Foiano

Yesterday we went to Foiano, which is a small town near Castiglion Fiorentino that is very well known for its celebration of Carnivale. When we arrived in town our driver PARALELL PARKED our double decker bus in one try. The bus drivers here are amazing.

AMAZING parking job

The Carnivale was like the most amazing parade/party I've ever been to, but I really don't think any description would serve to illustrate it very well, so I'm going to just let the photos tell the story. I also recorded about 30 minutes of video which is much more impressive, so when I get back to the US everyone can watch the video with me too.

From right to left: Sydney, Crystal, me, Kim

The floats at this parade were so detailed, and they all were moving like animatronics

Another amazing float

Gilbert, Gabe, and Jamie

Jim Gibbs got sprayed in the mouth with confetti and silly string

Some of the characters on the float didn't seem very happy...

The juxtaposition of the comical floats against the classical city was really amazing

Daniel tries to help get silly string out of Jennifer's hair

Marcus got a fistful of confetti in his face too...

These guys sang James Brown in English

The architecture of the town was very playful and interesting...

...maybe because the town has had one too many

After we got back we hung out around the center for a while, then went to go watch the Super Bowl which kicked off at 00:30 (aka 12:30 AM). There were Americans overflowing the local bar, and everyone was enjoying a chance to catch a little bit of Americana all the way across the world. Unfortunately for us all the commercials were in Italian, and really were pretty boring, so we missed about half the fun. Oh well, Bethel and Ty got new rings, so all ended well!

Now, a little note about what's going on this week: I've found a better offer on internet hosting, and its highly likely that my webpage will be changing servers. If this is the case the webpage may be down for as much as a week, but if it does move I'll have massively more space when I get it back online, so I'll be able to put more expandable pictures and use higher quality settings on the website, and I might even be able to include some video. Also, look for a few people to finally start adding their blogs, so in the next week or two the main page should have some new people added to the list. In case you forgot, that means you can browse to http://italy.tamuarch.com, and in the next couple days Jim Gibbs and Sydney Brown will probably be adding blogs. All of this is affected by the speed of the server transfer though, so it may not be done until next week.

Alright, I hope everyone is doing well back in the US, Ciao!