Day 8: The Wheels on the Bus (Make Me Queasy)

Day 8 found us in Florence, which is supposedly an art mecca. However, at this point in the trip, it would be hard to impress me with anything. My legs were sore, I was sunburned, and we had a scant 6 hours to spend here. For lack of anything better to do, a few of us went to a sculpture museum, where it became very apparent that the Italians back in the day were really fond of sculpting male genitalia. Surely there was some cultural reason behind this, but there's only so many life-sized naked dudes you can see before they all look the same. The only thing I really enjoyed about it was guessing the occasional greek myth that the statue was based on. I was right about 90 percent of the time, although no one in the group except me was impressed by this, least of all my little brother.

There was a really amazing looking cathedral in Florence as well, which I would've loved to see the inside of had the line to get in not wrapped all the way around the damn block.

Included in the Contiki tour was a bunch of cool stuff to do (for an extra fee) which ended up being worth it in nearly every case. In Florence, it was a full Tuscan dinner, four courses, with a cool opera singer coming out every so often to do a song. I've never thought of myself as much of an opera fan, but seeing someone up close, singing that beautifully, I could certainly see why it's as popular as it is. Included with the dinner (which was as fantastic as one would have hoped. Italians truly do have the best food in the world, hands down) were two huge jugs of wine, which I indulged in wholeheartedly.

This was a huge mistake.

It wasn't that the next morning I was hungover. I hadn't really drank that much wine. But I don't think my tummy was ready for it, and it was killing me, from our six o'clock wake up time onward. I might have been fine if I had had a decent breakfast and a few hours to recuperate, but no. Breakfast (our only daily included meal) in Italy consisted of a hard, nearly hollow roll with about as much caloric value as a roll of cardboard. Oh, and water. That was it. What the fuck? The inconsistencies involved with a culture that enjoys four hour dinners and three second breakfasts are too great to be explored here.

Anyway, it was a wonderful coincidence that I was feeling really sick that day, as we had a 9 hour bus ride ahead of us, all the way to Switzerland. I might have been fine if not for the winding mountain roads, but instead I said goodbye to Italy by vomiting in the bus bathroom. Classy, I know.