Some notes on our trip to Europe

I was looking through my journal, and I found some notes I made while we were in Europe. I usually make my notes in my tour books, but for this trip I borrowed some books from the library and didn't figure they'd appreciate my notes, even if they might have been useful for someone else.

So, in no real order, here's what I've got:

• While we were in Italy, we had the misfortune of going through daylight savings time again.
• At a major intersection near our friend's place in Italy, there was (conveniently) a gigantic statue. Other friends who were visiting referred to it as Sherlock Holmes, but Captain America kept calling it Benjamin Franklin. He even pointed out that it didn't look a thing like Ben Franklin. I said, that's because it's Sherlock Holmes.
• We drove a fiat panda from Rome to Positano. Yup, we're that cool.


• In Florence, we stayed at the adorable Hotel Scoti. We had a bit of an adventure trying to locate it, and an even bigger adventure trying to get into the elevator with our luggage, but it was totally worth it.
• At breakfast one morning, we accidentally took someone else's lattes. I was surprised that the bar man knew what I wanted without me asking, but I just figured I was ordering what every other American ordered. Maybe I was giving him too much credit, or maybe I was just under-caffeinated.
• When we were in Florence, of course we went to the Ponte Vecchio, where they sell, among other things, watches and scarves. We didn't buy watches in Switzerland, and we only bought three scarves in Egypt. What were we doing here?



• When we were standing in line waiting to get into the Galleria dell Accademia to see the David, we saw some graffiti on the wall that said Alohomora.
• The Galleria dell'Accademia had a small music museum. Yes, it was a little random. They had this cool hands-on exhibit where they showed how a piano is struck by a hammer but a harpsichord is plucked. I guess it was cooler in real life than in my explanation here.
• One night, while we were in Positano, we decided to go to this restaurant, Three Sisters, for dinner. Because the town is built on a cliff, we had to walk down a ton of stairs to get there. Apparently, we were delirious with hunger, because at the time it made sense to follow this cat, who really did seem to be leading the way, but perhaps not surprisingly, it lead us to a dead end. Captain America declared, that's the last time I listen to a cat!
• On our way back to Rome, we drove to a small town called Ravello, which, the guide books declared, had ravishing gardens. We, needless to say, did not feel ravished by the gardens.