Winding down...and very sad about it!

So yes, I am leaving in 3 days...boo
But I am cramming in as much as possible in these last few days!
Monday I went to the Baptistery and San Lorenzo. Both were quite impressive and I really loved them! I took pictures, but havent uploaded because I give up on uploading them before I leave...maybe when I get home! The Baptistery is across from the Duomo and is a huge building that has an intricate domed mosaic ceiling. It is absolutely beautiful! I really wanted to just lay on the ground to look at it for a while, but I restrained myself.
Yesterday I went to the Uffizi, which is one of the most amazing art museums in the world! It houses hundreds and hundreds of important Renaissance art and several famous masterpieces. I saw Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" and "Primavera" and work by Da'Vinci, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt's self portraits (I thought those were really cool) and so many others! I bought a book so I will be able to show you all my favorites and tell more about them and the artist! My favorite painting was called "Madonna with the Long Neck." haha It was beautiful, but it was mainly my favorite because of the name! And she did have a pretty long neck. I spent a solid 2 hours there by myself just wandering around and finding famous paintings. I felt like a total tourist because I had one of my handy Frommer's Florence guidebooks (thanks Mom) that outlined each room and told me where to look and everything! It was pretty fun.
Oh and by the way, Florence has suddenly, this week, decided it was summer! It has been soooo hot!! I have definately found a new appreciation for air conditioning in the States, because I haven't slept in the past 3 nights because it is so hot in our apartment! And just walking around during the day is so exhausting and I get so hot and sweaty, it is pretty gross! haha I come home and just rinse off with freezing cold water, then Beth and I lay on the cold tile floor in our room to try and cool down...I am really glad it hasn't been like this the entire time though! I think I would be much more ready to leave if the heat had been so intense the whole time!
Yesterday afternoon in my cooking class we made my favorite meal so far! We made our own fresh egg pasta! I'm talking flour, eggs, kneading for 20 minutes, rolling pin until its super thin- homemade pasta!! We made ravioli with our own spincach and ricotta stuffing. It was so fun! And also DELICIOUS!! We also made a tasty ragù meat sauce and a cream custard for dessert. We all felt like accomplished chefs after our hard work! Stefano also told us that for our final we needed to make a menu and give him the ingredients because we will just be cooking a meal with no help from him! So we chose our menu and are all pretty excited about it. I love that class.
OK I am off to lunch at one of our favorites, Trattoria Mario. It is only open for 2 hours for lunch everyday. It is run by about 3 generations of family that are all avid soccer fans. The mom/waitress knows us now because we have been so often and usually just brings us our favorite pasta! It is so wonderful too! And we always just laugh at the tourists who get confused about what to do. There is one menu handwritten that is posted by the kitchen, everyone just grabs a seat where there is an available spot so people share tables with strangers and everyone just kind of orders whenever the mom feels like taking your order! It is great!!
Ciao!