Slovenia

At the end of September, I got to go with the school on a trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  We did a weekend bus trip there with a group of students, and it was great! I loved Ljubljana, and would definitely consider moving there, if they ever needed student affairs personnel.

A square in downtown Ljubljana

We stayed in a really nice hotel, close to the center of town, and because we were the staff for the group, our rooms had balconies, which was awesome! We arrived pretty late on Thursday evening, so we checked everyone in, and then called it a night.

View of Ljubljana from the Castle

Friday morning we did a walking tour of Ljubljana, which is the capital of Slovenia. Our guide was lovely and knowledgeable, and we walked all through the town, ending up at a castle on a hill. The major made the decision to make the center of town pedestrian only, which really makes it seem open and accessible. I met up with Shelley and Linda after the tour (we had separated into different groups with the students), and we had a little light lunch and then wandered around the center some more.

In the afternoon we met up with some students who chose to participate in the optional tour to the City Museum of Ljubljana. It takes you through the complete history of Slovenia and Ljubljana, and it was really interesting. Especially the last century or so. During World War II, the republic of Lljubljana was under Italian rule and they literally put up a barbed wire fence surrounding the entire city and cutting it off from everything else. Pieces of that fence are on display in the museum.

Tiny car that used to have a huge waitlist during the Communist Era.

Inside the tiny car!

After the tour, I did some shopping, as there were bookstores and pharmacy/drug store places that had things I can't get in Italy. That night Shelley, Linda, and I went to this amazing restaurant that they had found on a previous trip to Ljubljana. We all had this incredible dish with a honey truffle sauce that was just spectacular. Mmmm. My mouth is watering right now just remembering it.

The pletna boats on their way to the island of Bled

On Saturday we did a day trip to Bled, which is a much smaller town in the north of Slovenia. We started the day with a boat trip to the island of Bled, on these special boats called Pletnas. We were rowed over to the island, which has a church at the top of a steep flight of stairs. We all got a chance to ring the church bells, which was fun!

The Bell Tower

We then did a hike through Vintgar Gorge, which was beautiful. And following that we had lunch in Bled before getting back on the bus to head back to Ljubljana. It was really nice to be able to spend a day outside of a city, surrounded by green.

That night Shelley, Linda, and I tried a new restaurant, and the food was as good, if not better, than the night before!! We all tried different things, and no one was disappointed. However, the service was not that great. Our waiter was really strange. I think he was trying to be funny/charming because we were three ladies, but it did not come across that way at all, and was instead patronizing and irritating. Pity.

Sunday morning we stopped to tour the Postojna Caves, which were HUGE and incredible. We took a mining cart-type train quite far down, and then walked around for about an hour, and we only saw a tiny part of the caves. It was awesome!! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.

Slovenia was a really awesome trip, all in all. I would most likely never have gone there on my own, and I am so, so happy that I got to go through the school. Man, I love my job :)

Tiff Visits!

I came back from my awesome adventures in Egypt and England to have an awesome adventure with my friend Tiffany coming to visit!!!

We had an absolutely fantastic time - it was so nice to see Tiff after so long, and it was nice to explore some parts of Italy with her. It gets disgustingly hot in Italy in August, so we were pretty much sweaty messes all week. But, that means that we had a brilliant excuse for lots and lots of gelato! I'm pretty sure we had gelato at least once a day.

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

We did lots of walking around Florence, seeing the main sights, including walking up to Piazzale Michelangelo to get this beautiful view of Florence. We also said "hello" to David in the Galleria Accademia. We stopped by the leather markets so that Tiff could pick up souvenirs. And we ate lots of good food! We went to some of my favorite restaurants, and also cooked at home.

We did three day trips while she was here. The first was to the Cinque Terre, which is on the east coast of Italy. This was my second trip there, and this time we went into the water. It was my first time into the Mediterranean of off Italy's coast, and it was lovely!  We had a delicious lunch right on the coast of Monterosso and then hopped on a train to visit two of the other four cities. We had gelato in Vernazza and then glasses of wine in a coastal bar in Riomaggiore. It was a really nice day.

