Friday May 1, 2009

Today Erika, Rachael, and I went to an arts and crafts festival at the fort in Florence. The fort was kind of a mysterious large space on our city maps so we were interested to see what it really was. We got there and walked around…still a little confused about what the structure was and what kind of festival this was. There were lots of buildings within the old fort structure with a variety of food, crafts, and “as seen on TV” type booths. The food stands caught our attention at first so we indulged in our first Florence “kebab” (more like a gyro). We continued to explore a few more of the buildings picking up a few items along the way.

From there we walked back home via the Santa Croce festival. I had been eying some ceramic bowls at one of the booths all week so I finally decided to buy four mis-matched bowls.

Then later that evening Mom arrived! Her flight got into Florence around 5:30 and she taxied over to my apartment by 6:15. She rung my doorbell so before walking downstairs I looked out my window to make sure it was her…of course she was squealing with excitement sharing her enthusiasm with passerbys as well. After being here for almost four months it was fun seeing someone get so excited about what had started to become the norm for us.

Since it was the last day of the Santa Croce festival I took her there to grab a bite to eat. We split a mixed antipasto plate, some prosciutto, and cheeses with a glass of wine at a table in the middle of the vendors. I had been wanted to do this all week but I held out until she arrived because I knew she would be in heaven. After eating I took her to one of Florence’s best gelato places, Vivoli, that we just discovered near our apartment early that week. After that it was off to bed so we could get up early for our Tuscan driving adventure.