Block Party

After a long day of museum viewing (the Accademia to see David and the Uffizi to see everything else) I was ready to swear off walking for about a week. Last night, however, was the last night in town for one of the two teachers from South who came with us to Italy (the other left a few days ago) and so it was necessary to have a last hurrah for her. It was her idea to attend a block party in her neighborhood- a quieter/ less touristy part of town on the south side of the Arno river. Hearing this party was going to last until aprox 4am, we dragged our lazy tired legs over to Catherine's (we're only allowed to call her that here) place at about 9 planning on staying a good hour and then collapsing to bed. Instead, amongst the food, music and booze, Catherine (who is in her late 50s by the way) encouraged us to drink more and stay out later and soon enough we were dancing in the street and it was 3am. The life of the party, she had older Italian men dancing with her and people buying her drinks and everyone could have cared less about dancing with us younger folk. But after taking a few shots with her, Catherine decided it was time to slur her way to bed since her taxi was coming in t-minus 2 hours to take her to the airport. That's the most partying I've done yet since I've been here. Who knew it'd be Miss Phipps that encouraged it.