In Lucca

Our second day trip was to visit the towns of Lucca and Pisa. Lucca is a small town that is a living testimony to past times. It has well preserved medieval architecture, and broad, high walls that used to be used for defense and now are a lovely place to walk, cycle or picnic! This was my first visit to Lucca and it was so lovely! The walls are incredible - really thick and wide - we walked all the way around them. We had lunch at a lovely little wine bar that we just stumbled upon, but would definitely revisit. We left Lucca and make a quick stop in Pisa. Literally just long enough to see the Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower) and the Piazza dei Miracoli. It is crazy to me how much it actually leans, especially when you learn that it was fixed (to some extent) fairly recently. This was a lovely, peaceful day trip. 

Our last day trip was to Rome. And that was the exact opposite of peaceful! We tried to fit in as much as we could in one day, so we rushed from place to place. We took the fast train down to Rome from Florence early in the morning and went straight to the Vatican museums. We went through the museums (where I found what might be my new favorite painting in the modern art section)

Abbraccio di Papa Giovanni Paolo II by Pedro Cano

We then went into the Sistine Chapel, and then to St. Peter's Basilica. After leaving, we walked over to Piazza Navona and had lunch, and then made our way to see the Pantheon (with a gelato stop), the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and then made our way to the Colosseum. We then took the train back to Florence and pretty much collapsed onto the couch, after first picking up pizza to bring home. 

On our last night together we dressed up and went to a nice restaurant across the river, meeting up with a friend of mine for aperitivo first. We had a delicious, lovely dinner - followed, of course, by gelato!!

Post dinner gelato

It was so nice to be able to spend time with Tiffany; being away from friends is definitely the hardest part of living over here. We're already talking about a possible next trip. That, or Tiffany is working on how to telecommute to work from Florence :)

Summer Part Two - England

After twelve awesome days in Egypt (which you can read about here), I went with my mum and dad to England for six weeks (oh the luxuries of having two months of no work!)

How was the time in England? Here's a (really lame) rebus puzzle to answer that:

                             

FANTASTIC!!  (Fanta + Stick)

I had an absolutely fantastic time, from start to finish.
It was great to be able to spend lots of time with family, take in London sights and, of course, The Olympics!

We spent time with Nanny (my dad's mum) for the first bit, and it was really nice. We mostly stayed around Walton, although we did have a really long day in London, where we took in Hyde Park, the newly unveiled Bomber's Memorial, and then walked through Westminster Cathedral and also got to see where Dad did his culinary college.

I spent some time at my uncle and aunt's house with them and their two boys. I got to see Henry perform in his class's end of year talent show. We went to the park, and we played lots of Roller Coaster Tycoon on my laptop.

One of the days, Henry and I went to do a tour of The London Dungeons. I had done it before, but it was cool to go through with Henry (who was 10 at the time). Most of it was on the funny end of the funny-scary spectrum, but there were a couple of times when we both were spooked!  One of which was in a retelling of the Jack the Ripper story, when the lights went out and "Jack" appeared with a knife. I'm pretty sure everyone in the room jumped, but maybe not as high or with as much force as Henry, who practically ended up in my arms. It was awesome. That afternoon we then went to go see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. It was a modern retelling, with the setting being a trailer park. It was terrific. A couple of weird moments, but overall it was really enjoyable, with cool use of music and a really, really cool set! We also spent a day at the Imperial War Museum, which was really cool and interactive. It included a bunker experience from WWI and an air raid shelter experience from WWII.

Propaganda where a shadow of Hitler is telling a woman to bring her kids back to the city. Creepy stuff.

Then Mum and I went down to Bath to visit Granny (her mum) and Dad joined us later. We had a great time at Granny's, filled with lots of walks, card games at night, amazing cooking, and just a little bit of wine! One day we rented a row boat and rowed along the canal, which was so fun.

After rowing down the canal, and watching all the rowing on the Olympics, I'm super interested in taking up rowing - all I need now is a . . . . boat, oars, and somewhere to row. Must get on this. We were so lucky with the weather all the time we were there. It pretty much rained non stop in June, but thankfully was clear, sunny, and even hot in July. Thank goodness!

We were in Bath for the anniversary of Pappa's death. We went to a special mass in the morning, and then we went to a National Trust house and garden for a picnic lunch and a lovely walk around. It was a gorgeous property, with a big lake, lots of trees and flowers, a beautiful house, and it was a lovely day. We ended our visit buying a plant which we put in Granny's garden in honor of Pappa. 

