Il Finale Perfetto: Snow in Firenze! Part 2

     When I woke up the next morning my stomach was in knots. I knew I was alone and this made me sick to my stomach. Sure, I had woken up alone in the apartment before, but this time it was different: no one was coming back. As I crawled out of my tiny twin bed for the last time and began walking through the apartment I couldn't help but notice how empty it was (and I how empty I felt). Shannon and Claire's room was completely spotless for the first time in four months, the two couches in the living room which were almost always pushed together and which we had named our "play pin" had been separated, clothes were no longer covering every surface that could possibly be used as a drying rack, and most importantly I could no longer hear the sounds of the voices and  laughter coming from the 6 girls who were once my roommates. Within those few minutes I realized for the first time that my four month adventure in Italy had truly ended... and I had never felt so sad and alone.

     Before I could start crying, I decided that it was time to get out of the apartment and enjoy my last morning in Florence before my train left later that day. After I had bundled up, I walked outside and saw something unexpected that made me smile: our Christmas tree. Because our apartment had to be clean before we left, we had to get rid of our small (and crooked) Christmas tree that we had purchased for 10 Euro at the grocery store. Caitlin and Stesha had taken it out the night before and instead of putting it next to the dumpster (where I had thought they had put it) they had placed it in the middle of a small square right outside of our apartment where everyone who passed by could enjoy a little Christmas spirit. When I saw our Christmas tree memories flooded my mind: Cami and I going to the grocery store, picking out our tree and then carrying it up 9 flights of stairs, everyone decorating the tree and the apartment together while listening to Christmas music, and last but not least all 7 of us gathering around the tree on our last night together exchanging Christmas presents. Seeing our tree and recalling those fond memories made me feel as though my roommates were still there with me and made me feel so much better.
   

     For the next hour I walked around the streets of Florence for the last time, admiring the beautiful city that had become my home. First, I stopped at Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral to gaze up at the beautiful and infamous dome that was covered in pure white snow. I knew that the sight in front of me was very rare and that not many people have the privilege of seeing this beautiful landmark covered in snow, so I made sure to take the time to really appreciate what I was seeing. I took a bunch of pictures and even made a poor American girl take at least 10 pictures of me in front of the church until she took the perfect one. lol



View of the snow covered Duomo from my street

Perfect Picture!

The Baptistry, the Duomo and the Bell Tower

    
     I saved the best stop for last... Piazza della Repubblica: my absolute favorite place in Florence. When I arrived, I made my way through the snow to a spot on a bench right next to the carousel... and I just sat there for a good 20 minutes reminiscing on all the great memories I had had in Florence as well as in this Piazza: the beautiful sunset in September that marked the beginning of my feeling at home in Florence, eating cannoli's (many times) at Paszkowski's located on the corner of the piazza, riding the carousel with Caitlin and Stesha after our cooking class, sitting in front of the carousel at night during Christmas time listening to Ave Maria resonate through the square, and visiting the night before watching the carousel spin round as snow fell from the sky. This place had brought me so much joy during my four months in Florence and I didn't want to leave. Unfortunately, my rain boots were no longer protecting my feet from the coldness of the snow and my toes were on the verge of becoming frostbitten, so I decided it was time to leave. I took one last look around the beautiful Piazza and then began making my way back to my apartment.

     A few hours later, after having thoroughly enjoyed my last panini from the best sandwich shop ever (Salumeria Verde!) it was time for me to begin making my way to the train station. At this point I knew it would be almost impossible getting a taxi, but I decided to give it a shot anyways. After 20 minutes of calling multiple taxi companies, I was completely unsurprised at my inability to get a taxi. I had come to terms with the fact that I would be walking to the train station... with my luggage... through the snow... long before I began making calls, but that didn't mean it was going to be any less miserable.
     Before I began my trek, I gathered my bags to the front door, took one last look around the apartment and then closed the door behind me for the last time. I did this all very quickly knowing that if I gave myself time to think about the fact that I would never be returning to this apartment, I would break down in tears. I slid my bags down the 9 flights of stairs (all the while thinking to myself how much easier this was compared to my first day in Florence when I had to carry all of my bags UP the stairs. lol). Once I reached outside, the first thing I did was take off my long coat. Although there was still snow on the ground and it was quite cold outside, I knew that I was about to begin one hell of a workout and that I would shortly be drenched in sweat... and that's exactly what happened.

