Buon Appetito!

Friday started off a little rocky since we were all supposed to meet ISA at 9am for a guided tour of the Uffizi, the first museum ever opened.  Anna got up and showered but I was entirely too tired and grumpy to get up so I slept through the museum tour before getting up and getting ready for the cooking class.  While walking to meet my cooking class, I met up with Jen and we walked together to make it to the meeting point just in time.  We followed the ISA staff across the Ponte Vecchio to the strange alley that houses the cooking class.  We walked in an were instructed to hang up our belongings, put on a plastic apron, and wash our hands.  April, Anna, Chelsea, Jenn and I were separated as the class was starting, so Anna and I were asked to go into the back room.  We got insanely lucky since the back room was private, huge, and instructed by the owner.

We started off my making Tiramisu.  Anna and I were instructed to crack and separate the eggs and add them to sugar.  Anna began hand whipping the yolk of the egg into sugar while another girl machine beat the white of the eggs into sugar.  Once the eggs were properly beaten, we added in masacapone cheese (a massive block of cream cheese) to the yolk/sugar and hand beat that again.  Once that was properly mixed, we added both egg/sugar mixes together to create the cream.  Next we all dipped our cut up lady finger cookies into a mixture of brandy and espresso.  With all the ingredients ready, we layered cream and cookies until the little dishes were full and then topped them off with a sprinkling of cocoa powder.  Who would have thought Tiramisu was so simple to make?

Next we moved onto creating our appetizer, Vegetable Millefoglie.  First we washed our vegetables, the zucchini, the eggplant and then we taught how to properly cut and dice them.  The zucchini was cut in half, then 4 times length wise, then the middle (the seeds and light green part basically) were sliced out and thrown away.  Then we chopped the 4 slices into about 2 centimeter slices then turned them the other direction and diced them into teeny pieces.  This process took a while even though all 5 of us were working on it, slicing and dicing was hard work!  Next we took the already pre-boiled potato's and sent them through the masher which transformed them into little noddles of potatoes and added them in with the diced zucchini.  Next we cut up the eggplant into thin yet equal slices and folded the slices of Fontina cheese.  With all of the ingredients prepared, we began to stack everything together.  We first drizzled olive oil into the bottom of the pan, then put a slice of eggplant, a scoop of potato/zucchini mixture, a slice of eggplant, a scoop of mixture, 2 slices of cheese, and then a slice of eggplant all kept together with a tooth pick.  Finally we lightly drizzled everything with olive oil then put it in the oven to bake for 25 minutes.

While the appetizers were cooking we started preparing our pasta!  First we were given a mound of flour and told to create a hole in the center to make it look like a volcano.  Then we were given 2 eggs and cracked them into the center and slowly mixed the eggs into the flour, adding a pinch of salt every so often.  As we mixed, the mixture became less watery and thicker as more flour was incorporated.  When it wasn't runny at all, we began to work the dough with our hands, folding it inward from the outside and sprinkling flour every so often and flipping it over.  Next we wrapped the dough in plastic and let it sit for 30 minutes.  During this time we began creating our sauce, but since it was on the burner, the chef did most of the work and just explained what he was doing.  We also made the filling for our ravioli while we waited which was made out of spinach and ricotta cheese.  I held back during the making of the filling since I'm not a fan of spinach but the other girls sliced and diced the spinach until it was small then mixed it into a bowl with the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, an egg, salt, pepper, and ground nutmeg.  The filling was put into a pointed bag and placed in the refrigerator to chill.

The dough came out 30 minutes later a lot softer so we were told to roll the dough into a rectangle then fold it into a burrito and roll it, then fold it in half and roll it and then repeat this process 3 times until you are left with another rectangle.  Once it was properly rolled, we put the dough through the pasta roller.  We put it through the roller several times at different settings making it thinner and thinner until it was about 3 1/2 feet long and pretty thin.  The really long piece was put onto the work station and cut in half.  Since Anna and I's dough was one of the last to be put through the machine we made linguine instead of the ravioli that everyone else had made. The linguine was made by putting a special slicer onto the pasta roller and just grinding it up.  The ravioli was made by laying out the dough and places a small sized squirt of spinach two inches apart and in the center of the dough.  The dough was then rolled in half and lightly pressed all around the spinach to insure it stuck to the pasta.  Next we were given a jagged slicer and cut the edges and then in the center between each blob of spinach until we had neat little squares of ravioli.

