Florence/Rome

First things first: how much longer are the Timberwolves going to allow Kevin McHale to single-handedly destroy everything good about basketball? Honestly, how can someone be that bad at their job and still get paid over a million dollars a year? I'm still in a state of shock.

Back to business. Our day in Florence was an interesting one. We got into town around 2 and were again hit with a wall of oppressive heat. Sweating profusely, we found our hostel and settled in. by now, we're used to stripping down to our boxers whenever we get into our room in order to keep cool.

After cooling off for a few minutes, we hit the road and tried to see as many sight as we could. First, we visited the Leonardo da Vinci museum. He was actually a straight up genius, arguably the smartest man alive. Some of the designs he came up with were reconstructed in the museum and showed off how they actually worked, it was really cool.

From there we headed for the famous Uffizi Galleries and checked out all the sketches, paintings and sculptures. There is a whole lot of really good art in this world and we've seen a lot of it on this trip.

Now too late to see the David, we were walking back to our room when a guy stopped us on the street and began extolling the virtues of his club and the party it was having that evening. He told us that it was going to be packed with Americans and that Terror Squad would be there.

For those keeping score at home, Terror Squad is a group of hip-hop artists that rolls with Fat Joe, another famous rapper. This piqued our interest and we decided to check out the party after watching Russia-Spain.

We got to the club about 15 minutes before the action started but once things got rolling we had a great time. Not only was Terror Squad there (we've got the pictures to prove it) but they bought us a round of drinks, which was awesome. After much dancing, we headed back home and fell asleep.

The train to Rome was not bad at all, although finding our apartment was a bit of a struggle, especially in the ever-present heat. When we finally found it, it ended up being quite satisfactory, with a little kitchen that we stocked with food and plenty of space to unwind. The only issue was no AC.

The next day we went on our Vatican tour, which was very cool. Difficult to believe that the Vatican is its own country and the amount of wealth centralized in that square mile. The Basilica was awesome from the outside and even better on the inside, while the plaza outside was yet another tribute to Bernini's genius.

We went home, rested, cooked a nice spaghetti dinner and watched Polish TV for awhile before nodding off to sleep. Yesterday we went on our walking tour of ancient Rome. After watching Gladiator a week ago, seeing the ancient city in its ruined glory was very cool. I got chills when we went to the site where Julius Caesar's remains were kept during Roman times. It was like standing in his presence, very cool.The Collosseum was just as impressive, especially now that they've rebuilt part of it to look like it did back in the day. All in all, a very fun day.

Last night we tuned in to the European final, Spain-Germany. It was an interesting situation, because Jonah and I were cheering for Spain, while Stephen was cheering for Germany. The first 20 minutes provided thrills both ways before Torres' goal in the 33rd minute got me and Jonah off our feet. It was a well-played game from both sides all the way to the 1-0 finish.

Today we're going to be visiting the Pantheon at night to get a different perspective on the whole thing. We weren't allowed to enter the Pantheon yesterday because of a mass service being held but it was impressive nonetheless.

Miss everyone, we'll all be home pretty soon

-Charl