     With a suitcase in each hand I attempted to roll close to 100lbs of luggage through the snow/slush, on the narrow sidewalks/uneven cobblestones of Florence for 1.7km (a little over a mile). The wheels, as well as the bottom of my bags kept collecting snow making it even more heavy and difficult to move, my bags kept twisting and toppling over (which required a large amount of effort for me to correct), and let's not forget the unhelpful and unsympathetic Italians who refused to move out of my way despite my many polite "scusi's" (let's just say I ran over a few feet with absolutely no remorse).  Although it was the ultimate FML moment, I couldn't help but laugh at myself and the absurdity of my situation. I'm sure many a Florentine passerby were giggling at my expense, but at least I can say that I spent my last moments in Florence making people smile!
     As I approached the final leg of my journey I stopped on the corner of one of the busier streets in Florence and gazed up at the city's infamous landmark: the duomo. Over the past four months I had had the fortune of being able to enjoy this beautiful site almost every day, and as I stood there in that moment I knew that today would be the last. As I looked up at the duomo, memories of the first day I arrived in Florence flooded my mind... I remembered sitting in the bus from Pisa, approaching the city center, and anxiously awaiting my first glimpse of the duomo. After what seemed like forever, it finally came into view and I was overcome with emotion. After months of planning and preparation, and an extremely long day of traveling I couldn't believe that I had finally arrived in the city I had fallen in love with two years ago, and that it would be my home for the next four months. I was so excited... and so unbelievably happy... just as unbelievably happy as I was standing there in front of the duomo on my last day in Florence. The last four months had been the best of my life and although I was sad to leave, I knew that I was leaving the happiest I had ever been.
   

My friend Lauren joined me on the train to Rome.
Here she is on the platform with all of our luggage.
 Sad to have had such a nightmare getting to the train station
... and sad to be leaving Florence.

Il Finale Perfetto: Snow in Firenze!

     On Friday December 17th, the day before we were scheduled to leave Florence, I woke up to a BBM message on my phone. It was from my father and the message read: "Wake up! It's snowing!" Still half asleep it took a few seconds for the words on the screen to register, but as soon as they did it was like a light bulb going off in my head.... SNOW IN FLORENCE! I leaped out of bed, my heart beating with excitement, and ran to the closest window. I couldn’t help but think that our last wish for snow might actually come true! Once I reached the ledge my excitement was immediately crushed. All I saw was a cloudy sky and bundled up Italians walking down the street below me. There was no snow in sight, not even a snowflake. Disappointed I walked away and re-read the message my Dad had sent me. This time I noticed a second half: "Expecting 4-5 inches of snow today!" Now even more depressed I crawled back into bed hoping that my Dad wasn’t just teasing me and that in a few hours I would wake up to falling snow.
     When I woke up a few hours later I immediately began making my way toward the window. I walked down the hallway, into the living room where 4 of my roommates were sitting, and before I could even make it to the window I could see tiny white flakes falling from the sky. It was snowing! Although it wasn’t much, being a southern California girl and living in a city where it doesn’t snow made it quite exciting!
     Around noon Stesha, Cami, Emma, Shannon, Claire and I bundled up and headed to Ganzo for lunch to use up the last of our free meal vouchers. It was our first time outside since the snow had started falling. Although it was snowing very lightly, just seeing tiny little snow flakes fall onto my black jacket was so exciting!

    After we had finished eating lunch we were sitting at the table getting ready to leave, when I leaned back in my chair, looked through the window and saw that the little flurry of snow had turned into a blizzard! It was pouring snow outside! Hardly able to contain my excitement I ran outside before everyone else and took a little video:

So excited for snow!

Right outside Ganzo

     Once it started snowing it didn't stop. It snowed pretty heavily ALL day long. Here are some pictures I took when I wandered around Florence later that afternoon.

