Amanda and Zeno's backyard - BBQ!


Shoulda put a honey in the middle. Oh well, guess that's just how they do things in Europe.


This is what florence looks like outside the train station


View out the window


Me on the plane.

Well it’s been about a week, so I suppose that constitutes an update. Despite the fact that I flew on standby, everything went incredibly smooth on my initial journey to Rome. Planes were on time, I was on time, there was a seat for me by the window.
I had a layover in Chicago, and they were in the heart of a serious heatwave. I trekked across town via bus and train all the way to Nikki’s place. When I arrived, it was midnight and her apartment was something akin to an oven. The southerner in me asked if the AC was broken, and the Northerner in her politely reminded me about places where summer doesn’t warrant air conditioning because it isn’t 109 degrees for 2 solid months. People really shouldn’t live in Texas during July and August.
Thankfully Nikki had bought and outfitted her own room with an AC unit, making it a sort of desert oasis in which one could actually sleep…
We stayed up for a couple hours, girl-talking. You know the drill. Then we passed out around 2 and she left for work about 6am. My flight to Rome was at 5pm, which meant I needed to be at the airport around 1pm and it took about an hour to get to the airport. I thought about getting out of bed, perhaps venturing out in search of a fine slice of Chicago’s finest ‘za, but in the end, opted for 10 hours of straight snoozing, punctuated by a long cold shower.
Made it back to the airport on time, got a nice seat in coach next to the window. It was long. Boring. Accentuated by such mediocre cinematic selections as “The Adjustment Bureau” and “Ramona and Beazus.” I didn’t sleep.

8 hours later I was in Rome. It felt good to be on foreign soil again.
[Little did I know, I was about to be reminded in a big way how much Italian I had forgotten and never knew in the first place, and how problematic that can be when you’re trying to get around by yourself. But that’s a story for another day.]

I arrived in Florence (a 2 hour transit from the Rome airport) nearly 8 hours later.
I waited on the steps of Amanda’s flat for about 15 minutes until Zeno and his mother arrived and let me in. We greeted each other with cheek kisses and ‘hellos’.
Zeno had to run, so his mother – who is Albanian and speaks very little Italian and no English – and I tried to get to know each other until Amanda and Zeno returned. You’d think that would be impossible, but you’d be wrong. She’s an incredibly warm and genuine person, so she gave me some water, indicated that I should make myself comfortable and then there were a lot of hand gestures and facial expressions. And a good deal of giggles…