Getting to the bus at 8am for Orvieto was not fun. We got on the bus and I immediately fell asleep but it was an uncomfortable and restless sleep since hello, I'm sitting with my head dropped on a bus. We got to Orvieto and then had to take a trolley car up the side of the mountain. Once ontop of the mountain we walked in through the gates of the former fortress. Orvieto used to be a secret location for Popes when they were forced to flee the Vatican thousands of years ago. The views overlooking the valley were stunning and would have been even better if it were May and everything was in bloom. Next we went to St. Peter's Well which is where the Pope used to ride his donkey and hide making sure to never run out of water. The well is interesting since it is almost 200 feet deep and 40 feet wide and there are two sets of stairs (one for up, one for down) that never intersect. We walked all the way to the bottom, saw the dirty water, and began our climb back to the top (248 steps each way!)
After the well we walked through the town and went to the Duomo. The Duomo in Orvieto is my new favorite, its facade is beyond beautiful. The entire sides are done in green and white marble, and the front is covered in sculptures that depict in detail the stories of the Bible. I was in owe at the detail put into the front of the church which was completed during the 14th century. Unfortunately the tour guide told us that the inside of the cathedral wasn't nearly as beautiful since they had put so much effort into the outside of the church, they neglected to do anything special on the inside. After the Duomo we walked towards the entrance to the underground city, or the CAVES.
The caves were really cool since they we had dug out centuries ago to create a secret city and a safe passage out of the city in case of siege. We only went in a little to see the basics but it was still really cool. Apparently the caves go from the entrance where we went in to clear across the city and outside of the city boundaries which I thought was really intense. We also went into another cave that was really steep to climb in and out of which was basically a palace for pigeons? I was only half listening to the tour guide at this point but she went on the entire time we were down there (15 minutesish) about homes for pigeons, water for pigeons, eating pigeons, pigeon rolatly nests, etc beyond strange. Thank God pigeons don't live there anymore, it would have been so dirty!
After the caves we walked to Piazza of the People which was supposed to be a big open air market but unfortunately we got there late in the day and everything was either cleaned up or in the process of being cleaned up. On the outside of the piazza was the Albornoz Fortress which was of course built by a timid Pope in case of siege upon the city. After this piazza we kept walking to the main piazza of the town which was cute but teeny. Anna and I didn't even stay for the rest of the tour or listen to the guide about the piazza because we were of course hungry and smelt pizza. We ventured away from the crowd to a little pizza place. We sat and ordered quickly since the menu little had 10 pizzas and a calzone. I had been dying to try an Italian calzone so I ordered a mozzarella and tomato one and Anna ordered the quatro formaggio pizza (4 cheese). They came out quickly since we were the only ones in the place and everything was delicious! The calzone tasted absolutely NOTHING like calzones in America but it was still really good and I forced myself to finish every inch of the huge thing. We finished lunch and went to the counter to pay where of course I spotted a PIE! I tried to ask the worker what flavors the pies were but he barely spoke English so I just picked the red one and hoped for the best. Turns out it was a fantastic choice because I loved every second of it!
After lunch, Anna and I walked around for a little before decided to get some gelato. I got a small cone of mint chocolate chip and chocolate. The chocolate was SO GOOD but the mint had a strange texture...I finished the cone regardless. After gelato we walked to the restaurant that the other girls were having lunch at and joined them at their table for some brief banter before heading back to the meeting location. Thank God we took a bus down to the trolley because I was starting to feel sick from eating so much and I don't think I would have finished the walk! I felt sick the whole bus ride home unfortunately but I went right home and into bed to sleep it off. I had a peaceful sleep before waking up at 6:30am for Venice on Sunday!
Monday, February 28, 2011
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!
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!
Florentine Royalty Treatment
I really can't believe it's been a week since my last post, time is absolutely flying by!
