Settimana prima di Pasqua

All of our students were on their Easter break last week for “Settimana Santa” (holy week, before Easter) and so we hardly worked any hours. I am sure we will be complaining when we get paid, but we weren’t complaining having the free time, away from our restless students. Sean’s sister, Tiffany, and her boyfriend were visiting. The weather was amazingly warm, and sunny and we really enjoyed their company. Playing tour guides for a few days made us re-realize how incredible this city really is, and how proud we are to call it home.

Sean and I went to Firenze last weekend for literally 24 hours. It was really nice to get out of Rome for a bit and be someplace totally different. Florence is a beautiful city. It was Sean’s first time going, but my second, so I vowed not to take any photos to add to the 2000 I took on my last journey...except for photos of us of course. We arrived in the evening, and were feeling groggy from the train ride, which wasn’t so fast, since we opted for the low-priced train option that stops every 5 minutes. I had a caffé macchiato which is just shot of espresso and a drop of latte, and was ready to go. I was full of energy and dragged Sean to all the sites that I remembered. We walked the whole city in the evening since it is small enough, and it was just as I remembered - romantic, with a dream-like energy that comes from the small city tucked away in the Tuscan countryside. We even managed to go out and experience the nightlife at the popular Santa Croce, ending the night with some Italian karaoke. When we checked into our “quaint” hotel, the cutest, old Italian man, who reminded me of Giupetto from Pinocchio, greeted us. He spoke only Italian, and when we took out our American passports, he told us how impressed he was that we spoke Italian, since Americans can NEVER speak Italian. He called me out on being Italo-Americana because of my name and started having a conversation with me on where my family was from, where I was born and general information like that. Sean held his breath as I answered all his questions perfectly. The next day, we woke up bright and early and toured the city again. It was hot and bright in every piazza, and I got in some shopping (new, black, leather hand-bag!) We headed back to Rome on a 4-hour train ride, again, that stopped every 5 minutes. We were exhausted and ended up sleeping through Easter Sunday, besides waking up to watch mass on TV and eat chocolate bacci.