A wrap up of my parents weekend and current news

Things have settled down into their normal rhythym again after my parents have left. The end of the semester is already coming so quickly, I can't believe it!

I thought that I might talk about a few of the things me and my parents did that I didn't have a chance to in previous posts. On Saturday night me and my parents went to the most fabulous Restaurant called "Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco". They are famous for their wild boar dishes. This restaurant was raved about by my cousin Carolyn, who visited Florence not too long ago with her boyfriend Mitch after they both graduated law school. She said to make sure to go there while I was over here, and so I thought it would be a perfect place to take my parents. We ended up getting two of the dishes she recommended; my dad got the spaghetti with tomato wild boar sauce which was absoloutely amazing. I was a bit skeptical about trying it at first (just because its boar haha) but it tasted just slightly different than ground beef. My mom got the ricotta and spinach dumplings with a butter sauce. Those were also very tasty. I ended up getting a pesto pasta which was out of this world. It had a very strong basil flavor which I love.

On Sunday morning before Lucca my parents and I went to the Bargello museum which has a lot of famous sculptures. A few of them were done by the great Michelangelo himself! Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures except inside the courtyard, so feel free to check those out on facebook.

Today I am going to be spending the day pretty much just catching up from the past week and maybe taking a nap and working out. Nothing too exciting. My friend Martha is visiting this weekend from Amsterdam with her friend she met on her studying abroad trip named Tara. I am so excited to see her! She is spending a few days in other parts of Italy before Florence, so she will take a train from Pisa this Friday and will be at my pensione around 1:15. The plan is to go to lunch and who knows what else from there. Technically I am supposed to have classes this Friday to make up for one of the days we will be gone on the Thanksgiving Bosnia and Crotia trip however a lot of teachers are just canceling class. My philosophy teacher pretty much canceled class on Friday, as well as my marketing teacher. My econ professor does not seem even aware that we are supposed to have class on Friday so I am pretty sure he will just not show up. That only leaves Italian and Intro to Florence. Doesn't sound like too bad of a make up day, huh? And that way I can spend the rest of the afternoon freely with Martha and Tara. (Let's hope I don't have to go to Econ!) :) To your left is a picture of me and Martha taken last year.

Also for those that know what is going on with my Grandfather-- he is getting very weak and sick, so my family and I could definitely use your prayers with this whole situation. He has lived a great life but its very sad to watch him go. This is hard time for all of us.

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!

A lunch with my cousin Julie and her family

Today I had a great lunch with my my parents and my cousin Julie and her husband Thierry, and their 3 boys Benjamin (who is the oldest), Christopher, and Nicholas. They are just precious! Like I said earlier, this was the second time I have ever seen my cousin and this was the first time I had met her husband and their kids. We had such a great time!

I booked it over to the Duomo after class to meet my parents and the Motets, and from there we walked to this quaint little restaurant located close to the Archaeological Museum. I ended up ordering this delicious Penne pasta that had a ground beef sauce that was made of cheese and tomato. I also ordered a glass of the Chianti and a cafe latte after lunch. We were there for over an hour just chatting and making up for lost time. Julie is in the marketing field as well and so she told me all about her job and her husband works for Telecom in the financial field.

Above is a picture of all of us that was taken today. I am so glad that we were able to touch base through email. I am looking forward to my visit to Southern France next semester with my friend Cierra. She will be able to show me all around her area! :-D.

Today has been pretty rainy and cloudy... at least the weekend held up for my parents. It's finally starting to get colder, but we still have spurts of gorgeous and relatively warm weather!

Not sure what I am going to be doing tonight other than homework. I am hopefully meeting up with my parents for dinner and who knows after that.

Another great day with my parents!

Its been so nice visiting with my parents the past few days. They are having a blast in Florence and its been great for me seeing places that I haven't been to yet!

Today started around 10 am and I met up with my parents and we first went to the Medici Palace where many of the famous Medici family line lived. Michelangelo actually learned to sculpt at the location by having an "internship" for a few years. Interesting stuff, huh? :) The picture to your left is of one of the rooms in the palace that had gorgeous frescoes painted all on the ceilings.


