Amsterdam, Rome, initial entry into Firenze

My flight from Amsterdam to da Vinci airport in Rome was on a much smaller jet, which I believe they refer to as a city-hopper here. The flight flew right through the heart of the Alps, and I snapped a few pictures, here's two of them (the current header picture is another one I took):

The approach to Rome was underwhelming. Rome's an expansive city, but da Vinci is situated well outside of the major urban area, and it's very isolated by open ground. I even joked that it seemed as if we were touching down somewhere in the American heartland, and da Vinci was also significantly older than the Amsterdam international airport. Amsterdam had a much more contemporary design, whereas da Vinci resembled a quintessential airport from the 60s or 70s: lots of matte metal and a slightly confusing layout. It also was much more reserved in terms of technology, with a lack of large screen TVs, computers, and other technological items of that sort.

We met some folks from our overseas study program, and the approximately 60 students in the Florence program loaded their belongings onto two buses that basically resembled the Italian versions of Greyhounds in the States. Most of the students had a carry-on on wheels and a larger checked bag. Some of the girls had an additional checked bag. I had my laptop case.

The bus ride was about 4.5 hours long, and I slept for most of the trip. I had only gained 5 hours of sleep on the flight from Chicago to Amsterdam, and I knew that jet-lag would kick in when we settled down in Florence.

I woke up with about 45 minutes left in the bus trip; Italian traffic actually isn't as bad as people told me, and there seems to be many unstated rules of the road. Horns are used extensively, but I didn't observe any incidents of road rage. Generally, vehicles tend to move smoothly, and drivers are intelligent on the road.

Our entry in Florence was through the back part of the city; we entered on the south side of the Arno, the older section of town, but the exit from the highway was on the southwest corner of town, which is lower than the rest of Florence. Consequently, we were robbed of any type of breathtaking view of Firenze during our initial minutes in the city. There were a decent number of hotels most Americans are familiar with: a Holiday Inn, a Hilton, etc, an interesting observation I made before being dropped off to catch a taxi to my apartment.