Erin and Stephen in Switzerland
Erin, Stephen, and Auntie Gail.
Church/House in the wooded area where we walked.
Erin, looking down the stairs into Rome.
Colloseum as we walked to it.
Roman ruins/newer house (yellow).
Catholic Church, ballin.
Inside dome of the Pantheon.
Steve admiring the staff at fav restaurant.
Same picture from earlier (erin looking down the stairs), but at night on our way home. (awkward pic, Erin in her awkward tourist pose)
On the bridge walking to the Vatican.
Pizza at great pizza restaurant in Florence. Artichoke, olives, ham, and mozzarella.
Selection of goods from Florence market.
Hilar wall graffiti, in honor of Trina.
Steve cooking noodles with no stove, yes, we boiled water over and over to cook them, and it worked.
The Duomo in Florence, Dante Aligheri was christened here.
View of the market, walking up to it. The tent on the left is a restaurant that Erin got her Tiramisu.
Steve, creepily enjoying cappucino in the market.
Pigeons sharing pizza with Erin in the park.
Erin and Steve on the way to Piazzale Michelangelo at dusk.
View from Piazzale.
View of the river, with Ponte Vecchio behind us.
Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge, from Roman times, although its been rebuilt several times) during the day.Miniture Blog
1) The final day there began much like the second day, with a trip to the Market my fave because there are always samples offered and I felt like a true resider of Florence. We spent a bit more time in the market on this day, and picked up some oranges (.50 cents for 3) and then some fres
h basil and tomatoes (Steve got yelled at for touching the tomatoes-even though everyone else was handling everything-by the adorable old man whos stand we went to...he was so mad, hilar. With the noodles, cheese, basil, tomato combo, we had some delicious meals (far better than our usual noodles and cheese), and it cost us under 5 Euros, deal! After I got a cup o' joe and watched old italian men get both shots of espresso (with lumps of sugar) and Brandy drinks...apparently everyone in Italy (or at least at the market and in the surrounding restaurants) starts drinking at noon on Saturdays in the market, we proceeded to do our usual and walked the town of Florence. We went by and saw the Old Bridge, also went to see some of the free sites, including a plazza that had a bunch o' statues. Stephen tripped me up at least three times during this trip...he steps on the back of my feet about once an hour and then blames it on me "stopping in front of him"...then when I get annoyed, he trips me on purpose in front of people and laughs...you can imagine the aggravation haha. We also ended up in the official shopping district of Florence filled with such stores as: Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Tiffany's, Gucci, Burberry, you get the idea...we were out of our limit, especially dressed the way we were, Steve in a t-shirt, and me in shorts and a tank top. Anyway, we window shopped. Ohhh, and later that day, I got my parachute pants from a techno playing store (Steve snuck a video, hilar). Hooray!
h basil and tomatoes (Steve got yelled at for touching the tomatoes-even though everyone else was handling everything-by the adorable old man whos stand we went to...he was so mad, hilar. With the noodles, cheese, basil, tomato combo, we had some delicious meals (far better than our usual noodles and cheese), and it cost us under 5 Euros, deal! After I got a cup o' joe and watched old italian men get both shots of espresso (with lumps of sugar) and Brandy drinks...apparently everyone in Italy (or at least at the market and in the surrounding restaurants) starts drinking at noon on Saturdays in the market, we proceeded to do our usual and walked the town of Florence. We went by and saw the Old Bridge, also went to see some of the free sites, including a plazza that had a bunch o' statues. Stephen tripped me up at least three times during this trip...he steps on the back of my feet about once an hour and then blames it on me "stopping in front of him"...then when I get annoyed, he trips me on purpose in front of people and laughs...you can imagine the aggravation haha. We also ended up in the official shopping district of Florence filled with such stores as: Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Tiffany's, Gucci, Burberry, you get the idea...we were out of our limit, especially dressed the way we were, Steve in a t-shirt, and me in shorts and a tank top. Anyway, we window shopped. Ohhh, and later that day, I got my parachute pants from a techno playing store (Steve snuck a video, hilar). Hooray!2) That afternoon, we went to the Hostel to cook the noodles using the boiling method described earlier, and had a little planning session. We went out to get so
me Pizza from the same restaurant that our pictured pizza is from. We ate this in the park with the pigeons helping us, also featured in a pic. Steve put a piece right behind me, on my dress, to see if they would get it...they did. Pigeons are scary in big groups. One tiny bird even took it from Steve's hand (pic). We finally returned to the hostel to pick up our bottle of chianti (it was like 5 dollars (2.80 euro and was pretty good) by the way, because Chianti is really cheap here because its made in this region) and we headed to the Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the Tuscan sun set over Florence. We sat away from the actual plaza (because there were a million people as expected) on a ledge over a garden/orchard/vineyard of some sort where birds flew all around us, (I guess on their "evening flight" if that exists). There were so many and they darted up and down repeatedly and almost hit us quite a few times.
me Pizza from the same restaurant that our pictured pizza is from. We ate this in the park with the pigeons helping us, also featured in a pic. Steve put a piece right behind me, on my dress, to see if they would get it...they did. Pigeons are scary in big groups. One tiny bird even took it from Steve's hand (pic). We finally returned to the hostel to pick up our bottle of chianti (it was like 5 dollars (2.80 euro and was pretty good) by the way, because Chianti is really cheap here because its made in this region) and we headed to the Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the Tuscan sun set over Florence. We sat away from the actual plaza (because there were a million people as expected) on a ledge over a garden/orchard/vineyard of some sort where birds flew all around us, (I guess on their "evening flight" if that exists). There were so many and they darted up and down repeatedly and almost hit us quite a few times. 3) The final day, we had to "check-out" by 10:30 in the morning, so we packed and stored our stuff to wander around the city again before our train left. We finally went onto the Ponte Vecchio, which was nice, having shops and what-not. We had a hamburger for lunch, delish, and watched of what I can only assume were a group of about 7 early high school/middle school students (some still had braces and most were still very awkward) from America--very entertaining. One girl thoroughly overanalyzed her parents to one of the chapperones (which I'm sure her parents would appreciate). We then walked around that area of Florence for a few hours, returning to the hostel to cook the last of the noodles to have in our train ride. We left Italy at 3:30 that afternoon, not knowing that we would sweat off 30 pounds on the train.
4) The only thing to say about the train ride was that it was probably 110 degrees in the Train, surround by a bunch o' people, for 9 hours! If you tried to nap, you woke up literally drenched, I never thought I had that much sweat in my body, I figured that eventually it would dry up or something. Err also had her struggles, needing water asap I couldn't handle it anymore-I thought I wasn't going to make it, we wandered in the train to the dining car, and got bottles of water, that unfortunaly stayed cold for 20 mins. We then sat by the door the whole time, looking out of the window, which actually gave a great view of the Alps as we rode past.
5) We finally arrived in Switzerland again at 11:00 PM, a little late, only to run and catch our next train to Oensingen, getting on just about as the train was leaving. Of course Auntie Gail was there waiting for us, and we had a warm meal and some apple juice and slept very well, waking up 10 hours later ha. Desty (the adorable dog) was here waiting too, and she even showed her teeth when we got here. She shows her teeth (called laughing, which she was trained to do) when she's excited, so cute!
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