Days 23 and 24 - Paris to . . . Boston??? to ... Conowingo

Ok, so we get up and get ready to go meet the gang for breakfast. I take a few minutes to check our flight again online and once again, it says “delayed.” I tried to find out what was up online and couldn’t find out anything. The Charles de Gaulle airport site said that the flight was on time, so I was holding on to hope that maybe the American site was incorrect. Went ahead to breakfast and said our goodbyes to everyone, finished packing up and checked out of the hotel. Stayed in the lobby checking online again and now found an email had just been sent to me saying our flight was now cancelled! To make a long story a tad shorter, the front desk lady at the hotel helped us get a call into American Airlines and after being on hold for over half an hour (Gary on phone, me searching flights online for possibilities), we got ourselves on a flight to Boston, arriving at 3:35 PM, staying overnight, and then flying into Reagan Monday. We figured if we had to stay overnight somewhere, better to spend the night at Kim’s than in an airport somewhere or another night in Paris, still having to get ourselves out of France the next day. I had sent an email when the flight got cancelled to three people, hoping that at least one would call dad and tell him to not go pick us up and to await further instructions. We had to then cancel our shuttle, grab a cab immediately because it was already two hours before the flight left and we were somewhere between a half hour and an hour from the airport! No time to email anyone about the new plan! The cab driver got us there pretty quick (spoke NO English), but dropped us off about as far from American Airlines as he could have. Nice! We RAN through Charles de Gaulle airport, and got through security and to the gate right at the last minute! I managed to work up a nice sweat running through the airport. No time to figure out how to get online or search out a phone card to call anyone. I think that Gary and I could do the Amazing Race show now. I felt like I was on the show when we were in that cab trying to talk to that driver, who didn’t understand us, nor we him, and then having him drop us off about 20 miles from the American terminal! Ugh!

Managed to make it onto the plane and headed to Boston. Called Kim from the plane as soon as we landed to inform her that it was her lucky day! She was on her way to Target, so she picked us up at the airport while she was out. We had a nice impromptu visit with the Huang family and had some food from California Pizza Kitchen. Gary, Brady and Dillon played ball outside while Kim and I went for the food. Harry was basking in the glory of the Ravens defeat by the Patriots. Finally hit the sack at about 9:30 (which felt to us like 3:30 AM since we were still on Paris time), but then we were awake at 3 AM! Managed to fall back asleep though and had pancakes in the morning with Kim and the boys before heading off to the airport for our flight to DC. No delays with this flight, so smooth sailing as we make our way back to Conowingo.
 
Made it to DC about 11:45 and Dad was there waiting to pick us up.  Stopped by the post office and got a stack of mail about 2 feet high and then went to Sue's for a late lunch and my first iced tea in almost a month.  Paula met us there and we had a nice lunch.  Then, stopped by Benjamins' Store for some milk and bread and to chit chat with Dot and Debbie and then finally home at last.
 
It was a wonderful trip and I think the same group should start working on another tour for next summer or fall, possibly throughout the states this time, with maybe a brief foray into Canada!

Day 21 - Beaune to Paris

Had a breakfast of croissant and tea in the hotel and then hit the road for Paris at 8:00. This was our last day on the bus.

Made it to Paris by lunchtime and checked in to the Duquesne Eiffel Hotel. It is a really nice hotel and if you look out our window, we have a great view of the Eiffel Tower. This may be our best hotel yet and I’m pretty sure it’s the most expensive. A good one to end the trip on, if the trip has to end!

Gary and I and some of the ladies ate crepes for lunch. Gary had the ham, egg, and cheese and I had the dark chocolate and banana. Yes, dark chocolate and banana!

Shakespeare and Co. is a bookstore that people like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and others used to hang out in.  This is not the original, but a replica, I guess.  I haven't looked into this very much, but our guide was telling us some about it.  It seems to be a popular hangout with book loving people.

We met up with the whole group at 3:00 and rode the metro and walked through the city, taking in St. Chappell (famous for stained glass windows, shown at left) and Notre Dame Cathedral. At Notre Dame, we happened in just as mass was starting, so we sat in on that for a while. It was really neat to be there when they were actually having mass. I didn’t understand it, but the singing was really beautiful.

