Prato!

Today Megan and I went to Prato for 5 euro's round trip.
Its a small city about 20 minutes out of Florence and it has a really cool textile museum and is apprently like the wool manufacturing capitol of the world. We went kind of last second-origonally we had wanted to go to Verona to see Juliet's wall but its a 4 hour train ride and literally that is all there is to see there. Since we were swamped with a HUGE midterm project this week, we didn't make it to the travel agent so Prato was decided last night over 4 euro margaritas (did I mention the midterm project due this week? The week after break and the week that one of our professors completely rearrange one day to take up our free period to take us on a cite visit AND have class.)
So. Prato. There was a textile museum that my fashionista friend was interested in, and I just wanted to get out of the city for a couple hours and see something new so we hopped on an early train and went to Prato.
Literally the second the train got into Prato, it started to rain. I'm not kidding. It was like a bad joke especially since Megan hadn't brought her umbrella.
We took refuge in a bookstore until the rain let up a bit but we were not about to let a little water and some fog ruien out day. We went and saw Prato's duomo, and their cathedral (on the outside), stumbled across a couple markets, a castle and toured the textile museum. We did all this with out a map (because we kept trying to walk to the tourist office, we just never found it despite the fact all the signs said we were going in the right direction.) At the end of the day, Prato is small, and easy to navigate so we didn't get lost, which is quiet an accomplishment for the two of us.
The textile museum was pretty cool. Its super modern and sheek (and either brand new or newly renovated. As a museum studies minor, I'm a snob about museums who notices things like interactive exhibits and the more modern ways of displaying things.) The museum had textiles dating back to the 15th century which was absolutely mindblowingly impressive, but alas, I could not take pictures. (and there were museum people everwhere and like no patrons, so they just followed Megan and I around, so I couldn't even sneaky sneak a picture or two.)
The rain did let up by mid morning so we got some shots of the city. Another pretty day trip to add to your list :)

The parents come to visit take two.

Its been almost a week, I just haven't had a chance to up date on the end of my parents visit. We made it to Pisa on Saturday (eventually). We had trouble with the ticket machines taking our cards so it took us a while to actually buy our tickets, but we did finally make it. And when we did we we saw the leaning tower but my parents didn't take any campy pictures, sorry guys. We had amazing sandwiches at the same place Anicka, Megan and I stumbled apon when we were there the first time. And we ran into a nice Mormon couple from Michigan twice while we were there. What are the chances right?
Sunday night Carmen cooked dinner for my parents so they got to experience the wonder of the food that Christian and I have been living off of for the past 3 months. She served pumpkin filled ravioli, salad, and a variety of meats, with little pastries for dessert. We had an absolutely lovely night and I'm so happy my parents got to meet Carmen, and Carmen was thrilled to meet my parents.
It was a nice night and I was sad to see my parents go. But they had a safe flight home, when their luggage getting lost in Paris but hey, better on the way home then on the way here right?

Italia con i mi genitori

Sorry this has taken me so long to post but my parents did in fact make it to Italy and even though it took us two days to connect, we have been seeing the sights of Italy for a little under a week.
The long and the short of the story is they had a hell of a trip in. While I had smooth flights and NO problems hopping from country to country, my parents encountered and air strike that re routed their flight to Pisa, not Florence, didn't allow them to take off from Paris to get into Italy, left them sitting on plans for hours, and trapped them on a shuttle bus to get into Florence. They left Milwaukee Thursday and while they should have landed at 4 pm Friday in Florence, they landed closer to 7 pm in Pisa and did not get to their hotel until late and did not get wifi until the next day.
To say I was livid was the understatement of the century. When I started to bike to summer school the summer of my freshmen year of high school, I had to call my mother and let her know I made it to school safely because we didn't have texting. Now, at almost 21 years of age, I get told off if I don't text my parent that I got to the grocery store okay. So the fact that my parents were failing to communicate with me if they were even in the same country as I was, let alone on the continent, or at all safe had me really really frustrated.
When I did get a hold of me they explained they didn't have wifi. I was still mad, but I started to cool off as I understood.
We met up on Sunday, and mom, dad and I went to Fiesole with Sam for the day before she had to get back on a train to Rome to catch her flight back to Jordan. We had a nice family dinner at a restaurant near their Villa (which is about the farthest place from my host mom's house they could have chosen to stay in, however it is beyond nice which they totally deserve.)
Monday we caught a train and spent three days in Venice. It was really cool to get to see the city again, especially since I had wanted to go back so badly when I first visited it about a month ago. Showing my parents around Venice was great, and proved to me how much I had actually learned while I was there, but it also showed me that I had been there and I had done that and I don't NEED to go back anymore. Maybe in 30 years, I'll visit again, but I'm ready to move on and see more of the world. In fact, I'm not planing on coming back to Italy for a while simply because I'm seeing so much while I'm here. And that is great and I'm so happy with that. I don't feel like I'll really be missing much. I'll come back and do the south, and hike all of the Cinque Terre (especially since I don't think I'll make it there this trip) but I'm in no pressing hurry to come back-rather I'm gunning to see more of the world. I've decided next stop is Ireland. But alas, I digress.
I took my parents to San Marco's square and we went to Morano on Tuesday and spent the day looking at ALL the glass (and buying lots of it) and on Wednesday I took them to the Academia so they could see the Vitruvian man too.
Thursday we spent the morning at the Uffizi (seeing some Boticelli) and the afternoon at the Academia here in Florence to see David of course. And today I took them to see the view of Florence and then walking down to the old city walls, and found Gusta Pizza for lunch and after we hit up the Boboli gardens (dad and I had to see as many of the settings of Inferno as we could!)
Thats the brief catch up of what we've done the past couple of days. I'll go into more detail later (when its not midnight,) but I figured I would take the spare moments to sit down and tell everyone my parents are here and enjoying their trip (even if they are leaving shortly). If all goes according to plan, we should be hitting up Pisa and the markets tomorrow!

