On Saturday, April 28th, I had my first overseas visitor to my apartment - Thank You Claire Frost!! Claire arrived on Saturday afternoon and left on Thursday morning, so it was a short, but awesome visit. We spent the weekend catching up and hanging out, and then went out for dinner Sunday night with Shelley and Linda and sat outdoors at a restaurant in Piazza Santa Croce, it was a nice meal, not the best, but so lovely to have Claire around.
On Monday I worked in the morning, Claire joined us around 1pm, and we went to lunch with some of my colleagues at Ristorante Accademia, a favourite lunch spot of ours. When we got there, they were unusually busy, and we had to wait for a table, so the owner sent us next door, to where he had just bought a little coffee shop. We had complimentary glasses of Prosecco while we waited for our table. yay! That afternoon Claire and I wandered around downtown Florence, did some shopping, then some grocery shopping, and we made dinner that night and then went out for Notte Bianca. . . .
Notte Bianca is a somewhat new tradition in Florence, but it is AWESOME. Basically it is an all-night party in the streets. May 1st is a national holiday, so there was no work on Tuesday, which made for a lot of people on the streets.
Claire and I wandered around a lot, going to different piazzas, before ending up in Piazza Santo Spirito, which is a really cool neighborhood on the other side of the Arno. It is close to where my friend Emily lives (she calls it her piazza), and we met up with her and her boyfriend there. Claire and I had a really fun time people watching, meeting random strangers, and maybe drinking a bit too much (it was rough getting up the next day).
Tuesday we slept in and had a very, very slow morning/early afternoon. Our plan was to go to Bologna, where Claire had lived for her year in Italy. We didn't make it to the train station until around 4pm, due to an excessive night before. One thing we hadn't planned on was how many people came to Florence for Notte Bianca - all of the fast trains to Bologna were sold out all day. We took the slow train, which wasn't so bad, and arrived in Bologna with time to walk around, reminisce, and have a delicious dinner.
I had been to Bologna before, when I visited Claire when she lived here, and it was nice to go back. It is such a lovely place, way less touristy than Florence. Also, it was a good place to be in the rain, because of all of the covered walkways. We went to the alimentari (mini convenience store type place) that was where Claire used to go all the time, and the man who runs it remembered her from three years ago! It was super cute! We then went to a little restaurant - where Claire briefly worked as a waitress, and had delicious tortellini al brodo, before rushing back to the train station to find out our train was an hour delayed - oh Italy!
Wednesday I had taken the day off of work, and had booked a private tour of Tuscany for us. It was an awesome, beautiful day. Monica Iris was our guide, and she has done tours for students and their families from Gonzaga for years, so I decided it would be a nice way to see the area. She picked us up in her car from my front door, and away we went.
On Monday I worked in the morning, Claire joined us around 1pm, and we went to lunch with some of my colleagues at Ristorante Accademia, a favourite lunch spot of ours. When we got there, they were unusually busy, and we had to wait for a table, so the owner sent us next door, to where he had just bought a little coffee shop. We had complimentary glasses of Prosecco while we waited for our table. yay! That afternoon Claire and I wandered around downtown Florence, did some shopping, then some grocery shopping, and we made dinner that night and then went out for Notte Bianca. . . .
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| Getting ready to leave the building - it's going to be a fun night! |
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| Super Cool! |
Notte Bianca is a somewhat new tradition in Florence, but it is AWESOME. Basically it is an all-night party in the streets. May 1st is a national holiday, so there was no work on Tuesday, which made for a lot of people on the streets.
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| It's sort of hard to see, but people are wearing the same light-up bow headbands we got in China! |
Claire and I wandered around a lot, going to different piazzas, before ending up in Piazza Santo Spirito, which is a really cool neighborhood on the other side of the Arno. It is close to where my friend Emily lives (she calls it her piazza), and we met up with her and her boyfriend there. Claire and I had a really fun time people watching, meeting random strangers, and maybe drinking a bit too much (it was rough getting up the next day).
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| With Emily! |
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| With the Ponte Vecchio in the background, at the end of our night |
I had been to Bologna before, when I visited Claire when she lived here, and it was nice to go back. It is such a lovely place, way less touristy than Florence. Also, it was a good place to be in the rain, because of all of the covered walkways. We went to the alimentari (mini convenience store type place) that was where Claire used to go all the time, and the man who runs it remembered her from three years ago! It was super cute! We then went to a little restaurant - where Claire briefly worked as a waitress, and had delicious tortellini al brodo, before rushing back to the train station to find out our train was an hour delayed - oh Italy!
Wednesday I had taken the day off of work, and had booked a private tour of Tuscany for us. It was an awesome, beautiful day. Monica Iris was our guide, and she has done tours for students and their families from Gonzaga for years, so I decided it would be a nice way to see the area. She picked us up in her car from my front door, and away we went.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, thankfully, and we had a brilliant time. We drove through the Tuscan hills, stopping in little towns to try different things. We stopped at this woman's house who Monica knows, who makes her own olive oil. The 90 year old woman gave us tablespoons of olive oil to try, which was a weird thing to get down by itself. But we bought oil!
We stopped in another little town for coffee, and then drove on to this really cool butcher shop, where we got to try delicious cheeses and hams. Driving through the countryside was so picturesque, it really made me appreciate living in Italy, and also how important it is to see green and nature (there's not a lot of that in Florence)
We stopped at another little butcher shop, where we sampled more goodies and bought some spices. Then we were off to a little winery for a tasting. We also bought some bottles there.
Finally, we went for a walk through San Gimignano, which is a really old, historic walled city in Tuscany. It was nice, although more touristy than the rest of our day. However, they have a gelateria there that has won awards for its chocolate gelato, and we tried that and it was fantastic. I'm not really a fan of chocolate ice cream, but this was incredible!
It was a really nice way to end the visit with Claire, and exploring Tuscany was something that neither of us had done before, so it was good to be able to see something new. That night we made dinner and hung out at home, and then the next morning it was up and off to the train station so that Claire could go to Rome to make her flight to Egypt to visit with our parents.
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