Prima Weekend

Buon Giorno!
Today is my first Saturday in Florence and its part of full immersion weekend. Basically what that means is that Whitney (my roommate) and I spend the entire weekend with our family. Vittoria- my amazing host mom, is taking us all around the city and our neighborhood today so we can get the lay of the land. Tomorrow we're hiking to Fiesole which we can see from our bedroom window! We're right by the Stadio for all you soccer fans and can see that and THE DUOMO from our roof terrace(s). Molto bella! Yesterday we went out exploring- I went to the Duomo, but didn't climb to the top (yet- that's coming). And I saw the Piazza della Republica (the Rape of the Sabine Woman!) and Orsanmichele. We hung out in a really neat wine bar that was nearby that reminded me of Muddy Waters in Btown if muddy's was in a basement. And full of Italians- we were the only Americans there. It was great. They had live music which was 2 old guys playing acoustic and electric guitar/violin and singing. It felt so homey and wonderful and was exactly what I needed after an admittedly difficult and homesicky day. I also went to an amazing gelateria by the Duomo and had nondairy chocolate gelato that was so delicious it made my head spin. I ate it in this tiny little wafer thing- the wafer was tiny, the mound of gelato was not. Good thing the Stadio is quite far from il centro (downtown) bc by the time I got home and settled I was hungry again. For a dinner which included prosciutto tortellini in brodo. Cured ham tortellini in broth- and I LOVED it! I also just tried my first Italian soy milk- not bad. Not for my coffee, but great in cereal. Paired with toast- toast could be a food group here. Well, bread is- not grains. Just crusty, delicious bread. YUM!
I'm hoping to post some pictures later today for you all to see so be on the look out. I was going to do it now, but we're bringing our cameras with us on our outing today so I figured I'll wait and inundate you all at once with the beauty of Firenze.
Sending all my love,
Ciao Ciao!
Ali