Thanksgiving in Florence!

This past week my friends and I decided to celebrate thanksgiving here in Florence with a delicious home cooked feast! We all brought our food over to Abby, Marty, and Alyssa’s apartment and had a great time. My roommate and I were in charge of cheesy garlic mashed potatoes and apple crumble for dessert and they came out amazing; mom would have been proud. By the time we got there they had matzo ball soup, 3 roasted chickens, string beans, corn, stovetop stuffing, meatballs, and cheesecake with strawberries all set up and we dived right in. I love Thanksgiving. It was a little sad not getting to be with our families, but being surrounded by delicious food and close friends definitely made for a fun and filling night. Best part: Leftovers!

On Saturday I hopped on a train to Pistoia and got to walk around and do some exploring. After checking out a really nice museum and a bunch of churches for art, my friend Chris and I headed to the nearest trattoria for some incredible lasagna and gelato afterwards. By the time we got back to Florence it was dark out and all the streets had been lit up for Christmas.

There are beautiful lights strung across the roads, Christmas trees in the store windows, and one big Christmas tree is being set up right next to Il Duomo—can’t wait for it to light up! It’s definitely been getting a bit colder out these past few days here in Florence, but the city is more beautiful than ever and the streets are always crowded with families walking around in their winter gear. More motivation to go out and buy a jacket and some boots! Of course, now that our Italian class has ended we’ve all been grabbing quite a few extra hours of sleep in the mornings…

We’re really in the final stretch of our trip—not even 3 weeks left before we fly home! Luckily we’re taking advantage of the time we have left and are squeezing in some last minute travel plans. This upcoming week my friends Andrea and Christina and I are taking a 4 day trip to Morocco, Africa and I’m SO excited. Then almost as soon as we get back from that we’re getting right back on a plane to Paris and staying there for a while to explore and admire the city. With traveling, school finals, and running around Florence getting last minute Christmas shopping done it’ll be a busy last few days here!

Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to see you all!