An Opera at the Boboli Gardens (July 21)

July is the month during which Florence holds it's annual opera festival. Tonight, I went to see an outdoor showing of "La Traviata" at the Boboli Gardens. I've never been to a real opera before and seeing as Italy is the birthplace of opera, it seemed like the perfect occasion. Francine and my friend Olga had already bought tickets ahead of time, so I dragged Lee and Ben with me to the show. Our seats were way in the back, but it was still an enjoyable experience. The guys left at the intermission (I looked over at one point during the show to find Lee playing "Angry Birds" on his iphone), so I joined Olga up front in the vacated seat next to her. She had a much nicer view of the stage. I have to admit, the opera was quite long and toward the end I started nodding off a bit (the show finished around midnight). I felt a little bad about this, since Olga later told me that the elderly man sitting next to her was crying at the end of the show.