Outside Notre Dame was a guy playing guitar and singing Country Roads!  That's twice we've heard that - once at Octoberfest and once outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris!

After we toured Notre Dame, we were finished for the day with the official Rick Steves stuff , so most of us grabbed a quick bite in the Latin Quarter (Gary and I got sandwiches) and then we took the metro to where you can catch a boat to take a night-time cruise on the Seine. Of the fourteen people left on the tour, eleven of us went, so it was a pretty good turnout. It was so beautiful cruising up and down the Seine. The Eiffel Tower was lit up and I didn’t realize it, but every hour on the hour it sparkles. 

There were young folks all along the Seine having parties and they all waved and yelled as we went by (pictured at left).

Got back to the hotel a little before 11:00 and went down to the lobby to blog and check email. Will soon go to bed to get up for the last day of the tour tomorrow in Paris. We have a tour of the Louvre tomorrow morning and then we’re free all afternoon until the last dinner together tomorrow night.

Day 20 - Switzerland to Beaune, France

Breakfast in the hotel, as always, and then at 8:15, off to Burgundy area of France, a very pretty drive. Had lunch at a mall (we had pizza again, even though I said we wouldn’t eat pizza again after Italy), but only had one hour total, so no time for shopping. L

Driving through the countryside, we saw that there are lots of cows in this region, mostly Charolais.

Arrived at Beaune about 2:30 and checked into the Ramparts Hotel. Beaune is a medieval town that is really pretty and it‘s all about wine-making. There are vineyards all around. Yet another town that looks like a movie set. The Chevrolet family is from Beaune, as are Victor Hugo and Louis Pasteur. Walked around town and noticed that the shops were really expensive. The clearance rack at a shoe store had all shoes 79 euros, which is about $120. We did buy a few pastries to hold us over til dinner.

We toured an old hospital that was founded in 1443, to take care of the poor. It was used as a hospice in the days of the black plague.

After touring the hospice, some of us took the little tourist train that drives you all through the town and out into the vineyards. Then, we toured a wine-making place, went down into the cellar and most of the people did wine-tasting.

Had dinner that night all together - we started off the meal with escargot! Gary and I actually ate them! They tasted fine, but just knowing that we were eating snails was kind of weird! They were cooked in kind of a garlicky-buttery sauce, like scampi, so we used that to dip our bread in and that was the best part of that whole escargot experience. Then we had a first course of ham (they call it jambon) with some type of gelatin. I ate a little bit of the ham. Then, we had boeuf burgenon (I know that is not spelled properly, but you know what I’m talking about) and noodles. That was tasty. Then, they brought out three kinds of cheese, which I wasn’t interested in and for dessert, some type of pears marinated in something wine-related and some sorbet. I ate the sorbet, but didn’t really care for the pears.

This picture to the left is Gary eating a snail.



Headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night, leaving for Paris in the morning.

Day 19 - Lauderbrunnen, Switzerland

Had breakfast at the hotel and then took the bus to the gondola to ride four different gondolas up to Schiltorn (10,000 ft). There is a revolving restaurant up there and it was the setting for the James Bond movie from about 1968 called “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” They have a movie in the “touristorama” at the top that shows a lot of scenes from the Bond movie. The view up there was unbelievable and it was such a clear day. There are peaks that you can see have glaciers on them, but right where we were, there was no snow. We took tons of pictures all around the top and then went in and had Swiss hot chocolate in the revolving restaurant.

Then we took the gondola down one stop to Muren (5361 ft.) and hiked from there over to Grutschalp (1879 ft.), which took about an hour and a half. There was a lot of nice scenery along the way.

We rode the gondola from Grutschalp down to Lauderbrunnen and grabbed some lunch from a little take out place. Then, we spent a little bit of time walking around the town of Lauderbrunnen.

There is a neat cemetery there in Lauderbrunnen where all the graves are covered in flowers. The families do all the caretaking of these graves and they are so pretty and tidy.

