There´s unlimited juice? This party is going to be off the hook!

Okay, that´s not relevant to anything I´m going to say, but it´s a good quote nonethelesss :) 10 vacation points to whoever gets it! Anyway, I have a little tale to tell from Florence.

Our last night in Florence, Sarah and I went out to go use the phones and maybe find something to eat or something. The night before, a Saturday, we had all been walking around and it was just dead out, and that Sunday night, people were bustling about all over! We found a cafe/bar place and decided it might be fun to check it out, so we went in, had some delicious fruity drinks and just danced the night away to the live music of the Acoustic Soul Duo (at least I think that´s what they were called). It was so much fun, and we were just brimming with excitement and weren´t quite ready to end the night, so we decided to go sit for a bit and chat or whatever. And the place we chose was in the Piazza Signora, right next to the Neptune fountain.

Except... we had to step over a low fence, and I mean step, because most of you know I have short legs and I remember it was easy for me even to just step over, and we sat next to the fountain and were about to have a nice little time of relaxation, when... suddenly a police car came zooming into the piazza, and two police officers came out shouting at us to leave! We were apologetic, and figured okay, we´ll just go somewhere else... but then they asked for our documentation - our passports - and we didn´t have them on us, so we gave them our licenses, and they whisked those away and led us around the corner into this obscure door. Inside, they had a room with video screens targeted solely on the statues and fountains in that piazza, and they kept telling us they had seen us on the video.

Well, we were very apologetic. At that point, we still figured it would just be a little slap on the wrist, tell us we had done something wrong, and let us be on our way... But they kept saying, "It´s not possible for you to be there!" (and later, when I wasn´t trying to be so polite, but luckily sarcasm doesn´t translate so well, I said, "Oh, you mean... it´s not allowed to be there...") - and they told us it would be a 160 euro fine (that´s about 240 dollars) - for stepping over a small little fence and sitting down next to a statue. Really? We continued to be polite at first, and we apologized, said we were just visiting the country and didn´t mean any harm to the fountain. One of the policewomen at some point said, oh, it´s okay (after we had freaked out about the fine), so we breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it would be no big deal... but then they handed a piece of paper to Sarah, asking her to sign it - and we both stopped and asked, well, what does it say? And still without making it seem like a big deal, the woman told us it said we´d gone into the fountain (again, not quite right...) and owed a 160 euro fine.

Well, neither of us ended up signing our "tickets," because they never fully explained what exactly those tickets were for, but they told us they´d just send the bill to us. (They got our addresses off of our licenses - although they did not get our license numbers, so...? We´re still not sure what to expect.) Then they told us to follow them - and we still felt like we hadn´t had a chance to explain ourselves properly, because honestly, all we had done was sit by the fountain! - and they showed us to the door and wanted us to leave. At that point, we had stopped the whole polite facade. One woman kept saying, well, it would be the same in your country, and I´m afraid I may have responded with - no, in my country it would not be the same! I´m sure they already thought we were just some dumb American girls, but especially after that... :)

Throughout it all, it was so frustrating because only a couple of the officers knew English, and we felt really bad for not knowing Italian... so we were pretty angry and a bit embarassed for a bit, and then we just thought it was hilarious and figured it´d make a good story. So, we owe the Italian government 240 dollars, each!