Day 5. July 6. Roma/Firenze

We woke up early for our train and left for Florence. When I got on the train I looked through my purse and realized that one of the nutella packages had exploded. So we pulled everything out and had to clean it all. I started taking a nap but then I realized that I hadn’t seen my money belt. I was on the verge of tears, but Lindsey realizedthat I had dropped it on the floor by my seat. Ha! That was a relief. We got off the train and rolled our way down to our hotel, or the hotel we thought we would be staying at. Turns out, there was another study abroad staying there so they had us move to their sister hotel a couple of blocks away. This happens to be four beds in a crowded room with AC in the corner of the room, and when turned out in smells like a combination of mildew and smoke. Just a little bit different from out hotel in Rome. Ha! It works out just fine though. We started another tour with a new tour guide, Tonya. She took us on a walking tour of Florence.She gave us some information on some of the places but a lot of the tour was spent helping us get our bearings. We went to chapel called Santa Maria del Carmine. Like many of the chapels it had some secret entrances where women could come in and worship at the nearest chapel because they were rarely seen in public. Each block became its own little fortress and they had towers where they could guard themselves against other neighborhoods who may attack. These also had passages up above the street so they could escape from one home to the next if need be. We walked around and then walked passed the Duomo and then we had free time. So the five of us again went to dinner and this little restaurant up the street and ate. That has been the best meal I’ve had this far. It was great we all got pasta or lasagna. Tonya had told us about a great gelato place called Grom. This guy only uses fruits that are in season because he has an orchard where he grows all of his fruit. I got raspberry, lemon, and peach. It was fabulous!