Still Sunday night

My friend (and Flagstaff neighbor) Trudy is flying in on the 31st--same flight from JFK, and we will travel together until Jan 17 when we return home via Rome and Atlanta. I hope she doesn't have the same delay I had... I will track her flight on line, as I am taking the train to Pisa to meet her at the airport. Trudy made a reservation with a woman who she rented an apartment from the last time she was in Florence... I am going to check in on the 30th, and am really looking forward to that. This hotel has little ambience--the coffee isn't even espresso, and when I asked the proprietor about it this morning, asking for espresso con latte, not coffee con latte, he said espresso is a problem, and brought me coffee... how espresso can ever be a problem in Italy (except when you can't get some) is beyond me. Luckily there is a bar or cafe at about every third or fourth doorway in this city, so once I go out to brave the cold I make up for his miserly coffee...

A few years ago there was a cover/feature article with recipes in Saveur magazine, titled New Years in Florence (or something like that) and it featured a trattoria that is run by an italian chef and his canadian wife--reading the article I could just see and taste and feel the wonderful food and conviviality... I made the biscotti, and saved the magazine... so yesterday at about 19:30 I walked to Trattoria Garga and made a reservation (un prenatazione) for Trudy and me for 21:00 on New Years! I guarantee that there will be no jet lag for Trudy--she'll stay up all day, celebrate New Years' in Fiorentine style, and will wake the next day ready to see the sights!
buona notte!