Quick trip home

When I bought my flight from Germany to Italy, I ended up buying a roundtrip flight, since that was considerably cheaper than a one-way flight. I thought I'd just not use the return flight, but I booked it for a Thursday anyway. It turned out that the Friday after the return is actually a public holiday in Italy (Liberation Day), so I decided to actually use the flight, visit my parents and pick up some more stuff to take with me. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, and I spent a few days eating well, visiting my dad's brother and family, and seeing what herb pots my parents had bought for our balcony in the new apartment in Florence. On the way back to Italy on Sunday, I took the train, which took a little over 11 hours (the plane takes a little over one!). The train ride wasn't too boring, though, since the route took me straight across Switzerland, so I got to see plenty of green pastures with cows and sheep, beautiful snow-covered mountains in the Alps, and some very pretty scenery at the lakes near the Italian border.