It was nice to spend so much time in Bath and get to have a feel for the place. Most days we walked into town and spent time wandering into shops or running errands (I got my watch fixed and renewed my passport). One morning Mum and I did the audio tour of the Baths, which was really interesting. Apparently we did it when we were kids, but I don't remember it. It was cool to hear about how advanced they were with therapeutic treatments back then, and it was especially interesting to learn about because of having been to Rome now.

The Olympics started while in Bath, and we watched the Opening Ceremony (which I loved!!) and many events over the next few days. I was super excited about the Olympics before they even started, but wow! It was so great to be in England for the Games. Everyone got so into it, you could really feel the energy everywhere. I remember watching when Britain won its first gold medal (Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won for women's pairs in rowing), and literally tearing up watching. That definitely wasn't the only time I got emotional over an event, the whole Games were full of them. 

The Tower Bridge decked out for the Games

We actually left Bath to go over to Wales for two nights, the first of which was to go to see England's football team take on Uruguay. Again, it was Fantastic!! We went first to visit Mum's cousin for some tea and to catch up, and then we walked from their place over to Millennium Stadium. 

The stadium from the outside

From our seats

We were impressed with how well organized everything was. There were definitely lots of people there, but we didn't wait in long lines, everything flowed smoothly. They did a bag check before even entering the park area, and at that point sealed up your bag so that the ticket takers would know it was all clear. And everyone in the crowd was friendly and happy to be there. England won, which was great (although they didn't make it that much further in the tournament).  It was really cool to actually attend an Olympic Event. 

I've now been to a World Cup game and a Summer Olympics game - maybe I'll head to Sochi for the Winter Olympics next year!!

We stayed in Wales with another of Mum's cousins and her family. The next day we got to visit Pappa's brother Paddy and his wife Celia, which was really nice, but also a bit sad for me. Paddy has the same laugh as Pappa, and it was a little unnerving to be around that. But, ultimately, it was a lovely visit, and I'm glad we did. 

That night there was a small party at Fi's house, and we got to catch up with even more of the Welsh family! It was lots of fun, even if we were all a little worse for wear the next morning. 

We then went back to Bath for the night, before heading back into London. I stayed with Helen and Steve again, while Mum and Dad met up with their friends for a mini-break. I went to Thorpe Park with Helen, Henry, George, Amber (my cousin), and her two boys (Denny and Bobby). It was a great day, with lots and lots of roller coasters. Henry is now tall enough to go on all of the rides, so he and I had a mad time rushing around to the coasters (my favorite). We also did some of the carnival-esque rides, which George, and sometimes Denny, were tall enough to go on. One of the last rides we went on was a ride based on the scary movies Saw, and that may not have been a smart decision on our part. 

It takes you through a haunted house where you see grisly and gruesome scenes from the movie, and then goes outside for a terrifying incline straight up, with a horrible drop afterwards. At one point on the incline Henry looks over to me and says "I don't think I want to do this" - a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agreed! Thankfully it was over really quickly, and we decided against riding it again. 

I also went into Hyde Park one morning to watch the Men's Triathalon. I didn't have a ticket, but there were many parts of the course that were visible to the public. If I had been taller, I could have seen them swimming in the Serpentine, but as I'm not, I saw instead lots and lots of heads of other people. I did, however, see them all cycling around in the bike portion, but had to leave before the running started. 

I had to leave because Helen and I had tickets to see "The Taming of the Shrew" in the New Globe Theatre. We got groundling tickets, and it was cool to experience what it would have been like back in Shakespeare's time. It was interesting also, to see two Shakespeare plays in such a short time. They were very, very different in approach and felt so very different. The play at the Globe was much bawdier and broke the fourth wall, while the Shakespeare in the Park was more serious (as a format, still very much a comedy though). If that makes any sense?  At any rate, it was really awesome, although next time I might consider paying to sit down, it was hot and long!

