Florence

florence was pretty boring. an average day there went as follows:
wake up at 9:30
walk around the gray, cold city a couple of times(its quite small)
do some "calorie-burning" by walking up the lookout hill over and over(nik's idea)
buy groceries for dinner (couscous, veggies, box of wine)
cook...eat...
watch the featured film at our hostel.
try to stay up til 11:00
go to bed at 10:30

a couple of honourable mentions are seeing michaelangelo's david, having a sauna, pool, steam room, and gym in our hostel, and trekking through rain, puddles and the dark streets of florence late at night to buy a chocolate pie, to satisfy "someone's" chocolate craving. i think the best memory of florence happened on the day we left. the plan was for us to head into the cinque terre(a group of five small fishing villages on the coast of italy, very beautiful, highly recommended to us), spend the day, then end up in nice, france at night. once we got to la spezia, the station from which to catch the cinque terre train, it was pretty cold, and we couldn't figure out how to use the luggage storage maintenance shed/sketchy room thing properly. so, we just went straight to nice. the funny thing is, my last backpacking trip to europe, i did the exact same thing; went to the cinque terre, saw that it way a little rainy, and just left, heading straight for rome. i'm 0 for 2 at cinque terre. guess its just not meant to be. anyway, we're in nice now, its nice. seriously, its beautiful here, so much to do, and we're staying at the best hostel we've ever been to(its rated one of the best in the world). we plan on staying a few extra days than originally planned, but we'll keep you posted.

bye.

stikki.