Buongiorno!!

Buona Sera! Hello from Italy! I am sitting in the lobby of my hotel in Florence and have an hour before I go to the train station to leave for Rome, so I thought I'd take a bit of time and post a few pictures. :)


This is the Piazza de la Repubblica (I think thats how it is spelled...) - The Republic Square. The carousel in the corner is really pretty and the architecture around the square is beautiful.This is a statue of a boar (I'm guessing you could've figured that one out on your own). It is a fountain and people put a coin in its mouth, let it fall out with the water, and then pet the nose for good luck. Me and my friend Ed in front of the Ponte Vecchio - the bridge in the background that goes over the river. There are a ton of gold shops and other little shops on the bridge and it has a great view once you're in the center.Buon Anno (Happy New Year)! New Years Eve riding the carousel just before midnight. New Years in Florence was like nothing I have ever experienced. Starting around lunchtime, people were lighting firecrackers in the streets...soooooo loud! It got more and more loud as the night went on. Then at midnight, the square went CRAZY!! People were lining the streets surrounding it and when midnight hit, everyone started spraying champagne all over everyone and there were so many fireworks lit that the piazza looked like it was on fire! A few little old men were brave enough (or maybe just drunk enough) to go into the center of the square and dance around while fireworks were going off all around them and people were throwing their champagne bottles in the center to make more noise I guess. This is a really bad picture from New Years, but this is a guy from Houston that I had to go all the way to Florence to meet! We've been hanging out a lot this week and on the second or third day, I found out that he's actually kinda famous...he's a NASCAR and Indy car driver named Larry Foyt. He's been out of racing for about a year because he broke his back in the Indy 500, so he's managing a team out of Houston and is hoping to get back into driving soon. Looks like I may have to become a NASCAR fan now.... ;)

Well, there's the Reader's Digest version of my trip to Florence. In about 2 hours I'll be in Rome! I get home on the 8th, so I'll post more then. Ciao!