Torrente Ema

Had an early start back on the coach today after a really long day on the coach yesterday. We started the day by going to the leaning tower of Pisa! We had a solid 30 minutes to walk around and take pictures. Both Pearse and I were feeling like shit so we didn't put any effort into taking pictures of us holding up the tower or whatever else. The tower leans a lot more than I thought it did. I didn't know this either, but they've had to straighten it out a couple of times. We got back on the bus to go to Florence. I've been really excited for Florence because I've heard it's beautiful. I can now attest to that. It was almost 30 degrees out, which makes me like it even more. We went to a leather, gold, and silver store where we learned about Italian leather and how to differentiate real and fake leather. After their presentation, we left really fast, which is good because I probably would have talked myself into buying a chain or something. We went to go get a sandwich just down the road. Other than our bread being butchered and cut really thin, my sandwich was so good. It was prosciutto with truffle honey and garlic mayo. I absolutely destroyed it. You can't go to Florence without getting some gelato, so we found a store that was packed. There were too many flavors to pick from, so I asked the lady to just give me her favorites. Of course, the first one she scooped was peanut butter. I also got a pecan one, mango, and raspberry. Other than the peanut butter one, they were all delicious. You can definitely tell the difference between gelato at home and here. Maybe it's just biased lol. We walked around a little bit more before we had to get ready for the Tuscany dinner we paid for the other day. For me, this was the highlight of the day. It had a 4 course meal with wine. This restaurant is pretty much in this guys backyard. He sang opera for us with another guy on the piano. They played some songs that we could dance to as a group as well as some slow songs for couples to dance to. Pearse and I played rock paper scissors to see who had what role. I lost, so he was the lead. We were trend setters once we got up there dancing together. Other people went up with their friends for fun. Someone caught a cheeky little video of us dancing lol. The main course was a Tuscan tomahawk steak and potatoes! We've been talking about how we want a steak dinner since we got here, so it was much needed. All the food was so good and the wine was so tasty. The coach took us from the Tuscany dinner and into town, where it dropped almost everyone off. Pearse stayed back and went to the hotel to get a good nights sleep
cause he's sick. I went with the group to Florence's famous karaoke bar. I needed a few drinks for confidence, but I got up there and brought Canada to Europe. I started with Higher by Creed and followed it up with Rockstar by Nickleback. More people knew Rockstar for sure. I called it a night pretty early because we have another 8 am. start tomorrow. I walked back from the bar at 1230, not realizing it was almost a 1.5 hour walk. Halfway through the walk, I realized my phone was going to die, so I looked ahead at the directions and tried to memorize them. Luckily, it was basically a straight line the whole way because my phone did die. I'm so bad at directions, so I was worried, but somehow I actually found the hotel. Overall, it was a pretty chill day, but it was a really fun one ,Read more