Florence, France and Rome, Italy

Pisa to Florence then Rome (July 16-17) 

Bonsoir France and Ciao Italia! 

Day 1: Today, we crossed over into Italy. I had actual Italian pizza for our lunch stop. Delicious but oh so fattening.  Coffee here is quite tasty and potent. The scenery is bath taking along the coastline. Bright blue and royal blue waters along mountains. It looks exactly like everything I was expecting of Italy. 

The first thing we did in Italy was go visit the leaning tower of Pisa. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The heat was atrocious so the visit was short lived. I have the classic tourist photo of me holding the tower. 

Upon arriving in Florence, we did a bus tour of the city. Nothing stood out as very important. Florence is a city of artists and history. Van Gogh, Machivelli, and Dontatello are all famous from Florence. We saw most of the major landmarks that Florence has to offer. 

We drove to Florence to the camp site. A quick turn around and back on the bus for the dinner in Florence. A seven course meal awaited us. The first course was a meat and cheese plate. Second was three types of pasta (pesto, spaghetti, and spinach and cheese ravioli). Third was chicken and salad. Four was mash potatoes with meat balls. Fifth was tiramisu. Sixth was espresso. Seventh was lemon cello. I have never been so full in my life. I discovered I really like pesto pasta. I didn't eat the fourth course. 

After dinner, the crew ventured to the Red Garter. It is a karaoke place in the midst of Florence. I had a lot of fun singing along with everyone. Public signing scares the living day lights out of me. 

Day 2: After a very early start, the crew did a walk around your of Florence. It has a lot of history to which I didn't pay huge attention to. It had a lot to do with famous artists and sculptures. In a nutshell, the church is famous for being the first dome in Europe. The sculptures are famous for the artists. The bridge is famous for its goldsmiths. The city was built on another Roman city which sits 3 feet under the ground. 

It was about 30 C outside and just glorious. I am starting to fall in love with Italy. 

After the tour, we went to a leather shop and learnt about leather. The difference between real and fake leather is that real leather burns. Leather should not actually smell like the classic leather smell. I bought a black leather jacket. It took quite a few shops to find the right jacket for me. 

For lunch a couple if us went to go eat at the place where the cast of Jersey Shore worked whilst in Italy. It had incredible 60 second fire grilled pizza. I had a four cheese pizza. Brodie and myself then got a dark chocolate gelato. I died in heaven from the richness of  the gelato I can now say I had gelato in Italy. One more of my bucket list items crossed off. 

Back onto the bus meant a trip to Rome. I think I am getting a tan from sitting near the window. 

AFN