Ohhh Hawaii. Is it cold there...

Hi again everyone!

The rest of Rome was incredible. We really loved that place. We saw all of the classic tourist things- The Trevi Fountain: 'The Lizzie McGuire Movie was filmed here!' were my first words. I guess it's better than my first words when we went into the Louvre. (ha, Tar!)... And also we saw The Spanish Steps, which were so cool. I love how there's like huge, modern buildings, and then right in the middle of it all there will be ancient ruins. And The Pantheon was pretty cool. That day, we got gellato (Tara found this place that had over 100 flavors, with SOY and YOGURT and everything!), and we've also drank LOTS of espresso. Lots! So delicious! On our last day, we saw the movie "Revolutionary Road", which sounds funny but it was SO refreshing. A movie, in ENGLISH. We knew what was going on!! And they had an intermission, which was just plain funny.

Italy is a really cool place. Definitely my favorite country so far. It's funny because you really can't say "Oh, the people are nasty" OR "The people are SO great!", because we've had both. Yesterday, we took a train from Rome to Florence, and we were so lost and late and desperate for help, and we ran up to this man who was helping people and begged him to help us, and he looked at us, looked at our tickets, and then walked away. SO rude!! But then on the train this adorable woman was going way out of her way to ask the ticket man questions for me because he didn't speak any English and Tara and I had no idea what was going on. So we've definitely had both extremes.

Europe has been really surprising in a lot of ways. One thing that really sticks out is the hilarious stereotypes that are totally fulfilled. I want to walk up to the young people on Vespas, kissing eachother's cheeks and saying "Ciao!" and just thank them for fulfilling my Italy fantasies! And the people in Paris really DO carry huge baguettes home. Everyone in Italy smokes, and they all smoke in your face. There are never less than 10 pubs in sight in England. It's hilarious! Another huge thing that Tara and I have noticed is how people eat here- and how on EARTH are Americans the fat ones?! Guys, Europe has some secret, because these people can EAT! Seriously, it's just insane, the people here think we're so weird because we'll eat a sandwich for lunch, or a salad for dinner. That's like, barely a warm-up for them. I don't understand it, because there are NO overweight people here! Tara and I are so surprised every time we eat out.

ANYWAY, Florence seems cool. We arrived in the late afternoon yesterday, and our hostel is cozy and cute. We just kind of walked around the area a bit last night and went to bed fairly early because the day was kind of long. It's amazing how much the personalities are grouped by country-- in England and Spain, everyone was "party party party!!!", but here it's a lot more laid back. It's kind of nice to be able to end the trip a little more relaxed, and actually be able to re-energize at the end of the day.

Today I think we're going to check out the area around our hostel a little more (there's lots of markets and cute stores). There's only a few things we REALLY want to see here, so I think we'll be relaxing and going to markets and stuff. Should be cool! Then it's off to Venice, and then back to the states. It's funny, we both have little lists of things we're excited for- Acai! Communication! Beaches! TVs in English! People NOT hating me! Breathing air that isn't cigarette air!

All for now, more soon. See ya!

Ems xo