Whiskey.

Today was one of the best days I have had in many, many, many years.

As I said earlier, it was Ali's birthday and Luciana was especially sweet and adorable this morning. The walk to the Sede was the

same as always, had language class, a dorky treasure hunt to become oriented in the city and a chat about our mental health being students overseas. Throughout the day, I walked with Alayna and Breana to get tea, pastries, a present for Ali, etc. I am starting to understan

d the city and know where I am most of the time..... soon it will really be home!

After our little health meeting, I took a long and windy path home by way of a few great shoe stores and also a street near ours called Via del Prato. I didn't know what I would find on Prato, but indeed, I found a few little pasticcerie, or pastry shops (often called bars - an American bar is a pub - and

they often also serve wine and panini) as well as a sweet little store where I bought Ali's present (a really pretty silk scarf, and of course I got one as well - 2 for 10

euros! The adorable older woman gave me a deal because I was so carina and I was speaking Italian with her). When I got home, after doing some homework (uffa!...), I watched Luciana

futz around the house, getting ready for Ali's special dinner. We ate in the formal living room tonight (see photo!) and we ate with nice plates and real wine glasses and Giovanna came as a surpr

ise for Ali (she bought the pups of course!! See the other photo!)

We ate the most amazing dinner.... First some aperitivi (appetizers - some bread with homemade porcini mushroom sauce, some with smoked salmon and some with baby shrimp). Then we ate homemade lasagne, complete with homemade pasta. It was traditional Tuscan lasagne, made with bechamel sauce, not ricotta, meat and porcini mushrooms. Then we ate some incredible veal with a sauce whose name is escaping me - made with mayonnaise (yes... mayo... apparently its VERY Italian???), capers, lemon and something else which Giovanna wouldn't tell us because we aren't familiar with it. In addition to the meat, we had the best zucchini I have ever eaten - tiny and so flavorful. Finally, for dessert, Luciana made an INCREDIBLE hom

emade dark chocolate mousse which we ate with gelato. There was, of course, a bottle of red wine and a bottle of prosecco but we only made it through the red wine.

Throughout all of dinner, there was an immense amount of laughter. First, because Ali, Julie and I had tried to explain our one problem with Luciana to Giovanna - we cannot ever say no to her and therefore we always eat way more than we want because she keeps piling more and more onto our plates without asking. Giovanna said this was not a problem and to not worry, we could easily say no. She learned this was not completely the case tonight when Luciana kept bringing more and more food and giving us however much she thought we would want to eat. Così buffo! Later, Luciana was laughing at me because I was flushing and she accused me of drinking too much wine, meanwhile she kept cracking jokes about whiskey, first asking Giovanna if she wanted some (which for some reason was incredibly humorous) and then (in response to Giovanna asking what Luciana would like to name a puppy since we MIGHT be getting one), she said, "Hmmmm...... forse...... AH SI! SI CHIAMA WHISKEY!"

At the end of the evening, Giovanna congratulated us for speaking and listening to Italian all day since 8'o'clock this morning and we took some photographs (as you can see!). After Giovanna left and we helped Luciana clear the table, Ali, Julie and I headed to my room where we proceeded to take a series of ridiculous pictures and laugh hysterically about various things for about an hour, when we then said "Buona notte!" and headed to bed.

I would say, simply, that today was fantastic.

Enough said.

Ci vediamo domani! Buona notte!

Baci e abbracci!