Last few days with parents

Today marks the last day of my parents' visit. It will be sad to see them go, but it has been so nice to have them hear the past ten days. We have definitely taken advantage of Florence to the extreme- we have toured almost every museum and we have visited the important landmarks and churches. I think my mom might even come over again next semester if she can. That would be awesome!

We were not able to go to the restaurant we originally wanted to go to called La Toscana, but we ended up finding a nice little trattoria in the San Lorenzo area. I had a dish called "Quattro Formaggio Gnocchi" and my dad had an Italian Sausage dish with kidney beans. It was really good! My mom just had a classic Italian salad. It was a lovely way to conclude their visit.

Overall today has been a pretty low key day; I was able to sleep in until almost eleven, and then my parents met me at my pensione and my dad showed me how to burn all my pictures onto cds. He says it is very important to back up all my pictures on cds in case my computer breaks, or whatever else that could go wrong with it. Good thinking dad ;). After my dad showed me how to do that, we all walked over to the Piazza della Repubblica and stopped at a local sandwich shop/ristorante and me and my dad each got a delicious sandwich. Mine was prosciutto cotto which is cooked ham and it had mozzerella and olive oil and basil. My dad got a proscuitto crudo (which is raw ham meat) wrap with similiar ingredients and his was warmed up. Then me and my mom went our seperate ways to go on a little shopping adventure. I ended up getting some nice perfume at Coin, which is known as the "Macy's" of Florence. I had never heard of it until today- it was definitely a huge department store! I also got a cute white wintery hat. After looking around some more, I ended up getting another 5 euro pashmina scarf (they are the best) and a few more accessories. I would say it was a successful shopping day for sure :). My mom was able to get her last minute gifts to take back home.


Yesterday my parents and I went to the famous little town of Lucca. It was a nice break from the loud and noisy Florence atmosphere. It was significantly smaller than Florence, but it had a lot of nice little restaurants and shops. After we got off the 2 hour train ride, we ran into my friend Brian and his dad who were spending the day in the city as well. I invited them to lunch, and we embarked on a cute little Italian restaurant and had some authentic food. My mom and I split a thin crust pizza with tomato sauce and mozzerella and salami. Amongst the five of us we split some vino rosso (which is red wine). It was pretty tasty!

In addition to Lucca's good shopping tastes, and I was told from a few friends to make sure to rent some bikes and take them up to the path that lines the walls of the city. Lucca is surrounded by walls on all sides of the city; the trail is about 2.5 km around and it kind of reminded me of Seattle's 'Green-lake' for all those who have been there. My parents and I ended up renting a few bikes for an hour and we had a great time just exploring the city and going around the trail. Lucca has a lot more trees than Florence, so the changing of the leaves was absoloutely gorgeous.

Well I am in the midst of preparing for my minimum wage presentation... fun fun! I'll post later :)

Buonasera!