FIRENZE OR BUST!

The three smells that describe Rome:

1. Espresso: Every morning the smell of coffee gets me going and ready to conquer the day.
2. Marlboro Cigarettes: In Italy everyone smokes- even young children. No matter where you go there is always the smell of smoke, and it seems that everyone smokes Marlboros.
3. Fresh baked bread: Walking around the streets all day with the smell of bread coming out of pizzerias and paninotecas keeps you hungry constantly.

Speaking of panini’s, I think I am paninoed out! I have only been here for about two weeks and I have eaten more pizza and paninos than I care to eat for the rest of my life. Even though I swear that I am not going to eat another panino, they always seem to suck me in for lunch. Everyone in my group is getting excited to move into our apartments when we get back to Como and eat a nice home cooked meal. We still have one more week of eating out to get through…

Today we caught the train from Rome to Florence, where we will be spending the next week. It is difficult to sleep on a 3 hour train ride when you are trying to hold all of your baggage in the same seat, but I managed to do it quite successfully.

We got to Florence just in time for the Florentina soccer game against AC Milan. This soccer game was out of control in comparison to the AS Roma game I went to last week. We were lucky to get tickets at the last minute because the stadium was packed and we had to stand on a terrace the whole game with a horrible view. The visiting fans of AC Milan must sit together in a fenced off section because the soccer game gets crazy! People bring in these small bombs that they throw when someone scores to cheer for their team. The explosions and smoke bombs seem to add to the atmosphere of the stadium. After seeing how rowdy everyone gets, I think USC needs to pick up the pace, I don’t think our band makes the cut anymore in comparison to drunken Italian football cheers and illegal explosives. At one point there was at least a four foot tall fire that erupted in the AC Milan section before it got put out by security. AC Milan won the game 1-0 to the disappointment of the Florentine fans.

Explosion #1

Explosion #2

If that wasn’t enough football for the day, we watched the Super Bowl at a bar near our hotel. There aren’t too many “sports bars” in Florence, so everyone was gathered at an American bar with a huge TV. With the time difference the game didn’t start until midnight, so it was actually Super Bowl Monday, not Sunday.