Tour De Florence

Over the past week, there has been something new happening in Florence. For the first time ever, this big bike race is being held in a major city, Florence. The, Mayor of the city says it will bring lots of money to the city and I don't know if it is doing that or not but I know it is bringing bikers to the city (and bikes). Some of the best bikers from around the world are competing in this big weeklong event. The main race is this Sunday. For the past few weeks shops have been preparing their windows to sell as many bike related things to tourists as possible and even some of the non touristy places have been getting into the bike spirit. My Italian teacher Metilda was very angry about it at first because she wouldn't be able to get to work with all the roads closed and she would have to take a bus. She seemed to get over it though after she watched a race or two.

 This window was totally converted from having traditional florentine display to full on Bike race italain pride a few weeks before the race.

 The children's library down the street from my school painted a bike blue and put it in their window.

 This was in a pharmacy window, showing their bike race spirit!

 Even small clothing stores are joining in on the fun.

The race runs right by the Duomo. They set up these barriers and when the race is not rinning they have diverted traffic to take a detour along the race track. When the race is running they let people cross when the bikers aren't close. They have all sorts of things set up for sponsors and things.
          The finale of the racing is this sunday and since Ali and I have not really watched much of it we think we might watch it. You might be able to find it on ESPN or ESPN2 or something if your interested. It might be cool just to see the city as I believe the helicopter thats been flying over Florence so much has been filming the races. The Duomo is HUGE and you will probably see it. Imagine a manmade mountain made of organized different color marble placed right in the middle of the city. Thats what the Duomo is like and you might get to see it and some more of the city on this bike race.