Florence, Italy

After leaving our Tuscan cooking course, we got to our absolutely adorable hotel in Montecatini.  I wish I had better pictures but you can click here for some photos.

When we got there and got our room assignments I was thrilled to be rooming with Brittney and Kris, two of three of my favorite people.  Unfortunately Meagan was not assigned to our room, but another girl was.

The next morning we got up for our trip into Florence.   Our first stop was the Florentine Cathedral (Il Duomo) and the Bapistry.   What an amazing place!  I was really sad that we weren't able to go inside, they were having some function there, so it was closed. We had a really great tour guide for during our walk through Florence.

This was also the day that my credit card got eaten by an ATM.  Apparently I didn't know my pin number and the machine took my card.  I had to go into the bank and find someone who spoke English to ask for someone to get my card back!   Thankfully the bank was very nice and just needed a look at my photo ID and let me take the card.

Then we went to see David.  I am not an art person but this sculpture is totally worth seeing; the detail is incredible!  The statue is huge and you can see all of the details down to the veins.   I actually took a photo before they told us no pictures were allowed. 

Funny Story:  When we left the David, Josef (my DM) had two stickers of body builders on his arms and one was facing us and one was facing him and he said : "one for you, and one for me!  I see you baby, shaking that ass".   And then said, "I say that as Josef, not as your delegation manager"!  I miss him!!  (the I see you baby thing is from a song that came on during our bus ride).

We had some free time for a while after that which most of us used for shopping, then went to see the Ponte Vecchio.

We had dinner at our hotel and chilled there for the night.  We went swimming and met a few fellow P2P members.   We also put on a show for Josef.  He is from Austria and has never seen The Sound of Music so we took it upon ourselves to act it out for him.   I am pretty sure that after our performance, he is glad that he hasn't seen it!

I loved Florence and I really wish we'd had more time to explore!