Since the beginning of this week wasn't anything out of the ordinary, I'll start with Thursday, the beginning of my best weekend yet. Thursday started off well as always in my wine class. I'm learning so much and tasting wines at the same time! At the end of class, April and I stayed behind to have a chat with our professor and a student who is studying to get this wine certificate when they invited us to go wine tasting with them that evening. They didn't give much detail about exactly what we were going to be doing or even where we were going but we were excited regardless and agreed to meet them at a restaurant at 6:30. After wine class, I did a little shopping and then went home to make myself lunch. Then I had my first Italian quiz which I was beyond nervous for. The nerves ended up being pointless since the quiz was like 20 questions and beyond simple, I'm almost positive I aced it. The positive vibes we flowing as I walked home from class early and was able to enjoy an episode of this weeks Glee with Anna (I LOVED IT) before having to get ready.
April and I arrived at Ganzo at exactly 6:30 to meet our Professor. We began walking to what we thought would be a wine bar but ended up being his car. I was hesitant at first but we crammed into his teeny mini cooper and were off to our unknown destination. I was a little nervous since it was my first time in a car in Italy but it was fine, just a little bumpy thanks to all the cobblestone. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio to the other side of Florence and ended up at a beyond beautiful hotel set on a hilltop, surrounded by spotlights, and a well-kept garden. Our professor, Massimo, explained that the hotel, owned by famous Italian designer, Ferragamo, had just re-opened in January after being closed for the summer for renovations. We stepped into the hotel and I had to stop myself from letting my jaw drop, it was magnificent. The inside of the hotel was like nothing I've ever seen before, everyone was luxurious and decorated from head to toe; the floors were marble, the drapes were silk, and the ceilings covered in hand blow Murano glass chandeliers. I couldn't help but feeling under-dressed as one of the staff asked to take my coat while we entered the lounge. The lounge was a large rectangular table made out of glass with changing colors shinning from below and surrounded by vintage velour chairs. April and I declined anything to drink fearing the prices of the menu but Massiso insisted on getting us an authentic Italian cocktail since I had been curious about them earlier. He ended up agreeing to let us share a cocktail named Negroni. Just a heads up to anyone who doesn't want a strong drink of Christmas tree, AVOID THIS DRINK! The Negroni is made out of Gin, Campari (Orange Italian Liquor, and Sweet Vermouth) but April and I had to force ourselves to finish the terrible concoction in fear of being rude. We were almost finished with the first round of cocktails when Chase (the wine certificate student) introduced us to his friend, the manager of food and beverage at the hotel. He took us fora tour of the sitting area, the conference room, the card room, the ladies parlor, the restaurant, and the wine cellar. Everything was all so beautiful, April and I had no idea where to look to soak in everything the decor of the hotel had to offer. After the tour, we were going to taste the wine Chase had brought but unfortunately Massimo declared that it was 8:20 and his wife had been expecting him at 8:00. (Italians are literally NEVER on time) So we gathered our things and squeezed back into Massimo's teeny car for the ride back into the center of Florence. As April and I walked back to the apartment we were both in a daze from what we had just witnessed and felt so privileged to have been invited AND invited back for another time when we would actually get to taste the wine!
It was getting late and we were both a little hungry but not starving so we stopped down the street at OK Bar for a quick bite. I ordered the lasagna and was not disappointed, it was huge and the epitome of what you think of when you think Italian homemade lasagna. We went back to the apartment and got ready to go out and celebrate Shelbi's 21st birthday! The celebration was a success and we headed back home to sleep for a few hours before we had our cooking class the next day!
Since the beginning of this week wasn't anything out of the ordinary, I'll start with Thursday, the beginning of my best weekend yet. Thursday started off well as always in my wine class. I'm learning so much and tasting wines at the same time! At the end of class, April and I stayed behind to have a chat with our professor and a student who is studying to get this wine certificate when they invited us to go wine tasting with them that evening. They didn't give much detail about exactly what we were going to be doing or even where we were going but we were excited regardless and agreed to meet them at a restaurant at 6:30. After wine class, I did a little shopping and then went home to make myself lunch. Then I had my first Italian quiz which I was beyond nervous for. The nerves ended up being pointless since the quiz was like 20 questions and beyond simple, I'm almost positive I aced it. The positive vibes we flowing as I walked home from class early and was able to enjoy an episode of this weeks Glee with Anna (I LOVED IT) before having to get ready.
