Florence

Another day, another city. I got up today around 7:30, after a long night's rest which was great. Cleaned up, then went down for an amazing breakfast buffet. There was tons of meat, cheese, breads, drinks, desserts, etc, etc. It was awesome and I ate so much food! This hotel is definitley getting 5 stars for food. :) We left as a group after breakfast, around 9:30. Liz and I slipped away and quickly visited the main church in Assisi, which was really stinkin cool. I think it might be my favorite church in Europe so far. It's 2 or 3 levels and St. Francis of Assisi is buried there and they have his stuff everywhere. It was pretty cool and a shame that we had to run through it so quick. The bus left at 10 and we headed over to Florence. We got there a little after 12 and checked into the hotel and whatnot. Then, went off with a group of people in search of Florence's "best" gelato place. Gelato (ice cream) was apparently invented here, so we found the place that the travel book named as the best and it was also definitley the most expensive. Liz and I decided to hold out for a much better deal at another non-best place, but it was still really stinkin good. :) Then we went off with the large group and Schuetz showed us some hot spots in Florence. Walked inside the huge catedral here which was neat and we saw various other churches and statues around town. After the tour, Liz and I walked around and browsed some street vendors. Old town Florence is lined with these booth-vendors that sell all sorts of clothes, souvineirs, jewelry, etc. It's like a massive flea-market, it's ridiculous. So, we checked those out, then came back to the hotel. I played on my computer with my pictures from about 6:30 until dinner at 7:45. We went to another resteraunt and had dinner at 8. It was pretty good stuff, but not nearly as great as Assisi. It also lasted forever and we didn't get out of there until about 9:40. Came back to the hotel and just chilled out for awhile and did some potential trip planning/research. Liz found me at like 10:30 and we chatted together and vegged for awhile until just a bit ago. I think I shall now drop into my bed.