Florence, Italy - June 14

I am currently sitting on our bed under a mosquito net. I probably have around 15 bites all over, and I mentioned something to Laura, our caretaker, about them and she hooked us up with a net and some kind of plug in (almost like a glade air freshener). Hopefully, we will sleep better tonight.

Today started out pretty slow. I was feeling very lethargic and like I could sleep all day. Craig and I wanted to go shopping for a bit and I wanted coffee, so I eventually got moving around. We stayed on the south side of the Arno River today and looked at shops, I had coffee, and we got some gelatto. We found a vintage clothing store that had piles and piles of clothes. I found a cute high waisted, long skirt from the 70's that I was very close to buying. It was 35 euro. I tried to bargain the owner down to 25, but she wouldn't have it. So, I figured I would find something else I knew I would feel was worth it. About 10 minutes later I found a shop with simple dresses designed and made by the owners. It was a husband and wife team. There was a pattern I liked, but they didn't have it in my size, so they said that on Tuesday they would have more of the dresses in but different fabric patterns. So we'll be stopping by there before we leave Florence for sure!

We hurried back to our apartment so we could do our cooking lesson with Laura and her daughter, Lucia. It has probably been our favorite experience so far. It was great to practice my Italian, and learn some authentic dishes. Here are pictures:

Craig mixing ingredients for spinach, ricotta gnocchi

Us forming the gnocchi

I can't remember what this was called, but it's a bread crumb mixture put on top of fresh tomatoes and then roasted.

Peppers with the same bread crumb mixture as the tomatoes.

Our antipasti. A dough similar to puff pastry and sliced cherry tomatoes on top.

Our spinach gnocchi with sauce prepared by Laura, before baking.

Craig, Lucia, Laura, Me.

Melon, Gnocchi, Lemon Crust, Dried Fruit/Nut Tart, Roasted Tomatoes, & Peppers. All so delicious!

Mostly, it was nice to talk with them about their culture and city. Laura has strong feelings of distaste for the Duomo and Cathedral. Which is so funny because Craig and I thought it was amazing. She gave us some places to go that she said we much more beautiful. We also got to meet Lucia's son, Agiugno (Eugene). He's 20 and studying engineering in Florence. We asked him questions about young people in Italy. He said that he really likes America's big trucks. Which at first I thought was hilarious, but then I realized that all of the cars here are very small and compact. Another thing I found interesting... the whole time we have been here I have thought, "Italy is so beautiful! Why would they ever want to come to the U.S.???" So, I asked Lucia about this: "What is the appeal of the U.S.?" She said that they come to the U.S. to experience the future. Which also made a lot of sense after she said that because we (and others) go to Italy to experience the past history. Everything is SO old here. Laura's house is 200 years old, and many things are so much older than that. Laura told us that she gets frustrated with it sometimes because there are ordinances protecting the history of the buildings in the area. So if she wanted, she couldn't have new windows installed. She can only have air conditioning in her bedroom because of this. I never realized that while walking around, but that's why everything still looks the way it does. Italy counts on that historic aspect to attract tourists.