The sauce for the ravioli was just butter, olive oil, rosemary, basil, and salt and pepper sauteed.  For the linguine we had a spicy tomato sauce.  The chef mushed up a bunch of tomatoes with his bare hands then then added them, salt, pepper, olive oil, and dry crushed chili peppers into the suace pan to saute for a few minutes.  While the sauces were heating up we cooked the pasta which took all of about 3 minutes.  By the time all of this was done, we gathered up all of our food and headed downstairs where we were surprised to find a full dining room.  We sat down with our fellow cookers and ate our delicious meals.  I was even brave enough to try to eggplant appetizer and ended up LOVING IT! Who would have known I actually liked eggplant?!  I ate a lot of linguine since I'm not a fan of the ravioli and tried the tiramisu we created and the cream was delicious even though I still didn't like the espresso taste.  On the way out we said our goodbyes and were given a little recipe guide so we could make everything again in at home!  We also picked up a pamphlet so we could try to go to the cooking class again, I loved it!

The rest of the day was pretty lazy, I got a few things from the market and watched The Little Mermaid with Anna.  Later we went to Ganzo for dinner where we had to wait for almost 20 minutes since we didn't have a reservation and then when I tried to order, my first 3 choices were already sold out.  Dinner ended up being alright then we headed home to sleep for an early morning in Orvieto!

Catching Up

Ah! I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog post,  I have a lot to catch up on but I'll try to keep it short!


So the Superbowl started off at our new go-to bar, Naima. They have cheap drinks, fun music, and the bartender is a formed student abroad student from New Jersey who now lives full time in Florence!  We watched the game but unfortunately without any sound and no American commercials.  We watched the game until half time then decided to go to another bar where some friends from the program had reserved a table.  We hung out and watched the rest of the game then walked home around the block and crashed for the night.

Monday Anna and I decided to try Ganzo for dinner to use our meal plan.  The menu was really intricate and me being picky had a hard time ordering since every dish had at least one ingredient that I didn't like.  Finally I settled on linguini with clams and Anna ordered pasta with DUCK ragu.  They both ended up being moderately good but nothing to be excited about.  With our dinner we were able to choose if we wanted an appetizer or a dessert so of course we both ordered a dessert.  Anna got chocolate mousse with fresh ricotta and I got an apple strudel.  The strudel looked delicious but when I went to take a bite I realized it was stuffed with GIANT raisins..gross.  I picked out the raisins and it was also pretty good.

Tuesday was time to head back to class where I enjoyed religion then was overwhelmed in Italian.  I came home from class and decided to cook an easy dinner before going to the community service meeting.  Of course my first time cooking for the roommates I overcooked the pasta since it was like angel hair and I'm used to cooking penne.  And the wine I picked out at the store was just bad.  My roommates tried to make me feel better and say it’s okay, it’s the pasta's fault, and its cheap wine so of course it’s going to be not the greatest but I still felt bad.  Right before the meeting we decided to get gelato at Grom again since it’s so delicious!  This time I tried pear and zabaigone. A-MAZING.  The meeting ended up being in a tiny room so we had to sit on the steps, then I looked through all the opportunities and of course all the ones that looked interesting were at times I couldn't go and I didn’t want to do any of the ones that were available for my schedule.  So with my good luck, the torturing lasted for over an hour.

Wednesday I had class in the morning and I'm really beginning to not like the class since its an introduction into PR, Marketing, and Communication in Publishing, but no one in my class even knows what a press release is so it’s really an introduction to pr.  After class I met up with Anna and we went to the fresh food market near the San Lorenzo market.  We were shocked that inside, the market was massive!  Anna said she was going to have nightmares because there were dead chickens and pigs for sale but it’s different than the States since they leave the heads on the animals!  It was like basically walking through a slaughter house.  There were also tons of fresh fruit and veggie stands, a fish market, wine stores, and stands filled with dried fruit.  We decided to get a chicken breast to make for dinner and for 6 big slices of chicken it was only 3 euro which is AMAZING! In our super market they were selling have the amount of chicken for almost 17 euro!  We also got some fresh ingredients for a salad, freshly baked bread, wine, and fresh cheese to make our pasta sauce.