April and I arrived at Ganzo at exactly 6:30 to meet our Professor. We began walking to what we thought would be a wine bar but ended up being his car. I was hesitant at first but we crammed into his teeny mini cooper and were off to our unknown destination. I was a little nervous since it was my first time in a car in Italy but it was fine, just a little bumpy thanks to all the cobblestone. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio to the other side of Florence and ended up at a beyond beautiful hotel set on a hilltop, surrounded by spotlights, and a well-kept garden. Our professor, Massimo, explained that the hotel, owned by famous Italian designer, Ferragamo, had just re-opened in January after being closed for the summer for renovations. We stepped into the hotel and I had to stop myself from letting my jaw drop, it was magnificent. The inside of the hotel was like nothing I've ever seen before, everyone was luxurious and decorated from head to toe; the floors were marble, the drapes were silk, and the ceilings covered in hand blow Murano glass chandeliers. I couldn't help but feeling under-dressed as one of the staff asked to take my coat while we entered the lounge. The lounge was a large rectangular table made out of glass with changing colors shinning from below and surrounded by vintage velour chairs. April and I declined anything to drink fearing the prices of the menu but Massiso insisted on getting us an authentic Italian cocktail since I had been curious about them earlier. He ended up agreeing to let us share a cocktail named Negroni. Just a heads up to anyone who doesn't want a strong drink of Christmas tree, AVOID THIS DRINK! The Negroni is made out of Gin, Campari (Orange Italian Liquor, and Sweet Vermouth) but April and I had to force ourselves to finish the terrible concoction in fear of being rude. We were almost finished with the first round of cocktails when Chase (the wine certificate student) introduced us to his friend, the manager of food and beverage at the hotel. He took us fora tour of the sitting area, the conference room, the card room, the ladies parlor, the restaurant, and the wine cellar. Everything was all so beautiful, April and I had no idea where to look to soak in everything the decor of the hotel had to offer. After the tour, we were going to taste the wine Chase had brought but unfortunately Massimo declared that it was 8:20 and his wife had been expecting him at 8:00. (Italians are literally NEVER on time) So we gathered our things and squeezed back into Massimo's teeny car for the ride back into the center of Florence. As April and I walked back to the apartment we were both in a daze from what we had just witnessed and felt so privileged to have been invited AND invited back for another time when we would actually get to taste the wine!
It was getting late and we were both a little hungry but not starving so we stopped down the street at OK Bar for a quick bite. I ordered the lasagna and was not disappointed, it was huge and the epitome of what you think of when you think Italian homemade lasagna. We went back to the apartment and got ready to go out and celebrate Shelbi's 21st birthday! The celebration was a success and we headed back home to sleep for a few hours before we had our cooking class the next day!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Assisi, Siena, and San Gimigano Adventure!
The trip to Assisi with ISA started bright and early at 8:00am in front of the train station. We promptly loaded the bus and awaited departure which was able 45 minutes later since other people who were on the list decided to show up a half an hour late. The bus ride was smooth and about two hours so I was able to get in a little shut eye before we arrived. Assisi is a town that is on top of a mountain so we drove up quite a bit to park the bus and get a quick snack and then followed our tour guide up two sets of escalators into Assisi. The tour guide brought us to a bunch of churchs and town landmarks but I was unable to take my eyes off of all the beautiful homes. Every inch of every building was created with such detail it was amazing; they all had cute sets leading up to their ornate door and the building was covered in irory and the windows were decorated with colorful shutters and fresh potted flowers.
