Mom and Dad and Snow-magedon

Wow. I am far behind! All the kids left about a week ago. Fortunately, I refrained from any embarrassing emotional outbursts at the farewell dinner. I am very sad to see them go but know we will keep in touch.

The next day Mom and Dad arrived. We spent the next week running around Tuscany and visiting all the B museums in Florence. We went to Fiesole (where we had a lovely lunch and I met a friendly kitty) and Pisa where we all finally got to see the Leaning Tower. We made some pretty horrible attempts to take those tourist pictures where it looks like you are holding the tower up or pushing it over and failed miserably. We did, however, successfully make it into the Basilica which was absolutely stunning.

Back in Florence, we hit The Galileo Museum (saw Galileo's finger, thumb and tooth as well as crazy gynecological wax models and Michelangelo's compass set), Piazzale Michelangelo (for the view and San Miniato Basilica), The Medici Palace, San Lorenzo Basilica (and market), Palazzo Pitti (Caravaggio Exhibit), Palazzo Vecchio (traveling Damien Hirst exhibit of human skull encrusted in diamonds in amongst the preserved rooms of the palace), the Duomo, Santa Croce, The Strozzi (Bronzino Exhibit)..... I think that's everything! We also visited all the main sights -- the Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Signoria, etc. Needless to say, we did A LOT! I'm surprised Mom and Dad are still alive. We also managed to fit in a few really great meals. We ate at this place called Giostra that I have heard a lot of great things about. Turned out to be mind-blowing!

Mom and Dad also smuggled some American items into the country for me which I endlessly appreciate. My pantry is now fully stocked with velveeta (how else am I supposed to make casserole and grilled cheese? This country refuses to sell yellow cheese of any kind - unfair!) marshmallows, and ramen noodle soup! They also brought a new camera! Yeah! I can finally take pictures again!

On December 17th, Florence was inundated with an insane amount of snow. Coincidentally, is was Friday the 17th which is Italy's version of Friday the 13th -- a very unlucky day. I'm not totally sure how much snow we got but it was some where around 6-10 inches based on the layer of snow on the top of my building. It was absolutely beautiful but sent the city (and the rest of Tuscany and Italy in general) into a tailspin. While snow isn't terribly uncommon, the amount of snow and the fact that it came down so fast proved to be really troublesome for transit. The entire country is stranded now because the main highway between north and south is now a treacherous mix of ice and snow. Trains are also unable to run. All flights were cancelled until Monday. None of the streets in the historic district can be plowed because they are all made of brick. It's a mess. Needless, to say I was happy and comfortable to watch it all out my window with a mug of cocoa and my book. Thank goodness, Mom and Dad got out when they did and I hadn't booked any travel. The video was taken in the early morning just as it started to really snow. The photo was taken at about 9 at night with out any flash -- notice that it looks like dusk even though the sun set about 4 hours before this was taken. The white out of the snow and the cloud cover kept in all the city lights. You can see on the little roof in the foreground how much snow we got!

Well, yesterday my luck ran out because I woke up to find that my heater is no longer working. The heater both runs the radiators (my only source of heat) and the hot water for the apartment. I had a little bit of a breakdown but then pulled myself together and called my landlord. Unfortunately, he doesn't really speak English but he handed me off to someone else. He is currently stuck in Rome, unable to get back to Florence because of the weather -- which is beautiful now, but cold. He finally arranged for someone to come out -- apparently, finding someone to come on a Saturday is extremely difficult. I then waited for 8 hours for the guy to show up -- without heat, plus I'm filthy and need a shower.

The guy comes (He only speaks Italian and is enraged that I don't - he is also missing a finger which is always intriguing) and starts man-handling the machine. There is pounding and lights flickering. Then suddenly a loud bang and copious amounts of smoke. He opened the window to let out the smoke, but then left it open for an hour while he continued to tinker with the dead machine, which was awesome. At that point, from what I gather, the heater is dead and it will cost 400 Euro to fix. Plus he can't do it until Monday. Awesome. So no heat and no hot water for another 48 hrs. Obviously, my landlord will pay me back for the repairs but the no heat thing is pretty crazy. This morning it was 8 degrees Celsius in my house. That's like 45 degrees or something. Plus it's below freezing outside.

This morning I bathed in the sink. I turned on the oven and opened the door to let the kitchen heat up a little so I could take my shirt off. I heated up water on the stove and wet my hair with it over the sink, then shampooed and washed my face, etc. Then I heated up more water and poured it into the bedit, for other washing. It's almost like camping! All I have to say is thank goodness for all that contraband US food and sweaters my parents brought me last week. I would have starved as well as frozen to death. I would like to take this time to thank them and also thank the lord I still have electricity so I can plug in my little heating pad and use the oven to heat up the room a little bit.

So here I am, at the library, sucking up all the heat I can. I'm trying to post more pictures but the internet is being wacky. More soon.