Right after the play Helen and I decided to pop into the Tate Modern, which is right next door. It all sounds very cultured, but in actuality the exhibit didn't really do much for either of us, and we left pretty quickly afterwards. There was an exhibit in the turbine hall by Tino Sehgal that involved people moving around in swarms. A review of the piece included this gem of a line: "Paradoxically, his work is substantial and substantive, but it is totally without substance." Yeah, modern art is not really my thing. But I'm glad we went in and re-established that. :)

Then I met up with Mum and Dad and we went to visit family friends for two nights, followed by a weekend at Mum's sister Sarah's house. We had great fun with Sarah's friends over one night, lots of good meals, cheering on Tom Daley over the television, and even a visit with more cousins! We spent two days wandering around London. One with Mum, Dad, my cousin Isabelle, and her dad Dave. We got to see some really cool parts of London - Carnaby Street, Covent Garden, and more. We ended by walking Dave to his work, for the English National Ballet, and we got to walk in and see dancers warming up and rehearsing. 

GIANT Lego map of the world on the riverbank

It was cool to see all the ways London got into the Games

One day we met up with Mum and Sarah's brother, Paul, who was in town doing police work for the Olympics. We all had brunch, then drinks overlooking the Thames. Paul had to leave and Dave had to work, but Mum, Dad, Sarah, Isabelle, and I made our way back to their house, stopping at a couple (read: three) more bars on the way!  We went to this awesome tapas bar called Jose's which was delicious, and then learned that the owner had just opened up a restaurant down the street, so we walked down there and had a drink there too. 

Finally, on our way home, Sarah took us to this bar that is on the roof of a parking garage. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was so cool! Great views and a really fun place. 

The rooftop bar

View from the rooftop bar

Mum and I went one night to see "War Horse", which if you get the chance, I totally recommend! Definitely fantastic!! I had read the book, but I still got so caught up in the story and especially in the movement of the puppets. Unbelievable. They did a great job of making the horses really come to life. 

After Sarah's we went back to Nanny's for the rest of the time. We took a couple of days to go down to Hampshire to stay at the Four Seasons there before Dad had to go back to Egypt. It is a gorgeous hotel, and we spent our days walking, cycling, playing croquet and eating delicious food. It was a pretty wet, but great little break. 

One of the days at Nanny's Mum and I went down to visit some friends from Nevis. It was lovely to catch up on what's been going on, as well as reminisce about our time in Nevis. 

The rest of our time was spent around Walton, taking walks and exploring the area. We went into the retirement center with Nanny so that she could have a look around, and now I hear that she goes a couple of times a week, which is great. We also went to Bobby's first birthday party, where I played many rounds of Hide and Seek with Denny. We were also able to go see the rosebush they planted in Grandad's name in the cemetery. 

One of the nicest things about living in Italy is getting to see family that I normally don't get to see. It was wonderful to spend eight weeks with my parents and six weeks with other family in England. While the not making any money part wasn't too fun, it was nice to have a little break. Not sure that I would like it every year (finances) it was a truly fantastic summer. 

Summer - Part 1 (Egypt)

So, I had July and August off of work this summer, which was both awesome and slightly less than awesome. I had an incredible summer, and will probably (hopefully) not have a real summer vacation like that again for a long time. There was, however, one major downside, and that was along with not working, I didn't get paid. Ouch. Thankfully, I have wonderful parents and extended family, who were very generous hosts this summer.

Here's how it all went down:

I had flights booked to Egypt for July 5th, after my last day of work on June 30th. However, with the death of my grandfather in June, I missed a week of work to go back to London for the funeral (for more about this, read my post here.) I returned to Florence on the 30th and worked on July 1st and Monday July 2nd. That night I went to Viareggio, a coastal town, for the night, with some friends. We stayed in a lovely hotel, had a delicious lobster dinner, and then hung out by the pool on Tuesday. On Wednesday I ran final errands, packed, and worked a little bit, before leaving for Sharm on Thursday.

The pool of our lovely hotel in Viareggio

 I made it to Sharm Thursday evening, but unfortunately my bag did not. This caused a lot of concern to me, as the other people who flew from Rome through Cairo to Sharm all got their luggage, but mine for some reason didn't make it. I had put my Olympic tickets in that bag, as well as birthday presents for mum and dad, plus all the clothes for the next six weeks. Thankfully my bag came a couple of days later.

The Four Seasons Sharm el Sheikh

Since the hotel had a low occupancy rate, I was fortunate enough to have a hotel room to myself - last time in Sharm I stayed in a rollaway bed in my parent's place. It was super nice and luxurious - the payoff for visiting Egypt during the hottest time of the year, I guess :)

My room!