We rode the bus back up to the hotel area at about 3:30 and rested up a little while, updating the blog and walking around a little bit.  It has gotten cool here in the Alps.  We are having dinner all together again tonight in the hotel restaurant.  Then, tomorrow morning off to Beaune, France!

Day 18 - Cinque Terre to Switzerland

PICTURES TO COME LATER - UPLOADING IS SLOW HERE IN SWITZERLAND

Up early this morning for 7:00 breakfast in the hotel. I do love the little town of Monterosso, but I have to say I was not sorry to be leaving that hotel, because it had the worst beds of any of the hotels so far. All the beds have been fine except for this one, which was really hard. We were spoiled by the beds in Germany and Austria, which are good quality with fluffy down duvets and pillows. I’m hoping they are the same in Switzerland!


Unfortunately, we found out that two of our friends, Dick and Lynn, will be dropping out of the tour today because Dick ‘s brother passed away last night. I don’t know the details but it seems to have been completely unexpected. So, Dick and Lynn will be taking a train to Milan today and flying home tomorrow.

We boarded the train at Monerosso at 8:36 and got off four minutes later at Levanto, where the bus was parked and then headed for Switzerland. Got in a huge traffic jam for probably about 45 minutes to an hour. Some road construction was going on in a tunnel. Crossed over the border into Switzerland at around 12:30 and didn’t have to show any documentation even though Switzerland is not a member of the European Union. Evidently, sometimes you have to show it and sometimes you don’t. Stopped at one of the fancy rest areas for lunch again (I’m not being sarcastic - they do have great food there, although it is not cheap) and had salad, pasta, and bread. It’s very confusing because Switzerland doesn’t use euros, they use Swiss franks, although this particular place would accept euros, so our check had both amounts on there and we paid in euros and somehow got shortchanged 10 euros. It took a while to figure this out by looking at the check, but when it was brought to the cashier’s attention, she gave us the 10 euros. Not sure if this was an “on-purpose” thing that happened or a real accident. It would be a pretty easy racket since this whole situation is rather confusing with the euros and Swiss franks and language barrier. Who knows. Anyway, the lunch was good.
We headed onward and stopped at Interlaken for a very short walk around town and rest stop. It was a neat little town, but we didn’t really have time to do much exploring. I think the main point reason for stopping there was for us to use the ATM’s to get some Swiss franks.
The drive through Switzerland was just amazing. Ever since I read Heidi when I was little, I wanted to see the Swiss Alps and so far I have not been disappointed. It looks just like you would think it looks from that book and from movies. Swiss chalets everywhere interspersed through green meadows that look freshly mowed, although that would seem to be impossible since many of these meadows are straight up and down. The cows have obviously just come down from summer in the mountains because they are wearing their fancy headdresses and cowbells. They have some celebration when it is time for the cows to come home for the winter and they make the cows wear these ridiculous flowered headdresses and huge bells. I think the cows wear bells when they are up in the mountains for the summer so they won’t get lost, but they put really huge bells on some of them for this celebration. The poor cows look like sort of humiliated to be wearing these headdresses and the bells surely drive them nuts! But it is quite a sight to see and take pictures of!



When we got to the hotel, we had about 40 minutes before time to eat dinner, so that is when we all went out to take pictures of the cows, the scenery, etc… I took tons of pictures in that little amount of time because you just can’t stop taking pictures here! Every place you look is so picturesque! It was cool when we got here, so everyone had to break out the fleece and jackets. The hotel is pretty neat. It’s not modern at all, but it is definitely Switzerland. Chalet-style with window boxes in an Alpine valley with a rushing stream running past. Cows and chickens outside. It would almost make you forget about the lack of private bathrooms (we lucked out and got one, but most people didn’t), TV, internet, and hair dryer! J By the way, the people that own the hotel have to walk their kids to the gondola every day because that is how they get to school. After taking tons of pictures of the scenery around the hotel, we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and had roast pork, mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans. After most people were finished, they came out with platters and bowls of all the items we had just eaten trying to get people to take seconds! I don’t remember anything like that ever happening before.

