiance of the street. Quite a different experience than having the windows open in Chapel Hill, I'll tell you that much.

Well, I suppose that's it for right now. So far, I'm doing good on this blog. Let's see if I can keep it up.

Ciao!!