Another Great Weekend in Florence

I don't even know where to start. To say last weekend was fun would be a huge understatement...I guess I'll just start from the beginning. One of Burney's good friends from high school, Molly, is being an au pair in Geneva this year and the three of us have been planning on celebrating Molly's birthday in Florence since we all decided to come over here (missed you though, Caroline!). Well, that weekend finally arrived and it was even better than any of us could have imagined. Molly got in town early Thursday morning and spent the day getting reacquainted with Florence (she studied abroad here with Burney one month before Kristen and I did) while I was with the family. We went out to a great dinner that night then met up with some of my friends from my Italian class. They have made friends with the owner of a popular restaurant in Florence, so we met up with them there, where we joined an Italian birthday party complete with birthday cake and Prosecco.

Friday morning we walked down the street to find a hotel room for Molly and Burney to stay in for the weekend and ended up getting the last room (and the best one) and a little hotel close to my house. It just happened to have an extra bed for me too! The rest of the day was cold and rainy so Molly and I had a long lunch and a lazy afternoon then got ready for the night. We went back to that restaurant with my friends for appetizers, anxiously awaiting Burney's arrival. She finally got here and we had an amazing reunion dinner at Fusion (the cool restaurant Caroline and I went to a few weeks ago).



Our beautiful balcony


Saturday morning was pretty much the same routine: sleep in, be lazy, go to a long lunch, enjoy each other's company, get ready for dinner. Yes, the whole weekend was planned around our meals...it's fine. That afternoon, I got a call from one of my college friend's parents who were in Florence for the weekend. They were having dinner that night at the same place we were planning on having drinks before dinner, so we all planned to meet up. One of Molly's favorite places in the world is Villa San Michele (PLEASE google this) and one of her only requests was that we go there for Bellinis on her birthday. Burney and I did not argue. They had both visited before, but it was my first time and I fell in love too! It's right outside Florence, about a 15 minute drive, on top of the surrounding hills. It had a beautiful view of the city at night, I can only imagine it at sunset...but we all enjoyed our Bellinis and the huge spread of snacks that came with them. The typical Italian bar food is chips, peanuts, and olives, but this was unbelievable! We took one sip of our drinks and busted out laughing, are we really doing all of this?? We also had a great time visiting with Scott's parents. They couldn't believe that we actually wanted to hang out with parents, but we were all craving a little bit of home and it was great catching up with them!

After Villa San Michele, we headed to La Giostra (another one worth googling) for dinner, Molly's other birthday request. It's another one of her favorite's and now one of mine too. We had late reservations, then took so long to decide what to get and savored every last bite of our meals, that before we knew it we were the only ones left in the restaurant. They were turning out lights and the waiters were leaving, but we just weren't quite ready to go. The owner of the restaurant and part-time chef joined us at our table and we sat there for hours talking all about everywhere he's travelled (it was hilarious hearing him talk about the people in New Orleans), cooking, and the Italian language. It was amazing.



Villa San Michele








La Giostra




Molly headed out Sunday morning, but Burney didn't have to be back until Monday afternoon, so she stayed one more night with me. We just had to go back to La Giostra that night because there were so many things we still wanted to try...of course everything was delicious! I don't think I've laughed more in four days than I did this weekend. We are still in awe of the experiences we are having and don't even know what to do except to laugh. It was great being with friends from home and people who can understand all of the new situations we are going through. We're already starting to plan the next trip!

After seeing Burney off, I jumped straight back into the real world and got to work with the family and school. It was fun spending time with the kids after being out for a few days, I was really starting to miss them! I also spent the past few days studying for my Italian mid-term today and I think it went pretty well. Our teacher rewarded us by cancelling the lesson tomorrow so we can all go to lunch together! I love Italy...