Did I just make a new friend?

So, I headed out today on foot to meet my new soon to be roommate for lunch. I was supposed to meet him at the the Piazza della Republica at 1pm and was going to take the bus again but Vale, my roommate now, suggested I walk. So I started out on which was supposed be a quick 20min walk, very soon turned into a 40min walk (gotta love ankles and knees).

So I met Mario at our meeting spot and he told me that we were going to have lunch with a few of his friends. So, I followed, not sure what to expect. We went into this little tiny restaurant and ordered from the 4 selections. I tried my hand at the lasagna yet again (WAY better this time). Anyway, we get into the restaurant and there are 8 other people at the table. 5 guys and 3 girls. About half of them spoke some English and the rest just smiled, like I did to them. We were there for easily an hour and a half. Lunches over here are long and very relaxing. Everyone was very nice and it was strange because of the 4 people I talked to at the table, non of them were originally from Florence. 2 were from Italy, one from Mexico and the other from California. When it was time to leave, everyone came to me and gave me kisses on the cheek (one on each side). It was so European and it made me feel like part of there group. One of them even asked if I was going to come back and eat lunch with them which I think is a good sign that I was liked.

At any rate, I had a great day, exploring the center of Florence and even took in the Ponte Vecchio (the most famous bridge in Florence). It started to rain though and I was only in a tank top, but I didn't care. It was still really hot out and I was touring around. I went to see the Piazza della Signoria where I snapped a couple of pictures and even wandered past the Duomo. By this point it was raining pretty good I thought it was a good time to check out the inside of the Duomo, totally forgetting that you can't have bare shoulders going into a church, so out I went back into the rain. By this point it was raining pretty hard and my knees were killing me, so I headed home. Made it home around 5pm which means that I was walking for about 4 hours toay. Yeah me! About 10min after I got home the rain stopped, but isn't that always the way it goes. ;)

Didn't buy my purse yet, but there is always tomorrow :)