12/16/10 -Santa Croce and the Christmas Market

12/17/10 - Santa Croce and the Christmas Market

Arno River with the Ponte Vecchio in the background

Buses and taxis stopped running

     As the snow continued to fall and showed no sign of stopping we all began to get a little nervous. 5 of my roommates were scheduled to fly out of Florence the next day, I was scheduled for an early morning train ride to Rome, and Caitlin was supposed to be leaving for Venice that night to catch an early flight the next morning! But, with the amount of snow that had fallen and the fact that telephone lines were dead and no buses or taxis were running everyone was concerned about getting out of Florence.
     The first issue we had to deal with was getting Caitlin to the train station to make her 5:30 train to Venice. She started calling taxi companies a few hours before she had to leave, but had no luck finding any that were operating in the snow. She even tried calling a private driving service, but to no avail. Eventually we came to the realization that she was going to have to walk. With all the luggage she had we knew it would be impossible for her to get to the train station by herself so Stesha and I offered to help. We dragged (not rolled-way too much snow for any rolling to be happening) 4 suitcases/duffel bags through 4 inches of snow about a mile to the train station... and all the while it was pouring snow. It was an adventure to say the absolute least lol. Needless to say we were covered in snow, and drenched in sweat. I found the whole thing absolutely hilarious and couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. It was so ridiculous that I had to capture the moment during one of our many breaks along the way. Here we are in front of the duomo. We thought it would be a perfect place to stop because we could admire the duomo in the snow as well as the beautiful Christmas tree to our right.

Caitlin carried 2 duffel bags, Stesha dragged a suitcase,
and I dragged the MONSTER suitcase in the front of the picture.

Despite carrying 2 heavy duffel bags through the snow,
Caitlin is all smiles! Look at the beautiful snow covered
Christmas tree in the background!

    
     After about 45 minutes we finally made it to the train station. Stesha and I said our last goodbye's and then headed back to the apartment... this time with a lot less weight. Thank God! On our way back Stesha treated herself to a much deserved cannoli, and then we took a few pictures of one another in front of the duomo. They turned out absolutely amazing. Here is the picture of me (great photo taking skills Stesha!):

It doesn't even look real does it???

      After taking a few pictures Stesha and I split up and I wandered around to capture the magical scene of a snow covered Florence. First I took some pictures of the Duomo, then I made my way to Piazza della Republica where I admired the carousel spinning in the snow and stopped at my favorite cannoli spot for my last cannoli and cappuchino. After savoring my cannoli and cappuchino and committing their amazing tastes to memory I headed back to my apartment, all the while taking in the beauty around me.

Piazza della Republica

I walked by this unique wedding dress shop all the time. I always admired
the beautiful dresses in the window, but never stopped to take a picture
until this night. Something about the beautiful white dress, the angel
wings, the warm yellow lighting and the snow falling silently in front
of the store made it so peaceful and magical and just beautiful.

The bikes were buried in snow!

These kids and their father were rolling a HUGE snowball
through the street by my house. They were so cute!

Via Pietrapiana (my home) covered in snow

     A few hours after I had gotten home I got a phone call from Caitlin. Her train had been cancelled and she had been waiting in line for a taxi for the past few hours in order to get back to the apartment. During that time only 2 taxis had shown up so she eventually decided to make a second trek through the snow with all of her luggage. Thankfully it had stopped snowing by then and Shannon and Claire offered to go to the train station to help Caitlin. Although they didn't have to deal with a downpour of snow, they did have to drag the suitcases up 9 flights of stairs... I'm not sure which is worse lol.
     Once Caitlin got back home it was a continued frenzy of trying to figure out how everyone was going to get out of Florence. Were flights going to be cancelled? Were taxis and buses going to start running again so they could get to the airport? It was a nightmare for the 6 of my roommates, that I was glad I did not have to experience. If worse came to worse I would have to walk to the train station with all my luggage, or I might have to take a later train to Rome. Granted both would suck, especially the first option, but I wasn't leaving until the 20th (2 days later) so I didn't have nearly as big of worries as they did.
     At around midnight I said my final goodbye's to all of my roommates (they were all leaving extremely early in the morning and had decided to pull an all nighter) and went to bed. Shortly after I went to bed my roommates began calling taxi companies knowing that it would be very difficult to find one that was operating in the snow. At around 2:15 in the morning they were finally able to get a hold of two taxis to take the six of them to the airport. Although they weren't originally planning on leaving until 4:30am they knew that this would probably be their only opportunity to find a taxi. By 2:30am they had all left, leaving me alone in a dark, empty and silent apartment...