After we walked around the palace, we ventured towards San Lorenzo where all the open air market shopping is (see post from a few days ago), and we went to the Medici Chapel where a lot of the Medici family is burried. My favorite part of the building was the chapel that Michelangelo designed which houses many of his famous sculptures such as "Night and Day" and "Dawn and Dusk". Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures-- otherwise I would post one of my own! My dad was so cute because he has been researching all about Michelangelo and the famous artwork here in Florence that he was giving me a little tour of all the important sites in the chapel/palace. He also brought along his "Rick Steves" book which has a lot of good touristy information about famous locations. It was helpful to read when I had no idea what I was looking at. I might take a class on the Medici Family next semester (which is a continuation of the Intro to Florence class I am in now) so I will be a pro about the Medici family if I take that! I would probably be going back to both those locations on my tours if I decide to take the class. I am debating because although I think its great history to learn, I am already up to 15 credits and I would be taking 18 if I decide to add that one to the schedule. I don't want to be too stressed with school when I am studying here and learning about the culture. We will see what I decide to do...


After the chapel we headed towards the acaddemia and we saw Michelangelo's David! I was in such awe when I saw it. The sculpture was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It is 14 ft tall and it is truly amazing. Me and my mom and dad listened to their little audio guide on their ipods. It was by Rick Steves of course... haha. We looked at some of Michelangelo's other marble sculptures, and we actually saw the original plaster figure of Michelangelo's famous Pieta. The current one is housed outside the Uffizi Palace in the Piazza di Vechio. We went over to that area yesterday, and I took the most gorgeous picture of the sculpture! We also looked at a small section of historical instruments. It was all pretty cool but overwelming seeing all of those places in a short perioe of time!

Once we were done looking around, we originally set off to go to my favorite place to get sandwiches called the Oil Shop, but unfortunately it is closed on weekends (which I didn't know)... so we ended up finding a fun little Italian restaurant and I got a delicious calzone (see picture) and my dad got this really yummy focacia with pruscitto cotto (raw ham) and arugola, and fresh shaved mozzerella. My mom got this eggplant dish, but neither me or my dad like eggplant so we couldn't vouch for itk but my mom said it was fabulous. We also split a 1/2 liter of white wine. Its interesting how they do wine here-- the cheap stuff (still great tasting though!) is in 1/4, 1/2, and 1 liter.

We were all so stuffed from lunch but my mom saved some room for gelato (she says she wants to have it once a day while she is over here!) so I took her to one of my favorite places. She got a chocolate kind; I was satisfied with just one bite because it was so rich! Then we walked over towards Santa Croce and found the leather school where students learn how to make leather products and they sell a bunch of cool leather jackets, purses, wallets, you name it they have it! We didn't get anything but it was fun to look around.

We were all so tired from walking all around that we decided to take it easy for a few hours and chill out. I went back to my pensione and relaxed and uploaded pictures on facebook, etc and they just hung out back at their hotel. A couple hours later we met up again to go to this gospel concert at a chiesa (church) near Santa Croce. I heard about it from the "Ciao" which is our little newsletter we get everyday via email from the student life office on campus. The singing was so upbeat and inspirational! I know my parents loved it too-they love soulful gospel music. The group almost sounded southern-- apparently they travel all over Italy and beyond and they have their own cd and everything. They were very talented for sure.

The concert lasted about an hour and a half and after we walked across the street to Istanbul (apparently its a chain!) and got kebabs. I recomended that they try them at least once while they are over here, even though they are not your typical Italian Cusine. They loved it! My dad got a beef kebab, I got a chicken, and my mom got a falafel. My dad was joking around that its funny that we went from an American gospel choir concert to a Mediteranean restaurant... in Florence. Haha oh well-- gotta experience it all, right?

Now we are all pretty pooped. We all went back to their hotel to make plans with my cousin Julie, who is visiting with her husband and their three boys from France. They are only here for the day tomorrow, so we are going to meet up for lunch and dinner. I am so excited!

