Imagine you are a street worker in Florence responsible for repairing the decaying streets of this aging city. Now, imagine it is Monday morning and thousands and thousands and thousands of tourists are hitting the streets to take in the amazing sights that are everywhere in Florence. What to do? What to do? Well of course you take your little bucket of wet concrete and right in the middle of all this chaos you drop down on all fours (No cones, no little fence, no guard) and begin to patch a crack in the street complete with a square foot of street that requires complete repair. . . . . what could possibly go wrong? ? ? ? . . . . A happy tourist from Tucson, Arizona, intent on seeing all the artistic wonders of this amazing city, comes tripping down the street and STEPS right in the middle of your freshly patched street!!!! Paula is now ankle deep in concrete and drying fast!!! Well that is how our day started! How about yours?
The train to Milan went smoothly, but the rain followed us to this city of commerce and industry. We hike! We dodge puddles! We dart away from the oncoming cars! We conquer Milan! Betty is the first to lose the full use of her umbrella. . . . It just stopped working. Oh, it still would open (sort of), but it would no longer keep rain out. So, she does the natural thing and buys a new one from an African street vendor (they are everywhere). She opens it. . . . .It falls to pieces. . . . . Really. . . . . It just fell apart. Betty gets into a fight with the afore mentioned street vendor. Street vendor loses. Hamilton girl Wins. Who didn't see that one coming? Hamilton girls always win!!
Today all of Europe is preparing to protest everything. (It is May Day) There will be strikes, protests, civil disobedience and probably some general misbehaving. Sounds like fun! We will head to Paris today where the well behaved French (Ha!  Ha! Ha! Ha!) are sure to provide some entertainment. We'll be lucky to make it out of the airport!! Oh well! This is travel in Europe. . . . . One learns to adapt, overcome and innovate while here as the general masses are always somewhat angry about one thing or the other. Mostly they don't like working and find being unruly much more fun and agreeable. Good Times!