We dropped everything off at the apartment then went to the Oil Shoppe for lunch.  It was this little shop that was JAM PACKED with students ordering sandwiches.  Since being in Italy, Anna and I have both been craving Chicken Parm since hello, we thought it was Italian...As it turns out it’s not so we can’t find it anywhere!  Fortunately the Oil Shoppe had a chicken parm sandwich made with fresh tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella.  It was nothing short of amazing, we will definitely be going back soon!

We walked off our lunch by meeting the roommates at Florence For Fun, a travel agency that specializes in student trips all over Europe.  I decided to book a day trip to Verona for tomorrow, a trip to Venice for Carnivale, and a day trip to Chianti to tour a wine vineyard and have a wine tasting all for $245! So excited for my upcoming weekends of traveling!

After booking our trips I went back to apartment to tackle the rest of my unfinished homework and video chatted with Uncle Marty and Mom for a while.  I love seeing familiar faces after not knowing anyone on the streets of Firenze.  At night it was Anna and I's turn to cook dinner so Anna cooked up an alfredo sauce recipe from Mrs. Gleason and I made the salad, prepared the bread, cooked the chicken, and cooked the pasta.  All our hard work paid off since it was considered the best homemade meal by all the roommates!  It was so delicious we all went up for seconds and wished there was some left over for thirds!  While the other roommates worked on the dishes, Anna and I did her homework of watching Sabrina and How To Marry A Millionare, what a great day.

Thursday I woke up refreshed and ready for my favorite day of the week!  I started with Wine class where we took an insane amount of notes then tasted 3 Sangiovese wines, the first was good but the next two were definitely not my cup of tea.  After class I went home and ate the second half of my sandwich from the Oil Shoppe which was heavenlyyyy then went to Italian class.  My head was literally spinning the entire hour and 15 minutes, we learned numbers, greetings, adjectives, conjugations of adjectives and nouns, food vocab, how to order at a cafe and more.  It was exhausting!  When I got back from class I went with April to pay our lab fee for the wine class and picked up my last book for wine class.  We went back to the apartment ready to cook the rest of our chicken when someone mentioned mexican food and we all decided we were craving it.  We picked a place, got there and were told it was a 2 and a half hour wait.  Not happening.  Unfortunately this is Italy and there are not an abundance of Mexican restaurants so we thought we were out of luck until Jen suggested House of Sizzle, a steak house.  We get there are there is a special on pitchers of margaritas and they have nachos and quesadillas on the menu, YES PLEASE!  Anna and I shared everything and it was the perfect amount of food!

We were paying our check to leave when an Aussie approached the group and asked us our plans for the night.  We didn't have any so we chatted for a while and then headed next door to sing karaoke, SO FUN.  I headed home early since I had an early morning and long day planned for Friday.

Friday morning I woke up super early to meet my religion class to go on a walking tour through the Synagogue and the Jewish Museum.  I wasn't too excited until I saw the building, my jaw literally dropped it was so beautiful.  We weren't allowed to bring anything inside so everyone had to lock our bags into lockers then go through really intense/futuristic metal detector/body scan machines.  It was worth it though since once inside I literally couldn't stop looking up.  The arches and domes and walls were all covered in intricate patterns and just plain brilliant architecture.  We got a history lesson from the tour guide and I learned so much about Judaism that I never knew about.  The only problem with the tour was that the synagogue was built in the 1600's aka no heating so it was FRIGID.  We then proceeded to the museum, were guided some more, then were sent on our way.  Right after the tour was over I stopped quick for a takeout sandwich from Ganzo then ran to meet Anna, April, and Jen at the Santa Maria Novella train station.

