What were you grateful for this week? 

My extended host family. I got to spend a lot of time with the grandma this past week and it was awesome!

What was the most difficult or challenging part of this week?
[My host mom] was out of town so the only person that spoke english was nonna who speaks VERY little english. it was very hard to communicate this week without [my host mom] there but google translate was so helpful!

Tell us about a “wow” moment you had this week.
Cleaned the kitchen and helped with chores!

Tell us about your week! 
This week was a relaxed one. Gallarate is finally starting to feel like home. I am finally feeling familiar and can get myself around the town without depending on a map! It’s nice to feel comfortable here and confident walking around. 

We went to dinner at McDonalds one night and I could not get over how fancy it was! So not like McDonalds at home in the States. They told me the beef and bacon I had on my burger had been imported from Tuscany earlier that day! It’s funny how different things are here in Italy. 

This weekend, H and I went to Florence and it was beautiful! We love to take our time walking around and exploring in each new city. We hit all the major tourist spots and then some! We walked up to this gorgeous overlook and enjoyed the beautiful view of the city! Visited museums and saw the Michaelangelos David. As always we had too much gelato and ate great food, had the best pizza EVER at Gusta Pizza. it was AMAZING. It was a fun weekend in Florence!! 

Everything in Italy is so close it’s so easy to take the train and make all these weekend trips each week and we are able to fit in so much!! It’s been amazing.