Meanwhile, Nick and Jen wandered the grand old city, finding the Ponte Vecchio much less smelly than in the olden days (it used to be a butcher’s market) and about three million times more expensive (its now primarily a jewelers). In time to bridge the gap ‘twixt morning and afternoon, they found some lovely groceries before meeting back up with Greg and Katie.

In the afternoon, we took a trip up the hill to Fiesole [fee-ay soul-ay], once a great Roman settlement, later a city that literally and politically overshadowed Florence below. There’s a Roman amphitheater there that we wanted to see, but the ‘student discount’ admission was still exorbitant so we skipped it and settled for a few peeks through the wall.

Then we had lunch just as thunder sounded and the skies opened up. Truly, the weather has been quite cooperative for this trip, with only a couple spots of rain. Certainly better than the snow we’re expecting on landing in Detroit.

To say the cafe had a great view would be like saying Michelangelo was pretty good at pencil drawings. Once the American sorority girls in the next table left, it was awesome, and totally justified the €7,25 drinks.

Once the rain broke, we climbed up the rest of the hill to see some more great views and the convent at its peak. On the way down, we wished it would start raining again to relieve the heat and sun as we searched for a bus stop to take us back to Florence.
Evidently, a Royal Carribean ship was docked nearby today (isn’t that a bit off course?), ‘cause we saw about fifty gajillion tour groups with earpieces and the works. You can always tell who the Americans are…(ourselves included).
Katelyn and Greg headed off for their turn to see the Ponte Vecchio. They sat and ate Nutella and breadsticks while watching as the jewelers closed up shop one by one. Back at the hotel, we hung out and gave Limoncello a try, mixed with Sprite. We made a small dent in the bottle, but Jen will be taking most of it home for us to finish back Stateside.