The Aussies had woken me up during the night when they'd arrived home, and I'd really struggled to get back to sleep after that on the super flat pillow that I had that night. Nicole had snagged the bigger pillow, but even she had bunched hers up into a ball.Our room was still not particularly warm, despite having turned the thermostat up the night before. And the wet spot on our carpet still wasn't dry.
The wifi was still working, at least, so I took the opportunity to upload more photos. As I was checking the previous photos I'd uploaded, however, I realised that some of the captions I'd written late last night as I was nodding off were actually illegible. One of them read "woo < yay!" and another was something like "three dimensional wall water." So I deleted those and uploaded them again with proper captions. Should it happen again, sorry about that! Lots of late night photoblogging for me! (At least I didn't fall asleep on my iPad again, right?)
Nicole took her last antibiotic and is finally doing much better, but I still nagged her about drinking orange juice at breakfast. We alternate the juice with the outstanding Italian coffee. I want an espresso machine, seriously. I've never been big into coffee before, but the Italians have sold me on it! My in laws have a spare Nespresso machine, so maybe I can sweet talk them into letting me borrow it...
It is going to be a rainy day in Florence, so I'm glad that we are leaving it behind and heading to Rome. The ride so far has been interesting to say the least. Enzo is very much an Italian driver (the kind Joey likes to complain about). I isn't a bad driver by any means, but the ride is not quite as smooth as when Joey is behind the wheel. He's even already hooted at another driver that cut in front of us without signalling. It's been interesting.
On the drive out of Florence, Kaylee decided to join us at the front of the bus. She spent a good deal of time attempting to put one of the puzzle rings together before eventually giving up. Jen, meanwhile has been doing admin, helpfully marking our maps of Rome so that we know where our meeting points are and where some of the major sights and shopping streets are. She's been a real star when it comes to that. She's a great tour operator.
Kaylee shared some vitamin c lozenges with us as well as some carrots so that we can be a bit healthier than we have been. While eating the carrot, though, Nicole's retainer came loose on one side at the bottom of her mouth. It's not really a problem because the retainer should've been removed years ago, and was bound to come loose sooner or later, but it is going to cause Nicole a bit of irritation for the remainder of our tour until she can get to a dentist back home and have it taken out.
We made a quick stop at a service station for lunch, where Nicole had to eat her focaccia with a knife and fork because her broken retainer was irritating her so much. We also had more cappuccinos to follow lunch. While the coffee in Italy is delicious, they don't serve it very hot. You can literally start drinking it from the moment it is served without burning your mouth. You actually have to start drinking it as soon as it is served or it will get unpleasantly cold. It actually gets cold pretty quickly, partly due to the fact that it's winter here but also because they serve you such dainty portions.
After that, we were off to Rome where we seriously hit the ground running. We started off at the Colosseum, where we took some really awesome photographs. After that, Jen took us on a walking tour that included all the main sights of central Rome, such as the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain (where you could throw one coin over your shoulder to return to Rome, two to find or keep love, and three to marry an Italian - guess how manyI threw?), and the Pantheon. We ended off at the Christmas markets where we had some super delicious gelato. It was so yummy.
The Christmas markets in Italy are the most child-centered ones we have seen so far. There are lots of toys as sweets available for sale, as well as carousels and the like. There were also tons of Christmas ornaments for sale, which thrilled Kaylee. I bought some more licorice, which I still don't like here, so that will be the last of my money that I waste on that. Quite a few stalls have also been selling the Christmas witches that deliver toys to good little Italian children. Most of them are really cute, but one guy was selling bunch whose eyes glowed red and would cackle when you clapped your hands. It was pretty creepy.
After that, we had a long, hard walk to the restaurant back near the Colosseum, where we were served salad and then one seriously amazing lasagne, in true Italian style. That was rounded off with pannacotta, which was a great end to a long day. Jessica, the vegan, had an interesting meal of salad, cold vegetables, and then an orange. She has a great sense of humour, though, and took it all very well, even when the orange was basically chucked at her.
It's strange, but it seems as though the service we receive at the meals that are included in our tour is almost resentful, as though they don't actually want to serve us. At the optional dinners or the restaurants we go to ourselves, I haven't experienced this, but it happened in Nice as well where the waitress almost chucked plates of food at people while she was serving them. Nicole thinks its because the whole meal has already been paid for, including the service charge, so they don't need to make an effort.
Enzo was waiting for us after dinner. On the bus, he appealed to our good nature and Christmas Spirit, asking us to donate charity to an organization that builds wells in Africa to support the communities there. Everyone made a small contribution, before getting off at the hotel.
When we finally got back to the hotel, the first thing most of us did after checking in was head back to the lobby to try and get our wifi working. I managed to get it on my cellphone without too much trouble, but my iPad just refused to connect. It was enormously frustrating. Some of our group decided to go drown their iPad sorrows, but Nicole and I headed to bed instead to catch up on some sleep. Hopefully I'd have better wifi luck in the morning!
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