Italy. So hot right now.

The weather in Italy makes me feel at home... which is not a good thing when you're walking all over the place! Its hot, and there's no air conditioning in the hostel.

In a few words, Florence can be described as... dingy, pizza, leather, carnivale masks, gelato, cathedrals, and museums. That may sound like a lot, but for someone that's not too big of an art fan, paying €8 to go in a museum just isn't too appealing. And I wasn't allowed in cathedrals because I was wearing shorts because it was hot. Its a vicious cycle. Leather is a big deal here, and its pretty awesome for me walking down the streets and seeing rows and rows of purses. I hope I can come back to Italy for Carnivale one day, because attending a masquerade is an absolute dream of mine.

I got to go to an opera, too! My hostel kind of wrapped around a concert house, and there was like a balcony box in the middle of my room blocked by thin drywall and two locked doors, but there was a hole in the dry wall and you could see large frescos on a wall. The walls were so thin that you were basically sitting in the opera house listening to a beautiful voice and piano.

Took a train to Venice today and met two nice Irish boys that I explored the city with. Venice is exactly how you would imagine it. With gondolas paddled by guys wearing striped shirts and hats, with canals a plenty, with houses that kind of look dingy, but beautiful at the same time, and with winding cobblestone streets of varying widths. Its a cool place, and
I may have been more inclined to do some more widened exploring if I wasn't dying of heat stroke. The buses and taxis are boats, and supposedly the city is sinking because the wood is rotting because the water is being polluted, not because the water is rising. Iiiiinteresting, huh?

Gelato here is better than anywhere else in the entire world. And cheap. Just like Guinness is better in Ireland, but for some reason its more expensive than in the states...

To Roma tomorrow to see the Pope. He comes out of his hole every Wednesday! AND Eclipse is out tomorrow!!!