Upon learning that I had a three-day weekend we both decided long ago to go to t-mans parents apartment at the seaside. It has become a sort of tradition with us and last year I brought my scottish friend along for the trip. We made loads of yummy food and just relaxed while t-mans cousin and obnoxious friends awkwardly skulked around the house and ate tuna directly out of the can.

We were going to leave on Saturday morning because we were both really tired from an exhausting week; t-man  had plans and I wanted to escape my problems in chocolate fondue , we sneakily busted open one of the massive chocolate eggs  a few days early and red wine from my favorite local vino sfuso. Saturday morning rolled around and it was pouring rain the likes of a brasilian rainforest outside our window – we thought, ok lets just wait this out. Nope!  the weather was cold, damp and just not conducive to seaside travel so we stayed in Florence.

Obviously I was really disappointed because it’s been a really stressful period for me and I just wanted a chance to get away, from all techonology (yeah right) and lose myself in a few books. Thus Saturday was pretty much spent in that manner, lazy in and out of the bed, reading, food shopping and too many serious conversations. Am I the only one who thinks that being in an intercultural relationship is twice the work? but luckily I like a challenge 😉 . My fabulous friend Megan had a egg-decorating kit and despite t-mans protests to NOT take the ‘fresh white eggs’ because they shouldn’t be boiled but rather handled god-like in the manner of rare white truffles, I took them anyway and dyed them pink and attached some cheesy stickers. Luciana, t-mans mom, absolutely loved it and no one was allowed to eat the colorful egg, instead it sat upon a throne of chocolate wrapped mini-eggs for everyone to see, I really hope she put that egg in the fridge by now.

Though t-mans family doesn’t normally make a big deal of Easter, after painfully listening to a phone conversation with him and his mom on our 1965 ‘block-phone’ , I heard one too many ‘si si lo so’ hence I intervened and told him we could go to their house for lunch. Of course upon walking in the door, I smell food cooking and the table covered with fresh flowers and the finest china.

After a long long lunch, we looked at our pictures from New Orleans ( t-mans family now think the city is covered in alligators, casinos and a few sketchy voo-doo doll joints ), we took a long walk into the hills above their house which of course turned me into a crazed photographer with all the fresh flowers blossoming on the road.

These photos make me laugh, t-mans dad chasing away the angry geese that live near their house ( I have a video ‘Blair Witch’ style of us running from these evil masterminds called birds ). The other photo is Monte Giovi yesterday, we came across a farm with an Ostrich and two pigs, so very random that I had to take photographic evidence. I am actually scared of ostriches after a bad experience at a safari-like nature park. Never ever leave your window open..

So all in all, we had a pretty good weekend despite my initial grumblings about the ‘lost’ weekend at the seaside. I have to remember in these stressful times that half of it is psychological and I need to just call friends, get out more and beat my Italian man (kidding) until he ‘gets it’. Tis the life of an immigrant! 🙂