Pictures of Florence--NOW We're Cookin' With Gas!!!

You may have noticed the colloquialism in the title. I just wanted to get a hands up: who's heard this saying before?

Furthermore, who uses it besides me? You know, apart from quirky chefs and really old, geeky people who passed it down to me. I only ask because when the phrase "NOW we're cookin' with gas" popped out of my mouth the other day, Dustin nearly popped out of his skin. Suffice it to say he was rather taken aback. Suffice it also to say that this is usually the case with my colloquialisms, which doesn't seem to be due to any special nature of theirs, but rather of his...I mean hey, I thought everybody knew about the virtues of gas cooking.

Well okay, so I guess I thought wrong. And now to the crux of the matter: Florence pictures. Yah that only took a gazillion tries and one very long anecdote about gas. Voila.

Dante Alighieri's statue in front of Santa Croce Cathedral, which--let it be noted--is a freaking MAZE. Seriously. We wandered around in there forever because it's basically several churches and museums in one.

Probably the best part was that we got half-price tickets for all that stuff, because at the ticket window I somehow blurbled the word "family" in broken Italian (really mostly French with an Italian accent) and the guy was like "Okay! You are all family! Half price." At which point I decided to forevermore be "related" to anybody I visit foreign monuments with. Hey there all my brothas and sistas.
And here's some delicious proof that we did indeed see Ghiberti's paradisaical doors in person, and that Surprised Girl was also in attendance. Haha. Perfect.
And here's a billboard across from the Uffizi. Gave me an internal laugh while waiting in line. Probably would have had several more if I knew what was written in there. All I'm saying is that love makes me snicker. And then speaking of love--spicy, tomato-saucy Italian love no less!-- much to my extreme gladness, we caught sight of a couple getting married in Florence! Now look here, kids. I know it was the off-season and everything costed less, so it probably made sense at the time to do the whole wedding shebang thing in February. But honestly that poor girl was covered in goose bumps. Although to be clear, most of them were probably from the sheer awesomeness of getting married in FLORENCE.

Ahhhh, I love Europe. It will be nice to have a dishwasher, oven, carpet, car, cell phone, closet, dresser, native language, and nebulous life plan in six weeks--but it will also be terribly, terribly depressing in terms of culture and unpasteurized Brie.