Florence, Day 1

The flight from Zurich to Florence was less smooth than the Chicago-Zurich leg, but thankfully, uneventful. The flight was delayed due to mechanical difficulties, but we made it without a problem. Plus we got to board and deplane on the tarmac — exciting. Other good news: the flight attendants kept giving us real Swiss chocolate. Yum. (Swiss airlines, people. The seats were nice and the chocolate was amazing.

The Florence airport is maybe as big as Green Bay's "international" airport (and less pleasant-looking), but I managed to collect all my baggage and go through customs (a hallway marked "nothing to declare" and NO ITALY STAMP IN MY PASSPORT! *upset face*). I hailed a taxi (in very broken Italian, but Italian nonetheless!), rode into town and go to Hotel Duca D'Aosta. After figuring out the elevator (which is like those really old fashioned elevators in the movies, with two sets of doors to close), I finally got my stuff to my room on the 4th floor and proceeded to nap for 2 hours. Hurray for jet-lag. 

After my nap, I hunted down the other 5 ACM students in the hotel and the 6 of us hung out for the rest of the night. We went to dinner at a "Grillo Ristorante Pizzeria" and had margherita pizza and split a bottle of wine, toasting Italy and the semester. 

After dinner, we walked to the Duomo and took pictures, walked around the square and back to the hotel, drooling over gelato all the way.

Now to bed! But here's a stock picture of the Duomo, until such a time when I can add my own.