After dinner, we made plans with Jennifer and a bunch of the others to take the gondola to the top of the Schilthorn Mountain tomorrow morning (a James Bond scene was once filmed there) and then we’ll take it back down part of the way and then do some hiking. It is a free day for everyone, but Jennifer wanted to do the gondola and the hiking and agreed to arrange it if we were interested, so most people are planning to do it. Should be pretty cool!

Day 17 - Cinque Terre

MORE PICTURES TO COME LATER (UPLOADING IS SLOW HERE IN SWITZERLAND)

This was a completely free day to do whatever we wanted. We slept a little bit later than usual, not much because we didn’t want to sleep the day away. Had breakfast in the hotel about 8:30. Gary went for a bike ride, while I walked around the town a little bit. Then, we went to the beach for the rest of the day. We’re not usually beach people, but when it’s a really cool place like this, we make an exception. We went to a spot on the beach where you can rent lounge chairs and an umbrella for 15 euros and plopped ourselves there for the day. We found two English magazines in the hotel - Oprah (minus the first 71 pages, which someone had torn out!) and Hello, so we had reading material. The water was really clear and aquamarine, like something out of a magazine or a movie. It wasn’t very crowded on the beach, so it was very peaceful. There were some people coming around from time to time offering “massagi” or trying to sell jewelry, purses, etc… We swam several times, read our magazines, got panini (by the way, panini is the plural of panino and panino means sandwich, so when I say we got panini, that means we got more than one sandwich - Italian lesson for today), and just relaxed until about 4:00.

Then, we headed back to the hotel and got cleaned up and went to the grocery store next door to buy stuff for the happy hour that the group was having on the beach at 6:00. Everyone brought stuff to eat and drink and we all hung out on the beach and chatted for about an hour and a half. Then, some people went to dinner at various places. We were pretty full, so we walked around the few shops that were still open and got some gelato. I think this was the best gelato so far on the trip. Since there was no computer capability at the hotel, I was really itching to at least check email, so we went in to this internet café and paid 1,50 euro for 10 minutes of time on their computer. Unfortunately, it was really slow, so I only had time to read a couple emails and respond really quickly. That was it for the night. We headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before heading out for Switzerland in the morning.

Day 16 - Rome to Cinque Terre

Breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 and left for the Cinque Terre on the bus at 8:00 AM. It was Sunday so the streets of Rome were quiet and uncrowded. We headed out and I must say I was looking forward to getting back out into the countryside. We rode up the west coast of Italy, seeing lots of beautiful scenery along the way. We stopped for lunch at a scenic ancient town up on top of a hill, called Massa Marittima. It was a really beautiful little town with a lot of sidewalk cafes and little shops, all located in buildings dating back to the 1200’s. We had pizza for lunch again, but this time, Jamie’s pizza and my pizza were made into the shape of hearts! We hadn’t seen that before. I may have to show that picture to the DiLorenzo people and see if they can start doing that! Of course, I had to get a small gelato, also!

After lunch, we headed toward the Cinque Terre. On the way, we stopped at a rest stop, from which we could see (across a field) the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We could see it with the naked eye, but the bus driver had some huge binoculars, so we could all see the tower clearly. Now, we don’t have to go there because we saw it from the rest stop through binoculars. Knocked that out!

The Cinque Terre is a region on the coast of Italy made up of five little towns. Cinque Terre means “five lands.” They are considered to be a remote chunk of the Italian Riviera. The town where we stayed is called Monterosso al Mare. Took the bus to Levanto, the last mile or two consisted of hairpin turns before each of which the bus had to beep the horn to alert oncoming traffic. A couple of times, cars actually had to stop and back up so we could get through. At Levanto, we took a train for about 4 minutes to Monterosso al Mare. We checked into the Hotel Punta Mesco, about two blocks off the beach. The actual body of water is the Ligurian Sea, which eventually becomes the Mediterranean Sea.

