Italy

I'm writing this post from the balcony of our hotel in Florence and I'm staring at the facade of the Duomo which is about 100 yards away. Very cool.

Our trip began in Rome. Like many people, I spent a semester abroad in college and Rome was where our campus was located. I remember being annoyed at Rome at the beginning. It was filthy in parts, stunningly inefficient, and chaotic. By the end of the semester I found myself in love with the place. That is probably in part due to the many friends I made, the tendency to romanticize one's travels, etc., but I've been back three times now and I still love Rome as I did then. I don't know when or why the chaos became something wonderful or when the inefficiency of it all made me smile rather than shake my head and long for the States, but it happened.

Some random observations:

1) I don't know what bus drivers make in Italy but whatever it is, it isn't enough. NASCAR drivers have nothing on these guys. We did a day trip to Siena yesterday and there were a few moments of sheer terror as we went around corners side by side with semi trucks and I could have literally reached out my window and touched the truck driver. This was considered by moped drivers to be plenty of space to pass between. Crazy.

2) The myth of the ugly American. Maybe it's a myth no longer in circulation but I can say that I simply have never seen it. Quite the contrary in fact. They tend to speak louder in public settings and they have an annoying tendency to shout in English as an attempt to communicate with Italians as if somehow the volume will assist the attempt at communication. That's about it though. The worst? The French, and it is not even close.

3) Europeans are thinner as a group, but it sure as hell is not because they eat less. Leigh and I usually split a salad and then each have a primi or secondi for dinner. Most of the Italiand have an antipasti, a salad, a primi, a secondi, possibly dessert.

4) My favorite day so far has been the day where we made no plans. We just got off the Metro at Spagna (the best stop) and got lost for the entire day. It was wonderful just to walk around the city and soak it in.

Off to explore. Uffizi today and Academia tomorrow.