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!

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! :)