Un Fine Settimana Con La Mia Famiglia Napoletano

     The first weekend in December Katrina and I visited our Italian family in Naples. Although we have family in multiple cities in Italy, including Ravenna and Rome, most of our relatives live in Naples. When we visited Italy with our entire family two years ago, we spent a few days there and were able to enjoy a typical Italian feast with our Napoletano relatives. In all there were probably close to 50 of us and although there was a bit of a language barrier and us younger cousins were meeting many of them for the first time, we all had an absolutely wonderful time. So this time around Katrina and I were very excited to get to see everyone.


Flashback to family dinner in Naples, 2008. Only a tiny portion of everyone!

          We met up in Rome on Thursday night, and were driven down to Naples by our Uncle Tonino's brother in law (it was so nice of him to pick us up!). After driving for three hours through a huge thunderstorm we finally arrived at Tonino's house in Napoli at 1:00 in the morning. Tonino (short for Antonio) is one of our Italian relatives that we are very close to. He comes to visit our family in America every year and he joined us for much of our trip throughout Italy two years ago. When we arrived we were greeted with hugs and kisses and Tonino made us a little snack (even though we told him we weren't hungry!) of mozzarella, tomatoes, and some bread. He plopped a huge ball of mozzarella on each of our plates and of course we ate every bite.
     On Friday, we spent the entire day exploring the city of Napoli led by our wonderful tour guide, Tonino. The first two places we visited were the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, and Sansevero Chapel. The Museum had a huge collection of Greek and Roman antiquities (mostly statues), and the Sansevero Chapel contained many amazing sculptures including a very famous and extremely beautiful piece by Giuseppe Sanmartino named the Christo Velato (Veiled Christ). It was absolutely incredible. The sculpture of Jesus draped in a veil from head to toe was so perfect and life like that I couldn't believe it had been carved out of marble. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's what it looks like. The picture doesn't do it justice, so if you are ever in Naples I would highly recommend going to see it.

     After seeing the Veiled Christ we stopped for a little sweet bite at a famous pasticceria (pastry shop) called Scaturchio. Katrina and I each had one of Naples most famous pastries. It is called sfogliatella and is basically a flaky croissant with an orange flavored ricotta filling with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. It was yummy, but I'm not a huge fan of ricotta, thus the cannoli remained my favorite Italian pastry.

    

     Once we had finished our pastries and had dusted the powdered sugar from our coats we continued on our adventure through Naples. First we visited two famous streets: Spaccanopoli and Via San Gregorio Armeno. Spaccanapoli is the main street in Naples that seems to split the city in half. The name literally means "split Naples" and dates back to Greek and Roman times. Here are some pictures from down on the street and one from above.

Trina and I right outside of the pasticerria on Spaccanpoli



Vendor selling fruit on the street

Spaccanapoli is the street in the center of the picture leading to the tall buildings

     Next we visited Via San Gregorio Armeno: a street which is very famous for its "presepe" (nativity scenes). The entire street is lined with shops filled with hand made presepe, and accessories and figurines to decorate them with. They include people (including Joseph and Mary), animals, food, houses, trees, wells, and even waterfalls powered by an electric engine. The presepe are a big part of the tradition in Naples and almost every Napoletano has one to display in their homes during the Christmas season. It was really cool being able to visit the street during Christmas time because we were able to see it during the peak of it's season: the street was bustling with people and we even got to see some of the presepe being made!

Via San Gregorio Armeno

Baby presepe...

...Big presepe!
(A man was actually working behind it when we took this picture...
you can see his legs under the table lol)

Very famous presepe shop. Tonino said it was one of the best.

