Contiki: Firenze: Meatloaf under the Tuscan Sun

The group is moving on now from Sorrento to Florence (4 hours) and I am truly amazed by our bus driver’s bad-ass driving (that truly is the only way to describe it!) How he gets around the hairpin curves in a gigantic bus and squeezes through the streets…God only knows.

Along the way, I get to know George (I call him “George with a G” and in return he calls me “Melissa with an M”). So anyway…quite an interesting character…he milks cows for a living in Australia and hadn’t had a vacation in 12 years. He’s relieved to be around people and not cows at this point.

We arrive in Florence and my last memory of Florence was the gypsy hamburglar at the train station. Well, the group saw everything one is supposed to see in Florence, the one major monument being “the David”. It/he is beautiful, magnificent…unfortunately photos just don’t show the awe. Florence is by far (besides Siena) my favorite city in Italy. One night in Florence we have a disastrous dinner; they actually served us a dry little chicken breast (I think that’s what it was) sprinkled with cold French fries. I took a picture of it and then set it aside.

While in Florence we also drove to the Chianti region to have a (terrible) Tuscan dinner…but this dinner came with the most hilarious entertainment. So…there was a musician in the restaurant…he looked like the singer Meatloaf, but his name was Michelangelo (I swear I’m not making this shit up). Anyway, Marco our tour guide told us that Michelangelo played different songs depending on his moods. Well, let me just say, he was the most odd being I have ever heard/seen. Folks…I have video; it includes, singing, drinking, sweating, head tossing…all at a piano and all by Meatloaf…I mean Michelangelo. Okay…ya…so that was a nice “Tuscan” dinner…