Around the World in 26 Days

What an adventure this morning was. We started off the day not really knowing the best route to get to church, but then Dan discovered that the best way would be to take the train, which we did - except a small group of us got separated from the others and ended up on an earlier train. None of us knew the address of the church, so we wandered around for about half an hour, getting as lost as can be. Katy eventually found wifi on this random street corner (she said she prayed in Italian) and we looked up the address for the church. However, google maps gave us the completely opposite directions from where we were really supposed to go. By going this way, we did meet up with this one guy and asked him where the street was. He said he had never heard of it before, but told us if we wanted to go to church, it was only down the street. That was a Catholic church, so we just said ok and walked on, still completely lost. We walked for about 10 more minutes and ended back on that random street corner where, lo and behold, we met that guy we had run into earlier. He had run to track us down and told us he remembered the street and gave us directions. We were about half an hour late for church  already, but we decided to go ahead and try one last time using the directions this man gave us. We walked that way and still felt really confused until we spotted a little Peruvian man in a white shirt and tie passing us. Michael did a double take and asked if he was Mormon. He said yes and led the rest of the way! Crazy, huh? All those events just coinciding, making sure we ended up at church. (I should probably explain what a trop tard is, too. In France there were these movie posters up EVERYWHERE for this movie called "Trop Tard" starring Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks. I think it's called Larry Crowe in the U.S. We found out it means "very late" in English, so we call someone a trop tard whenever someone is late. Cause it sounds so ridiculous in English, haha.)

Our hero! He told us his name was Victor Hugo.

Anyway, church was really good even though it was so hot and I couldn't understand a word. The Italian language is so beautiful. Even the hymns sounded much better :)

After church we were all hardcore craving McDonalds, so we took a bus to it and got some lunch. It's really interesting how they cater to each country. In Switzerland and France, they had Magnum McFlurry's and mayo fry sauce, among other things, and here in Italy they have Pistacchio and Hazelnut McFlurry's. The hazelnut was so good. Nothing better than a mediocre hamburger to remind you of home :)

Then we finally went inside the Duomo, which was really pretty but not as neat as St. Mark's, in my opinion. We heard the top of the dome was much cooler, but it cost 15 euro and since everyone was running out of money, we decided to skip it. Next time, maybe :) It still amazes me how intricate these beautiful buildings were built so long ago. Everyone had talent back then, it seems like. The gates of paradise on the other side of the Duomo are unreal.

The gates of paradise depict various biblical stories and historical figures. My favorite was the depiction of the taking down of the wall of Jericho, on the 3rd down on the right.

After the Duomo we just went shopping at the markets where I bought a sweet Venician mask and a magnet because I collect them :) I'm getting better at haggling. The masks were marked for 12 but I got them down to 8... she really wouldn't go any further. Practice for China!

my new mask!

this really cool shop with leather bound journals and wax stampers. We convinced Michael to get one with his initials so his future fiance can stamp wedding invitations, haha.

I love this river

Pitti Palace

After that we chilled in the hotel for a bit to cool down and then went to our last dinner in Italy! I got pizza but I tried everyone else's meals, and they were delicious, of course. You can't go wrong in Italy :) After dinner I guess Dan stepped on Brook's foot and ripped off her toenail. The girl was literally on the ground while everyone's trying to remedy her foot, but that didn't stop this Italian man from trying to sell roses to us the whole time. He was pretty persistent. Later, when we were eating gelato at a place about 10 minutes away, he showed up again! It was super creepy. But the gelato was seriously the best I've had. I got raspberry and dark chocolate. It was almost too good for words.

We're in the middle of a crisis, but apparently it's the right time to buy roses!

I'm going to miss Italy so much! It's definitely one-of-a-kind. One thing I found is that the Italian people are generally friendlier than those in France or Switzerland, but are more likely to find ways to rip you off. Today at one gelato stand they totally hid their smallest cup size behind all the others and got mad when I demanded that one. Too bad I know thier tricks :)

But tomorrow I'm headed for China, and that's going to be even more of a new cultural explosion. Get pumped!