Tuesday April 12th ~ Its Raining Drunks

After being lost for hours in Florence the other night wehad seen a tiny adorable boutique, which we were determined to find again. We decided the best way to find it was to try to get lost the same way we had been lost that night. This was a simultaneous failand success. We definitely got lost, but we did not fun our store. Instead,we were the great kind of lost where we come across a huge amazing market. Browsing through market stand after market stand occupied our entire morning as we planned all the things we would buy our friends and fam and ourselves if we had the money and the room. The leather here is amazing and the people are friendly and lively. We are seriously just soaking up the vibe and loving it. Lonely Planet says we have to eat gelato here, so we did. As we indulged in pistaccio flavor topped with a mouintain of sweet mousse, we sat in the sunshine in a big plaza here and watched children on the beautiful carousel and listened to a guitar player seranading the busteling area. Making the most of cultural week we walked to the Uffizi museum, very cultured of us, we know. We stood by a seriously oddball Irish family whose trip looked like the father and daughter ganging up on the mother...awkward. Although the line was long there was plenty of peopole watching and evesdropping to keep us occupied, especially when aSpanish woman erupted on the museum employees about how long she had been in line for...we thought that was how lines worked but what do we know. Museum summary, the building was beautiful, Renaissance art is def not our favorite...madonna after madonna painted in similar styles...but at least we feel cultured. Jen is starving (huge surprise) and so we stop for sandwiches and we munched as we made our way back to the hostel, wandering out of our way still on the hunt for the missing boutique, which had obviously vanished. It had to be nap time by now so we checked back into our hostel, decided we needed more time in Florence, and took a snoozer. Then it was out for a slice of unbelievable italian pizza on the steps of the Duomo. We have never seen so many people unconcerned with the presence of other people or drunk shenanigans in one place. Hammered students, mostly American, screamed and yelled and Spanish girls stumbled down the street trying to carry their collapsing friend before giving up and all deciding to lay rightin the middle of the road. Football fans shouted and danced through the plaza after a win, couples turned on the PDA, people were introduced to friends, goodbyes were had, crazies strolled by, men escorted their dates, all the while we watchedand munched on the most delicious pizza we can recall. As the rain started pouring down all these people scattered and Kelly gracefully bit it on the slippery Duomo steps before we headed home, drenched but super happy. We have some epic life talks and a kind of friendship that is more sisterly than anything. Just another thing on our list of things to be grateful for.