Hello....Kitty?

The hotel we stayed at had "internet". The quotations is because, even though I had full signal it took me half of eternity to send an email. In actuality it was two days, but it felt like Han Solo would have to take me into warp speed to ever get across the galaxy. Despite the internet problems, Florence (Firenze) was beautiful. They have a lot of marble nearby so what looked like pink, white and green paint was actually marble decorating the facade of the building. There is so much art, history, and beauty that it is overwhelming all of the time. We saw works from Michelangelo (YES THE DAVID!), Donatello, Giotto, Leonardo, Galileo, and even John the Baptist's finger in a reliquary.

On the uncultured side of things, within an hour of our arrival I saw J-Wow from the Jersey Shore cast. Later on Sunday our group decided we would eat at the Pizzeria they work at. When we saw that they weren't there about half of us left to find cheaper food (including me) while the others stayed. Turns out some of the cat members (Sammy, Pauli D, and Vinnie) came in right after we left, so my other friends got to see them.

We also shopped...a lot. They had an open market that took up about 4 streets, so needless to say I got my barter on. Consequently, all of my souvenir shopping is done and I pick myself up a new purse. My roommates also did some haggling of their own. I made the mistake of telling them that I like belt buckles, and as I mentioned before Italians have a strange obsession with Hello Kitty. So, of course I get an early birthday present, a Hello Kitty Belt buckle. Since they are so kind I'm sure I can find presents for all of them that will fill their hearts with as much joy as their present filled mine.

Pictures of Florence should be up on Facebook. Tonight we are doing Karaoke for Caitlin's birthday, so adventures in Perugia will indeed continue! Ciao