After our tour we were dropped off the main church and alotted 2 hours for lunch and to wander the city. Of course it was 2pm by then and we were all famished. We went to a trattoria that had good reviews but it was swamped so we wandered around looking for somewhere else. Every place we came across was either a to-go pizzeria with pizza that had been sitting out all day or an expensive ristorante. Finally we settled on an Osteria (A set up from a pizzeria but below a trattoria and ristorante). Everything on the menu was decently priced and the decor was cute sowe figured we were making out well. I ordered the lasanga and then wanted to cry when it was served to me. It was literally a piece of 2x2x2 overcooked, burnt on top, sauceless, cheeseless, and meatless piece of what I guess you could call lasagna. I tried to cut it with must difficulty and then proceeded to eat it in about 3 bites. Meanwhile Jen and Anna both got about 11 inch pizzas each. They of course offered slices of their pizza since I was still so hungry but I felt bad eating their food when I knew they were just as hungry as I was. So I sat there patiently sipping my wine until the waiter came over and took our plates away. I was going to tell him about my terrible meal but of course he ran away and then didnt show up again for about 25 minutes. By this time I'm angry so he comes over smiling and I was just like "We never got bread" he of course was Italian and had no idea what he said so I began to frantically point to another table's bread and kept repeating myself. I know this sounds a bit obnoxious but by this time its 3:30 and all I've had to eat all day is a bowl of cherrios and cardboard pasta, I was on edge to say the least. About 10 minutes later we get our bread and I scarf down the entire basket before signaling for the check (A major Italian faux pas by the way) Of course my luck after the terrible meal was the realization that there is a 2 euro cover charge per person. Not a happy camper. After lunch I was in a grumpy mood but we still had time before we needed to meet the group to leave so we wandered the city exploring. In the beginging I loved Assisi for being on a mountain and having cute little stair ways to get everywhere but after lunch it was just plain annoying to have to hike to get anywhere on an empty stomach. I slept the bus ride home and hopped for a better day on Saturday in Siena and San Gimigano.
After a good nights sleep, I was feeling positive about our trip for the day and it was even better since we didn't have to meet up for the bus until 10 am. The bus ride was pretty short, only an hour and a half, so I took in the rolling hills and read my book before arriving. We made it to Siena and begin to worry since the dark clouds were rolling in and it was yet again another city ontop of a mountain. We met up the tour guide but everyone needed a bathroom break so I made a run for the nearest bar and grabbed a criossant so I wouldn't be ravished by lunch time. The tour started and it was dead boring. Our tour guide tried to keep us interested but a church is a church is a church on the inside, plus it doesn't help that its usually colder inside than it is outside. The rest of Siena was surprisingly not that pretty compared to all the other cities since Siena was in a war-of-architecture with Florence while they were both being built so many years ago. Siena wanted to be different than Florence so instead of going the renissance route, they went medievel. Everything is dark and for some reason under construction.
The most interesting part of Siena is thier city center since its a giant brick oval. The oval is used twice during the summer for thier horse races where everyone in the entire city gathers along with the rich and famous to cheer on their horse. The other interesting part of Siena was thier Duomo. I know this sounds terrible but I think Siena's duomo is prettier yet smaller than Florence's Duomo. After the Duomo, the tour concluded and we set out on own to eat and explore! For lunch we walked around for a while but apparently its the cities off season so barely anything was open except for the places on the city center which were way over priced. We finally found a place and settled in where I got gnocchi of course and it was delicious. Following with our tradition we went for gelato. I ordered a cone of mint and hazelnut thinking it would be a terrific combination. Unfortunately the hazelnut tasted more like an actual nut than nutella like I had anticipated and had nuts mixed in (YUCK) but I still enjoyed it since the mint was SO GOOD. I scoped off the hazelnut and enjoyed my mint cone while wandering the city looking for a bakery that sold Siena's famous pasty/cookie. Of course with my luck I wasn't able to find any open bakery that sold single cookies of the one I wanted to try, it was all over priced giant packages. Normally I would just get the package and bring it home but I've never tried the cookie so what happens if I didn't like them? We all pulled out our umbrellas as it started to drizzle on our walk back to the bus.
