a series of somewhat magical days....

So I have no idea where to begin this blog.

I have been trying to blog for days. Unfortunately, my emotions have been a muddle, mess, and disaster these past few days and I felt unable to write the purely happy and optimistic blog I desired. Amidst my fluctuating feelings of Italian ecstasy and confidence of no bedbugs and the fear of being stuck with bedbugs for life and having to head home to the states I decided to hold off until I could guarantee sheer joy for my readers. That being said, I have been creating a list of blog subjects for about 5 days now and I can't quite put them in order..... please bear with me!

To start off, I would like to say this: You will never believe what we ate for dinner tonight.

Luciana has been sweet enough to provide us with meals this week. In case you weren't aware, we were displaced yet again, this time to an INCREDIBLE and very expensive apartment right up the street from Luciana's. It is stunning and very adorable, and naturally I have attached a photo. Every night at 7.30pm we walk down the street with a neon orange cooler/bag to acquire our homemade meal and then we return to our apartment, eat together, wash the tupperware, and repeat the following day. Anyway, back to my point. Dinner tonight.

We had something I would like to call Italian Tuna Noodle Casserole. Shocking, I know. The wonderful mother of my darling boyfriend makes this delicious meal called Tuna Noodle Casserole. A casserole is foreign to me. As my mother says, "We don't really eat those..." I ha

d never even seen a casserole. My last night at Gaber's house this summer, I requested that his mother please make tuna noodle casserole so I could try it. It was amazing. Pardon me, but what is not to like about pasta with tons of cheese and tuna and peas? Nothing. So. Tonight. The Italian equivalent. I was laughing so hard. I opened up the tupperware container to find penne (cooked al dente, of course!) with a fresh tomato sauce and tuna. Canned tuna. Flakey, canned tuna. It sounds terrible, yes? It was incredible. So tasty. There you go, America. Italians do it to.

Back to our apartment for a m

inute. Lately, I have been trying to find some beauty in this city. Besides the obvious beauty of the buildings and churches, Florence is actually pretty disgusting.... There is no gree

nery like you find in the occasional pocket park in NYC or Boston, no trees on the sidewalks, hardly any flowers outside houses. Pl

enty of fake flowers stuffed in window boxes, and of course there are large parks but nothing immediately near my house. The streets are full of trash and even worse, dog poo. Everywhere. There are no laws about this here, and therefore no one cares.... How vile!! Our temporary apartment sings a different song. When you enter the first door into the "building" you are actually still outside in a beautiful courtyard full of the most luscious green grass and beautiful pink, yellow and red flowers, looking up to a sky where you can actually see stars at night... A little slice of home.... or heaven even!

Of course, the churches are beautiful too.... I might have even found one to call my own. We visited Santa Croce last week (see photos on Facebook!). It was a gorgeous Gothic church but it didn't call my name when I entered. The one breathtaking aspect of Santa Croce was the sensation I experienced when we exited the church to walk around the convent area

/private chapels.... I haven't smelled anything so similar to the scent of my grandparents house in Elmsford, NY since I last visited their house as a junior in high school. It must have been the scent of a tree that was planted in the courtyard but it was a magically reminiscent moment, reminding me that somewhere my grandparents are glowing with happiness that I am here in their country.

This morning we visited a church of the Renaissance - San Lorenzo. My heart may have stopped when we entered. It is a simple church - brick on the outside, no marble. The inside is all white plaster and simple grey stone. There are no frescos, all the art that hangs inside now was added later. Construction began in 393..... I walked in and immediately felt like a tiny particle in the universe. There are at least two organs.... what I would do to

attend mass at San Lorenzo and hear those organs playing.....

I had another magical moment yesterday.... slightly less ethereal but equally awesome (in the true meaning of the word!). My friend Allie is back in Northampton at Smith and she has a radio show Wednesday nights. Naturally, I wanted to listen to it live but for some reason it wasn't functioning properly. To cheat the system, I video-chatted my darling Gabriel and he turned it up very loud on his computer so I could hear. A few minutes later Allie sent me an instant message saying she was about to play a song for me. Momentarily Pablo Picasso by Citizen Cope came on..... a song that Gabe and I have listened to together for about 4 years now.... it was a very comforting and reassuring moment - a moment that made me feel as though everything was going to be okay no matter what happens with the bedbugs or the distance between myself and home. Thank you, Allie May!!

Prior to this lovely event, I had two other humorous, interesting and sweet experiences. Yesterday morning I went to a market over on our side of town, down by the Arno. I was wandering the market and after buying some peccorino and some sunflower honey (AMAZING by the way) I decided to buy a panini. I wasn't sure what kind it was exactly, but there was some kind of meat, perhaps pork, that all of the panini stands seemed to specialize in. After ordering one, I stood in front of the stand eating my delicious snack with a group of three Italians - a couple and their younger male friend. The older man asked me if I would care for a small glass of wine with my panini and after politely declining a few times, he gave up trying. I then tried to pay. I went up to the counter and offered my three euros but the younger man came flying over saying that I could not pay because he was... I tried to argue but to no avail and thus I walked away with an exceptionally tasty, free panini.

Only moments later, I was strolling along a very ritzy street full of designer shops and a man in a very nice Italian suit approached me, saying something very quickly in Italian. He soon realized that I had no idea what he was saying and he repeated more slowly - "Posso prendere un foto dei suoi piedi?" "May I take a picture of your feet?" To which I said, "Scusa?!?!!???" He then explained that he was a photographer and a designer, he loved shoes and that was his specialty. He said he adored my shoes (mind you, they were gold sandals from Payless......) and really, could he please just take one photo. He then whipped out a very nice camera and proceeded to show me that he had hundreds of photos of feet in shoes on the street.... Che strano! I decided if he were going to put my life in danger, my chances of surviving were higher if I obliged, so I stood in the street, posed my foot, and let him snap a quick photo.... Hopefully he doesn't trace my $8 sandals back to me!

Bedbug update: Any minute now (its 11.35pm) we have to walk down the street to Luciana's and start Night 1 of the Bedbug Watch - otherwise known as Bedbug Busters! (If there's something strange in your neighborhood, Who ya gonna call? BEDBUGBUSTERS! If there's something weird and it don't look good, Who ya gonna call? BEDBUGBUSTERS!) If we see even HALF of a somewhat alive bug, we are to call Giovanna immediately and we will no longer be allowed to live there..... Hopefully there will be none, given that they gassed the walls and re-sprayed the apartment a few days ago...... Wish us luck!!

Goodness, my apologies for the length of this blog!

A domani!!

Baci e abbracci!

P.S. I actually had one more subject I was going to cover in this blog.... a very important one! But I think this is long enough as it is, and instead I am going to write a separate one!!!