November 17, 2006

  • I tried to watch a Travel Channel show on Florence yesterday.  I had to turn it off after 10 minutes, I was so digusted. 

    To start off with, the lady was just annoying and said that shopping in Florence was more important than seeing the art & history, but then she wouldn't drop 1500 Euro (~$2000 USD) on a suede Ferragamo blazer.  Hello!  That is a good deal, especially for Italy, especially for Ferragamo!  Some shopper she is.  (Not that I dropped 1500 Euro on anything while I was there, don't get me wrong!  I stalked museums like no one's business.) 

    Next issue: she had a hotel room with a balconey overlooking the Arno, so they walk out on the balconey, pan the river, and she gushes about how gorgeous it is.  No.  The Arno (the part that flows through Florence, at least) is gross.  It is brown and polluted and yucky.  It is not pretty.  Neither are the facades of the buildings that line it.  They are plain brown; nothing spectacular.  They are gorgeous inside, for sure, but you can't see the inside from your hotel.  Here is a photo I took of the Arno...

    Arno River

    ...ok, so that kind of looks pretty.  Chalk it up to my excellent photography skills...ha.  Really, I promise.  It is ugly.  (For Italy at least...)

    Lastly, they kept showing pictures of people around the city, most of whom were obviously tourists.  Why show pictures of Americans when you are in Florence?  The Italians are so much more beautiful!  She also recommended wearing flat comfortable shoes - no high heels - while the camera showed all these people wearing ugly shoes.  Sure, wear ugly shoes if you want to stick out.  The Italians don't own ugly shoes.  Wear the nicest ones you can stand to walk in all day long.  Or buy some there.  You still won't have the prettiest shoes around.

    And that's enough ranting for tonight.  Alex & I went to the Women's BBall game this evening- lots of fun!  We won by 54 points, we got free Chick-Fil-A coupons, and we were totally on the big screen for like 15 seconds!!!  Luckily, you could not see that I had a GRE study book in my lap for time-outs and slow parts of the game!  I take the general GRE on Saturday, and after the Physics one, I could mostly care less.  The only studying I have done, in fact, has been at bball games.  Oops.    Unfortunately, I think I might be coming down with a cold...sore throat = uh oh!  Hopefully it will pass quickly - no time to waste in the next month!

    Ciao a tutti!  Have a wonderful Friday!!!