I basically spent my entire time there in the water, or more specifically, under the water. I was there for 11 full days, and in that time I completed 17 dives, and did my Advanced Open Water certification. It was FANTASTIC!!!  I absolutely love diving, and can't wait to plan my next trip somewhere. It definitely helps that the staff of the Sinai Blues are all terrific. They have excellent guides and great receptionist staff (one in specific!!) - definitely made the whole thing awesome. I saw two sea turtles, many tuna, shrimp (on the night dive), lots of eels, and gorgeous coral. Oh, and two white tip reef sharks and two hammerhead sharks.  Yeah, it was a great time!

It's funny now to think about how much I did NOT want to learn how to dive. I did my certification Christmas 2010, as a present from my parents when I went to visit them in Egypt. They had told me before I went out that the certification would be my present, and I tried to be grateful, but I was not. I had had one previous experience trying to Scuba in Mexico, and it hadn't gone well. I had been really nervous, and I had problems equalizing my ears, so I spent the hour in a little wooden boat while Mum, Dad, Sarah and Claire dived. So I was under the impression that I had tried it, hadn't liked it, and didn't need to try it again. I was nervous the entire time leading up to my trip, which was compounded by the fact that this was the time when a shark was attacking swimmers in the Red Sea. After the fourth attack the beaches were closed and I thought I was safe - closed beaches = no diving for Victoria, right?

Wrong. I got to Sharm to find out that the beaches were closed to swimmers and to snorkelers, but open for divers. Oh yipee is what I said, but not at all what I felt. I went for the first day with a giant lump in my stomach. I did the theory part well enough - I much prefer books and learning to new and scary things. We got into the pool just before lunch, to try out the equipment and swim around getting used to it. Well, I got into the pool, went down to the bottom (maybe 4 feet deep, maybe) and I panicked. I stood straight up, convinced that I couldn't possibly breathe. My instructor calmed me down, and told me that I should give it a try until the lunch break - if I didn't want to come back after that, I didn't need to. So, I decided I would continue until lunch, and then tell my mum that I was done. Hey, I had given it a shot, and that was all that could be asked, right? Well, it's clear that my instructor was smart, by the time lunch came around I had just spent about 40 minutes completely underwater, and was feeling fine. Needless to say, I completed the course and Scuba diving is still the coolest thing I have ever done in my life. 

I still have problems clearing my ears sometimes, generally it takes me a lot longer than most to do so, and so I descend much more slowly. And being diabetic is something I need to take into account, but most of the time it's fine if I plan carefully before, during and after. In fact, there was only one time the whole trip where I couldn't dive because of diabetes. And then I still got a cool boat ride where we saw lots of dolphins swimming, and I got to snorkel around - which, is nowhere near as cool as diving, I now realize. 

The beach of the hotel

So now I've done deep dives, a night dive, I've had another navigation dive, and I've dived with sharks!! I can dive to 30 meters now, which is super cool. I'm hoping to go down to Sicily sometime next Spring to dive there. 

I did spend most of my time either diving, or preparing to dive. But I did get away from the beach long enough to a) lay by the pool, and b) eat!! 

At a seafood dinner!

I had such a lovely, relaxing time hanging out with my parents. I met more of their friends, read some books, and played games (my favorite pastimes)!  I also got a notation in my passport for buying alcohol - strange!  You cannot bring alcohol into Egypt if you fly through Cairo, but, if you do fly through Cairo, you have 48 hours after your flight lands to go to a duty free store and buy alcohol or tobacco. Some friends of my parents got married this September, and so I went to duty free to buy alcohol for them with my passport. It is bizarre. Now next to my Egyptian visa I have a notation that says that I purchased three units of alcohol. Weird, right?

