My ex-Italian instructor, Gianluca, invited Dave and I to go to Villa Demidoff (which is a park in Pratolino outside of Florence) to celebrate the 4th of July today. Supposedly it was an invitation-only event where many Americans living in Tuscany (and mostly Florence) would be gathered together to celebrate.

Sunday they'll be having the last Calcio storico (historical football) in Florence. There are only three days in which the games are held, but the entire Piazza Santa Croce becomes the playing field. If you're standing on Via dei Benci, the beautiful chiesa (church) is almost invisible through the bleachers.

At 11 AM this morning, our buzzer rang. As usual, I ignored it. I know I shouldn't do that, but some people buzz us to leave advertisement, others because they're going to see someone in the building who's not answering their buzzer, and of course il postino (the postman) whom I met the other day and told me that he hates our building because no one ever answers.

I had the best idea this morning when I woke up. I asked Dave if he'd come with me to the anagrafe (Registry office) where we could sign up to be residents. We slowly went through the usual steps: go to the office directly to get information, get all the documents filled out, and bring it all with us.

After two weekends away from Florence, we're so happy to be home. The only time I went out was to go to the market to buy fresh vegetables, fruit, meat, and cheese today. I almost never go to the supermarket any more and have become a regular at the outdoor market.

Yesterday we went to the Excelsior hotel next to where the Venice Film Festival is held each year around August/September. We rode bikes past the crowded public beaches and the almost empty private beaches. We have never ridden bikes in Italy and it was fun. It's something we wouldn't try back in Florence. There weren't many cars and only a few buses. With such great weather, I'm sure everyone was at the beach.

We took the crowded #82 vaporetto from Accademia to Lido. After being cramped on the vaporetto for about 30 minutes, we arrived. I jumped in the first and only taxi waiting at the taxi station. I couldn't imagine us lugging our luggage for 10 minutes in the heat.

Today we walked around the Dorsoduro area and visited the Guggenheim museum. I took a picture of it from the Accademia bridge (it's the flat white building on the right). We were able to look at Peggy Guggenheim's collection of modern art with works from Pollock, Klee, Pegeen, and many others. We even saw her grave in the museum's front garden.

We arrived at 3:30PM on the Eurostar, which was more crowded than the last time we came. We walked outside and looked out at the canale, which was filled with boats passing by in each direction. Crowds of people were arriving at the station and more crowds were leaving the station.

I've been holding myself back from making comments about the leather shops all over Florence. I'm not fond of people sitting outside on their scooters or standing outside smoking cigarettes, checking out all the tourists (mainly women) as they walk by.

I went to an English bookstore in via dei Neri today and checked out a few tourist books and was happy to finally find one of Rick Steve's 2005 books. Almost every American tourist I see has at least one of his books. Last year, I read his suggestions for restaurants in Florence when we were in Milan and he mentioned a few restaurants that I've been too and enjoyed. So, I trusted his suggestions for Milan and was not disappointed.

Today Dave and I went to see the latest Star Wars movie. It was playing in English at the Odeon theater near Piazza Repubblicca. It seems that every English-speaking tourist or resident of Florence goes there to see movies. There were a few British mothers who brought their bilingual children and a few tourists seeking shelter from the rain.

Two nights and four baths later, we left Lucca this afternoon. We had a great time eating out and shopping. Our Bed & Breakfast was the greatest find. Each morning, they had a full buffet and also served us warm pastries and fresh fruit salad. They even offered to make any-style eggs and frittate (omelets) if we wanted.

We did our usual touristy favorites: walked around town, visited a few monuments, sat down on an outside terrace for an afternoon snack (coffee and dessert), shopped a little, looked for gifts, and had dinner.

After our short train ride from Florence, we hopped into the first taxi we saw. The taxi driver drove quickly through the narrow streets almost side-swiping a few tourists who were walking and looking at a map. And then we almost hit an elderly woman on her bicycle as she came out of a side street. The driver slammed on his breaks as we pulled up to a building and said, "Ecco ci qua." (Here we are.) I was relieved. I kept trying to look in front of him as if I could steer us from danger and lift his foot off the gas pedal somehow.