THE PARENTS ARE HERE!!!!

WOOOOHOOOOOO! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR MONTHS FOR THIS! but really.

Finally! I woke up early Friday morning to surprise them and meet them at the airport. I got a little teary eyed, not gonna lie, but I ducked behind a column so they wouldn't see my wiping my eyes. Haha. It was so nice having them here. I planned on staying part time in the pensione and part time with them at the hotel.  I guess I underestimated how much I missed them because I spent every single night at the hotel, and most waking moments that I could with them. I just didn’t want to waste any time with them! The first couple days we just walked around and showed them Florence.

While I was in class, they went to the standard museums and walked around the city. I would meet them after class at night and we went shoe shopping (scored on some awesome boots) and then we went to dinner. Boy did we eat well, not that you had any doubts we wouldn't! But it was wonderful meals, I couldn't bring myself to order any pasta (can you blame me, once a day is killing me!) so I finally got my first red meat since being here. They don’t serve it in the Pensione and it’s too expensive on a college budget, but oh man was it delicious. We had some great food, awesome wine, and even better laughs. Asks mom for a good mozzarella bar joke :) (inside joke) The only thing missing was John. Really! I missed him lots, the family dynamic without him just isn't the same.

 

        Wednesday we took a train to Luca, an old medieval town about 2 hours outside Florence. The original city wall is still in tact! Simply amazing. We rented bikes and tooled around the wall and inside the city before stopping for lunch. It was a great way to get outside of Florence for awhile. Not to mention it was a beautiful fall day. The leaves were all turning a beautiful color and it was sunny, yet still cool.

And before we knew it, it was Thursday! Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving, being one of my favorite holidays, made me a little homesick. If mom and dad hadn’t been with me, I don’t know how I would have managed. But do not worry, the homesickness did not ruin the day at all! We took a fabulous tour with Monika, the same woman I had my prior wine tour with (in the post below). We went through all of Chianti (which is a wine area in Tuscany). It’s so funny 15 minutes outside of Florence, and you feel like you’ve been transported to a movie set. (think: Under the Tuscan Sun). It is simply beautiful. You know, I don’t think I could live in Florence for my whole life, but I ABSOLUTELY could live in Tuscany with a vineyard or olive trees. It’s amazing. Monika set up a great day for us, from 11am till 7pm of Tuscan adventures. What’s great about Monika’s tours is she doesn’t have a set itinerary, she just calls up her friends the morning of to see who’s home and who she can bring us too. The woman can talk to just about anyone and knows all of Tuscany practically. It was more like spending the day meeting friends, rather than being on a “tour” per say.
Our first stop was to see Lucia, who is this 78 year old Italian woman who makes all her own wine and olive oil. We got to taste the olive oil, which is more like “olive juice” as Monkia said since it was just pressed about 8 or so days ago. We tasted it with spoons, which gives you an idea of the informal setting we were in. When Dad asked to take her picture with me, she responded (in Italian) “No, no, please, I’m so beautiful my pictures are all already around the world” We laughed and she bottled up some olive oil for us, right then and there. Pretty sweet. We left Lucia’s and headed through scenic Tuscany, stopping frequently so dad could hop out and take some beautiful pictures.

 (i hate the above picture, but i had to show how she bottles the oil)

We then headed to “the Academy of Good Taste” where Stefano was waiting for us. Talk about a character. Here we sampled 5 different types of olive oil and vinegar. I had no idea there was even a difference in any of them. But they all tasted good, and it was an experience we’ve never had and will never forget. He was a funny man, as you can tell from his get up. Next Monika took us to another friends for a burger. This butcher, is a little crazy, Monika said. She told us that when mad-cow disease became prevalent in Florence and restaurants outlawed serving Florentine beef steaks for awhile, he made a coffin for the meat and had funeral procession through town…. Does that give you a picture!? Haha, but it was a really cool restaurant on top, with a butcher shop downstairs. When we walked downstairs, it was like a party was going on rather than people working. The butcher was eating what he cut for customers, as he cut, and everyone was gathered around laughing. Just enjoying their time together, which totally the attitude here. Just enjoying time together over food, no worries type of thing. So we went back upstairs and ate a giant burger that was amazing!! No bun, just good and tasty meat. We ran into a little bit of car trouble so Monika left quickly to change cars.

