That was one reason I was trying to think of for our treatment when we were there. Was there anything going on in the summer (July) of 1999?

Florence is very nice, but yeah, very tourist heavy. I've been to the country twice. The friend I was talking about had spent every single summer since he was born at a small bech town in western Italy. Poor guy had to spend every summer for 4 months on an Italian beach (I wish sarcasm came across better in text). I got to spend a couple weeks there too. It was fantastic, and I got a better insight into the people, even though they didn't speak any English (they tried, but it was the equivalent of us using a little of our high school foreign language lessons). The people were just so nice. That's why that is my favorite foreign country.

Actually, now that I think of it, wasn't the war in Kosovo going on in 1999? I remember the two of us went to his grandparent's place on the eastern coast, and while we were on that beach we would occasionally see fighter jets head out to sea.