Florence with the Maloney's (November 30)

First, my apologies for not getting the events out in the order they occurred!  Life got in the way!

Steve Maloney is a college friend and swimming teammate of mine from my Villanova days.  A marriage to Nikki and three children later, Steve and his family didn't settle too far from our old stomping grounds.  In fact his house sits across the street from the Villanova Law School.  I guess old habits die hard!

Anyway his kids were interested in seeing Europe, as they had never been there before.  You can imagine how expensive it is to fly five people across the Atlantic and stay in a hotel for a week.  Well, Steve found an incredible air fare/hotel deal on line and traveled to Florence with his family over of November/beginning of December.

Left: Steve, Alec, and Shawn
Right: Me, Nikki, and Tatem

I hopped on a train Friday morning after my AP Calc class was over and was in Florence by 4 in the afternoon.  The Maloneys had already been there for a couple of days and were staying in a two-story suite at the Hotel de la Ville.  I also booked a room there, once I found out Steve and his family were staying there.

Steve and me at the
Lion's Fountain

It was a nice (but short visit) with them and just cool to be hanging out with friends from back home in Italy!!  So we made the most of it!  After having a "fine Italian dinner" (that's for you M&D), we dropped their kids off at the hotel and went to an Irish Pub called the Lion's Fountain.  It's an American bar with a heavy college atmosphere to it.  It really reminded me of an old watering hole Steve and I used to go to back at Villanova, called Kelly's Pub.  It even had writing on all of the walls of former patrons paying homage to their Alma maters back in the States.  Again, it was an odd feeling sipping on a pint of beer in this bar, as it felt like I had been transported back to the U.S. and yet I was in Florence!

Brandt, Nikki, and me

Anyway, we had a great time catching up.  We had been there for about 45 minutes when a man came up to me and said, "are you Mr. Mylod?"  My heart sunk!  You have got to be kidding...not a run-in with a student from year's past.  Would I remember this student?  A clammy sweat came over me as I turned around to meet my fate.  I was in luck!  I not only recognized the student but I remembered his name too...bonus!  Brandt Barrow was his name and he was a former swimmer of mine at Westminster who graduated in 2004.  He was in Florence working for a consulting firm and would be there for about 18 months total.  How random is that??  It was good catching up with Brandt and we intend to meet up again when I travel to Florence in March for an SYA school trip.

After a good night's sleep and some breakfast in the hotel, I met up with the Maloneys for a stroll toward the piazza that La Chiesa di Santa Croce is in.  It's a huge piazza and hosts a Christmas market/festival every December.  Merchants were there selling ornaments and other Christmas trinkets, while others were selling food.  There was also live music at the end of the piazza closest to the church.  Very festive, indeed!

The Maloneys took a tour of Santa Croce, which I had already done a couple years prior, while I headed back to Viterbo.  Great visit and I know the kids enjoyed it too.  They would stay three more days before returning to the States.