Florence with Jim!

Okay, so I didn't realize that I could get internet access where we are staying right now - therefore, that wasn't my last update!

Anyway, Jim is here in Italy with me! It's been a lot of fun showing him the city. I picked him up at the airport yesterday morning!

We've done quite a bit in the day and a half that he has been here; got all of my luggage out of my apartment, went to markets, did the Uffizi gallery (his first, but my seventh time there!), walked around the city and my favorite stretch up and down the river, climbed the dome of the main cathedral, walked up to San Miniato al Monte, and went for aperitivos. I'm going to put a few pictures on Flickr, so look at those!

I'm leaving the city early tomorrow morning, so today was really my last day to see parts of Florence again. It's actually been really sad, I'm going to miss this place a lot. I find it different from leaving Neenah, because Florence, unlike Neenah, is so far away that I don' t know when, or even if I'll come back (although tonight I made sure to visit Porcellino, the bronze pig in Mercato Nuevo - you rub his snout for good luck, and feed him a coin to ensure your return to the city - so I should be covered (: ) But part of me really felt thing wrapping up, I finally climbed the duomo, went out for one last good bowl of Ribollita (Tuscan soup), and listened to the Monk's chant at San Miniato. San Miniato is the church with the enormous graveyard, and I have been looking for one specific grave since I first started going up there - that of Carlo Lorenzini, the author of Pinocchio. It became a bit of a challenge for me more than anything else. Today, on my last trip there, I wandered down a row of chapels that I had never been down before, as always, looking vaguely around for the name while admiring the beauty and serenity of the cemetery. Suddenly, there it was, I stumbled across the Lorenzini Chapel! I couldn't believe it - it honestly felt meant to be.

That's about all I have to say for now, but tomorrow morning we leave for Rome! Can't wait to see everything there....

See you all soon!