più Italia

More on Italy:

So, Italy was great. Travelling with my parents was not as stressful as I had expected. Yes, my father got sick and wouldn't communicate what he needed, and instead laid in bed, in Italy, for three days until I told to suck it up and get out of bed. Yes, my mother, aka Speedy Gonzaléz-owitz, divided her time between tracking down obscure vestiges of long-departed Italian Jewry, and telling me I was walking too fast and jay-walking too much, whilst being the first to speed-walk into oncoming traffic. Basically, my parents are old, and require old people's comforts, like central heating, and first class train passage (which was kind posh and fun actually).

Ps. right now I am drinking out of "Styracosaure" glass. I bought this thing of mustard just to have the cool dinosaur glass it came in.

We spent three nights in Rome, six nights in Florence, 2 nights in Bologna, 2 nights at an olive farm/bed and breakfast in the Sienese hills, and then 2 more nights in Rome.

My favorite would have to be Podere La Madonna, the olive farm that a fellow Stanford grad had worked at and who set up my stay for me. Nestled in the middle of Tuscan nowhere (but European nowhere is always so much closer to somewhere than American Nowhere), the olive farm was beautiful, even in the ice-glazed winter greyness. The owners, Sergio and Graziella don't speak English really, but with my rudimentary tourist Italian and my more fluent (and always creative) Spanish and French, we had intersting conversations about gypsys and il Palio, a Siense horse race/yearly riot. They were amazingly nice people, and the food was OUT OF CONTROL good. I ate steak, pasta pomodoro, wild boar, fresh fennel, homemade pizza, apple tarts, tagliatelle, proscuitto, homemade salami, and special reserve pecorino, all slathered at will with emerald green sharply fruity fresh olive oil and local Chianti that was woozy and beautiful, as easy to drink as water, but evidentally so much better.

I had the privilege of seeing fantastic works of art/wonder that I would have never dreamed of seeing in my life. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Sistine Chapel, at St. Peter's Square, the Coliseum, Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," Michaelangelo's "David." All these are incredibly touristy, yes, but at the same time, they were impressive, and some (like the Leaning Tower) almost magical.

Italy is the perfect place to be bankrolled by your parents, and I had a great time and the food was fantastic. Check my auxiliary blog lefrenchpenthouse.blogspot.com in the coming week(s) for a list of gastronomical highlights.