We then headed towards Roberto’s vineyard for some more wine. His house/vineyard looked like it came out of a story book. The house itself was built in the 1400’s (I believe?) or 1600s. I think the former. Either way, INCREDIBLE. Most everything was the same on the inside, and a large fire was burning when we walked in. We sampled 2 of his chianti classic’s and talked. I would kill to live in a house like this! After that, we stopped in a 30 person town. I’m not kidding 30 people. We walked the one road and looked at the castles and homes. It was surreal. We had an espresso at a little old woman’s cafe, where she and a friend were visiting, and some Ricciarelli, traditional Tuscan cookies. They were made of almond paste and melted in your mouth. To die for! We had to buy some for snacks later, obviously :)

After that we were on our way to our final wine destination, Fernando’s. Fernando, was also our last stop on my first tour with Monika (this was the only repeat I had). Fernando, is 72 years old, and lives in Montefiorelle, a town in Tuscany. Here he makes about 10,000 bottles of wine per year, and some olive oil. But 1500 of those bottles he saves for his family (3 families, 1 bottle per day!) He is the sweetest old man who only speaks Italian, but last trip, I was the only one who could communicate with him (not very well though, but hey I tried!) so he loves me. We went and sampled all 8 of his wines from the years from 2005-2009. He made us some bread and meat and cheese too. It was another great stop! Our final destination was a butcher shop in town which had tons and tons of prosciutto hanging from the ceiling. A little disturbing, but it tasted great! We then headed back into Florence. Talk about an amazing and once in a lifetime Thanksgiving!!

 Fernando!

    Friday morning we woke up and made the day a shopping day. We got cool items but my favorite is the necklace Dad bought me. I really wanted to have one from Florence since I don’t have that many necklaces. I guess I shouldn’t share about it since it IS my Christmas gift, but I’m too excited not too! It’s a bronze coin shape, which has the Florentine symbol on it an Iris, and the flip side has St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence on it. It’s BEAUTIFUL! I will always have a piece of Florence with me, and it is the perfect gift of my trip. After I write this, I will forget about it (wink) until Christmas and I open it! After shopping, we had a picnic of cheese & prosciutto that we bought at the butcher shop the night before and Lucia’s wine. We ate it at Piazza Michelangelo, which in my opinion has the best view of Florence from above. It was a clear, beautiful day. The best day I’ve been up there.

After that we walked up to San Miniato, an old Church to hear the Gregorian priests chant. Except we sorta got stuck at mass, which was nice, since the ceremony felt like we were back in 800. Then we went back to the hotel to regroup and have dinner. After another awesome meal, we walked around and went back to the hotel. Oh! And this whole week they have been working on putting up christmas lights all over the city! And on mom and dad’s last night they got a peak of some of them lit up! The city looked beautiful. I’m so glad they got to see them lit, what a great last night.

   

    It’s Saturday morning, they just left about 2 hours ago, and I miss them already. Everyone is traveling this weekend...literally there are only 4 people from Gonzaga here. And only 1 other person in the pensione this weekend. Kinda creepy. So I’m sitting here, blogging, eating the peppermint taffy mom left me listening to Christmas music (shoutout to the classic holiday jam: “donde estas santa claus?) . Naturally..it’s my favorite time of year, the buildup to Christmas, plus let’s be real I’ve been listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies (with Nicole and Hanna) since MID November :) I’m so excited to come home for the most magical time of year and see everyone. I have such mixed feelings on leaving. I don’t want to say goodbye to this amazing adventure, but I know there will be nothing like coming home. That’s for sure. Dublin next weekend, my last trip of the semester! It should be magical. Love you all. Eat some leftovers for me! And Fight On SC! Ciao belle!