 Over looking Fiesole

 Saying good by to Sam at the train station.

 VENICE!

 Laura wine! Its some good stuff. So if you ever come across it...get it.

 On our way to Morano

 Drinking spumante on the steps of Santa Croce in Venice.

Florence in a Day

Can you see all of Florence in a day? No. Not really. I mean I've been here close to three months and I'm still coming across new things that I haven't see or tried or eaten or done yet. The joys of life right?
However, I did do a pretty good job of showing my friend Sam around today if I do say so myself. If you only have one day to do Florence like she kind of does, this is the way to do it (for free/really cheep might I add.)
First off, let me introduce you to my friend Sam. We met my freshmen year of high school because she lived two doors down from me with out a roommate our first semester. Turns our Sam is also from Tosa, went to Tosa East, (my rival high school), swam breaststroke, and did APPSE. She's a poly sci and philosophy major and we pledged ADPi together and then we studied abroad together. This semester she is in Jordan with ACM and she came to visit me over her break in Florence.

She spent most of her break in the West bank actually and ended it with a couple days in Rome and 3 here in Florence with me. She got in yesterday. We didn't do much yesterday, actually we spent most of the afternoon in a park just catching up and eating cheep pizza rounds from the grocery store (and spending the night waiting for my parents to contact me because they are coming in to visit me over my fall break too.) Since we didn't hear from my parents until after midnight (was I asleep), we ended up going to the Dublin pub across the street from her hotel (Hotel Rex which was actually quite nice. Apparently its the nicest (longest) bed she has slept in since August) for a pizza. We got some gelato for dessert and split a bottle of white frizante in her room before calling it an early night. ( I was personally rather stressed out over my parents not contacting me. They are fine though its though its almost 5 pm today and I still haven't seen them.)
Today, since my parents wanted to sleep in, Megan and I took Sam around the city to do as much of Florence in a day. We showed off the Duomo and the San Lorenzo market and the central market. Then We took the bus (2 euro) up to Piazzale Michelangelo (which is one of the places we went when we first got here that looks out over all of Florence.) Then we made our way back down into the city (its not really that face of a walk, its just up hill on the way there and easier to take the bus). We could the rose garden that we were lead through by the teachers when we first got here too!

Still on the other side of the river, and hungry at this point we went to Gusta Pizza with is right by Piazza San Spirito. Apparently last years group RAVED about Gusta Pizza saying it was some of the best pizza they had ever had. And its cheep. I had a yummy yummy margarita pizza that was 5 euro and it was a "personal" sized pizza. I did eat all of it, but half would have been just fine for me. It was hand made right there where I could watch them spin the crust and put it in a fire. Delicious. There is also a Gusto Pinano (sandwiches) which I have yet to try. Highly recommend. Megan and I agreed we should go back (and we should get wine next time.)
Then we made our way back across the river, hitting up the Ponte Vecchio and then the outside of the Uffizi so Sam could see the copy of the David statue (our friend Cat wrote me letters that I get to open like once a month,  through the trip. In them I get some sort of task to do. In the last one, she asked a bunch of our friends what I should do. One friend said I should go to Pisa, another said Venice and take a boat ride (the funny thing was with in a week and a half of that letter I did both those things) another friend said I should do a wine tasting (which I had done in Greve at the beginning of the trip!) but Sam had said I should go see the David. So I saved taking a picture with David for when Sam came to visit. (you can't take a picture of the real one, that one is in the Uffizi and I can go see it with my pass any time, so Sam and I stayed outside to take our picture there.)

We wrapped up the day with a quick tour of Piazzo Republico and then called it a day and headed home. Now I'm sitting at home waiting to get in contact with my parents so we can have dinner with them at some point and connect since they've got here and talk about tomorrow.
But just in case you ever wondered. Florence can be done in a day. Should it be done in a day-no. When you travel nothing should be done in just a day. But when you don't know when you are coming back you have to make the most of it, and we most certainly did. It was so good to see Sam and hang out with her and make these memories. We are both on trips of a life time and I am so happy we could share some of it together.