My Parents Came to Visit

  Florence, Tuscany, Italy
Thursday, October 9, 2008

I got to spend this past weekend with my parents and it was lovely :-) They got in around 3 on Thursday.  They stayed in the hotel that is beneath my apartment so when I heard the elevators running I knew it was them.  It was so exciting to get to see them after such a long time! They nicely brought suitcases for Sara and I with winter stuff and all of the other stuff we needed, including two big jars of peanut butter (peanut butter here is ridiculously expensive!) I had been looking forward to them coming so much and was happy that they were finally here.  The first thing we did was go sit and have coffee and catch up. I did not have any coffee of course.  Then I showed them around.  I showed them my school and the San Lorenzo market, which is where all the goods are sold (leather, cashmere, glass, etc.) My mom found a leather lipstick case that she had wanted so she got that for four euro!

After the market we went back and took showers to get ready for dinner.  Since my roomates and I don't really eat out when we are in Florence (to save money) I don't know very many restaurants.  I decided to take them to the square behing my apartment with the merrygoround so that we could eat at one of the restaurants outside in the square.  Our restaurant was very quaint and we enjoyed some Italian  food while my parents caught me up on what has been going on at home.  Then we walked over to the Ponte Vecchio.  On our way we stopped to enjoy a little concert that was going on right in front of the Ufizzi.  I was excited to show my parents one of these concerts that are frequent on the streets of Florence at night.  The Ponte Vecchio usually has concerts too but there was actually a seminar going on, on the Ponte Vecchio that night! We think it was about energy.  But my parents still got to see the bridge all lit up. 

Pie with Mom :-)

Then we went back to my apartment so that we could have the pie that I had made for my parents.  We learned how to make apple pie in my cooking class.  I decided that my parents would like chocolate and berries better, so I made the same dough and just changed the filling.  I used nutella, strawberries, blueberries, and rasberies and it was delicious! We went to bed early that night because we had to wake up early for a full day in San Gimignano.