We got on the bus briefly before arriving with the rain in San Gimigano. The landscape that overlooks below San Gimingano was breathtaking since it over looks a ton of vineyards. Of course there were no grapes and barely anything was green but it was still gorgeous. As our tour guide brought us toward the city center, we started noticing a strange pattern; children in Halloween costumes. It wasn't until we reached the arched entrace of the city did the tour guide announce that they were celebrating Carnavale! All the children were dressed up to throw confetti, spray silly string, and dance in the parade through the city. We made it to the city center just in time to see the floats begin to take off and confetti to fly everywhere. It was a magical moment that I truly wished I was participating in. Our tour guide pulled us away all too quickly to bring us furthur into the city for more sight seeing and fact learning. The entire time we were trying to listen to our ear pieces for inforamtion abotu the family crests painted on the walls of the city we were distracted by the sounds of the parade in the distance. The tour ended shortly after this but the parade was long gone so we went back through the city looking for shelter from the increasing rain. Of course Anna and I were lured down the street all the way to the heavenly smell of fresh oven brick pizza. I couldn't resist a freshly made slice of 2 euro margarhita pizza, and I was absolutely exstatic that I did since it was the best pizza I've had while being in Italy. I enjoyed every last memorable bite. We walked back up the street with more time to kill and found friends from our tour. We sat in envy listening to how they six of them had been separated from the group during the beginning of the parade and were dragged into it as it drove away. The danced, sang, were covered in confetti, and given free bottles of wine by shop keepers and Italians enjoying the parade. I couldnt believe I walked to a arch with foregin family crests instead of dancing to Italian Cher and drinking free wine!
Sulkingly we gather ourselves to walk back to the bus. By this time the weather had decreased along with my mood and it was pouring. I was the brilliant one in the group to wear flats so my feet were soaked to the core. We made it bac kto the bus but I was far to uncomfortable to do anything but listen to my ipod and stare out the darkened windows. We got back to Florence as it continued to pour and I had to walk home in the soaking wet shoes thorugh puddles. Not the best situation. We made it back to the apartment where I peeled off my flats and washed my feet since they were just plain gross.
I pulled on my rainboots, feeling infinately better and headed to Tijuana for dinner. Tijuana is one of the only Meixan establishments and you need to make a reservation anytime you want to eat there so we were all excited for it by the time we got there. Anna and I ordered giant margarhitas, queso dip, and chicken quesadillas andate ourselves into bliss. The food was overpriced but oh-so-delicious and it hit the spot after my rainy day.
Today April and I woke up relatively early for our day off, put in a load of wash, and then headed to the cooking school building to sign up for a wine tasting trip we wanted to take with our class. Afterwards we picked up Jen and headed to Ganzo for lunch where we met Shelbi. For lunch I had a fresh turkey and some special cheese sandwhich with fresh tomatos and roasted potatos on the side. I was pleasantly full before walking to check my mailbox where I was greeted with an adorable card from Aunt Lisa, such a mood booster! I came home about 4 hours later to my laundry finally being finished. Loads at our washing machine in our apartment listeraly take 3 hours and then everything has to be hung up to dry since Italian's don't believe in dryers. I put in my second load and then headed to a mandatory meeting with ISA.
After the meeting, Shelbi and I went to meet up with a boy she had met out earlier in the week for coffee. The whole tete-e-tete was awkward since it was just the three of us and Alex (the Italian) didn't speak more than two words in English (Hello/Goodbye) We did our best and had a few laughs at our ability and inability to translate. We headed home and relaxed before just cooking up some pasta and pecorino sauce for dinner.
This week I am literally going to Ganzo everyday for lunch and some nights for dinner since my vouchers for the month expire next Monday! I have my first Italian quiz Thursday and I'm nervous about it to say the least so I might go to tutoring Wednesday to try to comprehend more and get a different perspective. The rest of the weeks forcast is going to be sunny and mid-fifties so I'm going to try to be outside as much as possible soaking up the sunshine after all this rain! Hope you all are enjoying the surprise snow storm!
