La Mia Famiglia

I apologize that I have not written anything in the past week and a half to two weeks. I have been incredibly busy with last minute activities, and sucking up the last bit of my life here in Italy. With that being said, this blog post is going to be a bit out of order (still need to write about Prague and my last couple weeks of school), but its super important and really exciting so I hope you will let it slide!

Wednesday morning my family arrived in Torino for what is the start or our two week journey around Italy. I had not seen them but through Skype for over 8 months and to be honest it was a tad bit weird when I first saw them. It was sad that they were as tired as they were because they could only last for about 5 hours in Torino, but in that time I was able to show them around the heart of the city and take them to all of my favorite places in the city that were open.

Picking the family up from the bus stop.

We had lunch at what potentially became my favorite place to eat in Torino; a panini shop named I Love Panino. In the last 3 1/2 months that they have been opened I ate there a lot (I was actually their first ever customer) and I have my own panini there! I also took them on a nice 3 hour tour of the city. We stopped off at all of the main piazzas and buildings in the city as well as my favorite gelatoria and visited the river Po. It was nice to show them the city that I had lived in for 9 months in person rather than just through photos or behind me in Skype.

Myself and Claudia and Max.

Showing the family around Torino (Piazza Castello)

Eating at my favorite Gelateria in Torino one last time!

It was a huge teaser to have them show up for 5 hours because after that they left for Milano to go to Venice the next day. I on the other hand had to stay back in Torino to complete my last couple of exams for school. We ended up meeting back up Saturday in Deiva Marina (a small beach town west of the Cinque Terre).

We happened to find out that from Saturday night at 9pm to Sunday night at 9pm there was going to be a train strike and for me it was in some ways a comical way of introducing them to Italy! Either way we managed to get some time in at the Cinque Terre, and made our way to Florence today. I will be going back through once I get back to America to actually blog about these separately, but I just wanted to give a quick update on what all has been going on!

The family in the Cinque Terre

Mom and Dad enjoying themselves!

Boats in dry dock in Manarola.

Aunt Gail and I both on the walk of love... lonely and wishing our better halves were with us!!!

Today we spent the day traveling between the Cinque Terre and Florence, but we were lucky enough to be able to stop off in Pisa and have a look around at the leaning tower as well as the Duomo and baptismal house! Before I had gone to Pisa I had heard a lot of mixed reviews; "stay for 1 hour, take that classic tourist photo and go home." or "Pisa is really cool. You can hang out on the lawn and just soak up the sun and people watch." I must say that it was more like the second to me. I really enjoyed the time we spent there, and in fact after we left I could have spent another 2 or so hours more!

Sibling fun with the tower!

On top of the tower.

The angle on the first floor looking out towards the Cathedral.

I will be writing another blog post when I get a chance. Right now it is 12.17am and tomorrow we have a tour starting at 9am from our hotel. We are going to do a private tour of the Tuscany countryside as well as a vineyard.