DAY 57 - Firenze LAST day /Vicenza FIRST day

May 15 - Travel Day AGAIN!

We began the morning by meeting Emily Crowley, a previous Vocal student of mine in Idaho Falls for breakfast.  She is going to NYU and had a semester abroad in Florence.  It was her last day there, so we were lucky to meet up with each other.

Emily really has the "speaking with her hands" technique down

LOVE this girl!

Girls from Idaho Falls - Here we are in Firenze, Italy

 Right before we left for Europe, we found out from Emily's mom that her family had 'Couillards' in their genealogy.  I met with her and after looking over her family history records, it turns out that Rich and Emily have the same great-great-great-great-great......grandfather!  He was commissioned by some high politician to go from Paris to Quebec and settle the area there.  So Louis Hebert (who had an apothecary near the Louvre in Paris sent his son off to Canada.  Hence...the French Canadians!  Guillame Couillard became famous and now there stands in the square in a city in Quebec - his statue.  Emily and Rich are both grandchildren of his.  Isn't that exciting????  (We determined that they have the same forehead)

All 3 of us in front of Emily's favorite coffee shop in Firenze

Off to Santa Maria Novella...  It.is a church in Florence, Italy, situated just across from the main railway station which shares its name. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.

Santa Maria Novella

 There is always little candles in these Catholic churches to light and to put somewhere in the foyer area.  A prayer is given as well.

  Especially famous are frescoes by masters of Gothic and early Renaissance. They were financed through the generosity of the most important Florentine families, who ensured themselves of funerary chapels on consecrated ground.

 I went downstairs to the little museum of artifacts and enjoyed more relics and ruins - just can't get enough!

Not a great photo,(you couldn't get closer), but in the shadow boxes were the heads of some Saints - pretty creepy!

We made our way to the train station for our journey to Vicenza.

Just had to catch a photo of this cute horse drawing a buggy.

Our next host was Teresa and her son and daughter, ages 23 and 25.  They had a wonderful meal prepared for us.

Pasta with argula

 There was 7 of us around the table with Mick and Sylvia's boyfriend and girlfriend, too.  The meal was delicious with asiago and montasio cheese and note the fresh mozarella cheese.  Fresh strawberries for dessert.  We were in Heaven!

They taught us about "Scarpetta" which means little shoes.  You take the bread and scrape up all the pasta sauce at the end of the meal.  I think our daddy (from Kansas) did this, too.  He never wasted a morsel of food and always ate his meal with a piece of bread in his left hand to scoop up the food.

  Brock, originally from Idaho Falls and the guy who got us interested in couch surfing, had told us about this amazing family, so we were lucky to spend a few days with them in their lovely city of Vicenza.  Meet them in our next post!