     After walking around for a few hours we were starving and decided that it was time for lunch. Being that Naples is home of the pizza, and is believed to have the best in the world, Katrina and I had decided before we even arrived in the city that we had to have pizza for one of our meals. Katrina did her homework and found a list of the 10 best pizzeria's in Naples. The one we chose to go to was "Pizzeria Da Michele". Maybe this sounds familiar to you? Well, it might be because this is the pizzeria Julia Roberts visited in her movie Eat, Pray, Love. When we got there, there was a line out the door and we had to take a number, but thankfully the wait wasn't too long and we were seated within 10 minutes.

Outside Da Michele waiting to be seated... Tonino is holding up our ticket lol

     Once we were inside the small, but packed restaurant we sat down at a table, ordered 3 Coke's and 3 Margherita pizza's and then waited excitedly for our food to arrive. One thing I love about Italy is that when you order a pizza, you order it for yourself. Unlike in the United States, pizza's in Italy are rarely shared. And although these "personal" pizza's are quite large, they are almost always completely devoured by the diner  with absolutely no regret. (And yes I speak from personal experience). Another thing I love about pizza in Italy is that it is so cheap! They usually range in price from 4-10 Euro (often depending on the toppings) and the one's we had at Da Michele were only 4 Euro each!

     After a short wait, our pizza's finally arrived. We took a few pictures, then grabbed a knife and fork and  dug in. The pizza was delicious! Unfortunately, once we got down to our last few bites we realized how stuffed we were and that there was no way anymore pizza would fit into our stomach's. Although we were sad we couldn't finish our pizza, we left Da Michele extremely satisfied with our choice.  

Mangia, Mangia!

So sad we couldn't finish our pizza!

Picture of the men of Da Michele with Julia Roberts when she came to film Eat, Pray, Love!

       After lunch we visited more of our Italian family. First we visited Luca (Tonino's son) and his family. Luca had just had ACL surgery so he was stuck in bed, but we got to chat with his wife and 3 kids which was very nice. Next we visited Zia Dora at work. She owns two clothing stores and we got to tour them. They were beautiful! Afterwards we went with Zia Dora to her son Simone's house to visit his wife Monica and their two children, Giordana and Samuele. It was my fist time meeting this part of the family and they were wonderful. Although Monica didn't speak very much English she was so nice, and Giordana who is only 5 years old was absolutely adorable. She loves the Disney princesses and had a big blanket with all of them on it. She was even wearing Sleeping Beauty's dress. She was so cute! And Samuele who was only a few months old, was precious as well.

Giordana and I
 Isn't she beautiful?!

     That night we went over to Zia Dora and her husband Aldo's apartment for dinner and were joined by    even more of our Italian family (in all there were 12 of us)! We had an assortment of meats and cheeses (my favorite!), some yummy cooked eggplant, and then for dessert we had an assortment of nuts and some lemon cake. The lemon cake was so good, Katrina and I took it home for breakfast the next day.

     The best part of the whole evening was getting to visit with our family. Although most of them do not speak English very well, and communication was difficult at times, I actually found myself focusing less on the words that were being said, and more on the feelings that I felt. My Mom always says "It's not what you say, but how you say it" ...and I feel like this quote perfectly described the night. Although I might not have been able to understand everything that was being said, I could tell that it was all coming from a place of love. Every word and face expression was filled with happiness, excitement, and love. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I was so happy the entire dinner and couldn't stop smiling!

Top Row (left to right): Zio Aldo, Zia Dora, Zia Ana Maria, Lina,
Zio Frank and Zia Carmela
Bottom Row: Zio Aeros, Katrina, Me, Alessandro and Claudia
(Tonino took the picture)

      

     The next day Tonino, Katrina and I were joined by our cousin Gianluca who drove down from Rome to visit for the day. Gianluca is an eccentric Italian man who always has a smile on his face, and is a little "pazzo" (crazy) but in a good way! He has visited America a few times and serves as one of our main connections between our family in Italy and America. Our first stop was Castel Sant'Elmo (Sant'Elmo Castle). Castel Sant'Elmo (which really looks more like a fortress than a castle) is located on top of a hill that overlooks all of Naples as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Although the castle wasn't anything exciting, the view was stunning!

