IFF

So we made it to Florence or Firenze as the locals say. one of our typical walk around the city all day long adventures. they always end up being the best. especially when you get lost...literally and late at night this time. florence is already a city of mysteries. we used the train to get here and just about sweat to death. about 2/3 through the ride, i went in search for a toilet...noelle says i have the smallest bladder ever...and stumbled upon a train car a few down from us that was nice and icy from the air conditioning. what the? we quickly moved all our belongings with only 30 minutes to go. trust me. you would have too. upon arriving in florence, we met our new friend Manfredi who we met through couch surfing. Manfredi was so kind as to pick us up from the train station and take us to his house he lives in with his wonderfully classic italian mother. She is very sassy. for example, she just about slapped my hand last night during our authentic italian dinner when i went for the cheese before the pasta. apparantly the pasta is first...who knew? maria alberta is a wonderful cook, though. more on manfredi...he is obsessed with american movies (i think its a bonus that were american because we can actually make conversation about these movies.) he owns over 2000 movies...this is no lie because we saw them. manfredi aspires to be a director and lives and breathes movies. thus, we settled in last night by watching one of his favorites noelle and i had never seen. over a joint. just kidding. well, not really. but we didnt inhale, i promise. (okay okay we didnt smoke but yes, our friend manfredi has a thing for "out of season marijuana." we dont know either. perhaps this is what keeps him going all night because manfredi watches about 4 movies a night and sleeps a little during the day. yes this is also true. as we came out of our room this morning he was in the living room still watchin'. we like him, though : )

about florence...a few tour tips. (for anyone who knows ethics, IFF= if and only if)
1. wonder the side streets IFF you avoid angry italian women who thrust unknown liquids/substances out their window in an attempt to hit tourists walking by. we barely missed it. the girl behind us wasnt as lucky. neither was the guy right in front of us who got in a spat with this crazy lady...and by this we mean he spat at her, literally, through her window. hmmmmm.

2. climb the duomo church tower IFF you are not in the least bit whatsoever claustrophobic because this involves the process of standing dead still for quite some time in a dark and narrow stairwell without any ventiliation. all i kept thinking is lame ol' Brunelleschi is smart enough to design a beauty of a tower but only thought to have one stair for up and down visitors? i guess he didnt anticipate florence to become so crowded with tourists. we finally made it to the top and it was beautiful, as always. a perfect view of all of florence.

3. drink lots of peach iced tea IFF you dont have a small bladder. i told noelle today that our tea fetish was actually a pandora's box. basically, sharon ryan's economics class now rings true when she lectured us on "no free lunch" theory. but in florence, this is applicable to no free toilet, no free seat, no free anything. we actually have to buy a drink to use the toilet which then perpetuates the need for another toilet which then requires another purchased drink. only good thing in this situation is that peach iced tea is freakin good!

4. take the bus in florence IFF you are quick enough to jump on in 3 seconds...yes this is all the time that you get. we were patiently waiting for the 1A bus back to Manfredi's when it pulled up. before we even stood up--and i promise we were quick--the bus began to pull away. noelle even banged on the door but the driver totally shunned us and drove off. with our luck of course this was the last bus of the night. therefore, we had to get on another bus (1B) and attempt to ask the driver the best way to get home. he was nice enough to take us to our stop. well that didnt help the process of getting home any better. after getting off, we both realized we couldn't remember exactly how to get to Manfredi's from the bus stop (the dark doesnt help) and literally wondered around for quite some time. after getting directions from a kindly italian, he willingly offered us his car to find the address we didnt even have. we declined because we thought we were there...only to find that we wern't. it wouldn't have been much longer before a true melt down but no worries, GELATO SAVES THE DAY. we came upon a gelato shop still open at this time of night where a lovely employee let us use her phone for free. we got directions from Manfredi (and we were so close) and of course, bought some gelato in the process. and it was the best yet. we finally found the place which by the way we had passed a few times. i swear it looked different this morning. Maria Alberta let us in. We're finally home!

Not sure what tomorrow holds in store. I think we're going to venture away from Florence to head off to the Tuscan hills. Let you know how it is later.

for your viewing pleasure...

From the top of the Duomo:


We (heart) Pastries! -this is one of our favorites:


Sunset over the Arno River:


Our Spaghetti Dinner for two: