Florence Staycation

Sam came to Florence, and as if I needed to re-see the city with wide eyed fascination, we did, and it was amazing.

Sam's flight was delayed about 40 min, but I was waiting patiently when he did eventually arrive around 11:45pm Wednesday night. Even the cab driver wished him a happy birthday once we were dropped off at our hotel at midnight.

Thursday we took our time in the morning and went out for a light Italian breakfast (pastries and cappuccinos/tea) at a cafe by school, and enjoyed our breakfast in the garden at Villa Rossa. He was blown away by the school, he said it put the Faraday House to shame. I had Italian from 1-3, and he has midterms this coming week, so it gave him a couple hours to do some work. Everyone who I'd ever spoken to at Villa Rossa knew he was visiting this weekend, so they were visiting and introducing themselves while we were sitting in the garden, he was such a superstar! After class we made our way through the city of Florence for a nice afternoon tour. We went from the Duomo to the market in San Lorenzo, to Piazza della Repubblica with the carousel, to Piazza Signoria and my museum, to the Arno and down Ponte Vecchio. He went with me as I purchased my gold necklace, helping me decide between the big heart or the more delicate version (I got the latter). Sam was shopping a bit himself, and while his purchases were few he admired the Italian leather belts and pashmina scarves and silk ties. Thursday night we were invited to dinner at Anna's and she and Antoinetta were there waiting for us, putting finishing touches on dinner. It was the BEST dinner we've ever had with Anna, she pulled out ALL the stops! We sat in the formal dining room (something she apparently reserves for visiting family and holidays!) but started our meal with aperativo, or cocktails and appetizers in the living room. We've NEVER had wine on the table with Anna, but I think I had more drinks in one sitting with the liquor she kept pouring for us. We had white wine during aperativo, red wine with dinner, and sweet dessert liquor with dessert. It was great. Sam was so flexible with the language barrier, I'd translate for him or if he wanted me to explain something more I was able too. He was such a trooper. We had a huge meal of gnocci with pesto for our first course, followed by roast beef with salad, potatoes, tomato, bread, and cheeses. Dessert consisted of our favorite pesce con vino and little miniture mousses. Everything was so fun and so delightful. Sam later said that that dinner was one of his favorite parts of the trip! We did go out for Sam's birthday to a wine tasting with a big group of SUF friends, then made our way to the discotecs. I had so much fun out with him, and I think he enjoyed it just as much.

Piazza della Repubblica

Friday morning we had an early wake up call for our wine tour in Chianti. We met Dani, Hannah, and Caitlin at Tuscany By Bike's Florence office. We were taken to Chianti by van with a Scotsman, Andy, followed by another van driven by the Irish Keith. Both young and really funny, they addressed Sam and I as one entity the entire day, "Oy, Lovebirds, put your helmets on, we're riding now" (imagine that in an accent, we were dying). We started at a 9th century castle that produces several kinds of wine and olive oil. We tried a red wine, and indulged in the olive oil with classic Tuscan bread. I ended up buying a couple small bottles of the olive oil, as did Sam. We then were fitted with bikes and we set off on our 23km bike tour around the country side. It was a lovely day, and all of us absolutely enjoyed the ride. It was fairly flat, with one killer hill at the end that was an optional ride. Sam, being half of the competitive couple we are, challenged me up it. Everyone else (except for an older Swedish couple) passed on that opportunity and hopped in the van. Sam and I start going up the hill, and half way up he hopped off his bike and started to push. He looked back at me. I was gonna kill him. Luckily we had the option to quit half way and get picked up by the van. It was a funny experience, but seriously, if looks could kill I might not have a boyfriend still. We laughed about it immediately afterwards though. It was fun! With an hour left in the tour we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant (included in the tour) and enjoyed salads, pasta, and tiramisu. We finished the tour and were driven back to Florence in time for dinner. Still full from lunch, Sam and I made it back to the hotel to nap for a bit, we were exhausted from the previous night and our long day in the countryside. Around 8:30 we made our way out for a late dinner (normal by Italian standards, however), and unfortunately I got us lost! I felt SO bad, but he just laughed with me about it. We found it several minutes later, Il Gatto e Il Valope, the cat and the fox (from Pinnochio...get it?) and he treated to me to a lovely dinner. Sam really liked that restaurant and said he'd like to go back when he comes back to Florence (he's going back in a little over a month for a class trip).

At the castle for the wine tour

Saturday we got off to a late start and began our day with a decadent lunch at my favorite restaurant by the Arno. It had such a beautiful view and such great food. It was very romantic. He did a little shopping (he got a tie with fluer de lei on it, and then realized he might not ever wear it...you don't tend to wear a lot of ties in the military...oops). We made our way up to Piazzale Michelangelo after lunch, a short walk from Ponte Vecchio. The panoramic view was gorgeous in the afternoon sunlight poking through the clouds. We lounged up there until we got caught in the rain, and took refuge in the basilica of San Minito, where he asked for the art history lesson of this out-of-the-way church. After trying to wait out the rain for an hour, we hiked back down to the city in the rain, wet and giggling. Apparently we're bad luck for weather, we got absolutely poured on back in London late one night (that was cold and miserable, but I was a trooper), and now we were traversing through Florence in the rain. Sam thought this was more romantic though, it wasn't as cold and dark, and we warmed up with warm waffles topped with nutella and gelato, and cappucino and coffee. Around 7 he wanted to see if we could get out of the rain with a museum, but most close around 6:30, though we tried nonetheless. We instead explored the Loggia della Signoria by my museum and examined the Roman marbles. We nibbled on pizza and beer afterwards by the Duomo, and called it an early night for our early start the next morning.

Sam's flight was at 7:55 this morning, so we checked out around 6:15 and got to the airport early. I saw him through security (of course I cried...again) and we reminded each other how excited we are to explore our next adventure in 10 days...Paris for fall break!

View from Piazzale Michelangelo

I got back around 8:15, to find I was locked out of the house. When Anna leaves her key in the door on the inside, I can't turn my key. I ran the doorbell but she wasn't up and it wasn't waking her up. So I sat around for an hour and fifteen minutes waiting for a sign of life. I was thinking about stashing my bag from the weekend somewhere in the lobby of our apartment complex and going out for breakfast at the American diner, but I was more exhausted than hungry, and was too tired to really care about being locked out. I just had to be patient (Hannah was in Perugia for the chocolate festival and was texting me to pass the time). I got in around 9:30, Anna made me breakfast and I crashed until 1:30 when she treated me to gnocci con pomodoro sauce for lunch. I spent the rest of Sunday missing Sam and doing the homework I'd ignored the rest of the weekend. Sam got in around 10:30 my time (9:30 his) and his day progressed the same way mine did (without the locked out part!).