To sum up Spring break with my parents...

So where was I? The last time you left me and my parents we were going to Florence for the day. After getting sick and then getting my dad sick, we decided to move Florence to Tuesday and see Perugia and Assisi on Monday. As you read in my last post, we saw Saint Francis' basilica and crypt in Assisi and then came back to Perugia. I took my parents to Mediterranea and we had some amazing pizza and then went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness" at the converted opera house theatre. The movie was actually really good- and the pizza was amazing of course.
The next day we woke up early and caught an early train to Florence. Luckily I still had my map from the weekend I had spent there a while ago and I navigated our way around the city. We started out by going to wait in line at the Academia to see David. We waited about an hour and then saw David and several of the other works inside the Academia. After this we found a little cafe for sandwiches, pizza, and snacks and then headed toward the giant open air market. I wanted to buy dry fruit so we found the stand and I got pineapples, coconut, kiwi (so good), figs, and mangos. They are all delicious. We then shopped around all the little booths and I picked out a few odds and ends for gifts and for myself. My dad haggled with a guy for a really nice belt and wallet and my mom even got a deal on some scarves.
After the market we walked towards the Duomo and went inside. I love the Florence Duomo (Duomo is the main church for all of those who have been lost in my many past blogs), the ceiling of the dome is so amazing. The next time I go to Florence (on my art trip) I am definetely climbing up to the top of the dome because you can get really close to the fresco around the ceiling. After going inside the duomo we headed down one of the roads towards Palazzo Vecchio and window shopped (stopping in the disney store of course) and went to my favorite gelato place where we all had really good gelato- strawberry mousse and dark chocolate, mmmm! We saw the copies of famous statues (included David) outside of Palazzo Vecchio and then got in the extremely long line for The Ufizi. A note to everyone: If you plan on seeing any of these major sights and a ticket reservation is "recommended"- then you should probably get them in advance. We waited for around an hour and a half just to get inside. It was rather ridiculous and I really think they need a better system.
However, the several works inside the museum were amazing and I can't wait to go back with my art class and analyze the different paintings with my professor- hopefully it will be more informative than class... hopefully.
The weather was kind of iffy as it looked like it was going to rain, it kept dripping on and off. We headed towards Ponte Vecchio which is the bridge with all the gold stores and window shopped. Then we found a Tavolo Caldo, which means Hot Table, kind of like a cafeteria where you pick out what you want and then sit down and eat. It was really good and not too expensive considering it was Florence. We took the train home after a long day and tried to plan for the next day which was supposed to be Siena. However, my dad was still not feeling good and I was still sick so we decided that because of the gross weather and difficulty in even getting to Siena that it would be better to stay in Perugia for the day.
So on Wednesday I met my parents and we went to the national art gallery of umbria which is right here in Perugia- it was really really nice. We bought a museum hopper pass and ended up going to the etruscan well, raphael's first fresco, the merchant's guild, the exchange guild, and another smaller but still interesting art/archeology museum.
For Thursday we decided that we would go to Cortona, which is a small town just a few train stops and bus ride away. However, we had a few problems with transportation but we eventually found it. It's a beautiful town up in the hills and it was actually where Under the Tuscan Sun was written and filmed. You could see Lake Trasimeno (the lake next to Perugia) from the top of the hill and I took a lot of great pictures. We went to the Etruscan museum which was pretty cool and had a lot of archeological artifacts. We also had the most amazing lunch- I had the best gnocchi since I have been here in Italy- and we also had really good gelato in a place called Gelateria Snoopy- no I'm not joking. It was a pretty nice birthday, we came back to Perugia and had dinner at a really good restaurant that I had eaten at with the Arcadia people when we first came to Perugia. So we had dinner and then said our goodbyes because I had to head back to finish packing and go to bed to wake up bright and early for LONDON (see next blog).
(P.S. All pictures from when my parents came to visit are on my yahoo photo page)