reflections from a week in florence, via mama gianna's apartment.

yes, yes, morgan's host mother's name is gianna. gianna bini, to be exact, a retired art-history teacher. this old widow is a devout catholic who loves to drink, chain-smoke, and go out and hit the bar > go to church. she is absolutely delightful. actually, delightful doesn't even begin to cover it, really. within the first five minutes of morgan's arrival, she is offered an alcoholic beverage, a cigarette, and a lot of cheese. you think i am exaggerating? she is the EPITOME of italian mothering, complete with force feeding, an incredible vocabulary of curse words in EVERY language, and an air that says 'shut the hell up, not only do i do what i want, but YOU'LL do what i want'. she definitely wears the pants in any relationship...except maybe other italian mothers, in which morgan would like to see her duel, because morgan has the upmost confidence that mama gianna is the fiercest, most badass woman around, and she would cut a bitch faster than fitty. in fact, she'd probably cut fitty himself, but then feel such remorse that she would force-feed him an incredible 5-course meal. anyways. she has this gorgeous terrace that overlooks the arno river (across from which stands michelangelo's statue of david), filled with a TON of flowers and plants and best of all, wireless internet (HA!). it perpetually smells like gardenias, which as marilyn's favorite flower, reminds morgan of her mother. this is an interesting feeling for morgan, because while she feels sentiment towards her loving mother, she cannot forget the fact that every time she calls home, her mother says drying "what do you need now, hailey", and will actually argue on the phone for a while as to which daughter she is actually talking to. really, mom? really? this is sort of unsettling for morgan, because it suggests that marilyn should have a reason to wonder who she is actually talking to, which in turn suggests that either marilyn is crazy (which are most certainly NOT ruling out), or that hailey has called before, pretending to be morgan. now while that may seem paranoid, we turn to exhibit A in which hunter sent incriminating emails to morgan's mother around the time she went to mexico. why are the hargraves trio so fucked up? anyways, enough about that. tomorrow morgan is waking up early and mama gianna is taking morgan and her roommate to the countryside where she has a house next to bono. yes, bono. i am sure he keeps many of his sunglasses there. maybe morgan will steal a pair and live vicariously through them, walking around italy hanging out with AIDS victims and seeking world peace. in that case, morgan must be off to bed, for she (and bono) have a lot of work to do tomorrow. <3