As soon as we arrived in Florence, we headed straight to our hostel…which was close, so that was convenient. We checked in, checked our e-mail on the free internet, and dropped our bags off. When I booked the room, the only thing available was a single room and I figured Mallory and I would just stay in there. Well, a single room was a single bed, so Mallory and I each had our own room, own computer, and own sink. After we got all checked in, we found out some sights to see and walked down the road. Surprisingly…we got some gelato. I got Fruito de Bosco and Limone, and Mallory got Fruito de Bosco and Pineapple. It was Deeeelious! We walked to Accademia di Belle Arti, where Michelangelo's "Statue of David" is, but the line was super long and we didn't have much time. So, we walked down the road to Piazza Duomo and the Battistero. The Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore was located there and was absolutely stunning. After that we went to Dante's house. Mallory is a big fan of his writings, so she was excited about that and then we headed through the area where the Galleria degli Uffizi was. The line was long too, and again..we didn't have much time. Afterwards, we walked over Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in Florence and the only one that wasn't bombed in WWII. It's sad to see that there could have been many more pretty bridges like that one. After we crossed, we made the long, steep walk up to Piazzale Michelangelo, where the other Statue of David is located. On our way up, we walked through two big gates, which were the old outer city walls of Florence. We walked up a TON of steep steps, but getting to the top and seeing the view was definitely worth it. The view from the top was of the entire city of Florence and was absolutely breathtaking. We took some pictures, got some postcards, and headed back down. The way down was a lot easier than the way up. We walked down and headed back to the area towards our hostel. We stopped at the Mercato del porcellino, which is the large boar with the golden snout. (There is a replica on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City)…this is the original, so it was really neat to see. We put money in and touched it's nose for good luck because after all of the little things that have gone wrong…we could really use any luck we can get for the last stretch of our trip. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped and ate in the area called Piazza de Pubblica…a big open area with street performers, a big carousel, and places to eat. We ate at an authentic Italian place, with a hot authentic Italian waiter…oh and the pasta was good too. After sharing a bottle of wine, Mallory and I really wanted to get on the carousel, but instead we settled for getting a picture with 5 authentic Italian cops and when the hot waiter saw us taking a picture with them, he was jealous and ran after us to take a picture with him. Luckily for him…he "twisted our arms enough" and we took a picture with him. ;) We started walking back to our hostel and decided to each get half bottles of wine at a liquor store. The nice man working, opened them for us. So I guess we were sweating or had some boogies hanging out of our nose because he threw in two FREE travel Kleenex packs. WTF? …strange, but useful! We opened our bottles of wine and headed down the street. Conveniently, there was a microbrewery on our map that the hostel gave us, so we decided to go there. It was called Mostrodolce Microbrewery. The first beer we had was very sweet and then Mallory found one that was called "Cristian" so we had to get that and it was really good. Who we think was the owner (Barbara), came down and sat with us and asked us where we were from. When we said United States and then Kansas and Missouri, she ran off and came back with a box. She opened the box and inside was tons of Boulevard loot! She told us that a man…Steve Mills…came into the Microbrewery in Florence, liked her beer, and sent her Boulevard hats, tee-shirts, and other stuff. We think we opened up the secret that Boulevard is in the business and looking at different breweries. After seeing the Boulevard t-shirts, we decided to get some of our own from Mostrodolce and Mallory really likes them because on the back is an elephant's butt. Ok, so the gelato place was conveniently located across the street, just staring at us…basically telling us to eat it…so we ran over, grabbed some and brought it back to the pub. After seeing a hot guy walk by, with little hesitation..Mallory ran after him. Unfortunately, he had to catch a train. We had a few more beers and decided it would be a great idea to order a pizza and with that many beers and wine in our system, we thought we had to do the whole authentic Italian sardine thing. What were we thinking? After Mallory took the first bite, we decided it would be the best idea to scrap all of the sardines off and eat the pizza anyway. The fishy taste was still there and not really mixing with the beer. After our brave encounter with sardines, we decided it would be the best idea to call it quits. One more beer and who knows where our confidence would have got us. When we got back, we tried to use our vonage phone, but no such luck. Instead, we resorted to drunk facebooking. Bad idea. We went to bed and got up in the morning, ate a good, free breakfast and hopped on the train to Rome.

Love and miss you all!

Sarah