Jess 2-25-08

Ciao!

As Bill said, sadly our week of family visits has come to an end. But what a great time with all! It's unfortunate that Bill and I had so much to do with finals coming up and all, but still we got to see a lot of everyone and they got to see a lot of Florence so that was fun. On Friday we all had a great big dinner that Bill and I made. I'll lay it out Menu-style for you:

1. Antipasti: Peperoni (Marinated red and yellow bell peppers)
1a. Pane: Foccacia
2. Primo: Penne al funghi
3. Secondo: Arista Arrosto (roast pork)
4. Dolce: Tiramisu!

We finally got to open up the bottle of Chianti we had been saving for this occasion, and the Farley's gave us some really tasty fresh olive oil to use for the homemade foccacia :) mmm. It was a lovely evening and I think everyone enjoyed our cooking, which means I think we'll be doing a lot more of it when we go home!

We also took everyone out to the Uffizi on a really beautiful Friday morning. There was so much to see there, so maybe 3/4 of the way through we stopped for lunch outside on the patio of the building, and it felt good to get out in the rare sunshine.

On Bill's birthday at night we went out to dinner with Bill's family, including Fiamma, Claudio, and Fabio. They were very nice and it was great practice for our Italian, since Fabio only spoke a little and Fiamma didn't speak any English at all. But for a bunch of people who only speak a little of each other's languages we communicated very well, plus the food was delicious! I must say I did enjoy all the awesome restaurant food all week, and not having to wash dishes afterwards! Back to the grindstone now, I suppose.

Anyway, it was a really great week and we had a lot of fun with everyone. Exams were today and I had my first, which wasn't too bad and I feel like I did fine, so that's good. Paris is inching closer, I can feel it!

Ciao for now :)