Roma and Day Two Florence

Your kids have worked hard to see it all in the last two days. I'm very impressed with this group.

On day 2 in florence we woke up early and took a walking guided tour of Florence.  It is tricky because as the group slithers out into a single file line, stop lights jeopardize continuity.  Hall is usually at the front and I am at the rear, but my memory is not so good, and if he turns right I'm supposed to turn right with the receding, truncated lesser seven or so. Sometimes I turn left.  But not on purpose.  I should know the shortcut to the Academia or Santa Croce.  Anyway, it was at the crowded but awe-inspiring Piazza Signoria Square that Stephanie K., Melissa L. and  Becky M. just had to go the restroom.  Realizing that there are virtually no public WC's in Florence, I wisked them into Caffe Rivoire--a "view" cafe that serves the best Negroni's along with a view of Cellini's Statue of Perseus with the head of Medusa.  I told them to pretend the were high paying patrons and just walk straight back to the WC.  These girls can act--well, you know Melissa, don't you?  However, our heads were severed (ala Medusa) on return, we were now separated from the tour and had to settle for a foursome lunch.  We landed at a little stand once written up in Bon Appetite and got a picture with the brother-owners.  After that we fell into a protest against Berlusconi and the police and, we think, immigration laws.  (Sarah and Sarah's mom, Susannah filled me in later.) We felt very political and European so then decided we deserved to go shopping.  We lost Stephanie but ended up with Coach Hall and some others at a 60s pop vintage clothing convention.  Fun.  I bought a mod tie and an African movie Soundtrack cd while coach Hall bought a 70s funk cd--he mostly liked the cover.  Melissa bought a dress and Becky stayed disciplined.

I'll post photos later.

Yesterday we made Roma look small.  The kids had a great time conquering this little village. Basically I led 30 on the 90 minute Euro-star and then we split up only to keep running into each other all day.    Talk to your kid and get their story. I started with Devon and Daren at theSpanish steps.  We ran into Matt, Mike K., Patrick, Mickey, Michelle Yam., Jon, and Nicole at the Trevi Fountain and then nabbed Mike A., Spencer, Garrett, and Paul at The Pantheon.  I took them to my favorite piaaz place, ZaZa's. By the end--The Colosseum--we had picked up Em Res and Steph Hsu.  On the train back, Hillary told me that her group--Mona, Alexa, Michelle Young, and Neal did all we did plus The Vatican.  Kudos.  Rome in a day.  I think Chelsea, Cameron, Drew and Katie did the same.

Truly,

LV