Italia 2011: Turning 22 in Italy!

Me on the terazza of the Rinascente

Wooooooo it's officially my birthday AND, conveniently, a national holiday in Italy. Yesterday Katie and I went to Florence, and although both my stomach and the weather seemed a bit dicey, both held out wonderfully and it was a GREAT day/night.

We did some shopping in the afternoon (I got myself some very nice presents) and then had an incredible dinner at Za Za, the restaurant where I had the truffled spaghetti carbonara last week. This time I had beef tenderloin (very very rare) with creamy green peppercorn sauce. Katie had ravioli in truffled cream sauce. Can't wait to go back there! Then we met up with some of my friends and after hanging out near Il Porcellino (statue of a boar where, if you throw in a coin, you're sure to return to Florence) we headed to my favourite lounge/bar in Florence, called Naima. Naima is awesome. You're guaranteed to make a zillion friends every time you go, also largely due to Florence's large tourist population. Last night the bathroom was definitely the place to get acquainted, as the door was broken, so you had to stand guard for the person going before you, and then you had to ask the person after you to do the same. While doing this, I became an honorary member or Gonzaga University in Washington State, and I met a slew of other awesome people. All in all, a fantastic night!

Katie and I came back early this morning and had a much-needed nap. Apparently tonight Elena and Liliana are making me birthday dinner which is really sweet. Miranda even gave me a gift yesterday! I didn't expect my birthday here to be so special :)