My Arrival in Florence: Not so Hot

I arrived in Amsterdam in the Netherlands before a four hour layover on Saturday June 1 finally landing for the first time ever outside of the United States. My flight from Newark, New Jersey through KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was a 7 hour 20 minute flight which was actually a pleasure. The 737 plane got switched to a 747 double-floor aircraft so there was about 300 extra seats on the plane. I laid down and stretched out the entire time and it was basically the most enjoyable plane ride of my life. The Amsterdam airport was coll in that it had a casino and it was my first experience dealing with a language barrier. As I arrived in Florence after my layover, I noticed however the looks I was getting when I was going through security particularly aimed at my basketball sneakers. I received looks of astonishment with a mix of confusion at the look and style of my sneakers. Despite these looks, I couldn't of been in a better mood upon my arrival until I went retrieve my luggage. My luggage was determined "lost" and I was without basically all of my clothing until my bags were found. This put a pretty big damper on the beginning of my trip but taught me that I would just have to be patient and these types of this happen. We then arrived at the San Gallo Palace Hotel which was a four star hotel that was beautiful both indoor and outdoor. I was a little bummed that I had to share a bed with stinky Nick because there was three of us in the room but I dealt. That day we walked around for just a bit and saw the immediate part of the city we were staying in. First impression, the architecture was amazing and unlike anything I had previous experienced. That night I experienced my first dinner in Florence where we enjoyed pasta and wine which I may say ranked up with some of the best Italian food I've had (I would hope so being in Italy). That night we got wine and got to know each other in the hotel. My first day was extremely tiring because of jet lag and the stress of KLM losing my luggage but I learned to deal and adapt to my surroundings. (p.s. they found the luggage the next day not I am happy!!)