Come si dice "a dream come true"?

I have been in Italy for five days now and I still have to pinch myself as a reminder that I am not dreaming. It is truly amazing how things have worked out so nicely. As of less than a month ago I wasn't sure that the trip would actually take place. Well, it has, and I am here, and now I am getting used to calling Firenze (Florence) my home -- which is not so hard to do. I am living with the most wonderful family -- Jane Guarducci and her two adorable daughters Ali and Franci, turning 9 and 7, respectively, this summer. Each day has been a fairly easy schedule to get used to. On Sunday, Jane, a native of Edmonton, Canada who speaks fluent Italian and English at home with her daughters, picked me up from the tiny Florence airport and whisked me off to her friend's fabulous Tuscan villa to relax by the pool all day and recover from jetlag. Each day this week, Ali and Franci go to music camp in the morning and so I sleep in, wake up and have breakfast on their rooftop patio that overlooks Il Duomo, check email, dabble a bit in teaching myself italiano, and walk around Florence (if it's not too hot), and do whatever my heart desires until 2:30 in the afternoon when I go to a friend's house to join them and go off to a pool somewhere in the Tuscan hill towns outside Florence. (So far it has been the homes of two particular friends who have pools that overlook the most beautiful views of Tuscany). And so, I keep asking myself, is this what is meant by "La Dolce Vita"? Perhaps, and yet, I know I still have so much to experience here in this glorious land...and I am ready to experience it all.