Well thats all for now.

BTW Happy 21st Birthday, Kristina! :)

Parents arrival!

Mom and dad are here! It is so nice to see them. They arrived a little early around 1:30, and I ended up meeting them at San Marco where they each ordered a small sandwich and an espresso. I had already eaten at the Oil Shop, which has the best sandwiches in Florence (in my opnion at least) so I was full, but it was nice to catch up. They are very jet lagged as you can imagine, so after I picked up all my goodies that they brought from home and showed them around school and my room, they went back to their hotel for a little nap. Tonight we are having dinner at a classic Italian restaurant called Za Zas. I have never been there, but my friend Annie said it is very yummy. We made reservations for 7:30 so we are all looking forward to that. It is going to be me, Annie, Lil and her mom, and of course my parents. I will let you know how the food was!

I have so much more stuff in my room now (I asked for lots of clothes from home). So I will definitely have to send my parents back with a lot of stuff too. I am worried how I am going to take all my stuff home at the end of the year. I already came with a lot of stuff, and I have only accumulated more... oh well.

Yesterday night me and a bunch of friends went to the theater and saw an American movie! It was so fun! I had already seen the movie, but it was more about the experience than anything. We saw tropic thunder; its a pretty funny movie but a little more manish humor than mine haha. There were Italian subtitles during the movie, and it was so funny-- there was an actual INTERMISSION during the middle of the movie! But the funny thing was that it was not like at a natural break in the movie... it was like right in the middle of an action packed scene so it was pretty bizzare. Only in Italia! Haha.

After dinner me and my friend Annie got a couple drinks at this cool little bar. The drinks were decent, but the bartender was kind of a jerk. We always try to use our Italian wherever we go and usually everyone is super nice when we make mistakes but this Italian? Not so much. After getting our drink, Annie said "Grazie" And the waiter rudely corrected her and said its "Graz-i-A" and she said just ok... but we talked to two other Italians and they said we have been saying it correctly like "Graz-i-eh" Oh well. Some people are just mean. Plain and simple.

Well after dinner I think a bunch of us friends are going out to the bars and then perhaps a club. I don't have a costume so I am not sure what I'm going to wear, but I am sure I will come up with something. Maybe office hoes? (that was my friend Lindsay's idea)

Well I will post later-- ciao! oh... and Happy Halloween!

The picture above is of me and some of my friends in Elba! :)

Brunch at Angels

I had the most amazing Breakfast today! It was at Angels, which is located in a really nice hotel in Florence. They are famous for their "American style" Breakfast, and I have been craving an omelet for a long time, so I thought I would give it a shot. A huge group of Gonzaga students went, but me, Cierra, Katie, and Annie sat together at a small table. I got a cafe latte with amazing foam, a Florentine omelet, and hash browns. Before the main course there was a long table with various yogurts, milk, chocolate banana bread muffins, and fresh cut fruit. It was all included in the cover charge so that was nice.

All of us got the same omelet- it was called the Florentine and it had cheese, sweet peppers, spinach, artichoke, and onions. It was so good!

One thing I have noticed about restaurants and stores in general is that prices are pretty set and even. In the U.S lots of things are marked $7.99, $4.99, $9.99, etc but in Europe everything is usually an exact price like 8 euro. This makes it way easier to have exact change. Even at the supermercato the items all come out to a nice, even number. I think a lot of it has to do with the tax in America, because this makes everything to be a weird price such as $6.39, etc. I think the tax must be included here, or everything is duty free. I'm not quite sure. It is definitely an interesting observation that I just noticed.

On the way back from brunch, a cute dress that was displayed outside a little store caught my eye. It is strapless, black and white with flowers, and has a cute little bow in front. I tried it on and it fits perfectly! I will have to take a picture or something with me in it so you guys can see it. I can't wait to wear it!

Anyways, I better get back to studying. Tomorrow I have my econ midterm, which entails writing for a solid three hours about global economy issues. Its going to be a blast! Not...

Its just a few days until my parents are coming! Woo hoo!

The picture above was taken last week in Sorrento.