this day was action packed... and i'm not exaggerating. lets start out with the morning... we knew this day was going to be busy so we all planned on getting up, getting ready, and heading off the ship as early as we could. once we got off the ship, we rented a little van for the day. so off we went in this teensy fiat european van. we decided to stop and get gas before we got too far into town. so we're getting gas when austin's dad comes around to the side of the van and said he thinks he made a big mistake. the van that we were driving takes diesel fuel... and in the US, diesel is the green pump. so austin's dad just assumed it was the same and continue to fill up... about half way through he realized that in europe, diesel is the black pump.
what do you do? we couldn't just drive away... so, we ended up (i say we like i helped... i should say the boys) finding a little pump thing and had to drain out the entire gas tank. pretty quick fix you think?? oh no, this took about an hour to do. so after we got almost all of the gas out of the tank, we filled in with diesel fuel and prayed the van would run. Thank goodness it did... that would've been one hefty bill to pay to fix that van!
first, we headed to florence, italy. we went to the Galleria dell'Accademia which had the famous statue of David.
then we headed to The Duomo, Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. uhh... all of their architecture is a-mazing. absolutely amazing.
the little city of Lucca was our next stop. this is the only city that is completely surrounded by walls. we didn't have much time so our visit was quick... but it seemed like a really cute place.
and finally, we got to see the leaning tower of Pisa
up next: Naples & Sicily, Italy
