Parents, Pasta, Prosecco, and Pizza.

So, I've spent the last 9 days with my PARENTS!! It was an amazing, beautiful, painful, surprising, and fulfilling 9 days.

First, I really surprised myself with my reaction to their arrival. I'd been anticipating my parents' visit for  literally 3 months when they got to Copenhagen last Friday. I, of course, prepared myself to be excited, thrilled to see them, happy to share my temporary city with them, and ready for a good dose of loving. What I failed to prepare myself for, though, was how hard it would be for me to have a little "slice of home". I'm here to tell you (mom, that one was for you) that having that little reminder of home prompted this bizarre realization of what I'm missing in America. So, already as soon as they got here, I was this weird bundle of conflicting emotions that I didn't know how to handle.

We spent the first weekend together exploring Copenhagen. They experienced the bizarre food of this city, their passion for beer, and the crazy language. We took a Canal Tour around the city's canals and the (admittedly disappointing but world-famous) Hans Christian Andersen Little Mermaid statue, we visited the Amalienborg Palace, saw Nyhavn, Christiania, and drank a lot of Prosecco in our hygge hotel. What struck my parents most, not surprisingly, was the weather in Copenhagen. Most people think I exaggerate the cold, rain, and the darkness here. I finally have people who can vouch for me now!! They witnessed the winds on the canal and how they can make 40 degrees feel like 25. They saw that CPH rarely goes a full day without rain and often goes days without prolonged sunshine. While of course I wish they got to see sunny Copenhagen, since it's magic increases by about 1000%, I'm definitely glad they saw I'm not crazy and actually do deal with the sun setting at 3:30pm every day.

Nyhavn

Our hygge hotel!

On Saturday night, we were all out to dinner and Bri tagged along. Bri planned to stay in Copenhagen throughout the travel break. During dinner, though, my Dad blurted out, "Bri, why don't you come to Italy with us!?" Of course at first we didn't take him seriously. But... long story short, by late Saturday night we had booked plane tickets and Bri was Italy-bound with us!! In hindsight, I'm so grateful that she came along. It was the perfect reminder that I do love it here in Copenhagen and will be totally fine for the rest of the semester after my parents leave.

We also took a day trip to Malmo, Sweden on Sunday. The city is ADORABLE. It was a really beautiful day. 

On Monday, we made our way to Italy. My Dad speaks fluent Italian (a HUGE plus) so to say he was excited is a massive understatement. We flew into Rome and drove directly to Perugia, (not before waiting three hours to collect our checked baggage because of an airport employee strike). Perugia is in the country a few hours North of Rome and is totally stunning. We stayed in the most amazing hotel: It is an authentic 13th century medieval castle that has been transformed into a modern hotel. It is breathtaking. The amazing views from the castle are below.

Perugia is actually famous for its chocolate, so naturally, we toured its massive chocolate factory. We got free samples and an incredible tour of the factory that produces the famous Baci (which means kisses in Italian) chocolates among other things. It was one of the highlights of the trip.

In the countryside, we also stopped in the towns of Deruta (famous for its ceramics) and Assisi. They are both gorgeous. Deruta is a sleepy little town with lots of charm and Assisi is on a hill featuring the world-famous Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi

Deruta

On the road to Assisi

Assisi

We arrived in Rome on Tuesday evening and checked into the Hotel Villa San Pio. I will take this moment to mention that while in Italy, we drank an absurd amount of Prosecco and ate an incredible amount of the best food I've had in my life. I took an embarrassing amount of photos of the food and cappuccino  as did everyone else, and ate myself into oblivion. I'll leave it at that.

Wednesday, we had the chance to see Il Papa (the Pope) speak at his weekly address to the public. He's surprisingly small and frail (although, I shouldn't be surprised since he IS 82 years old). He spoke about St. Augustine and Veritas, Unitas, Caritas nearly the entire time, perfect for us Villanovans. Unfortunately, he spoke in Italian. Thanks to Dad for translating.

We spent our days in Italy seeing the sites (Again, since we have already seen most of them in past visits), spending time with our good family friends, eating great food (I had shrimp almost every single day), drinking good wine, and enjoying each others' company. We took the amazing Scavi tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica, saw the colosseum, Spanish Steps, saw a mediocre opera, explored Piazza Navona, Campo Di Fiori, sampled limoncellos, and explored the city. The Tiber river was at the highest levels it has ever reached and hit a pretty destructive point, so we got to witness that craziness. Also, Italy is in a massive financial depression and we were a party to widespread strikes.

Our fish!!

The highlight of the trip for me was on the last day before we left. Mom, Dad, me, Bri, our friend Beth, and her two friends ventured into the countryside to the equivalent of an Italian "country club" to learn how to make fresh pizza and focaccia. It was an INCREDIBLE day.

We learned to make the dough, used a brick oven, combined amazing fresh ingredients, and spent the day laughing with each other on this beautiful piece of land. We had a wonderful time and it was my favorite part of the whole trip.

Olive Tree

On Saturday, we all said a teary goodbye at the airport before going our separate ways. It's not too long now before I go home to spend the winter in our new home in Northport, but I'll miss my parents until then and I'm so grateful for all the technology that lets me talk to them every day.

I'm here to tell ya,

my parents are the most amazing parents in the whole universe. Everyone says that, but obviously I'm the only one who is actually right. Though I was strangely emotional, sometimes distant, and not always able to be totally happy-go-lucky to be with them this past week, they are just so awesome. They saw that I was having a weird reaction to their arrival and did not hesitate to invite one of my best friends to spend our vacation with us, knowing it would help me. They were absurdly generous throughout the week, both to me and Bri, and they did everything they could to make sure we had a happy, exciting, amazing vacation. So Mom and Dad, THANK YOU. I couldn't have asked for a better week. Love you so much and can't wait to see you next month!!