Ciao ciao, my friends! What a crazy-busy two weeks I have had in the roller-coaster ride that is studying abroad. Between an onslaught of visitors to lovely Firenze & Kristen and I’s whirl-wind European fall break, I feel border-line euphoric to have literally spent all day just shuffling around in my PJs. Now that is it is 6pm here & I am realizing my only venture out of my apartment has been a trip down to the pizza shop under my building in boxer shorts, I’m feeling like maybe I could get a little bit more productive, but hey. Sometimes a girl just needs some greasy food and a Channel 131 binge.
Anyways…let me catch you guys up! I promise I’ll wow you with my tales of fall break next week, but today I just have to talk about the unreal experience of having my grandparents, Dad, step-Mom, and Wake friends all in Florence at the same time. Was it hectic? Yes. Did I basically get no sleep? For sure. But was it by far and away worth it?
Come on…what do you think.
The “nonni” (as I fondly refered to them whilst in Florence) and my Dad & step-Mom have all visited Firenze before, so instead of trying to cram in as many of the usual sites as possible, we were able to take our time exploring some of my personal Florence favorites. And by “take our time”, I mean have a vino at noon. Now that’s what I call a Florence favorite.
One afternoon, we met up with a family-friend of ours who lives in the city (and is an absolute gem) for a lovely tour of Villa La Petrai, an old Medici palace on the outskirts of the city.
That’s Elena, my Grandpa, & I standing in the breath-taking gardens in front of the palace. The best part? It was totally un-tourist-y. Such a welcome break from dodging speed-walking spectactors and frantically flashing photographers (i.e. my daily morning routine).
As expected, a huge component of the relatives visiting was eating & drinking at buonissimo spots in Firenze. I will truly never forget watching my nonni kill two whole bottles of wine with me, and then round out their evening with a “pre-cautionary” Advil each. Only them. On our last evening together, my family, Kristen, & I stopped at a darling cafe in one of our favorite piazzas for an after-dinner cocktail (Sidenote: how much am I going to hate my life next semester when 21 is still 5 months away? Hint: a lot.) Anyways…we all ordered some version of a typical Italian drink…you know, Amaretto, Limoncello, etc etc. Kristen, on the other hand, orders herself a whiskey sour. Yes, a whiskey sour…the preferred drink of 80 year old women everywhere.
Oh, and my roommate.
Of course, after finishing up these epic three-hour long dinners, I would have to sprint back up to my apartment, throw on some club attire, and get ready for a pre-game, Wake Forest-style. It was seriously the best to go out with our usual friends from school, in Europe. Europe! Kristen, ever the de-facto tour guide, spent much of the night scrambling across the cobblestones, attempting to keep our rowdy group together, but all in all, our ventures to the “discoteccas”, as they say, were a sucess. We were more than a little sad to bid a bittersweet arriverderci to our lovely amiche.
Bottom-line: if you are thinking of visiting Casa dell’Kristen e Ellie in bellisimo Firenze, do it! Book your flights! Hop on a train! Hitch-hike! Because we are loving every minute of it.
More on our Euro-travels next week, collegiettes! Until then…ciao ciao!