Veni, Vedi, Vici...

Back in Florence, it was then that I decided that I was ready to move on from Italy. I love it here, really I do, but I needed to go to greener pastures. What better for greener pastures than Ireland. Ryanair had nutso cheap flights into Dublin, and I figured that I could catch up with my return flight home in London on the 13th. So I found an internet cafe and made some arrangements for Ireland. I arrive there on the 8th, spend 4 and a half days there and then stop in London for one night before returning home. I can't believe that vacation is almost over... sniff sniff sniff.

After that, I went over to the Duomo to take a look at the Cathredral. It is one of the oldest churches in Italy, so I figured I should pay homage, not to mention that it is free which is always in my price range. I found my way to the bus station where I took a trip out to Greve in Tuscany and met up with a driver who took me to the D'Mari family for Italian cooking lessons. This family is wonderful and so welcoming with a hospitality that makes you feel as if you are home.

I had a delicious dinner with Simonetta, her sister Paola, Paola's husband and two children, and papa Luigi. Other than Simonetta and Paola, the rest of the family does not speak much English so it has given me a chance to brush up on some more Italian. When I get home, I definitely want to spend more time learning languages. For dinner, we had pasta with pesto, a savory bread made with parmasan and ricotta (for which I asked the recipe for - it was amazing), some crostini with a cheese that I never had before (scacione). It was a soft spreadable cheese that they added chives to and put on a fresh baguette style of bread. Then we had home made gelato for dessert. It was topped with a cherry, but not a marschino cherry, it was fresher and in a syrup and was sweet, but not overly so. I gained another 10 lbs just writing about it.

^k