firenze

I've now slept for 5 hours since leaving so I'm very alert and awake and not at all grumpy! Actually, I'm really not grumpy - it's Italy, we're too "ciao" to be grumpy here. I arrived in Florence yesterday morning (i think) and I got into a cab to take me to my hotel. Now, the hotel is NOT a hotel, it's an apartment we are living in for a week, so all I had was an address. I got into the cab and said - "take me to Borgo San Lorenzo 13" - and I wondered if I'd really provided enough information that he would know where that is. We rode for a bit, zooming here and there and screeching to stops. then he stopped, in what looked like the middle of an open-air market and said "this is as far as we can go in a car, the road you want is down there on the left." Great. But I found it, no problem. And what a nice apartment it is. Right near Duomo, a beautiful out-of-place cathedral. We can hear the bells and choir singers from the apartment. I gave my 'elder' co-worker the room with the view, but not without taking pitures out her window first. The rest of the apartment is quite nice a well - and my room is not too shabby.

In the evening there was a welcome reception at Palazzo Pitti, which was gorgeous - as a friend of mine said "this is like something you could imagine seeing in California, but instead of imitating Italian architecture it's the real thing". The food was good, although hard to get to, and the dessert was excellent. And the wine and champagne weren't bad either. I managed to round up the whole gang before the dinner was over - and then we took on the Florence night life. We ended up at a restaurant and convincing them to remain open just for us. It was a great night, although I didn't get home til 130 am, technically Monday morning - and I'd been up since Saturday, so i figured it was time to get some sleep. Good thing I had to be up at 630 for science!!