Home!... Almost

 I am one of the many "Holiday Travelers" that are stuck in New York because of weather delays. My very long journey home began on the evening of Dec. 19th when I got on a train to Rome from Florence. Sam, Katie, Jordan and her sister all brought me to the train (The amount/weight of my luggage required this...). 

It was so sad to have to say good bye to them. In a cheesy romantic fashion they waited outside my window and waved until my train slowly pulled away *tear*. I stayed the night in Rome and got up while it was still dark out to take another train to the airport. Once I arrived there it was pretty much chaos. My flight was moved all the way back to 2pm! 

I sat in the airport for hours and hours. Lucky for me American Airlines gave me a voucher for lunch so at 11 I was able to sit down and have a semi decent lunch for free. I probably should have skipped this as I have been eating good, fresh, preservative free food for the past 4 months. The 2 meals they served on airplane did not help much either. Around 6:30 pm we landed in New York, 2 hours after my flight to Chicago had already left. We spent an hour sitting waiting for a gate to be de-iced so we could pull in. Once we were off the plane we had to go through customs and pick up our luggage. Then came more waiting as planes full of people were standing in line to be rerouted. I talked to my Dad and he found out for me that I was already moved to a flight for the next afternoon. 

When it was finally my turn with the agent she made a reservation for me for a cab and a hotel room at LaGuardia (I am now no longer flying out of JFK), All courtesy of American Airlines. I was beyond greatful for this because after traveling for 24 hours all I wanted to do was sleep. I forgot how nice American Hotels are compared to European ones so I was also very happy with my room with a huge bed all for me! (Our apartment had smaller than American twin beds). I fell right asleep and woke up today at 8am. 

The hotel also had an excellent Sunday brunch. I was so happy to have a real breakfast. I think eggs, waffles, real orange juice and fruit salad beat an expresso con un cornetto any day! Well time to pack up and head over to the airport! Hopefully I'll be home in a few hours!

Happy 50th Birthday Dad!

Buon Natale!

Jordan and I went to a Christmas Festival/Craft Fair here in Florence. The best part of it was this mini North Pole that they had set up with Santa (Baba Natale) house, and a little station where children could write letters to him. We went later at night but I guess during the day Baba is actually there to take pictures and hear what kids want for Christmas.

Baba Natale's Chair where he reads all of his letters

Baba Natale's Home

The Reindeer!

This is the place where all the kids can write their letters to Baba Natale

Sam and I making brownie's at our friends Christmas party

Our friends Samuel and Nathaniel through a Christmas decorating party. It was really cute! They had bought all these decorations from the Euro store and had us all help decorate their apartment. They found a radio station that played Christmas songs over the internet and Samuel made his mom's egg nog recipe from scratch! It was a lot thinner than Oberweis eggnog but was just as tasty!

German Christmas Mercato at Santa Croce

This was a carousel that had a snack bar on it. Instead of animals there were all these little booths and you could sit while it slowly turned around

Jenny, Molly, Peggy & Erica's Visit

I completely forgot to put up any pictures from the girls visit! Here's a few...

At my apartment

Top of the Duomo in Florence

Top of Duomo 

In front of the Duomo

Piazza Michaelangelo

Boboli Gardens

Mom, I think you should use this for our Christmas card pictures!

The boar!

Getting ready for dinner, last night in Italy!

Milan

Train Station in Milan

Duomo

A Park that we went to

Typical one way street, parking.

Inside of the Mall

Duomo

I had a great weekend shopping in Milan! On Saturday Jordan and I took the train up north to Milan. On the way we saw many different cities that had snow! We will probably not have any in Florence before we leave, it's still in the 50's and 40's there. We spent the day shopping and then met up with Jenny and the girls at night. They flew out Sunday morning so I was able to see them again in the morning and walk with them to the station to catch the bus to the airport. We then went to the Duomo. The pictures do not do it justice, it is by far the most beautiful one that I have seen here in Italy! We shopped and walked around for the rest of the afternoon and then tried to get on a train to come home. It was full but they had some seats left in first class. We opted to pay a little more and get on it. The only different between 1st and 2nd class on a Euro star train is that they come around and give you a free drink and snack, and your seat is also a little bit bigger.

Giorno del Tacchino (Thanksgiving... or Turkey Day)

Jordan, Me, Sam & Luisa

Jordan did an amazing job of setting the table for us!

Thanks to Mom for sending tons of food, a table cloth, plates and napkins with Jenny!

Demonstration that was going on that morning

Sam and I made the Pumpkin Pie from scratch the night before!

Happy Thanksgiving! This was the first year I have spent Thanksgiving away from my Family, I thought it would be a lot sadder but having Jenny visit and, my roommates and I celebrating together really made the day!

 

I had class the morning of (which was a first for sure). There was a demonstration going on for Coldiretti, 50,000 Farmers and 1,000 tractors, 100 cows & horses came and protested! We went and photographed it for my Photography class.

After class Jordan and I went on a little shopping trip and, then once everyone was done with class we met up at the apartment and began to cook. We had made the pumpkin pie the night before so we made green bean casserole, baked spinach and cheese, mashed potatoes, bread and butter, cranberries, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and Luisa surprised Sam with a small roasted chicken! (Jordan is a also a vegetarian). Then before we ate we all went around and said what we were thankful for. Tears were shed by all :) We were all very thankful to our families of course because without them we would not be here having this great experience. We were also thankful for each other too because without each other we would not be having as much fun as we are (MC17 Family!).

In addition to all this I am also thankful for.....

• Not having to work on Black Friday!!!
• YouTube so we can look up Music Videos from the 90's
• Anthony for sending his iPod with Jenny since mine broke while being here.
• My mom for putting together a ton of great food from home that we all missed.
• Jenny for carrying it all in her suitcase and taking home a ton of things for me.
• Kitsch & Pop Cafe
• GROM Gelato
• Mercato Centrale - the best fruit and veggie market is across the Piazza from me and I will miss it so much

San Gimignano

Here's a few pictures from a day trip I went on to the town of San Gimignano. It's about an hour and a half outside of Florence and, is a really pretty scenic Tuscan town. It's known for the really tall towers (you can see a few of them in the pictures ) that the medieval families built. Not much really goes on there, especially now that it's the winter season, but it was nice to get away from the city for the day. All of the leaves are finally changing colors here too and its getting colder.Also, Christmas decorations are starting to go up in store windows!

Roma!

San Peter's Square

Guards

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

the Pieta

St. Peter's Basilica

Ruins

Trying to be "Creative" with our picture taking

Roommates!

Me on the Spanish Steps

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain 

This weekend I went to Rome with 2 of my roommates and one of their sisters who was in town. Jordan and I left early Friday morning and went to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and then Via del Corso for some shopping! 

Liz and her sister Lauren met us that night and we had a tasty dinner (Zucchini Rav's .. yum!)and then walked back around the city for a while. With the exception of the Trevi Fountain, Rome's sites are not very well lit at night. The next day we woke up so early and went to the Colosseum, Pantheon and Vatican City. Highlights were the Sistine Chapel, the Pieta and the ruins that are around the Colosseum.