August 6, 2013: Guardaaaaaaah!

First time I've heard an Italian say a word, and it reminded me of the Boston accent. I'll start this story at the end. Tonight, Pam and I decided to eat a late dinner. We ended up at Osteria Santo Spirito, the same restaurant that I took Mike to in the beginning (with the amazing gnocchi!) and where I took Madelyn to the night I found out about the job opening. We had a delicious dinner, which ended with the most annoying street magician coming up to the restaurant, chanting "guarda! guarda!" over and over again. This translates to "see" or "watch." He was super annoying and loud, and it actually cleared some of us out of the restaurant. Oh well...just a man doing his...job.

Today was a lazy day. I think I'm officially all shopped out. I have finished up my shopping for people, and I've had a lot of fun doing so. I walked through San Lorenzo and didn't even have one urge to buy anything for myself, which is a sign that this vacation was productive! I'm happy to be coming home and sharing a piece of Italy with my loved ones.

I took some pictures around town, and otherwise, I just walked and let the city guide me wherever I was going. I ended up on the other side of the river, and passed by the same shop with the sleeping dog from yesterday. He was in the same spot, sound asleep! The sun was really hot today, so seeing him made me walk back to my place, where I proceeded to take a three hour nap. After the nap was dinner, so you've just read a blog post about a "day of nothing" in Florence.

It was really nice to just be able to Facebook Pam today and say, "Let's go get a drink! Meet in Piazza Signoria?" What a blessing to be able to casually make dinner plans in Florence on the spot.

Tomorrow is my last outing of the vacation. I'm going on a wine tasting tour of Chianti, where we will be eating lunch in a medieval castle and visiting the town of San Gimgnano. Excited!

Your mouth will water while watching this video!