Phase 3 - Florence

OK.... We are currently in Florence so there may have to be another update after some more crazy/funny/ oh so Italian stuff happens. First and foremost, since we have traveled on Ryan Air more than a few times in the last week I feel obligated to mention a few things. First, while they are on-time they have carry-on baggage Nazis whose sole purpose in life is to keep you from bringing any bag on the plane. CB took one for the team and bore the brunt. After being undressed at security, where by the way they are so tight they actually hand write your boarding passes in Malta, we walked on the runway and were stuffed into non-reclining yellow seats designed for midget, primi babies. At 6' 2" I was not a happy camper! That said, all flights were relatively short and cheap, just not sweet.

One recommendation for traveling to many places in the same trip....save the nicest hotel for last, not the worst one... After staying across the street from a palm tree littered beach we arrived in Florence in a freezing drizzle in the middle of the night after a 70 minute bus ride from the Airport to our palatial Hotel Ferretti, recently upgraded from a half a star to an entire one star hotel. They are so nice here; they even let you pick up your own sheets and towels as you need them....who needs maids anyway? We could not have chosen a more academically stimulating hotel to write an Acquisition proposal for class.....

My sole concern this entire trip was where we were going to watch the Superbowl. I must say that the greatest news upon arrival in Florence was getting lost and accidentally walking by a bar with a sign stating their intention to play the Superbowl, even though kick-off would be at 12:30am. We ate, drank and showed up at 9pm to pre-game. After numerous drinks, shots, beers and verbal diarrhea from other drunk annoying American girls we were Superbowl satisfied.

More to come... (including some f'ing awesome pics!)