Italy part 2: Florence!

An accidental photograph taken by my camera while I was photographing one of the canals that we were lost near (which is the picture below. We walked along that bridge, and it's all stores! Mostly jewelry.)




I'd been really looking forward to Florence, simply because the group that had gone before us had raved about it, saying it was the best part of Italy. It was pretty, but actually kind of boring. Other than shopping (which we all did too much of simply because there wasn't much else to do) we just walked around a lot. And got lost. A lot.
My destructive luck struck again when it finally became clear that my suitcase could make it no further. The wheel (and the whole corner that the wheel was attached to) had completely broken off, and the whole bottom seam was undone. At that point it would have been easier to simply make a new suitcase out of duct tape than it would have been to repair this one. Luckily, while Rachel and I were lost and wandering around, I found a new one! Which I bought, dragged back to the hotel, and am now in the process of destroying (although hopefully not before I make it back to the States).Florence was where we lost Emma. Our walking entertainment, she unfortunately was the victim of our trip (one person having been basically killed off on each trip) and was hospitalized with appendicitis, so she not only lost one her appendix, but one of her fallopian tubes as well, and had to stay behind in Florence, in the hospital. Luckily one of her parents flew in to stay with her, but we're very sad that she missed the rest of the trip and might not be able to return to Cyprus at all.

On a happier note, we also saw the David. Apparently he's known as the most beautiful man in the world. It figures: the most beautiful man in the world is made of rock. At least that means he's aged well, right?
Florence is where we basically got accosted by a bunch of Italian boys who barely spoke English, but were determined to flirt with us. One of them spoke Spanish though, which I could understand, so the entire time we were all talking, it was a confusing babbled combination of English, Italian and Spanish, which resulted in me NOT giving out my phone number, but smiling and assuring them we'd probably bump into each other again, which we did... five minutes later.
One of them wanted me to take a picture-- well, that's what he SAID, because his English wasn't very good, but what he wanted was a picture WITH me, which I conveniently misunderstood, instead staying firmly BEHIND the camera. Rachel obliged him though, and he didn't even seem to notice her lovely smile. Ah yes, Italian boys.
While the Italian boys are harmless little flirts, what you DO have to look out for are the statues. Living statues. Throw a coin in the box at their feet and take a picture with them: They're statues so they're not supposed to move, right? Apparently the coin makes them sentient, and they will then grope you slowly and awkwardly while your hysterically laughing companion/photographer tries not to wet their pants laughing long enough to take the picture so you can run away and feel a little dirty. Great fun.