We all ate dinner together that night at the Ristorante Belvedere, which overlooked the water and we sat outside. It wasn’t one of the included dinners, but we all decided to eat there together anyway. Jennifer had eaten there and was telling everyone about this big seafood thing they have there where they somehow cook all this stuff in a crock - mussels, shrimp, squid, and octopus. Maybe some other items, too. Not sure. Anyway, this thing serves four people, so eight of the people got two of these. Gary and I did not join in that! People claim the octopus was really good, but not the squid. I couldn’t tell you because I was not brave enough to taste any of that stuff. I had some kind of fish with potatoes and it was ok, not very fabulous. Gary had some pasta and french fries. I know, doesn’t really seem to go, but they were really good fries. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. It was very pretty walking back with the moon shining on the water inside the pedestrian tunnel that you walk through to get back, was a girl playing a flute. Really neat. We don’t get that kind of thing much in Conowingo.

No gelato after dinner.

Trip Day 15 - Rome

Breakfast in the hotel at 7:00. Headed out for the Vatican at 8:00 AM. Walked to the Termini metro stop and took the metro to the Otoviano stop. It is Saturday, so the metro was not too crowded. Had it been a weekday at that time, we would have been jammed in like sardines and that is prime pick pocketing situation. We toured the Vatican museum, which was very neat. There are 4 miles worth of exhibits. We hit the highlights. Next we went into the Sistine Chapel. That is a must-see sight. Pretty unbelievable. It took Michaelangelo four years to paint that ceiling. The walls are covered in paintings, also. It is supposed to be totally quiet in there, but it is impossible to keep all those people quiet. The guards are constantly requesting “silencio,” but it seems to just make people talk louder! One guy did get thrown out because he wouldn’t shut up. (not in our group, we think it was an Italian). After we toured the Sistine Chapel, we toured St. Peter’s Basilica.  Also, a must-see. There are tons of “paintings” in there, too, but they aren’t paintings - they are mosaics. They look like paintings. The Basilica is huge. I think they said it’s the largest church in the world. After St. Peter’s, we were on our own for the rest of the day.

Gary and I sat around Vatican Square for quite a while, resting our bones and people watching. Then, we walked around sort of looking for a place to eat. We ended up eating at a restaurant near the Vatican and were able to sit at a table on the sidewalk. It was very good, but when I came out of the ladies room, a busload of Italians on a tour had come in and they were all trying to use the two bathrooms that this restaurant had. About six of them (men and women) were standing in the little sink area, which might have been big enough for two people, when I came out of the bathroom. I had to shove through to wash my hands and then when I went out in the hall to go back to the table, they had the whole hallway blocked and were trying to cram more people into the little sink area! It was the most unbelievable experience I’ve ever been involved in. I don’t know what the purpose of cramming more people into that little area was, but they were intent on doing this! I couldn’t get down the hall to leave. I told them “I HAVE TO GET OUT!” and just shoved a couple of them aside! It had to be done because these nuts were not following any of the usual rules of civilized people! Ugh! Up until then, the day had been great and lunch had been great. It took a while to chill out after that!

So, we left there and figured we’d head back to the Otoviano metro station and make our way back to our hotel area. We went down to the station and were just about to put our tickets in the turnstile when Gary noticed a sign that said the line to the Termini station was not running and we’d have to take a bus. We went back up to the street and got on the bus, which was crowded and we had to stand, but it was ok. Well, the bus stopped at another stop and picked up more people and at this point, we’re packed in and actually jammed up against other people. They stopped the bus again and even MORE people got on. We were all the way in the back and then I was jammed up against the back of the bus and people were squishing me! It was hot, also! All I could see were arms because people had their arms up in front of my face holding onto the pole that I was squished up against on one side. This is not my preferred mode of travel. At the next stop, I decided I’m getting off no matter where we are. Not only was I starting to sweat, but I was afraid other people’s sweat was also getting on me! I yelled over to Gary through the crowd that we were getting off. We tried to get off, but the doors wouldn’t open because people were in the way! Well, I kept pushing the button that made that little ding noise to open the door and stating clearly to those around me that we were getting off, until finally, the people shoved back enough to get the door open! We went back to the hotel and took showers and washed the clothes we had been wearing to get everyone’s sweat and germs off of ourselves. What an afternoon! We ended up sleeping for a while since there have been a lot of days in a row of getting up early and going full blast until late at night and we had just had to do battle to get ourselves back to the hotel. I’m always tired after doing battle.



