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The day started with a trip to the Accademmia, hit a snag bygetting a little lost around the city and catching the allergy bug (I had a tiramisu gelato and somehow got a pretty bad reaction that seemed like a seed or something …*shrug*) and then ended with a great night around the city. In the end, I can’t really make an accurate opinion of the city due to the rainy and cloudy weather and the allergic reaction which wiped out a good portion of the day. It went from cold and cloudy to sprinling and then lastly to raining (right when my reaction started too).

The Accademmia honestly wasn’t worth the admission. Don’t get me wrong, the David was worth the ticket, but the rest of the collection housed in the museum wasn’t. The only thing that kept the day semi-memorable was my very cool travel buddy from Chicago, Janet. Both of us weren’t into museums like most of the other group was, so our day was centered around walking through the city and checking out everything that it had to offer. Unfortunately, the city doesn’t have much to offer to two people that were in our situation. THe Pontevecchio, outside the Uffizi, Piazza della Signoria and the Piazza della Republica were well worth the walks to them. Yet, other than that everything else was a meh.

As for the nightlife in Florence, simply sexy. We are a four course meal (one of the optional meals) and were treated to about half a bottle of wine per person. There was also a cover-band-synthesizer-mucisianist-Demi-God playing rock hits like they were his own, while sipping down a glass of wine after every song for our dinner entertainment. At one point, he transitioned from Radiohead to Whitesnake and then to Depeche Mode. As for the food and wine, they were all great like I expected. I think I’m starting to like wine thanks to the overexposure on this trip.

To end the night, we went to an awesome dance club that played a ton of old dance music from the 70′s, 80′s and 90′s. It was actual dance music! Amazing. Gotta love the Italians. My opinion of Italy has grown exponentially because of tonight. The best part of it all was the seemingly coreographed unison dancing to “YMCA”…even during the non-chorus parts of the song.

Today was mostly a wash due to the 6 hour ride needed to get to Florence. The two stops were just pitstops to make sure people didn’t complain as much as well as so people didn’t use the bus’ bathroom either. Once we got to Florence at about 7pm, there was only about 30-45 minutes of rest time available before heading to the Piazza della Signoria for a crappy dinner. To jolt everyone’s spirits from the long day, the group went to a pub around the city area (I’m not sure where since it was raining).

All in all, a meh day. I got to see the copies of the roman statues (i.e. the David) in the Plaza as a warmup for the real thing tomorrow. There were still rather imposing at night and a bit overwhelming if you walked up close to them.

…Some Observations:
- My thighs are completely sore and I can barely move them from all the walking I did in Capri.
- Risotto is just creamy rice with some mushrooms.

Today’s highlight consisted of an excursion over to the island of Capri. Most of the group decided to take the Cruise around the island optional, but Nick (cool Computer Programmer guy from Montreal) and I opted to walk around due to an unsettled argument between our respective stomachs and boats. We walked a pretty grueling, yet rewarding, set of stairs (an hour of straight steps + hangover isn’t such a great idea) to get to the city center. From there, we took an hour and a half hike around the bottom part of the island of Capri where most tourists don’t go due to the heavy amount of walking involved. The view of the island as well as the local sights were quite amazing. It was definitely worth the hassle as I got to see some key wonders like a number of a gigantic houses built on the sides of cliffs, the Natural Arch, and the Grotto de Matrimonial.

The hike also allowed me to see the how the local inhabitants lived as well as their very cool houses. Mostly all of the lots were extremely large and had some sort of lemon or orange farm(s) in them. The inhabitants were quite courteous and talkative with each other. Their behavior towards tourists was completely different though. For the most part, they stayed away and even ignored greetings. It makes sense seeing that the island is a resort and they get a HUGE amount of tourists per day. I would be sick of it as well.

I had another quick lunch as I ate a island delicacy called the Caprese Salad Sandwich. It was a rather glorified tomato and mozarella sandwich that still tasted pretty good due to the fresh ingredients and the basil. From there, I met up with Ron, Melissa, Annabella and… LUCIANO!! and decided to hang around with them for some afternoon-long entertainment. Apparently, Luciano had become a bit smitten with Annabella and decided to follow her everywhere that day. Honestly, this man is amazing. His idea of impressing a woman is to constantly one-up anything any other guy says and continue to talk about himself for a large portion of time. I talked to Ron, we were walking a little bit ahead of the group, and figured out a good nickname for him at the time. Andy-Lite based on the character Andy Bernard from the Office.

The day progressed quite nicely as Annabella stood up with a large amount of fortitude ranging her responses to him from sarcasm to straight up insults by the end of the day. Of course, he never got the clue. It wasn’t over of course. It continued during dinner as well where he pushed himself onto a filled table so he could sit next to her (there were plenty of other seats available at tables with other people in our group). This guy is a tour de force of amazingness. Can’t be described by mere words, just experienced. It’s as is the Greek God of Comedy took a booger out of his nose, molded it into a human being and give it life with the name, Luciano.

Right, anyways, Sorrento has been great and I highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for somewhere to relax and enjoy a quiet vacation.

…Some Observations:
- I can’t stop being a pedophile here in Italy. It’s all the dang grains and vegetables they eat here that screw with my radar.