Love and Miss Everyone! xoxo
After our tour we were dropped off the main church and alotted 2 hours for lunch and to wander the city. Of course it was 2pm by then and we were all famished. We went to a trattoria that had good reviews but it was swamped so we wandered around looking for somewhere else. Every place we came across was either a to-go pizzeria with pizza that had been sitting out all day or an expensive ristorante. Finally we settled on an Osteria (A set up from a pizzeria but below a trattoria and ristorante). Everything on the menu was decently priced and the decor was cute sowe figured we were making out well. I ordered the lasanga and then wanted to cry when it was served to me. It was literally a piece of 2x2x2 overcooked, burnt on top, sauceless, cheeseless, and meatless piece of what I guess you could call lasagna. I tried to cut it with must difficulty and then proceeded to eat it in about 3 bites. Meanwhile Jen and Anna both got about 11 inch pizzas each. They of course offered slices of their pizza since I was still so hungry but I felt bad eating their food when I knew they were just as hungry as I was. So I sat there patiently sipping my wine until the waiter came over and took our plates away. I was going to tell him about my terrible meal but of course he ran away and then didnt show up again for about 25 minutes. By this time I'm angry so he comes over smiling and I was just like "We never got bread" he of course was Italian and had no idea what he said so I began to frantically point to another table's bread and kept repeating myself. I know this sounds a bit obnoxious but by this time its 3:30 and all I've had to eat all day is a bowl of cherrios and cardboard pasta, I was on edge to say the least. About 10 minutes later we get our bread and I scarf down the entire basket before signaling for the check (A major Italian faux pas by the way) Of course my luck after the terrible meal was the realization that there is a 2 euro cover charge per person. Not a happy camper. After lunch I was in a grumpy mood but we still had time before we needed to meet the group to leave so we wandered the city exploring. In the beginging I loved Assisi for being on a mountain and having cute little stair ways to get everywhere but after lunch it was just plain annoying to have to hike to get anywhere on an empty stomach. I slept the bus ride home and hopped for a better day on Saturday in Siena and San Gimigano.
After a good nights sleep, I was feeling positive about our trip for the day and it was even better since we didn't have to meet up for the bus until 10 am. The bus ride was pretty short, only an hour and a half, so I took in the rolling hills and read my book before arriving. We made it to Siena and begin to worry since the dark clouds were rolling in and it was yet again another city ontop of a mountain. We met up the tour guide but everyone needed a bathroom break so I made a run for the nearest bar and grabbed a criossant so I wouldn't be ravished by lunch time. The tour started and it was dead boring. Our tour guide tried to keep us interested but a church is a church is a church on the inside, plus it doesn't help that its usually colder inside than it is outside. The rest of Siena was surprisingly not that pretty compared to all the other cities since Siena was in a war-of-architecture with Florence while they were both being built so many years ago. Siena wanted to be different than Florence so instead of going the renissance route, they went medievel. Everything is dark and for some reason under construction.
The most interesting part of Siena is thier city center since its a giant brick oval. The oval is used twice during the summer for thier horse races where everyone in the entire city gathers along with the rich and famous to cheer on their horse. The other interesting part of Siena was thier Duomo. I know this sounds terrible but I think Siena's duomo is prettier yet smaller than Florence's Duomo. After the Duomo, the tour concluded and we set out on own to eat and explore! For lunch we walked around for a while but apparently its the cities off season so barely anything was open except for the places on the city center which were way over priced. We finally found a place and settled in where I got gnocchi of course and it was delicious. Following with our tradition we went for gelato. I ordered a cone of mint and hazelnut thinking it would be a terrific combination. Unfortunately the hazelnut tasted more like an actual nut than nutella like I had anticipated and had nuts mixed in (YUCK) but I still enjoyed it since the mint was SO GOOD. I scoped off the hazelnut and enjoyed my mint cone while wandering the city looking for a bakery that sold Siena's famous pasty/cookie. Of course with my luck I wasn't able to find any open bakery that sold single cookies of the one I wanted to try, it was all over priced giant packages. Normally I would just get the package and bring it home but I've never tried the cookie so what happens if I didn't like them? We all pulled out our umbrellas as it started to drizzle on our walk back to the bus.
