The Last Visitors :(

Just had another AMAZING time with Jennifer and Kristin!! They stayed with me from this past Thursday to this morning, and it was just the best. Like I said about Leah and Linds coming, nothing beats spending time in Italy with friends and family from home. Jennifer and Kristin are studying in Edinburgh, Scotland and came over for the weekend. The place they are staying and studying is where me and a couple other friends, Kelly, Vanessa and Danielle are going to go for Christmas and New Year's, and judging from their experience and pictures, it'll be amazing and I can't wait! Our time together, like I said, was great. The weather was beautiful! It was sunny from Friday morning to last night, so we were really able to enjoy the sights and activities in Florence. Obviously, I took them to my favorite spots: to St. Miniato (the pictures that are shown are from there), Piazza Michaelangelo, El Gato for dinner, and all over for gelato :) We made some great home cooked meals, and I made sure they got to eat the best Italian food possible, meaning bread from The Forno :) We climbed the Duomo, did some shopping in the markets, or "bazaars" as Jennifer would call them, and even got to experience another wine tasting. The weather was amazing, kind of like the beginning of fall in Minnesota...which is my favorite! Since we hadn't seen each other in so long, we were up pretty late every night talking and catching up...pretty sure the earliest we went to bed was about1, every other night being around 3 or 4! Life is to short to sleep though, right? One of the nights we went to the "secret bakery." I had never been there, but my roommate Roxanne wanted to take us, so we went! It opens at 3 in the morning, and it's fresh pastries right from the oven. BEST PASTRIES EVA! And super cheap, which is even better. It's the secret bakery because technically they aren't a bakery, they just distribute to other places, so I don't think they are really supposed to sell it to us...OH WELL! It was totally worth it! It was SO good to see them and I can't wait to spend Christmas and New Year's with them in Scotland!

Coming up: hopefully some day trips to Pisa, Lucca, Fiesole and Siena...I probably mentioned that before, just refreshing the mem. I'm excited to see more towns close to Florence, I love the small town feel of this country. Not to mention the beauty of it all! I'm really enjoying my roommates Casey and Roxanne. We always have a good time together in the apartment and going around town and it's making me a little sad to think we only have a few more weeks together. At the end of our trip, we're all gunna go out and get the biggest gelato ever. Favorite flavors: cookies and cheesecake, nothing can beat it! It's one of the many activities all enjoy together, so we're gunna splurge on our last day together!

Well, that's about it for now...just have a week of classes and catching up on some sleep! If you're looking for something to do, just come to Florence, I'll show ya around.