T'was the Nightmare Before Christmas...

I have been in Italy for 4 months and was really looking forward to seeing my family and friends in the US again. Though I hated leaving my boo in Italy, I was very much ready for my glorious return to the US. The Friday before my scheduled Monday departure Florence recieved an unprecedented amount of snow, 8 inches. This may not seem like a lot to most people, but in Italy it was enough to pretty much shut down the country. Friday was great because the snow was really festive and I didn't have to go anywhere except to turn in my grades. Andy got off work early in the market and we enjoyed watching the snow from our apartment and cooking all sorts of delicious warm food. The snow remained for the next two days and I hibernated inside, packing and cleaning and finishing my Christmas preparations. Monday morning I awoke at 3:30 to prepare myself for my taxi to the airport that I was scheduled to take at 5 AM. I had no idea that I would not arrive back in Charleston until exactly 48 hours later!
My taxi driver came right on schedule, and surprisingly the ride only took 8 minutes, even though there was still all over the rodes that this man decided to take. Guess it was just because he still didn't drive with caution, like every Italian on the roads. When I walked into the airport, I couldn't even move because there were so many people inside. Every flight out of Florence had been cancelled since Saturday because the city has no equipment to clear the snow. My flight to Frankfurt ended up being delayed until 8:30 and they wouldn't let us check in early because there were so many people checking into other flights, so I just had to stand in a clump of people in the ticketing room with my fellow travelers. Though Florence is a popular travel destination, the airportis one of the smallest I have ever been in, even smaller than the Jacksonville, NC airport! So not to my surprise the airport was a giant cluster. When we finally were allowed to check our luggage in, the airport staff alerted us that we would be boarding a bus to Pisa because Florence had to much fog for our plane to get in, so we were going to meet it instead. After the hour and a half bus ride to Pisa, we were delayed yet again, not taking off until 11 AM, when my flight was scheduled to leave Frankfurt at 11:40. So we all arrive in Germany, and pretty much everyone on the flight had missed their connections, sowe were all forced into ridiculously long lines to start the re-ticketing process. There were no flights heading back to the US for the rest of the day that weren't booked solid, but I ended up being incredibly lucky and getting the last seat available on any flight to the US for the following day, which was a relief. Then Lufthansa booked me into the hotel attached to the airport because they were trying to get as many people out of the airport as possible since it was so crowded. I spent the rest of my day watching BBC world news, where the only story they kept talking about were the horrible travel conditions in Europe and how it was hurting the economy even more. My hotel had ridiculously priced food, so I ended up eating German pretzels and drinking beer in the comfort of my hotel room, which is a lot better than a lot of other people fared, but I really just wanted to get back to the US.
The next day I woke up and made my way straight to the airport. of course my flight out of Germany ended up being delayed for 3 hours because our plane was stuck in Manchester, England and couldn't get out. The flight went quite smoothly and I watched four movies to pass the time. Of course, since I got the last available ticket, I had the last seat on the plane, so I was the last person to recieve food every time the crew came around, so I had no options and got served the worst crap, like some "beef burgundy" that had one mouthful of beef in it and a lot of sauce. When we arrived in Charlotte, every person on the flight had missed their connecting flights, especially after we all had to go through the ridiculously long customs lines and recheck luggage/re-ticket. I finally got a seat on the last flight to Charleston for the night, and hoofed my way over to the gate. After sitting for a while, it was announced that our flight to Charleston would be delayed due to a crew switch. I literally thought I was going to lose it by that point, but found solace in a smoothie I bought across the hall. I was finally allowed to board the flight, and was seated next to a really nice man who chatted with me for the entirety of the flight, so my last flight "flew" by. I ended up arriving in Charleston at 9:00 US time, 3:00 AM Italy time last night, and ran to my family at the arrivals gate. It was an incredibly long, nightmarish journey, but it made me even more happy to be home with my family for Christmas. Keep all the travelers in Europe in your thoights because many will not be making it home for Christmas since the weather conditions are not improving. Happy Holidays everyone, and Buone Feste a tutti!

La vita è bella (minus not having heat and never-ending rain)!

Ciao a tutti!

I know I have not posted anything in a long time, but so much has been going on here in Florence. First, Andy left for Turkey for 11 days, so I got all reorganized and back on track with school work, but also had fun. I saw "The Social Network" in English, which was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I also made my first trip to Lucca, which is definitely in my top five places in Italy! After this period of alone time though, I was invaded by visitors, which I had been craving!
First my best friend for 20+ years, Amy, came to visit for two weeks. It was so good having a girlfriend around to chat with and just do girly things with. I introduced Amy to Trattoria Anita, the best restaurant in Florence, Don Chisciotte, the best pizza in Florence, and to Andrea and vino sfuso. Needless to say, most of her visit revolved around our eating schedules. Andy arrived home the day after Amy arrived and the three of us saw Harry Potter (in English with Italian subtitles), then ventured off to Rome. I was so excited to show both of them how amazing the eternal city is (and how it trumps Florence in every aspect). The only thing that dampened our visit to Rome was the copious amounts of rain, which I am sick and tired of since it has rained every day for the past month. Anyhow, we took a guided tour of the Vatican museums, which allowed Amy's inner art history nerd to shine, and we walked all around Vatican City. I was also reunited with my friend Yann, who taught with me at UNC last year. Yann took Amy, Andy and me out to the best aperitivo I have ever been to, where we actually hung out with Italians. This was pretty much the highlight of the trip for me because I never meet Italians in Florence, and when I do they insist on speaking to me in English. Anyhow, Yann and his sweet girlfriend Antonella were excellent tour guides and showed us all the beauties of Rome by night. The next day we went and saw all the Roman monuments, like the colosseum and the Roman forum, etc. Since it rained even harder on that day though, we decided to head back to Florence, where more rain awaited.
During the second half of Amy's visit we hung out in Florence and prepared for our foreign Thanksgiving, and the arrival of Andy's parents. Even without hot water (which broke) and heat (which was out for 5 days) our Thanksgiving was honestly one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had. We had thirteen people for dinner, including two Mexicans, a frenchman, and an Italian. We had delicious food, including a 17 lb. turkey cooked by my friend Charlie (thank you). It was so amazing to share Thanksgiving with so many people that had never celebrated it before.
While Andy's parents were in town we did some more traveling and sight-seeing, as well as watched the Auburn Tigers beat Alabama 28-27 in the Iron Bowl (War Eagle)! My favorite part of the Gilliom's visit was our tour of Chianti. We all piled into a van with our guide Claudio, who was the stereotype for all Italians in the minds of Americans. We traveled to Greve in Chianti and went to five different wine tastings, as well as ate a delicious Tuscan meal in a medieval village nearby. It was sunny the entire time we were there and I drank so much red wine and ate so much olive oil that I had to lay off of both for a few days afterwards. It was so much fun getting to see Andy's parents, especially when AMy and I took his mother shopping in Florence. The day they left though was a miserable rainy day, and also the Florence marathon, so getting them out of the city was quite the task. After making sure they were able to find a taxi though, Amy and I went off to Siena, where we ate some absolutely delicious gelato and braved heavy rain to see the duomo and the church that houses St. Catherine's head and thumb.
Amy left two days later and the heat and hot water returned and life went somewhat back to normal. Now Andy and I are relishing our last few weeks in Italy together by preparing for Christmas. We went on a date yesterday to Lucca and went ice skating and to their local Christmas market, as well as shopped, which was a perfect day for me (minus missing the train we wanted and having to sit in the train station for two hours until the next one came). Overall, life has been pretty great the past few weeks, and I'm trying to enjoy the last two weeks until I come home for the holidays.