Arriving Florence

We left Rome early in the morning after checking out from the Roma Hostel. Due to reasons that I have already forgotten, we got on the train kind of last minute. To my pleasant surprise, the seats we got were those coach seats arranged in cubicles, not unlike those depicted in the Harry Potter series. The only disadvantage of this seating was that the ventilation was not good in those cubicles, and it was not even a detectable shortcoming until a passenger with the most nauseating body odor came in and join our cube. The unspeakable stench unfortunately reminded me of fish porridge, and that horrifying association stuck in my mind for quite a while for the rest of the day. I almost passed out there, and pitied Ren Jie a lot cause he was seated just right next to that guy. He demonstrated outstanding strength though, unflinching even as I thought I was going to die of suffocation.

When we reached Florence, it took us quite some time to find our hotel, the San Lorenzo Hotel. The owner was a friendly guy, but we were asked to wait for a while as the room was not ready yet. When it was finally ready, we were quite satisfied as after 4 days of sharing room with strangers, we finally got our own room. It was a small attic-like room though, but we couldn't care much.

We ventured out to the town center later, doing just some light walking and sight-seeings. The most famous landmark of the town, the Duomo left me speechless yet another time. It was not awe inspiring in the same way that the St Peter's Basilica did; it was in fact frightening as the monstrous eerie-looking structure practically blocked out the sky and cast ominous shadows over the whole town. I had that feeling probably because of the lighting of that day; it was then turning dark.

That night we decided to try some fine food, after days of shamelessly shoving cheap calories into our systems. We stopped at this cafe-like restaurant, and I treated myself a dish of ravioli with seafood and mushroom and a glass of red wine. For desert, I got myself another pistachio flavored gelato. The ravioli tasted excellent, but little did I know I was about to suffer for days because of that sinful treat. It was what I thought to be the cause of my few-days-lasting diarrhea. I went to bed that night feeling satisfied, oblivious of the trouble lying ahead me.
Tasty, and highly recommended for those who have severe constipation...