Since we haven’t gotten an apartment yet it’s been a little bit hard to update our blog…we’ve been using internet cafes to get online….but since the last time we wrote, we are now in Florence, ITALY!
On Friday we left Interlaken around 1pm and started the long drive to Florence. It was a GORGEOUS drive through out Switzerland and all of the sudden you go through this long tunnel and end up in Italy and it becomes ugly and smelly. An interesting fact about Switzerland is the main language is Swiss-German, which is spoken in Interlaken, therefore all of the road signs are in German. The closer to Italy you get, the more signs are written in Italian.
A view of Switzerland from the car
By the time we got to Florence it was about 10pm and we were very tired. We went out to this bar, Red Garter, that has an “American style steak house” called The Sizzle attached to it where we ordered a bacon cheeseburger and onion rings!!!! They also play college football and NFL games at this bar which is exciting! We met the other 2 interns, Mike and Amanda, on this night too.
The next night (Saturday, Aug. 30) we finally got to go to our favorite restaurant in Florence, El Gatto e la Volpe (translated: The Cat and the Fox). This restaurant houses our favorite Balsamic vinegar that I’m sure you have all heard us talk about!
Gina (very excited) with the balsamic at Gatto!
After our late lunch Simon took us on an apertivo tour. Apertivo means appetizer and you go to the restaurant/bar and order drinks and they give you free appetizers all night. So over the course of 10-12 hours, the 5 of us shared 6 bottles of red wine, 2 bottles of champagne, liquor drinks, a couple pina colada tasting shots, and lots of bruschetta and other delicious Italian appetizers. It was a leisurely day/night though, nothing crazy, because we would walk around between places and enjoy the streets of Florence.
Christa and Gina standing on the Ponte Vecchio- a bridge that goes across the Arno River
Sunday night consisted of watching a soccer (futbol) game at a bar and then enjoying a night out on the town!!
Us with Amanda (other intern) at Naima
Yesterday (Monday, Sept 1) we were very tired and came to the internet cafe to do some work for our job! So far our job has consisted of handing out flyers to people on the streets of Florence who look like Americans. It is extremely obvious who the Americans are so handing out flyers to them is pretty easy and fun. We also have to join all of the Florence and Rome study abroad groups on Facebook along with the people who created the groups so that we can market to all of the students who are here about our trips for Bus2Alps. This leaves us with a million random friends and extra groups that we are in for the next 3 months. That is pretty much what we did during the day and then at night we cooked dinner at Mike’s friends’ house and then went to bed.
Right now we have finished our work for the day and we are headed to a beach an hour and a half away from Florence where we are going to pass out flyers to a school and eat some dinner. We miss you all a lot and talk about how much fun it would be if you were all here with us too! We will update again this week (HOPEFULLY from our apartment)!!!!!
Love, Gina and Christa
Fun night out
so we will update you again from there!!! We miss you all and hope everyone is doing well in the States! 
