They aren't guests, they're family.

I've had an interesting couple of nights here in Siena. Last night one of Antonella's friends ate dinner with us. She has been staying here for about a week, but we haven't had any real contact with her until last night. I have definitely heard her though. She can talk like nobody I've ever heard, although it may just sound like more because I have no idea what she's saying so it sounds fast as well. I have woken up all week to her talking and fallen asleep to her talking. Dinner was no different. From the second she came in the room she tried to engage Anna and I in an Italian conversation. We did pretty well considering how little vocabulary we know and how fast she was talking, but the longer she talked the less we understood. We even heard Antonella telling her at one point that we don't know Italian very well, but that didn't seem to faze her. Anna and I did our best to keep up with the conversation, but who knows how much we actually understood and how much we just made up. By the time we got back to our room we both just collapsed. It's exhausting pretending to know a language. The whole experience was worth it though because of one of the things we did understand. Antonella's friend was saying something about as being guests at a Bed and Breakfast. Antonella promptly stopped her and informed her that we aren't guests, we're family. It made my day. As for dinner tonight, I've never been so grateful for the TV in my life. Anna wasn't at dinner tonight so it was just me and Antonella. I've become pretty good at giving simple answers to questions, but as far as starting or intelligently continuing any conversations, that just isn't an option yet. As a result, Antonella and I had multiple two to three sentence conversations that were all started by her. The TV is always on at dinner and it saved me tonight from many long pauses in the conversation. Italian news has never been quite so interesting to me.

We went to Florence yesterday and it was amazing. Now that we've seen Rome, Florence, and Siena I think we are all grateful that we live in Siena. It is a much quieter city and seems to be easier to be at home in. None of us are going to complain about the fact that Florence is just over an hour away. It seems to be the perfect setup. We didn't have tons of time because we spent most of the morning following Peter around trying to orient ourselves (no small feat for me) and then spent the afternoon in the Uffizi listening to Peter talk about a few of the works. All of it was amazing though and I'm so excited to go back. After we had had our fill of the Uffizi we went to get some lunch and I had an awesome panini with wild boar salami on it . Who would have thought? After lunch we wandered over the Acadamy to see the David. That was another of those wow moments. It was truly incredible and I could have sat there forever. I decided that would like to go back in time and watch Michelangelo carve the David. Wouldn't that be amazing? We didn't have time to see much else so we got some gelato and then wandered around a leather market. Florence is my kind of place.


We didn't get a chance to go into the Duomo this time but even just seeing the outside was amazing. Let's be honest, can it get much better?


This is a view of Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge that wasn't bombed during the War. It was so fun to walk along it and just look. It's not really a good idea if you don't like crowds though. There are lots of little shops all along it and it can get a bit crazy.



Here is a view from the bridge itself. Welcome to Italy!



After walking around all day, it's always nice to sit down and do a bit of people watching. Here we were waiting to meet our group to go back home but we got to watch people do chalk pictures on the sidewalk while we were waiting. There's never a dull moment in this neck of the woods.