Florence

I took a petit séjour, as the French say, this weekend in Florence, one of my favorite Italian cities. I love it's charm, it's people, and of course, it's gelato !
But the trip to get there was a bit of a fiasco. I arrived at the airport with my ticket already printed out and ready to go. Nice and easy getting from my work in the lower 14th to Orly airport. Well, I had some time to kill before I had to go through security, so I bum around the airport. Sitting down at a café I realize that my boarding pass says "Pisa to Paris Orly"...Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right...Merde! I've printed out the wrong boarding pass! C'est pas vrai! I go tearing through the airport with my purse and suitcase in hand and skid my way across the hall to the Check-in for EasyJet. Check-in closed, but the lady must have taken pity on my blotchy and desperate face so she takes a look and prints me out the right boarding pass. I then have about 2.67 minutes to get through security before my gate closes - so once again I go teetering and skidding across the airport in my high heels, with a suitcase in tow. I run into 2 or 3 people, shouting "Désolée!!!!" over my shoulder. I shamelessly cut the entire security line and push someone's stuff off the belt to get mine through. Whew. Ok Im in and unless I trip and die between this point and the gate, I won't miss my flight. But of course they want to do a random check. Someone searches (thoroughly, I might add) through my suitcase, and as I pick it up to leave and run to catch my flight, I quickly realize that it hadn't been zipped shut and allllllllllll my stuff goes, literally, flying across the floor. I'm talkin' underwear, tampons, socks, shirts, my Converses are flung across half the airport. And of course the entire security line witnesses it. So like a homeless old lady, I pick up my stuff in piles and dump it into my suitcase, sans folding or anything. But I make the flight so, whatever.

Florence is lovely - Kelly and I meet up on Friday night ( I had to wander around for an hour or so looking for an internet café cuz, like a dum dum, I forgot to write down her number) for drinks at an American bar right near the Duomo. I can't stop thinking about Lillian!!! Her name is everywhere in this city and it makes me miss her like c-r-a-z-y. This is her city and it made me so sad and nostalgic that she wasn't there. It's almost like she belongs there more than Boston. But it's good to know that Florence isn't going anywhere and she always has the option of moving back.
We make some fun basketball-playing American guy friends, go dancing until 4 am and then sit in a circle in Piazza Signoria singing "Akuna Matata" and other classic Disney tunes until well past 7 am. As soon as we sat down in the giant, but empty square, I remember thinking to myself "This is gonna be a good night."

On Saturday, after sleeping most of the day, Matteo and I meet up in Piazza Signoria and he treats to an extra-large gelato (my breakfast and lunch for the day) We have a little walk around the city centre, enjoying the little streets and certainly catching up on the months since we've seen each other. We even pop into Il Mondo di Heidi to see Heidi is soooooooo pregnant! She's huge! And due in a few weeks with a little girl :) I gave her a hug and kiss for Lillian
Matteo and I have a little aperitivo and red wine across from Oibò, and laugh about old stories from last summer. I can't wait for when he visits us for a month this summer!!!

On Sunday, we take a