Prato!!

On Thursday, at 6am, I left for Prato. At 3pm, Stefano and Pierina were at the train station to pick me up. When we got to the house of course they fed me, and then Stefano took me to the center of Prato. He said that it'd been raining constantly since November, but it was only drizzling when we left. As soon as we got out of the car it started to POUR, but we braved it. He showed me the Duomo, a couple of beautiful churches, and what remains of an ancient castle. By then it had stopped raining so we were able to go to the top of the castle's walls and look out over Prato. When we got home, Pierina had made pasta, meat, and salad, just like at Nonna's. It was deliciously amazing. After finding out that ASL and LIS were not mutually intelligible, Daniela and I went through a bunch of words, teaching each other the sign for each. It was really interesting; some signs were similar ('thank you', 'pizza', 'morning'), while others were completely different ('brother', 'coffee', 'married') or meant something else. Even some of the letters of the manual alphabet were different, and it was fun playing around with the two languages.

The next day Stefano took me to Pisa for his first real sightseeing experience as well as mine! It was crazy seeing the tower really LEANING. I mean I knew it leaned, but MAN, they weren't kidding. We climbed to the top where the view was breathtaking and spent the day exploring the baptistery, Duomo, cemetery, and museums in the square. After a hearty lunch (Margherita pizza), we laid on the grass in the beautiful weather and took a short siesta. It was fantastic. On the way home, we stopped at Artimino, a town at the top of one of those famous rolling hills to take in the view of the countryside. That night, after an amazing fish dinner, we went to a piazza in Florence that overlooks the city. It was stunning lit up at night.

Saturday morning, after visiting Pierina at work for a cappuccino and a pastry, Stefano, Daniela and I headed to Siena. The city is gorgeous just to stroll; windy, car-free streets that open into large, bustling piazzas. It was wonderful. After grabbing a panino each, we headed to Moneriggioni. This tiny town is simply breathtaking. Built on top of a hill, it's surrounded by a thick stone fortress that encompasses the entire town and yields a fantastic view of the rolling Tuscan hills. We got home by 4 to leave enough time for some visits to i parenti. We went to Amodio's sister's house as well as to Nonno Joe's sister's, Carmela. We also tried to go to Sesto Fiorentino to see Maria and Alberto Sanzo, but they weren't home. That night, a few of Stefano's friends came over to have homemade pizza from a brick oven. Stefano made us each a personal pizza with customized orders for toppings! And for dessert: Nutella pizza! It was delicious and a lot of fun.