An end and a beginning....

Friday, November 29th.... 
Sooooo, we looked everywhere for a Thanksgiving dinner but nothing materialized.... boohoo.   I thought because we're staying at a Courtyard Hotel there might be some inkling to fix something for we, gringos, staying here.  After all, it is an American chain.  Well, we resorted to a very very fine dinner:  appetizer was a melange of all kinds of clams and mussels, big and small, cooked to perfection, yummy, yummy, yummy, lots of crusty bread to go along.   Entree:  Paco had a seafood stew with spinach and red potatoes that had everything that swims in water, including MORE clams (no complaint there) and I had the most buttery filet mignon (hadn't had beef since I got here on October 16th, no chicken either....) slathered with creamy chestnut sauce (divine!) sitting on incredible mashed potatoes (and with that cream.... ayayay!) and roasted asparagus.  We had my favorite dessert, you know it by now:  pannacotta with fresh fruit, mostly berries, and a sort of fruity glaze strewn about the plate.  I can tell you one thing:  these Italians know how to live and that shows in everything they do... even when they argue.   Every presentation was absolutely awesome, the way things are on the plate, the forms of all the different plates, and so on and so forth.  No Thanksgiving dinner, but a memorable dinner indeed.   And, it was going-away dinner for my friend Paco.
A little while ago, I came back from taking him to the airport to return to San Diego, and WORK!   Yippee for retirement when EVERYDAY IS SATURDAY, verdad Ramon?  It was a tough morning because we had to be at the airport at 4:00 am!  I made a good decision  to book us at this hotel 5-6 minutes away.  So, I stayed with him till he went through security and I came back.  I felt very vulnerable because I am now, really, on my own.   However, knowing that I am in a safe place for the next two days is comforting to me, and I don't plan on going anywhere, except to walk around to keep up the good work. 
On Monday, I will go to Florence to settle in and, hopefully, live like a local.  The same gentleman that owns the Hotel David where I have stayed before (where they have that unbelievable breakfast buffet every morning, and Happy Hour every afternoon) is the owner of the apartment.  So, he is letting me have hotel amenities, like the breakfast, the HH, and a 10-minute phone call every day to wherever in the world you want to call just about.   So, even though it's a 1.5 kilometer walk each way.... hey, that's 6 km I will be walking every day!   Pretty good for this spunky ol'chick!  Plus, it's a wonderful to socialize and meet people from all over the world.  It's a very friendly, casual, family-type atmosphere, but I am kind of glad they are mostly adults, except for a teenager with parents, etc....   I rather like it like that.
I'm going to be looking for a language school or an Italian-for-English friend, hopefully both.  And, there is a newspaper published for Americans who live/study in Florence with several activities that interest me, like a yoga or a Jazzercise class.   
So, and end to one phase of this adventure, and a beginning for the next phase.