We just arrived at our hotel in Florence after an hour and a half of searching the streets in vain (we missed the damn thing by one measly street). Here’s a tip for all you potential European travelers: Get very specific directions. Even if you have a decent map assume that a drunken madman drew it and you’ll have prepared yourself for the worst. I believe the saying goes: hope for the best; prepare for the worst, right? Bullshit. Hope for the mediocre; expect disaster. That’s my motto.
I’m sad we left Venice. I could have stayed there for quite a while and been very happy. You know the first thing I noticed about Florence when we got off the train? Cars. Lots of them. There weren’t any in Venice, and I didn’t miss them at all. Our little apartment in Venice even had a clothes washer. Can you believe that? For less than the price of a hotel room we had a one bedroom apartment with a fully stocked kitchen, an enormous bathroom, a washroom, and a living room with two couches and an entertainment center. The only bad thing was that it didn’t have a clothes dryer, but we used the clothes line which spanned the two buildings. Just like real Venetians. I felt so European. And yes, those are my underwear. Hey, life’s too short for tighty-whiteys, okay?
The other thing I loved about Venice was that dogs and cats were allowed everywhere. In shops; in restaurants; on the streets; on the water taxis. Anywhere peoples could the doggies can go, too. Surprisingly, all the dogs were well-behaved. You don’t see that a lot in the States. Most people seem to think of their dog as some kind of accessory instead of an animal in need of love and training. They buy’em then lock’em up in the backyard, and then have the audacity to act surprised and annoyed when someone tells them that their dog acts unruly.
Well, tomorrow we start our tour of Florence. Thanks to Anniina we have an excellent guide from which to work. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Oh, almost forgot. I added some more pictures to flickr, but no link dump tomorrow. Sorry. I’m too tired.
Oh, the reason you didn’t have undies comments was I somehow had missed the whole post. Well, thank you for sharing your undied with us, very good of you 😛 And I’m in total agreement – tighty-whiteys should be left for the grade-schoolers – real men should show some flair in their underwear selections.
Ciao,
A