- Italy is a great country. In hindsight we needed to sample a small town without mega people - but not at the expense of cutting out anything we did. Even though no one else really liked Florence, I am glad they experienced it; the history and art is beyond compare.
- In our personal experience, Jeremy felt the food quality and living conditions were inversely related... The better our local food tasted the worse our apartment was. He is also tired of having wine with every dinner.
- They always say "prego"
- Jeremy could pick up what they were saying because some things sounded similar to Spanish.
- Kids liked the daily rain shower in Italy, it was nice.
- The trains are convenient because they don't suck, they go fast, and they seem cheap. People on the trains are pushy.
- Kate didn't like how many people don't say anything when they run into you.
- Italians don't acknowledge lines. When you stand back to give the person ahead of you a turn, the Italian behind you steps in front of you - like they literally didn't even see you.
- Everyone smokes. Kate was shocked when she saw a 14 year old smoking! Someone asked us for a light, and his friend replied, "They're American."
- Italians only spoke to us when they wanted to sell us something, and even then quite often they ignored us. The exception seemed to be elderly women, who were friendly to us despite our language barrier.
- It sounds like they have a lot of corruption - for example, all the money stolen from the major Venice barrier project.
- Annoying that at two places we purchased bottles of beer and at the register both places marked up from the sticker price of €2.50 to €4 to take advantage of us stupid Americans. We paid €2.50.
Venice:
- Everyone liked Venice. It particularly met Jeremy and Kate expectations, which I think is saying a lot. I liked seeing more of the city (than I did last time) and being on less of a schedule. We didn't see inside St. Mark's basilica, we didn't go up the bell tower, we didn't go on a gondola - and rather than take away from our experience, I think it enhanced it!
- Greg hates not being able to get around Venice. Chris thought it wasn't that difficult, and was easier than Florence.
- Jeremy determined that Venice was by far our worst apartment. The shower was horrible and the bed was lopsided (and even ejected him).