We got our tickets and boarded the train to head to Pisa!  The city of the leaning tower!  The train ride was kind of depressing since it travels through the poorer sections of Tuscany plus everything is dead because its still winter time.  Once we got to Pisa we all realized that we didn't bring any sort of map of the city, how did we think we were going to find the tower?  You'd think of its fine just walk toward the giant building, well no since the tower was no where to be seen.  Finally I found a map of the city near the train station and we headed the in right direction.  We crossed the river and thought we were almost there but of course we got distracted.  By what? Gelato of course!  I'm so glad we stopped because that shop makes literally the best gelato I have ever had.  I ordered a cone of cookie and nutella.  Yes they have ice cream flavors that literally consist of COOKIES and NUTELLA.  Creamy, deliciousness at its finest.  We walked with our gelato singing "Just around the river benddd..." since every bend of the road we wanted to see the tower but 30 minutes later and still. no. tower.  Finally we started to see some signs and tourists and headed in their direction, ALAS THE TOWER!  We tried taking fun pictures of holding up the tower like all the other tourists but it is not as easy as you'd think!  We got our pictures then wandered back toward the train station looking for somewhere to eat dinner.  Surprisingly, no places in our 30 minute walk back were even worth a second glance.  We decided to catch the train back to Fireze and figure dinner out when we got back.  We stopped at a restaurant between San Lorenzo Market and the Duomo where I ordered a yummy baked lasagna.

On the walk home we grabbed some wine and then sat around playing games and telling stories all night.  Anna and April got tired just as Jen and I got our second wind, so we through on some clothes and headed out to see what the night could bring us.  We went to a few bars and then were brought to an Italian club by some girls we went.  The place was PACKED but so much fun with loud music and dancing.

Today is just a relaxing day.  Jen and I are watching illegal movies and tv online while Anna and April headed out to run some errands and do what else, SHOP.  Tonight we are going to cook up the rest of our chicken and pasta then call it an early night since we are leaving for Verona at 8 am tomorrow morning!

So much for a short post....I promise I'll be better with blogging this week!  Love and miss everyone! xoxo

Ciao from Rome,Italy!

Hello everyone, I made it safe and sound to Rome yesterday afternoon!  So far its INCREDIBLE!

After being picked up from the airport I was shuttled to our hotel which is 2 blocks from the Colosseum!  Anna had arrived in the first group so she was already settled at the hotel.  I quickly went up to my room and was able to meet one of my roomates since she is also staying in my hotel room!  I was able to settle and freshen up for a little while before heading down to join the rest of our program for a mandatory orietation.

The orientation was informative but seemed to take foreverrrr since I barely slept on the plane and felt like I had been awake for days.  After the orientation I met up with a bunch of girls to explore the city and get some dinner. 

The colossem is amazing!  We ended up going to dinner a block away from that  and it was sooo good! I had gnonoci in a 4 cheese sauce and it was amazingggg.  After dinner we headed back to the hotel and passed out as soon as we hit the pillow. Everyone was so tired from traveling but I had a great nights sleep and woke up this morning without any jet lag. 

Breakfast in the morning was a little different but I had cereal, fruit, and yogurt so I was full.  After breakfast we went on a 3 hour walking tour around the city and saw the inside of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and a few piazzas.  Everything was so beautiful, I took a tonnnn of pictures.  After the tour we grabbed a quick lunch and then went on a bus tour.  It was good to see the rest of the city but we didnt really know what everything was or where we were.  So now me, Anna, one of my roommates, and another girl just exchanged some American dollars for Euros and are at the computers then are going get gellato.  After we are going to the hotel to lay around and rest before we go visit the Verde fountain at night which lights up and is apparently like breath taking.  Then we are going to find somewhere for dinner around there.  After we are going to go out to an irish pub near the hotel since other people in the program went last night and said it was alot of fun.

Tommorow is another early day with tours to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.  So far though, I absolutely love it here, its the most beautiful city I have ever seen.  Its so different then anywhere Ive ever been before because everything around you is history.  The streets are all cobble stone and clean and the buildings are tall, covered in windows, and have beautiful detailed architeture.

I miss everyone already and hope all is well back home!  I have a cell phone but its expensive so Im only going to be Facebooking, emailing, and blogging while Im here.  I wont be able to speak with everyone until I get to Florence so just know Im having the time of my life!