Caroline's Birthday

Caroline's finally 22! Wednesday morning, after getting the kids to school, I hopped on a train to Rome to celebrate Caroline's birthday with her! Although she had just been in Florence, I was so excited to see her again and to go back to Rome. She met me at the train station around 1pm and we went to an amazing lunch in a museum in Palazzo delle Esposizioni. The restaurant is called "Open" and it is located at the top of the building, over the exhibition area. It really is very open, with glass walls, huge windows, and clean, modern decor. We both opted for the lunch buffet, which was a great choice! After lunch, we walked around a lot and did some shopping before we had to pick up her little girl, Liv, from dance. Liv is 4 years old and is the cutest thing, she even came in Caroline's room and got in bed with me this morning! We hung out at home for a while with both of the kids then got ready and went to dinner. Of course, dinner was amazing too. We ate at this great place, Roscioli, that is a salami shop turned restaurant. It was very quaint and cozy, completely different than Open. It was a great choice though and we had a lot of fun. This morning, I was packing my bag and taking my time when I looked at the clock and realized my train was leaving in 6 minutes! I yelled to Caroline and she said "RUN!" So we sprinted down the stairs and out the door. Luckily, her family only lives a few blocks from the station so I made it in time, barely!



Open






We ate on the patio, it was perfect!


Drinks before dinner


Roscioli


I got back to Florence this morning in time to go to class and pick Sophia up from school. Sophie is Martino's 9-year old niece and she lives in Florence with her mom, Barbara. Lucia asked me a few weeks ago if I would like to spend one afternoon a week with Sophie to help out with her English. Today was the second week I've done it and we've been having a lot of fun. I walk to her school and then walk home with her. We do her English homework and it actually works out really well for both of us. She has to translate passages or conversations from her English book into Italian, so I try it first, then she corrects me. It's hard to say who's doing more teaching, she helps me so much! The rest of the time we play games, Barbies, or read books. Tonight, we watched a movie called "The Derby Stallion." She picked it out because Zac Efron is in it and she knows how much I like him, but it was about a boy who wins the Atlanta Steeplechase! It was so weird, they showed the big field in Rome and I was like "I've been there!" It's a nice change though to be around an older kid who can actually have a conversation and whose attention span is longer than 5 minutes. They have also been inviting me to stay for dinner, and then Barbara drives me home afterwards. They are the sweetest family and I love spending time with both of them!

On another note, it is FREEZING here!! It went from being the perfect fall weather that made me so happy to the middle of winter- OVERNIGHT! I switched from Rainbows to Uggs in one day. As much as I love getting bundled up in coats and boots, I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter...