For the love of all things purses

Friday, May 19, 2006

Today was wonderful! We started the morning with a walking tour of Florence. It was so interesting. Normally I don't like guided tours, but our guide, Frea, was very cool and she had so much interesting information to share. We learned all about Medieval and Renaissance architecture. The best part was learning where the phrases "Saved by the bell", "Hole in the wall", "Dead Ringer", and "Stinking Rich" came from. I can't tell you how beautiful and rich in history this city is. I could stay here for a long time. The thought of abandoning American life for a few years to be a tour guide or even just a waitress in random countries sounds more appealing everyday.

We were tuckered out from our "arduous" walking tour, so collapsed on the doorstep (well we made it to the table) of Gigi's. Up to this point, it was the most pleasant meal we have partaken of. I enjoyed a delicious potato pasta soup and swordfish and Jill actually got pasta with a kick. We left happy.

After admiring the city for hours, Jill and I rolled up our sleeves and got down to business. Florence is the city of shopping, is it not? We came out victorious from our shopping adventures with a combined 10 purses, 9 ties, 2 belts, and 1 shirt. Not all of it is for us, but most of it certainly is. When we got back to the hotel, we laid all our new purchases out on the bed so that we could simply sit and admire them.

We finished the evening with some fantastic pizza topped off with...you guessed it...gelato. It has been a good day. Off to Venice bright and early tomorrow.

What I learned in day 5:

1. When an Italian says "It will be two minutes", they don't really mean it. We are convinced it's the only time related phrase they were taught in English class.
2. It is not safe to assume that a pizza comes with both sauce and cheese. Generally it is one or the other.
3. Women's intuition does not apply when wandering the streets of Italy. Our instincts are consistently and terribly wrong in regards to direction. We are not ashamed.
4. Italian pastries are really not as good as they look.