Four Seasons always has the most gorgeous centerpieces

Oh, also, my insulin pump broke halfway through my trip. I was laying out by the pool one afternoon with mum, reading, and it was so f-ing hot. I decided to jump in really quickly, just to cool down. I normally take my pump off before I go in the water, but this time I left it clipped to my bikini. It is supposed to be waterproof, but this definitely wasn't. I got out less than five minutes after getting in, and there was water in the screen. It then stopped working completely. I hoped it would dry out, but it did not. I was on Skype with Animas, the pump company that day, and after lots of conversations and explanations, a new pump was dispatched to England (the postal service in Egypt is unreliable, and I was soon going to be in England anyway). So I had an unexpected pumping break, and went back to daily injections for five days. I actually appreciated the break, as I had been getting a little frustrated with always being tethered to a machine, and always getting caught up in tubing at night. I follow diabetes blogs online, and had just read about two people who switched back to daily injections and thought that maybe it would work for me. Boy, was I wrong.  I LOVE MY PUMP! It is the best treatment plan for me, and I really, really did not like having to give injections every time I ate, or was out of range. For all that I don't like about the pump, it is better than anything else out there right now. (I'm still waiting on that artificial pancreas to be invented)

In the private dining room of Bella Vista, with some of my parents' friends

Small bumps and bruises aside, it was a lovely, wonderful time. I was there for mum's birthday, got to see both parents working, took three Nia classes, and just relaxed. I don't know if I'll make it back to Egypt before my parents leave, so it was nice to be there in July.

Next up: England and the Olympics!!

Summer Session

 Our program has three terms - Fall, Spring, and then an abbreviated six-week Summer Session. It was a very different, but really fun term. Because the students are only in Italy for six weeks, a majority of them travel every single weekend. They don't have classes after lunch, so they also do many half-day trips in the afternoons. We did our Opening Tour in Rome, same as for Spring Semester, and it was nice to be back in Rome. (That was my third trip in a year, fourth overall).

Inside the Colosseum - my first visit inside

We did many of the same trips - a walking tour of Rome, a tour of the Vatican museums, and a tour of the Villa Borghese (one of my favorite museums). I also went on two optional tours - one to the Colosseum, which I had been to the outside of twice before, but never actually inside. It was really cool to walk around inside, but it's also cool to see just from the outside. What is most striking to me is just that millions of people have stood where I stood, at different points throughout history, with such a vast variety of things going on in their worlds. Wow.

Fede, Linda, Shelley, me and James at a delicious dinner in Rome

The other optional tour that I did was a Jesuit tour of Rome, led by the Dean of our program. It was cool to see the insides of some really gorgeous churches, although I had to leave the tour a little early to find something sugary when my blood sugar dropped. Damn diabetes. 

We did Tuesday evening barbecues for the students during the summer, as they don't get dinners provided. It was a really fun weekly event, and nice to spend some time outdoors, with American-ish food!

I did not go on any other trips with the school during the Summer Session - it's a smaller group of students, so the trips were staffed by Shelley and Linda. However, James and I did lead a group of students and a faculty member on a day trip to the Cinque Terre. That was a really fun, beautiful, and tiring day! 

The beach at Monterosso - the only town with a real beach

We met at the train station at 9am and took the train to Monterosso, which is the most western town. There we had a delicious seafood lunch, and then we hiked the trail to Vernazza. All five of the towns are built into the cliffs along the coast, and are connected by trains, but also by hiking trails. Unfortunately, last October there were really serious floods, and now only the one trail is open. Our school is actually doing a service trip to the Cinque Terre this month to help in the rebuilding process. 

View of Monterosso from the trail

Hiking the trail

It was a really hot day and the hike was hilly and it took us about an hour and a half. Absolutely stunning views though - well worth it! The first thing we did when we arrived in Vernazza was to take off our socks and shoes and wade in the Mediterranean.  

View of Vernazza from the trail

 In Vernazza we got gelato and walked around, before hoping on the train to take us to the next three towns. We were pressed for time, as we needed to make sure we got a train back to Florence that night. So we didn't actually go into Corniglia as it invovled a hike up a hill (or lots of stairs) and so we saw it from afar and then went to Manarola and Riomaggiore.

The streets of Manarola

Both of these two towns were absolutely lovely, and we all had a great time wandering through the streets and looking at the views. They really are indescribable. There's a "love walk" between these two towns, that we did, and while many couples have written their names on the walls, so have lots of other tourists - it was fun to spot previous students' names up on the wall :)

Looking out onto Riomaggiore 

We caught the train home, which broke down along the way, causing us to only just make the last train from Pisa to Florence. The day was hot and long, but really, really awesome.

Claire Visits

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. . . .

Getting ready to leave the building - it's going to be a fun night!

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.

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).

With Emily!

With the Ponte Vecchio in the background, at the end of our night

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.

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.