The terracing of the Italian countryside really makes the country look quite artistic…even from the motorways. It’s a good thing that Italian drivers are somewhat crazy and pushy, otherwise I would never have been able to stay up long enough to enjoy that first ride through it all. The dangers of the roads are nothing compared to India where you have to watch out for practically everything from autos on the wrong side of the road, herds of goats, cows, kitchen sinks and wedding parades. Yet, they still have their little intricacies. Drivers will definitely try to nudge you with their cars to walk faster across them, motor-scooters will try to go through a crowd of pedestrians crossing the street and cars will not slow down until the last possible second if they’re headed right at you.

Pompeii was our first stop on the tour and it was easily coolest thing I had ever seen in my entire life up to that point. The restoration of the place was really well done as the city was rather well kept for being 2000 years old. Apparently, the Pompeiians used white rhinestones on the ground as old school lane flasher thingies as a way for chariot riders and pedestrians to see where they were going at night (lanterns needed of course). Each street was numbered off by sector (or block) and street number (how cutely organized, I know). Houses and shops were distinguished by their doorsteps (gray or white stones) and the city was designed with absolutely no empty spaces whatsoever (from what I could tell after walking around there for about 2-3 hours anyways). Every nook and cranny in the city had a purpose. The coup de grâce of the day came with the temples. They were all large , complex and perfectly aligned to face the volcano.

After a thoroughly enjoyable beginning to the trip, we had a quick lunch and headed over to the quaint little city of Sorrento. The city is a great vacation spot. The inhabitants are quite nice, the town is beautiful, it’s a port to the island resort of Capri, and the food is quite awesome (we had our optional dinner with the most amazing white wine and freshest mozarella cheese I’ve tasted in my entire life…oh yeah, and something called Noci which was rather excellent). As for the roommate issues, I switched spots Nick (he seemed to have a better relationship with Luciano, balding Cuban guy, than I did) and began rooming with a very cool guy named Ron.

…Some Observations:

- The partiers were in the back of the bus and the front was getting occupied by the serious tourists and couples. I relegated myself, like a good portion of the group, to somewhere in the middle so I could get a good feel for the group as a whole.
- Sorrento is home to Limoncello which is essentially Lemonade with 50% alcohol. It packs a ridiculous bite.
- I tried my first Gelato today and found out there was a nut in it (I didn’t check to see if they used the same spoons for each flavor bucket or not). I broke out a little, had a rough stomach ache (I just tasted the small nut against my tongue and spitted it out), a swollen throat and mouth, as well as a fever for a few hours. Nothing big, but I learned my lesson. With that said, my favorite line of this trip became “Sono allergico ai dadi, ai fagioli, ed ai semi.” (I’m allergic to nuts, beans and seeds.)

The British say “cheers!” way too much. it was cute for the 1st 2 hours of my 10 hour flight to Heathrow Airport in London (I flew on Biritish Airways), but once the meals started rolling in 4 hours into the flight…. it was just too much to bear. What the heck does it mean? Why are you cheering me? Please stop, I’m not worthy of being cheered to for accepting the food that comes with the plane ticket.

Anyways, the travel day went off without much of a hitch (well, until I got to Rome…I’ll get into that later). I had to deal with fighting over an armrest with an incredibly broad-shouldered guy. The battle that ensued was rather epic. Neither of us looked at each other for the full 10 hours, but we just knew that our shoulders were doing the large amount of “chatting”. It would go on when we got our meals, when one of us wanted to go to sleep, and also when one of us wanted to get up (using it to pick ourselves up). It was great. I didn’t budge an inch and neither did he, we knew were we stood and the only other forms of communication we had with each other were in the forms of elbow gnawing, toothy smirks and kind pleasantries at the end for a hearty fight. In the end, he won. He found my kryptonite. While getting off the plane, he left in a rushed fashion and said “cheers!” quite bluntly as he left.

Oh, if we ever meet again. I’ll get him. I swears it.

As you can see there really wasn’t much to talk about, so I’ll skip the rest and go on to when I got into Rome. My inexperience with traveling really came full circle when trying to find a way to the hotel we were staying at. I hadn’t done a full amount of research and thought the entire ordeal of finding the hotel shuttle would be easy to do. Unfortunately, it took me an hour to find the shuttle service booth that went to the hotel (I walked around outside for a good 45 minutes before I decided to ask the arrival terminal staff about it). Of course it didn’t end there, I found out that I hadn’t paid for the transportation to the hotel. After some nervous and loud deliberating, I only had about 20 minutes until my group’s welcome dinner began, I had to take a 65 Euro taxi cab ride 37km to get to the hotel on time. Things didn’t end there. Apparently, the hotels had been switched on us and I had to wait after dinner in order to get a nice shower in.

I guess, in retrospect, this start was exactly what I wanted this trip to be like. Eventful and a bit mindnumbing, but still very worthwhile.

…Some Observations:

- The Italians who don’t really speak much English at all very incredibly nice and helpful. I didn’t expect it at all. Pleasant surprise indeed.
- There’s a 33 year old balding Cuban man from Miami who packed a box of condoms before getting to Italy who’s going to be my roommate for the trip. This trip has serious potential for entertainment.
- It costs an arm and a leg to do anything in Rome (the alcohol is cheap at convenience stores though…as noted by Mike and Joe, the Canadian Army guys).