IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! What a great day! :)

Well, here I am another year older but still having a great time. Today was a prime example of that. I woke up around 6:30 this morning and put on "Hey Mickey", this song that I dance to every year on my birthday. I got ready to go and was at the train station by 8:30. Found the office where I get my residence permit (yeah!) only to see about 100 or more people lined up there. ugh! I talked to the nice guy that was directing all of this traffic and he told me that I needed to get a kit from the post office, fill it out, return it the post office and then they make an appointment for me. So maybe the 8 day rule is just a suggestion like everything else in Italy. There is no way that a person could do all of that in 8 days. Sucky part is, the whole thing (about 20 pages of stuff to fill out) is in Italian. Yeah me! lol

Met Sam (my tour guide) at the train station at 9:30 only to see that I was going on this vespa tour with a family of 5 from Virginia. We headed out to the vespa's but on the way we stopped at Piazzale Michelangelo where Sam swore had the best view in Florence. Well he wasn't wrong. It was beautiful. From there we headed to Chianti were we were taught our first lesson on how to ride the Vespa. Ok, I should add that by this point I was minorly freaking out. lol We were all given a lesson which was about 10min and then we were off. Does anyone remember first learning to ride a bike and having your parent/grandparent/aunt, let go of you and you have no choice but to do it or fall in the bush? Well that's exactly how I felt today. By this point, I was officially scared shitless! Yup, that's right. Totally freaking out! We got going though and went through some of the most gorgeous area's. Well, I am sure they were gorgeous from what they were telling me. I was so focused on the road and the cars that were whizzing by me, that sceanery was the last thing on my mind. ;) We drove for quite awhile and ended up going through about 3 small towns. It was crazy. My Vespa only stalled on me twice (because I think I was going to slow....lol) before we made it to the vineyard for the wine tour and lunch. We had lunch, which was very good. I had a barley salad with a pesto sauce and it had tomatoes in it. Then for dessert, Sam ordered just me a cake. I totally forget the name but it was baked creme (that's right, I said creme!) Mmm and everyone sang happy birthday to me. We had some wine, told some stories and I was genuinely made to feel at home with the Henderson's. We then got back on our vespa's for the ride home. I was much more relaxed on the way home. Perhaps from the wine...but I doubt it. ;) We stopped along the way were Sam treated us to gelato. The owner of the place we stopped at was ranked 7th in the world for gelato makers....cool huh? It was so yummy. I think I am going to get addicted to gelato. I am sure glad that I waited until yesterday to start trying it. I might never stop now though. (eeek) In the picture above, I am the second from the back. I would have been last if Jim hadn't stayed behind me to make sure I didn't get lost or fall over. lol We made it back safe and sound though and Sam was nice enough to drop me fairly close to my apartment so that I didn't have to take the bus or find my own way home.

I threw in this last pic because I thought it was cool (minus the big head in really pink helmet) hahaha It is showing a vineyard right behind me with a view of Florence far in the background.

So I am still trying to find a place to put all of my pictures so far to date. I was hoping Flicker but I'm not sure I can figure it out. I also thought Facebook, but not everyone has facebook. I'll figure something out and let you all know when I do. Sound good?

Anyway, my last note is to say thanks for all of the Birthday wishes. I love reading everyone's emails and blog comments.