Day 1: Travel semi-hell and OMG

It's technically day 2 but we are behind a day due to having the wrong adapter for the laptop.  But. to catch you up in a nutshell - 1st flight, excited, 2nd flight, full of Elsa (the only child on the flight who just happened to be sitting behind us) and her blabbermouth mother for 9+ hours.  3rd flight, major turbulance and bright green barf.
When we got in it was raining - make that POURING.  We recovered from the rollercoaster from hell ride with an amazing panini of salumi and rip the top of your mouth open bread and were rejuvinated.  We caught a taxi to the train station where we dropped off our bags and continued to get lost randomly in Florence until we "could check into" our apartment.  Right off the bat we found a vintage store where you could buy cowboy boots...funny.. and there was classic American Elvis music playing.  As we were wandering around blindly we turned a corner and BLAM, Duomo.  OMG people, it's amazing in pictures but in person, incredible.  Unimiganible.  Breathtaking.  It was amaing to hear everyone have the same reaction as us turning the corner.  We had our first pizza here next to the Swatch shop. 
Our apartment is great.  Very modern and decorated unusually, which is cool.  We have a tiny fridge and a teeny tiny oven/stove.  There is a little deck which overlooks a classic Italian courtyard with shuttered windows and clotheslines out every window.  There are bidets in the bathrooms which Dan came and asked me how they should be used.  Basically you aim it at your bum and goodies and let the water flow!  He was shocked that you need to use your hands to wash yourself and then dry everything with the towel above but...there you go folks, the down and dirty bidet.
After not getting any sleep Saturday night when the bachelor party was and then still no sleep the night before taking off, getting up at 4am Monday morning and then about 18 hours of flying with STILL no sleep, we hit the bed in the apartment thankfully at 2pm and slept until 6:30pm.  We got up and headed out to the narrow streets and explored our part of town.  We managed to stumble upon the Piazza della Signora where the Ufffizi is among other amazing museums and statues and stores are.  We found a gelato shop where we got gobs of incredibly light, flavorful Italian ice cream and then wandered up a street full of designer shops in the rain.  Afterwards we crossed the bridge back to our part of town and found a little restaurant called Osteria de Chingale Bianco and ate some of the most flavorfull pasta dishes of stotzaprelli de lamb (I forget the Italian word for it but it should translate to explosion of intense delicious flavor) and papardelli di chingale (wild boar). 
If you think you have ever had good coffee in the US then you are wrong because it's shit compared to the coffee here.  I don't even have the words to describe the coffee here but needless to say, we are ruined for life.  If you never travel to Italy for more than anything but the coffee you will feel most fortunate. 
OH, also, on our way back we are positive that we passed some mafioso.  These dudes looked serious!  I wanted a picture with them but figured i was safer keeping my mouth shut and just winking at Dan. 
It was a chilly night and we snuggled in for the night smiling and dreaming of what the next day had in store for us.
OMG...we are IN ITALY!!!
All Florence Day 1 photos at http://flic.kr/ps/ZK1sF