Naples Harbor and Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Myself, Tonino and Katrina

Gianluca, myself, Tonino

     After visiting Castel Sant'Elmo we made our way down the hill and met up with Tonino's son, Marco, and his two year old daughter, Sofia. Marco is married to Brunella and they came to America for their honeymoon in 2006. It was the first time that all of us cousins met Marco and Brunella and we absolutely loved them. We thought they were the cutest couple ever and knew that they would have the most beautiful babies! So when they had Sofia we were all so excited. Up until our visit to Naples, Katrina and I had seen many gorgeous pictures of Sofia on Facebook, but we were so excited to finally meet her in person! Sofia is "bellissima" (SO beautiful). She has light brown hair, olive skin, and beautiful blue eyes! When you ask her "Come ti chiami" (What's you name?) she replies "Miomamo" because she can't pronounce her whole name which is Maria Sofia Monaco. It's the cutest thing!

Tonino and beautiful Sofia

     We greeted each other with many "baci e abbracci" (hugs and kisses) and then made our way to our second stop of the day: Palazzo Reale (The Royal Palace). But first we stopped for a snack. Another famous pastry in Naples is called "Baba". We had Baba' al Rum which is a sponge like sweet bread dipped in rum and a sugar syrup. Might sound good, but it was disgusting! The soggy/mush like consistency along with the overpowering taste of Rum made me want to gag. I was having a really hard time eating it, but I didn't want to be rude so I ate as much as I could. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore so I sneaked off and threw it in the trash.

     For lunch we met up with some of our family at "Da Ettore", a restaurant that is known for it's eggplant pizza. It was on Katrina's list of best pizzeria's in Naples and our family was nice enough to make us a reservation there. We enjoyed some meats and cheese for appetizers, and then Katrina and I split the eggplant pizza which was delicious! 



Marco (Gianluca's brother) and his girlfriend, Tonino and Sofia, Claudia and her son Alessandro,
Marco and his wife Brunella, Gianluca, Katrina, Me, and Brunella's mom after finishing our wonderful meal.



     After lunch we all grabbed a yummy cappucino, and then myself, Trina, Tonino, Gianluca, Marco, Sofia, Brunella and her mom headed to Castel dell'Ovo: a castle right on the coast of Naples. Sofia loves "il mare" so on our way we stopped at a harbor. While we were there this little kitten kept following Sofia and walking around and between her legs. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it and it was so funny to watch her reaction.

The kitten wouldn't leave Sofia alone! lol

Trina and I with Vesuvius in the background.

In the boat with Sofia!

I love this picture of Sofia and her daddy!

     Castel dell'Ovo (Egg Castle) was built in the 12th century. It's unique name comes from a legend that say that the Roman poet Virgil (who also had a reputation as a sorcerer) put a magical egg in the foundation of the castle in order to support it. When we first arrived the sky was very dark and ominous and by the time we left it was raining so hard that the men went out in the rain to find taxi's for us girls.

We kept trying to take a picture together, but it was too windy!

Even though it was dark and gloomy, I thought it was actually very beautiful

Me, Brunella and Katrina. It started raining when we
were taking this picture. We were getting soaked!

    That night for dinner Tonino, Gianluca, Katrina, and I had dinner at Zio Aeros and Zia Anna Maria's apartment. Their apartment was so cute. The table was nicely set, and they had a beautifully decorated Christmas tree which made me feel so at home. Before we ate Zia Anna Maria gave Katrina and I each a beautiful scarf, we loaded pictures I had taken thus far in Naples from my camera to the TV so we could all look at them, Gianluca brought out a bunch of old photos from when he visited America, some of which even had Katrina and I in them, Zia Anna Maria gave Trina a big warm snow coat so she could take it to Vienna with her (that was her next stop) and Tonino was even able to sneak in a little nap! 

Beautiful Christmas tree

Katrina in her new big snow coat! lol

Tonino was exhausted!

