Toscana: Part 2

My host mom and sister had lived in Florence before moving to Palermo, and a benefit aside from knowing the city, and having relatives who make delicious food in the area, is insta-friends! I got along really well with friends of my host sister, seeing as we are the same ages. The second night in Florence we had dinner with two other families, one being half American, half Italian, who spoke English with such perfect American accents I thought they had lived there all their lives. We helped one of the Italian girls with a Christmas wordsearch for her English lesson, and quizzed her on the meaning of words such as "dancer" and "sack of toys". I was asked to describe "prancing", to which I promptly responded "you know, prancing!", and waved my hands in front of myself in a way that can only be described as prancing. This answer, however, was not satisfactory, so they asked the Italian-American mom, who immediately did exactly as I had done. Try it some day, folks. Go out and ask random people to describe prancing. I was crying from laughing so hard.

I also took a walk around where we were staying, as I was still super pumped on the snow, and I love walking and being outside.

My host sister and I did the tourist thing again, and went to the centre to check out a few more interesting sites. First, however, we came across this stone dragon in the horticultural garden.

And here's another photo of the cathedral and bell tower, this one with me in it, cause, you know, a photo without a person in it is a postcard.

Next up: Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge)

Just kidding. My host sister was saying "ok, you can see the old bridge from here," so I got out my camera and took a photo, thinking, "this looks like all the other bridges". Then she said, "No, that one, over there". Right. (Remind anyone of anything? "Uncle Geoff, be sure to get the whole lighthouse in the picture".) In my defence, the old bridge doesn’t really look like a bridge. It looks like buildings.

The bridge is covered with jewellery and art shops, and on one side there is a corridor to connect two old palaces. It is also the only bridge not destroyed during world war two (which is why all the other bridges look the same, they were rebuilt at the same time). This is the narrowest point of the river, so it’s believed that this point was used originally by Romans for a bridge, before being used again by other peoples. The bridge has been swept away and rebuilt several times, and was damaged in the flood of 1966.

Me sitting on bridge I thought was Ponte Vecchio, actual Ponte Vecchio in the background.

Standing on Ponte Vecchio (other non-Ponte Vecchio in background)

Me and the jewellery shops.