So recently I've started studying Italian again. Before I left on my recent trip, I used Duolingo and my old textbook (from mumble-years ago) and a great podcast called Coffee Break Italian. Since Italians are, in general, about a billion times more fluent in English than I am in Italian, I didn't actually get the chance to practice much. I told my ( Read more... )

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We left Florence and hopped back on another Freccia to Rome. I had heard that Termini, Rome's main train station, had been turned into a mall, and it's true - there were now shops everywhere, including a branch of our now beloved Grom, which sold artisinal gelato. (The torrone flavor...omg. And the fiordilatte, which I kept returning to. We ate a ( Read more... )

From Ravenna, we hopped back on the train and got to Florence at about 9 that evening, after a slightly delayed train. Our apartment was literally on the square of the Signoria, which still kind of boggles me. Thankfully the window was facing towards the back of the building and was four flights up, and even more thankfully there was a teeny ( Read more... )

Guys, guys, my sister's photos came out really great! Well, I'm responsible for some of them (uh, many blurry ones, as far as I can tell. Sheesh. I'm apparently Cap'n Shaky Hands. Anyway, here are six photos of Ravenna mosaics.

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Well, she said, I'm back ( Read more... )

It's fun planning the two weeks my sister and her husband and I are going to spend in Italy in October. But my brain is weird - although I'm still in the happy anticipations stage of things, I opened up the spreadsheet of days and put in the date and time of my return flight and immediately got sad that the trip was over even though it hasn't begun ( Read more... )

I am drinking red wine out of a little tetra pack. This is possibly a new low. In my defense, I bought it mostly to put in the beef and barley stew, and it was delicious and I can't let the rest of it go bad, right? Also, my wine glasses are on the high shelf and I don't feel like lugging over a step stool to get them ( Read more... )

The mailbox has presented me with Hawkeye Vol. 1 My Life As A Weapon, which is glorious. The art and the storytelling, just...mwah. So good. My tolerance for the type of canon you end up with in comics has definitely lessened over the years, but it's nice to have one book to read with a tight focus ( Read more... )

I am late to the Elementary party, but glad I got there.

In other news, this video has been making me so happy recently. It's like all of Italy, encapsulated in one four minute video.



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