Under the Tuscan Sun (along with half of detroit)

Yesterday we saw the ruins of Pompeii, which was really cool despite being swarming with tourists and japanese tour groups. The city layout is untouched and its a very personal look into the homes and businesses of a roman city, as many mossaics and wall paintings were intact. Today we left Positano and finally arrived in Florence a full ten hours later. The romance of train travel wears off quickly, but we had a really nice ride from Rome to Florence. We passed through a rainstorm and so saw tuscany with the late afternoon sun shining down through the clouds. Florence was much the same, like a botticelli painting with the sunset on the river and teh narrow cobblestone streets. Its more crowded, and reminds me a bit of paris and a bit of rome. Calizone for dinner. Our hostel is in a scuzzy part of town near the center, and is jam packed with high school studnets on a school trip. Fortunately for you, dear reader, the chapperones shuffled them off to their rooms. Unfortunately for us, our room is one of them with ten beds, 5 bunks arranged military style. Florence looks very promising and we have some tough decisions to make about cinque terre, which everyone has raved about. Hopefully we can figure some way to enjoy both florence and the hike, perhaps taking a day or so off of venice, which is apparently only a weekend town at most. I finished Moby Dick this afternoon, adding it to my list of books read this summer. Tomorrrow- the duomo and david