Born a Travelin' (Wo)man

This morning DB and I got back on the Malpensa Express (luckily I'll only have to ride that stupid train once more on this trip...dear lord the seats are uncomfortable) to go pick up PB at the airport. In a frenzy of European travel, the three of us and all our bags piled first onto the ever-present Malpensa Express, then onto Milan's subway system, and finally onto a TrenItalia EuroStar bound for Florence*. We managed to avoid taxis all day and stumbled through the parts of Florence I had never visited (that would be the part with hotels, which, it turns out, is necessary to stumble through if you are in fact staying in a hotel) in a marginally successful manner. Honestly, though there were a few hair-pulling moments, I would have to rank it as "boring" on a scale** from "so uneventful that I could have done it in my sleep" to "holy monkeys, things are so crazy that I think I just saw monkeys***".

We even got up to Georgetown's villa in Fiesole somewhat uneventfully and spent a very pleasant afternoon touring the grounds and tasting Fiesole's local cuisine (gelato from this place with a tucan out front - I don't know the name). We then proceeded to J.J. Hill, which, as some of you will remember from the ever-famous "From the Tuscan Broadband" "Chiachierra" series, was quite a frequent haunt for the International Law and Security students of summer past.

Which reminds me...

SPOTTED: Francesco at J.J. Hill. Embarrassed to say that he certainly remembered yours truly and happily created a Strongbow-blackberry juice combination, which he referred to as a "secret ingredient". Also think he was excited to meet the parents. What does this mean for RKl?

Down the hill on the number 7 bus and then on to supper at La Giusta, as recommended by DI - and DI, a recommendation back to you: the next time you want to impress a girl in Florence, take her there. Tres romantic. There were string lights flickering along the ceiling and candles on all the tables, so there was never any full, still light, which created a firefly atmosphere; the food was so wonderful that I almost began a "Dear Justin" in earnest****.

Now we are back in our hotel room, and PB and DB are sleeping while I try to learnthe countries of the world in order to beat JS, RKe, and PL by displaying my wealth of memorized knowledge when I return (to be fair, I can't watch Jeopardy! over here, and I have to get my dork fix somehow). I am aware that I have not yet written about the afternoon in Milan, but don't worry, stalkers - I'll post it soon.

Night for now -

*Technically it was bound for Rome, which did cause some confusion and create tension among the ranks, but eventually it was determined that it was bound for Rome BY WAY of Florence, which meant that we should indeed board.
**Note that this is not the normal travel scale, but rather the travel with parents scale.
***This usually only happens during travels through Africa.
****I did not because since DI was awesome enough to suggest the restaurant, I didn't want him to think I was making fun of him.