Florence, Italy!!

We left Rome this morning after breakfast. Breakfast wasn't nearly as exciting as before, because they were out of oranges for the freshly squeezed orange juice machine. Robby looked so sad it made all the waiters and waitresses feel bad that they didn't have any more oranges to give him. Jason was not pleased that it took us so long to get out of there, but 10a.m. seemed rather good to me, seeing how late we had come in last night and got to bed. We consolidated down to one large suitcase and two small suitcases holding dirty clothes in hopes that we can find a laundromat in Florence. All of our other luggage was left at the Holiday Inn Rome West hotel where we will be staying next week.

After our GPS navigator had been installed with the address of Florence (it would not register our hotel's address), we were off. This GPS navigator is a life saver here. There is no way we could have found our way, even out of Rome, without it. The drive to Florence was spectacular! It looks just like every postcard or picture or way I've even imagined Italy looking. It is so green and lush and nearly every home, village, etc. are built on a hill. It is so rare to see any flat land here. There are green rolling hills covered in trees, flowers, and just perfectly looking European homes everywhere. The highway was great. We were able to drive at about 70 mph I think--that is so great after being able to only go up to speeds of 40mph in Morocco. There were sheep, horses and cows grazing in many of the fields. Looking at how fat and happy they looked, I decided that any animal outside of Morocco is blessed. The people everywhere are so nice and friendly. It was such a fun drive. The kids were a little rowdy, but enjoyed a morning of non-sight-seeing. They played a lot of alphabet letter finding games and "what movie is this line from" games in the car. I'm not sure Vanessa would have made it without her ipod. She sings all the time and has such a beautiful voice.

We arrived in Florence and lets just say that the 9 passenger van that we rented was not made for these streets. They are just a little tiny bit wider than the Van! It totally freaked out poor Jason as he nearly ran over many people. The shops here are incredible and our hotel, Hotel Paris, is just down from the Florence Chapel, so Jason was overjoyed! We are also right by the bridge where there are shops built all along it, and I can't remember the name right now. We spent a lot of time at both of these places, ate ice cream, were congratulated by no less than 10 people for having five children, and then at dinner at a perfect Italian restaurant--the kids had their regular: spaghetti with butter and Parmesan cheese only for the 3 little boys, pizza for Mitchell and Spaghetti with meat sauce for Vanessa and Mitchell (each of the boys, except Will required 2 servings today--man it is soooooo expensive to feed kids in Europe!!). The kids came back to the hotel--which by the way looks like we are staying in a museum. They made us take the Presidential Suite, and another room, because of how many kids we have. The ceiling is all painted and vaulted--17 feet or so. It has Victorian looking furniture, a huge fireplace, etc. Vanessa and Mitchell think it feels like we are staying in the Haunted Mansion. They like the cramped Holiday Inn much better. They are so weird. Anyway, the kids came back full and happy and fell asleep faster than any other day. Yahoo.