Trains, Planes, and Automobiles: Eid in Italy

For the last month Libya has essentially been at a stand still work wise. The muslims have been fasting all day and then staying up all night. It's made for some interesting work hours over the last 30 days. Well, Ramadan in finally over and ended with 3 more days off to celebrate, Eid. Like most of the other expats I vacated the country to enjoy a week off. There were a lot of other people from just my office on my 6am flight last Friday. We were in a traffic jam at 4 in the morning on the way to the airport. Everyone was out like it was mid-day. Kids were playing soccer in parking lots while parents were shopping. The only thing that wasn't open was the coffee shop in the terminal.

After a short plane flight and two quick train rides, I was in Florence and got to spend 8 wonderful days in Italy with my family. For those who have been counting (probably just my mother and I) it's been 5 months since I left Houston for my little adventure over here and consequentially, 5 months since I've seen my family. I thought my last trip to Rome was great, but we were able to outdo ourselves this time. I had an amazing time with my family, and got to see some pretty incredible things I didn't see on my other trip.

We covered a lot of ground by car and train. We saw Florence, Pisa, Sienna, San Gimignano, Tivoli, and Rome. It rained on us a little, but not enough to spoil the great time. Trevi in the rain can still be fun.