This morning was a bit tough for me. I didn't take my allergy medication yesterday evening and the farm below cut the alfalfa on Wednesday and my allergies kicked in last night. I did not sleep much and it was tough for me this morning. We were afforded the chance to sleep later and eat breakfast later. I finally fell somewhat asleep at like 7am and had a class at 9:30. So, I opted to skip group breakfast which was an okay decision.
Our session this morning was with Linde Mechi and Leslie Maj who talked about Counseling for immigrant prostitutes in Italy. They provided us with a ton of information about the cultural context in which the women they work with enter into the sex trade and prostitution in Italy. It was interesting to hear about the law in terms of prostitution in Italy and the confusion with the ever changing government seats in relation to this issue. Both Linda and Leslie are wonderful advocates for women's rights and self-care. They have a plethora of knowledge about immigrant (both legal and illegal) background in reference to family expectations as well as cultural foundation of certain behaviors. It was a bit sad for me to hear about all the basic knowledge about female body and care that many of the immigrant women have no knowledge of because of the control that is held with the family.
After lunch I spent some time knitting and napping and then headed to Reggello. Reggello was a nice little town to spend the afternoon in. Claire and I got some Gelato with the small group and then decided to venture off on our own. We walked down some small streets that did not lead to where we thought but were residential. We admired the small gardens that people kept and enjoyed taking pictures of the flowers that were in full bloom. If I do say so myself, the pictures of the roses are pretty dang good. We wandered all the way down to the church that was first built in like 796 or something like that and then added on to in like 1297. It was pretty cool to see the differences in the architecture and design. The church smelled like Christmas trees and was very quiet and serene. We then walked down to the large grocery for an adventure! And what an adventure - we oogled at the sweets aisle for quite some time and then wandered all through the rest of the store. The cashier was very sweet and Claire and I were both excited when we said hello and one or two bags to her in Italian as well as thank you and goodbye. At that time, we thought that we needed to be back at the bus stop at 5:20pm to get back to Casa and it was a little after 5. SO, in our manner, we booked it up the steep hills and were a hot mess when we arrived at the stop. Much to our dissapointment and hilarity, we missed the bus, because it left at 4:50pm. SO, with some time to catch our breath, we found Christiana and a lovely little bench next to the road. We watched many little Italian women walk up the street to a little Catholic Church near the center of town. We spent the time chatting and watching evening Italian drivers. We then met up with the group coming back from the designer mall (Prada and Gucci) and hitched a ride back on their bus. Dinner was delicious and I was a huge fan of desert since it was like a chocolate eclair with thicker more tasty chocolate. I wandered into the sitting room to update my blogs after dinner and my pictures. And now, I am caught up and have shared my pictures. Many of us are sitting here knitting and I am about to go up and grab mine as well. Tomorrow we go to Greve and San Gimignano for market and wine and quaint little shops. We get to sleep later tomorrow, too, and I feel my body will be quite happy with this. Enjoy my postings and pictures and hopefully I will be back tomorrow! With amore! Ciao!
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