After one long day this week all I wanted to do when I got home was flop on the couch and go to bed early. Of course, after logging onto facebook I happened to come across Hard Rock Caffe’s fan page promoting their one-year anniversary of opening in Florence and invited people to come down and grab their legendary burger for only 71 cents. Say what?!

To be honest, I don’t normally crave American food when I’m in Italy. I grew up in a city in Texas where Mexican cuisine ( and of course BBQ) were more of the traditional fare. Hard Rock as a franchise is pretty expensive (14 euros for a burger?) so it’s not somewhere me and t-man normally frequent. Of course we couldn’t beat 71 cents and I figured why not use the opportunity to head into the center for a night-time walk.

When we arrived we spotted the massive balloon entrance, staff sporting multi-colored wigs and a huge guitar-shaped cake taking center stage in the waiting room. I mentioned the deal to one of the wig-wearers only to be told, “no” then “yes” then “no” (clearly not all of the people working there were informed) and just as we were giving up and leaving – “pink wig” told us to sit at the bar and wait for her. Righty-o ma’am! We sat down and possibly the friendliest waiter in Italy arrived more excited than we were about this 71-cent burger. We ended up eating too much and downing one too many coca-cola lights (as you should since they are 3.50 a pop!).

Of course being the gluttons that we are, we were able to psychologically justify getting the brownie-ice cream dessert which was as you can imagine, divine.

Afterwards we both we’re about to burst so a long walk around the city was most definitely in order. During the day Florence is filled with large tour-groups following sunflower-toting guides, students, honking cars and general chaos. Lucky for us, it was a beautiful night with a slight breeze flowing. Taking the time to walk around absorbing the scenery always reminds me why I chose to live here, this city is a visual feast for the eyes. Minus the fact that gypsies were using the public water fountain in Piazza Annunziata to wash their clothes.