FLORENCE - Definitely not in Egypt anymore.

Ray here.  Sadly, I had to say arrivederci to my family in the Rome airport so from now on I'll be posting without them.  It feels strange to think that I won't re-Unite with Dave until I go out to Washington for his graduation in May.  But I'm sure he'll keep us informed with blog posts about kombucha and maybe the rest of his life as well, if we're lucky.  Anyway I left the airport and somehow found a train to Firenze. 

Italy!

Florence’s famous Duomo.

Not surprisingly, I found Italy very different from Egypt.  Most noticeably, everyone here is white.  Since I too am white, this means that no one comes up to me on the street and tries to sell me things.

But there were similarities.  Italy and Egypt both have awesome markets.  

Mercato Centrale. I bought dried kiwi.

And ancient ruins.

Roman Theater at Fiesole.

Exploring ruins in the rain with new friends, Meg from Minnesota (!) and David from Paris.

Proof that I was here and didn’t just steal these photos from the internet.

Love and the Ponte Vecchio

View From the top of the Duomo

View #2, a sliver of sun!

This is the low-season for tourism because it is colder and rainier.  But the tradeoff is there were no lines; sometimes we would have world-famous tourist destinations to ourselves.

One of the best things about Florence was the sites I’d stumble upon by accident

All roads lead to the Duomo...and then to Rome!

The Baptistery of San Giovanni

Apparently, this city is really into its art.  I took some in for good measure.  Check these two contrasting depictions of hell.  Personally I prefer the man-eating monster.

Fresco on the ceiling of the Duomo

Mosaic on the ceiling of the San Giovanni Baptistery

Now that I have checked Florence off my list, I head to Rome to rendezvous with my friend Laurika before heading to the Naples area to work on an organic farm.  Ciao!