Thanksgiving

Hello. Just wanted to get a quick update on here. I'll put up a longer post, maybe tomorrow or Friday, about our trip to Sicily this past weekend. But for now I wanted to talk about my brother coming to visit and Thanksgiving time at the villa. My brother flew in on Saturday, and was here till Friday so needless to say there was a lot of funtivities. Both Saturday and Sunday we went to the Florence Wine Tasting Event at Palazzo Piti. Ten euros for unlimited, really, really good wine. It was great. We also got a chance to see HP 7 in ENGLISH, which was awesome. They have intermission in Italian movie theaters so that was weird. But the movie was by far the best on to date I'd have to say. Tremendous.

So what did we do. Well, I got into Florence almost every day / night to walk around with him, hang out, talk, catch up, all those good brotherly things to do. Definitely had a lot of good bonding time. He also got the chance to go out to the bars with me and my friends one night, so it was nice that Mike got to meet them all. We went to a couple really great panini places, and focused on that and pizza since he was not as inclined to have pasta. We went out for a nice dinner on Tuesday I think, to this place called Mamma Gina's, which was tremendous. We had a solid, multiple course meal that was great, and recommended by my boss from this summer as being the best food in Florence. We really didn't do that much sight seeing wise. Just a lot of walking around, eating, drinking, and talking. It really was a good time

My brother also had the chance to come to the villa on Wednesday for a fantastic lunch, and hang out in Sesto all day and then some of my friends joined us out to eat for dinner. THEN, there was Thanksgiving. Unfortunately all the pictures of me and Mike hanging out / at Thanksgiving are on his camera. So I'll have to edit this post with pictures once I get ahold of them. Thanksgiving was great though, it was definitely nice to have some family with me, and the villa did a great job of making it seem as close to home as possible. The food was amazing, possibly, dare I say it, even better than back home. Definitely the best Turkey and stuffing I've ever had, with homemade pumpkin pie, turkey soup, mashed potatoes, and some other goodies. Like I said, they did a great job of replicating a large, family, Thanksgiving style dinner. Hats off to you Villa.

Other than Sicily this weekend, and my brother coming to visit, I've been pretty busy getting things done. A lot of papers and what not that I've been neglecting have finally started to catch up on me, and with less than 3 weeks left, dear god not much time left here, I got to get the ball rolling. No other trips are planned, other than a possible day trip to neighboring Prato. I've decided I want to spend my last weeks here in Florence and Sesto as much as possible, and enjoy my temporary hometowns to their fullest. So check back in later this week for an update on the Sicily trip.

P.S. Badgers being in the Rose Bowl would happen the semester I am away from college football....still, definitely excited about it.

EDIT: Photos

Bruno and Co. going to town

Brother, myself, and villa buds

Setting up the tree at the villa