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.