Essere o non essere

...First to translate that one gets an extra postcard from yours truly. :-)

This is a villa in Lucca...bellisima!

Allora, siamo avere una volta fabulosa. We are having a wonderful time. We are both pretty convinced that we could live quite comfortably in Florence. This city is amazing. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by fellow believers who have really taken us in under their wing and have done a fabulous job of making us feel welcome, comfortable and protected in this city. We have had a couple of little mishaps here and there...a psychological scare thinking we were being kidnapped by a bus driver, proposed to by some Africans and wandering around exhausted and disoriented in the center of Florence for over an hour last night. But, we are safe and sound and still enjoying this city immensely.

I have never been anywhere that felt so much like a home away from home as it does here. It is also incredible knowing that half my heritage is in this country. And, to top everything off, my Italian is improving every day. People are beginning to respond to me in Italian, which is a huge complement but also problematic as my comprehension is still really that of a third grader :-) But we're managing, and Italians really do use huge gestures to illustrate their conversations, so that certainly helps two unilingual girls like us.

Oh, and what would an update be without speaking of the Italian men. (lol) What can I say? They love their music, their wine and their women. We've had men yell out things like "Belle!" (most common), "Barbie!", "What's Up?!", "Bon jour" (very funny...this was yelled to us when we didn't respond to the 'what's up'), and today, one man yelled from his shop, "I Love you!" Rachael and I walked past and burst out laughing. We certainly weren't helping the guys by wearing bright pink tank tops...not planned, so we stuck out among a sea of less florescent colors.

We're having a great time. Can't say it enough. Davide has teased us that we are going to have boyfriends in every port. We've had a couple of offers. Rachael got her hair done today by a man named Jon Luca. Oh my gosh, if there ever was your typical Italian lover, this was your man. We were laughing so hard at his never subtle overtures. I'm not kidding when I say that every single thing out of this man's mouth was some type of innuendo. We envisioned some type of Herbal Essence commercial happening in his mind when he was cutting her hair. I've never laughed so hard as I have here.

We have yet to try good Italian wine. That's next on our list. We have had amazing cappuccinos, gelatto (this stuff is from heaven), and after dinner liquer (Italians use it to help digest their Sunday lunch, which took four hours at Davide's house).

Here are some more photos for your viewing pleasure....(click on the link)

This is Rachael and I on the River Arno. It's so beautiful.

This is that other bust that we developed a slight crush on. The sculptures and artwork in this city are unparalled. And that's an empirical statement...Florence is really the art capital of the world.