Tour Day Six: Walking Tours Galore

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Today we got up and went into the town of Florence for a walking tour with a local guide. We saw some beautiful churches with facades made entirely out of marble (white, green, and red). Oddly enough the Santa Croce has a big Star of David on top because the man who designed the facade was Jewish. Our guide told us about all the fascinating people who once lived in Florence. How amazing would it have been to be able to live in that time? I can barely imagine.
After the walking tour we saw a leather demonstration where they among other things, taught us how to tell the difference between faux and real leather. (No the answer is not fire, she burned both to prove it.) The answer is (drum roll....) you look for seude. If it's a jacket or something you pick up one layer of the leather and rub it together. If there's friction, there's seude and thus, real leather. It would cost too much to replicate both. After this we were free to wander. I bought a scarf and then Lauren, Fernando, and I eventually settled on a restaurant. We were supposed to meet our group at noon so we figured we would have plenty of time when we sat down at 11. I had some delicious gnocchi with pesto but clearly we hadn't taken into account the relaxed Italian pace. We were almost late because we got a little lost (there it is again) as we were rushing back to the meeting point. We probably shouldn't have stopped to get some gelato but we just could not resist (and we weren't disappointed!)
On the way to Rome Lauren and I did a lot more house hunting and found some beautiful places =). When we got into Rome we went straight into a rather lengthy walking tour which Ash gave (illegally! You're technically supposed to get a local tour guide for any tours in Italy) He took us to see all of the popular sights as well as some others. It would cost too much to drive the coach into town (because of taxes) so they gave us metro tickets and we rode that in. Our tour started at the Spanish Steps and ended at the Colloseum. We were very tired and hungry by the end of it but happy to have seen the great sights. Back at the campsite I inhaled my first serving of lasagna without even tasting it but I quite enjoyed the second one.

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Photos

David
Ok.. It's actually only the replica

Our Korean Roommates and the Trevi Fountain
I tried to explain "Tuscany" to these two girls... nigh impossible.