     For dinner we had a wonderful 4 course meal: meats and cheeses for appetizers, pasta with a yummy sauce, sausage and potatoes for the meat course, and then dessert. For dessert, Gianluca prepared us a special treat. If you remember my blog from Ravenna, my cousin Manuel introduced me to nutella bomboloni (basically a donut with nutella inside). I fell in love and ever since my trip to Ravenna I was in search of nutella bomboloni in Florence...but to no avail. So, when I went to Naples, I asked all of my family members if they had heard of it. Sadly, they had no idea what I was talking about... but, Gianluca being the amazing guy he his, bought sweet bread, and a type of chocolate/hazelnut spread (he said it was one of his favorites) and made us his own version of "bomboloni". It was so thoughtful and kind of him and they were actually really good! In addtion to our "bomboloni", we also had some cherry gelato, and opened a nice bottle of champagne which was delicious.

     I was so sad when it was time to leave, because I had had such a wonderful time. Between practicing my Italian with Zia Anna Maria, trying to help Gianluca's pronounce the word "milk" correctly (he kept pronouncing it "meelk" no matter how many times Katrina and I tried to help him! lol), eating the amazing food that Zia Anna Maria had prepared for us, and just enjoying the company of my family, I didn't want it to end. 

     On our last day in Naples, Katrina and I got up early and accompanied Tonino to the city of Baia Domizia. Baia Domizia is an hour north of Naples and is a popular summer beach town. Our Napoletano family owns a few condo's here and they visit often in the hot summer months. During our trip to Italy in 2008 Katrina and her sister Karisa stayed an extra week and got to spend a few days in Baia Domizia with the Italian family. Being that it was winter when Katrina and I visited with Tonino, it was completely deserted. The condo pools were drained, there were no cars and the only people there were the owner's of the condo complexes. It was so weird! Although I felt like I was in a ghost town the beach was beautiful and it was cool getting to see where my Italian family spends a lot of time in the summer. Hopefully one day I will get to enjoy a few summer days in Baia Domizia with my family!

Squalo Beach at Baia Domizia. Squalo Beach translates to "Shark Beach"... Let's just say I'm pretty sure I would never go to a beach named "Shark Beach" in the States...Those Italian are fearless!

After a weekend of being fed extremely well and practically having to be rolled out of every building after we ate, we coined the term "fat panda"

We also coined the term "energizer panda" (you can't tell from the picture, but it involves the panda ears while jumping up and down) in honor of Tonino who has an incredible amount of energy! He took us around all of Naples for the entire weekend and never slowed down! I think he had more energy than we did!  

When we were leaving the beach at Baia Domizia Katrina and were jumping up and down doing "energizer panda" and talking about how it perfectly described Tonino. Tonino, not understanding what we were saying, kept looking at us like we were crazy. We tried to explain to him that he was like the energizer bunny (lol it took us a while to translate "bunny") and eventually got him to do energizer panda for us. It was great.  

     The day before, Tonino had asked Trina and I what we wanted to make for lunch before we left for the train station. We decided to make Caprese sandwiches so on our way back from Baia Domizia we stopped to buy our ingredients. We bought tomatoes, bread, and fresh buffalo mozzarella produced in an area close to Naples. When we got back to Tonino's apartment we had about an hour before we had to leave so Trina, Tonino and I went straight to work on our sandwiches. We made four sandwiches, two for lunch, and two for our dinner when we got back to Florence and they were absolutely amazing! One of the best Caprese sandwiches I have ever had!

Cutting the mozzarella

Trina and Tonino adding a little olive oil

Our caprese sandwiches: tomatoes, fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh basil, and a little olive oil

About to bite into my sandwich!

     After we devoured our sandwiches we hopped in Tonino's tiny car (tiny cars are all the rage in Italy-probably because the streets are so small!) and headed to the train station. Tonino was so nice. He walked us inside the station, helped us with our bags and even waited 15 minutes until our train left the platform!

     As we made our way North to Florence I couldn't help but reflect on our amazing weekend in Naples. Being able to spend time with my family, getting to know them better, and actually being able to converse with them (now that I can speak a little bit of Italian) was amazing. Everyone was so kind and welcoming (especially our amazing tour guide Tonino!) and I felt so at home. I can't wait to return so that I can spend more time with my wonderful Napoletano family!