Hey Everyone!

It's been a while since many of you have heard from me, so I thought it was about time to let you know that I am still alive, and so you are now on my massmail! Eventually, things should become more interesting as I start travelling, but for now I will tell you what I've been up to until now After leaving Toronto on July...28th, I think, I landed in Paris with my bike and a 32 kg suitcase...not the easiest combination of things to carry! My cousin (whom I barely recognized) picked me up at the airport, and took me to my grandmother's house, where I stayed for two days before hopping on a night train for Florence(1st class, 40% discount, only two people in the room including me....champagne and peanuts at night and coffee and croissant in the morning. Not too shabby!). Having arrived at 7:45 am in Florence, I dropped off my luggage at the train station, and went right away to my Italian course. Jet-lagged, tired from not sleeping well, tired from carrying a suitcase and a bike box too far, I wasn't able to really understand what the Italian Instructor was saying!

Life is going on normally, I'm sort of settling into a rhythm. Waking up early to go to Italian school, then working in the afternoon (delivering brochures to hotels for a tour company). I also do bike tours on the weekends! That's the fun part!

Florence is a really beautiful city. The Duomo (a cathedral with the BIGGEST ancient dome in the world) is amazing, and there is SOOO much art here. All the houses are yellow, by law! There are so many 500-900 year old buildings too. And they're REALLY nice inside. I've seen paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raffaello, Donatello...all the Ninja Turtles, really. Not only the city is great, but the countryside surrounding it is amazing as well. The Tuscan Hills are beautiful. Wine is cheap, and if you know where to go you can get some amazing meals for very little too. The bread is generally very bland, since they don't use any salt usually. And the coffee....yum! and cheap too! And finally, I've been eating Gelati at the best Gelati place in the city every day...it's SO good!

I unfortunately don't have a digital camera, so I can't show you any pictures. Maybe if I save up enough money (HA-HA), I will be able to send pictures. If not, you may be subjected to long slide shows of my trip when I get back! Muahahahahaha! (Or click on the picture links below.)

The Italian vendors and workers are generally not very helpful, if you're male that is. If you're not, it's very easy to get discounted and/or free meals and other things. The guys here are very open and forward...including that old weird gay guy at the bus stop...bleh. The women are not so forward, but then I haven't gone out too much. I haven't really been out at night, since I'm usually pretty tired by then, and I don't have enough money. Night clubs are apparently very very expensive. Some friends from school went to one where a drink costs 20 euros!! Insane. Anyway, i've gotta get back to class...i've been in the bathroom for 40 minutes. I hope everyone is doing great back in TO...where the weather is nice and cool compared to here! (35 degrees on a reguular basis, with blazing sun. bleh) Cheers! Marc