So, after catching up on some sleep, Jamie knocked on our door at about 7:30 and said people were meeting downstairs to go to the Spanish Steps and get some dinner. So we went on that outing along with seven others.. The Spanish Steps have a fountain at the bottom and it seems like a nice area. I will have to read up later to see what they are all about. We found a trattoria on the way back toward the hotel nd had another nice meal. I had ravioli this time and Gary had cannelloni. We also had roasted potatoes. Not many carbs in this meal! J Oh, don’t forget bread, too! At least my ravioli had spinach in it! There’s a veggie! On the way back from dinner, stopped and got gelato and it was a neat place where they were playing music that you couldn’t help dancing to. It was 80’s American music, so we were eating gelato and dancing around. Then we went back to the hotel to get some sleep and prepare to head to the Cinque Terre tomorrow (the Italian Riviera).

Day 14 - Florence to Rome

Breakfast in the hotel at 7:00. Headed out at 8:05 to meet the bus. Arrived in Rome about lunchtime, checked into the Hotel Selene. Once again, nice big rooms. Went out for a stroll, went to the Santa Maria of the Angels church which is near our hotel. It was designed by Michaelangelo. Saw a fountain in the Piazza della Republica. Had a quick lunch on the way back to the hotel to meet up with the group at 3:10.

We walked to the metro stop closest to our hotel (at which time I realized that we had left the camera back in the room!), got on and rode to the Colosseum. The Colosseum is a really neat sight to see. It was in use from the year 80 AD to the year 523 AD. That is pretty old! A local guide met us there and gave us a tour. For some reason, the cast of Cats was there performing some songs down on the floor of the Colosseum. That was pretty neat. Wish I had had a camera! (Actually, some folks in the group are going to give me their pics, so all is not lost.)

Then, we walked over to the Forum, toured around there with our local guide. Walked from there to the Pantheon. These are just sights that are hard to describe in a quick blog entry.

We ate dinner at a place called Dividum, which was located in the Piazza della Maddalena, near the Pantheon. Gary and I each had lasagna.

The group met back up after dinner at 9:00 in front of the Pantheon and we took an evening stroll with our guide, Jennifer. It was a nice warm night and Romans (and tourists) were out all over the place enjoying their Friday evening having dinner outside or just walking around. There was a club of some sort that had people spilling out the doors onto a square and all the people were really glamorous that were standing out there. These Italians are an attractive, well-groomed bunch for the most part. We stopped at several squares and several fountains, included the world-famous Trevi Fountain. Tons of people were there. That is one beautiful fountain. We all threw coins in. Supposedly, you are supposed to throw 3 coins in, one for luck, one for love, and one so that you will return to Rome. Well, I only had two small coins (the others were euros and I wasn’t going to throw in a euro!) so I figured I would throw in the coins for luck and love and if I want to come back to Rome, I will. I don’t need to throw a coin in for that! J We stopped at one of Rick Steves’ favorite gelato places, which of course, I can’t think of right now, but anyway, Jennifer sprung for gelato for all of us. Then we walked back to the hotel at about 10:30 to get some sleep before we leave the hotel again tomorrow morning at 8:00 for the Vatican.

Day 13 - Florence

Had breakfast at the hotel in Florence. Then we met up with a local guide at 8:30 and toured the Uffizi Gallery. This is the most famous Renaissance art gallery in the world. We saw things by Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli, Rafael, Titian, and more. There were paintings dating back to the 1200’s. It’s pretty unbelievable that these things still look so good.

