Last day in Florence

Monday 6/22/09

Today was meant to be restful. We slept in, and then went to the central market in search of some fresh fruit. We then went and found a laundry mat, and did laundry. We took refuge inside for part of the afternoon because it was raining. We decided to cave into the hidden costs of using internet in the hotel, so that we could check our e-mail and blog. We prepared the blogs ahead of time, and made separate folders for pictures, so that we would be able to minimize our actual internet usage, because we were paying for it in half hour blocks. So we went to the desk, and rented an hour long password. We then tried to access the internet on our laptop. For whatever reason the laptop said it was connected, but wouldn’t go to any sites. So we decided to use the hotel computer for our internet needs. We loaded up our documents and pictures onto a jump drive, and plugged them into the computer. We had issues…. Issues on top of issues. The keyboard didn’t have all the same symbols, the internet settings were not the same, it seemed that logging into google account was not possible. I was able to check my mail because I didn’t have a tie in with google, but Morgan was ready to rip his hair out. I went down to the concierge and explained what was happening, and he seemed somewhat apathetic. I wasn’t about to stand idly by and pay money for something that wasn’t useful, so I asked for my money back, the man didn’t seem to see it the same way. So I banked on my ability to speak rapid English, as well as my ability to throw a mamma sized fit, and managed to make him well aware of exactly how frustrated I was with the establishment… he gave me my money back :). I went back upstairs to tell Morgan that at least we didn’t have to pay for the internet related headache, but when I got there he had managed to change internet settings, in Italian mind you, and get the computer to accept the sites we wanted it too. So that’s how we came to blog about 5 days worth of stuff at once. We were going to do it with pictures too, but it seems that the Italian computer couldn’t handle the format of the picture. We were just lucky that Morgan found something comparable to word, to be able to open the text. Later that night we went out for our dinner excursion. We had a great time at a nice restaurant, had a 4 course Italian meal with regional wine. We then went to an Opera performance. It was actually pretty good, and the singing was broken up with piano numbers which I very much enjoyed. A lovely end to what should have been a much more relaxing day.