About halfway through!

Our time in Florence was delayed twice due to our laziness... we just don't enjoy long train rides. When we left Marseilles, we saw the beach in Nice as we were pulling into the station and decided to stay there for two nights. We mostly just relaxed, but we did go to an archaeology museum and up to a chateau that overlooked the city. A Turkish guy came with us and talking with him about the different parts of Turkey made me wish I had time to go. We had socca (a tortilla-type thing, made with olive oil and a special flour) and farcis (like stuffed mushrooms, but with other vegetables such as tomato, onion, and zucchini). After the chataeu we went to the beach, which had pebbles instead of sand. It was our first time in the Medditerranean! It was predictably quite warm, but surprisingly salty... seemingly more so than the Pacific Ocean. So that was one thing off the to-do list!



Our next attempt to get to Florence came up short as well. We decided to stop in Milan for two days. We didn't really want to do all the shopping that Milan is known for, but we did go see the gothic-style duomo (aka cathedral... most Italian cities have a duomo and accompanying plaza). While making dinner in our hostel kitchen (with extra garlic because we heard it keeps away the mosquitoes), we met a bunch of people. Long story short, we decided it would be a good night for beer pong! We played with an American, a Canadian who looked like a 6'5" Jesus, four Germans who go to an American school in Berlin, an Australian girl from Nepal, and a Scottish guy. The Canadian had the most elaborate beer pong shot wind-up I've ever seen... it took about seven seconds and lots of twisting and leaning. We only allowed it because it was ridiculously effective. The Germans knew the rules surprisingly well, but were not very skilled (although I considered one to be the German version of BT, for those of you who know that reference). I guess that is precisely the reason we bought ping pong balls... to spread it to Europe and improve the competition. As usual, it was a very impromptu game... the idea was suggested at 8:55 and the store closes at 9:00. We rushed to the store and got there right at 9, but luckily an Italian girl who just wanted to buy water got there at the same time and was able to coerce the store worker to let just her and Jeff in. As Jeff was walking in he asked over his shoulder how many he should buy. At the time there were four of us planning to play, so I said 30. He comes out four minutes later holding two large cases of Heineken, announcing that he bought 30 for €40. We all thought they were kind of expensive until we realized he had bought 30 half-liter bottles. :) Long story short, I teamed up with an 18-yr old American who had toured around with us that day and ran the table for four games... then the alcohol started to hit us a bit and we lost our touch. Still, when I can make two-thirds of the cups for my team and beat a team where fratastic Jeff is the weaker player, it's a proud night.


One of my friends from undergrad studied abroad in Florence, so she had lots of good tips. I had the gelato that she dubbed "the best in Florence" twice (Jeff had it three times) and it lived up to it's reputation... the melon and house special were particularly good.

The duomo in Florence is gorgeous, with white, pink, and green marble. I've never seen anything like it and it is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. We climbed over 400 stairs, including some very narrow and windy passages, to see the huge and varying painting inside the top of the duomo's dome. We also were able to go on the outside balcony to enjoy a view of the city. We also saw the Boboli Garden and extensive Uffizi museum.



Today (Saturday) we saw Micheangelo's "David" sculpture. It is huge... maybe fifteen feet. It was built out of extra marble that was left over from the duomo and it is amazing to think about how large the original piece of marble probably was. We also did an afternoon trip to Pisa, which is only 80 minutes from Florence. It was definitely the most touristy I've felt and we basically took the obligatory pictures, had gelato and then left.


Since I successfully introduced Jeff to gnocchi (my favorite Italian pasta) our first night here, I think we are going to search for pizza tonight and then hopefully head back to the hostel for some beer pong with some Australian guys we met yesterday who have been travelling since April.

Tomorrow will be the first time Jeff and I split up. It'll be good to have a break from each other and I've already been to Rome. So, while he's there, I am heading to Greece for four or five days before we meet up with our dad to do some hiking in southern France.

This would be much less boring with pictures... sorry.