After touring the gallery, we walked around Florence and crossed the Ponte Vecchio Bridge (a bridge over the Arno River). This bridge is lined on both sides with gold jewelry shops. Besides art, Florence is famous for leather goods and gold jewelry. Gary, Jamie, and I ate lunch at a little place called the Pitti Café. We had sandwiches with prosciutto, mozarella, lettuce and tomato on some really good bread. That was only 3 euros, not bad, but we made the mistake of not paying attention to the drink prices and ordered a medium coke for 6 euros (about $9!!). Oh well. It was a tasty lunch, though, and a nice place to sit down and rest with no table cover charge. Most restaurants in Italy have coperto, which is a table cover charge. You leave just a very minimal tip, but there is the coperto at most places.

We walked on to the Boboli Gardens and toured that. These are gardens that take you up to the top of a high hill where you can look out over Florence, as well as the Tuscan countryside. Very pretty! It made me wish that we were staying out in the country instead of in the city. It just looks like what you see in movies, such as “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Up on the top of the hill, there were about 15 girls, each with and easle set up, painting the scenery. They were studying abroad for the fall semester from all over the states. We talked to a couple of them and they were from New Jersey and Connecticutt. They were really loving Florence so far. We enjoyed the gardens because it was a nice change to get out of the crowded, bustling city atmosphere and hang out in a park-like setting. We probably spent an hour and half or two there.

We headed back to the hotel to rest up for a while. Then headed back out in the evening and walked thorugh the Mercado Centrale. This is an outdoor market where they sell leather purses and coats, scarves, a few shoes, ties, and other things. Gary was trying on a leather coat and the salesman told him to walk up the street to their store to get other sizes, so we walked up there. It was only about a one minute walk. Then, as we were about halfway to the store, we heard all this running and yelling behind us coming towards us from the direction of the market. We turned around and there were all these counterfeit purse guys running down the street with their purses, full speed, with the Florence police running after them. We jumped out of the street and up into the doorway of a store, although it turns out, we really didn’t need to because they stopped running just before getting to where we were. The salesman had also jumped out of the way, though, so I guess it was the thing to do! He said it happens every day. The cops pretty much just chased them out of the market, grabbing a few of their purses before they could run away. As soon as the cops quit chasing them and turned around to leave, those guys went right back to the market with the purses they had left. Gary tried on a few coats, but didn’t end up buying one.

We started looking for a place to eat and decided to eat at the same place we had eaten with the group the night before. I know they eat late in Italy, but thought that 6:10 might be late enough. It wasn’t, so we had to kill time until 7:00. We hit a few more stores (didn’t buy anything) and then sat in a square (Santa Maria Novella) and watched people. We met a family from Winnipeg, Canada, because the guy had on a Harley Davidson Firenze t-shirt (Firenze is Italian for Florence). We asked where the Harley store was and he told us, but he also told as the a t-shirt costs 39 euros (about $60!). We didn’t bother seeking out the Harley store. There was a set of little triplet boys probably about a year and a half old running all around the square and they kept us entertained most of the time. At one point, they were all licking a bench. The mother was really thrilled about this! They reminded me of Brad and Brett (Gary’s twin nephews for people who aren’t familiar with everyone) when they were little, except with one extra! At a little after 7:00, we went back to the restaurant and were just looking at menus when most of the group showed up there, also, so a couple people joined us at our table. The place filled up with two more Rick Steves groups and a few non-Rick Steves people. I had the gnocchi and then a roasted sea bass with peas. They brought my fish to the table intact. A whole fish - head, tail and everything. I was a little concerned (ok - a lot!) but then before the waitress served it onto the table, she cut the head and tail off and filleted it, placing the meat onto another plate. I guess they bring the whole fish out so you can see that you are getting a fresh fish and not some frozen pieces. It was pretty cool and I was SO happy to see that she was handling this! J That fish was awesome! (And I didn’t have to cut off the head and tail! Yay!) Gary had ravioli and chicken cacciatore. We then headed to Grom gelato place, which is written up by Rick Steves as the supreme gelato place in Florence. Well, I guess I have to say that I prefer the non-quality gelato. I got the dark chocolate gelato and it was just too chocolatey if there is such a thing.

We headed back to the hotel at this point, finally figured out how to use the phone card we had bought and called some folks back home and then hit the sack to get some sleep before heading to Rome the next day.