Greetings from Italia!

Not surprisingly, I guess, finding Internet access in Florence has turned out to be easy. Really REALLY easy. I don’t think there is going to be a way to upload any pictures on this trip (I just don’t imagine this somewhat ancient PC will talk to my iPod, which is where I download my pictures from my camera), and besides, I don’t have that much time. However, since 15 minutes or an hour’s worth of time costs a euro, I figure I might as well give my millions of fans 15 minutes worth of what’s new over here:

• On the whole, Air France rocks. While Annette had some seating problems with her leg (it’s too complicated to go into right now, but let’s just say that she probably would have been better off seating-wise without making a special request), they did have a food service that included free wine, the service in general was great, and each seat had individual screens for viewing a variety of different things. I watched the Hitchcock movie To Catch a Thief (I think they had it because it’s set in France) and Will watched an animated movie– something “hedge.” Annette read.
• Running through the airport in Paris to catch our connecting flight, on the other hand, did not rock.
• Our hotel totally rocks– not exactly a “room with a view,” but it’s plenty big, it’s clean, it has a nice kitchenette, and the people who run it are very nice.
• Spent Sunday just trying to stay awake as long as we could and get adjusted; most of Monday wondering about, mostly by the Ponto Vecchio and this very cool park kind of in the hills looking down on Florence (great views); and today at the Uffizi (the big art museum) and Santa Croce (one of the big churches), both of which were beautiful. Tomorrow is “Dave.”
• So far, we have one really good dinner, one so-so dinner, one pretty okay/good lunch (pizza), and one really good lunch.
• Annette’s leg is bothering her, so we are spending tonight in. Will and I went to find a grocery store (with directions from the guy who runs our hotel) and got lost several times. It was nerve-racking and fun at the same time.

I think that’s about it for now– I’ll post more updates if I get a chance, but believe me, there will be pictures in the future. I think I’ve taken about 100 so far….