We got on the bus briefly before arriving with the rain in San Gimigano. The landscape that overlooks below San Gimingano was breathtaking since it over looks a ton of vineyards. Of course there were no grapes and barely anything was green but it was still gorgeous. As our tour guide brought us toward the city center, we started noticing a strange pattern; children in Halloween costumes. It wasn't until we reached the arched entrace of the city did the tour guide announce that they were celebrating Carnavale! All the children were dressed up to throw confetti, spray silly string, and dance in the parade through the city. We made it to the city center just in time to see the floats begin to take off and confetti to fly everywhere. It was a magical moment that I truly wished I was participating in. Our tour guide pulled us away all too quickly to bring us furthur into the city for more sight seeing and fact learning. The entire time we were trying to listen to our ear pieces for inforamtion abotu the family crests painted on the walls of the city we were distracted by the sounds of the parade in the distance. The tour ended shortly after this but the parade was long gone so we went back through the city looking for shelter from the increasing rain. Of course Anna and I were lured down the street all the way to the heavenly smell of fresh oven brick pizza. I couldn't resist a freshly made slice of 2 euro margarhita pizza, and I was absolutely exstatic that I did since it was the best pizza I've had while being in Italy. I enjoyed every last memorable bite. We walked back up the street with more time to kill and found friends from our tour. We sat in envy listening to how they six of them had been separated from the group during the beginning of the parade and were dragged into it as it drove away. The danced, sang, were covered in confetti, and given free bottles of wine by shop keepers and Italians enjoying the parade. I couldnt believe I walked to a arch with foregin family crests instead of dancing to Italian Cher and drinking free wine!
Sulkingly we gather ourselves to walk back to the bus. By this time the weather had decreased along with my mood and it was pouring. I was the brilliant one in the group to wear flats so my feet were soaked to the core. We made it bac kto the bus but I was far to uncomfortable to do anything but listen to my ipod and stare out the darkened windows. We got back to Florence as it continued to pour and I had to walk home in the soaking wet shoes thorugh puddles. Not the best situation. We made it back to the apartment where I peeled off my flats and washed my feet since they were just plain gross.
I pulled on my rainboots, feeling infinately better and headed to Tijuana for dinner. Tijuana is one of the only Meixan establishments and you need to make a reservation anytime you want to eat there so we were all excited for it by the time we got there. Anna and I ordered giant margarhitas, queso dip, and chicken quesadillas andate ourselves into bliss. The food was overpriced but oh-so-delicious and it hit the spot after my rainy day.
Today April and I woke up relatively early for our day off, put in a load of wash, and then headed to the cooking school building to sign up for a wine tasting trip we wanted to take with our class. Afterwards we picked up Jen and headed to Ganzo for lunch where we met Shelbi. For lunch I had a fresh turkey and some special cheese sandwhich with fresh tomatos and roasted potatos on the side. I was pleasantly full before walking to check my mailbox where I was greeted with an adorable card from Aunt Lisa, such a mood booster! I came home about 4 hours later to my laundry finally being finished. Loads at our washing machine in our apartment listeraly take 3 hours and then everything has to be hung up to dry since Italian's don't believe in dryers. I put in my second load and then headed to a mandatory meeting with ISA.
After the meeting, Shelbi and I went to meet up with a boy she had met out earlier in the week for coffee. The whole tete-e-tete was awkward since it was just the three of us and Alex (the Italian) didn't speak more than two words in English (Hello/Goodbye) We did our best and had a few laughs at our ability and inability to translate. We headed home and relaxed before just cooking up some pasta and pecorino sauce for dinner.
This week I am literally going to Ganzo everyday for lunch and some nights for dinner since my vouchers for the month expire next Monday! I have my first Italian quiz Thursday and I'm nervous about it to say the least so I might go to tutoring Wednesday to try to comprehend more and get a different perspective. The rest of the weeks forcast is going to be sunny and mid-fifties so I'm going to try to be outside as much as possible soaking up the sunshine after all this rain! Hope you all are enjoying the surprise snow storm!
Love and Miss Everyone! xoxo
I'm on top of the World!
Friday, after getting 1 Euro pizza, Anna, April, Jen, and I wandered to Santa Croce to sit on the steps, enjoy our pizza, and people watch. This was entertaining for a few minutes until we all finished our pizza and a cold wind came through, so we decided to walk and what else? GET GELATO :) With our gelato, we walked across the Ponte Vecchico stopping to take in the beauty of the bridges in the sun light, and ventured into uncharted territory...the OTHER side of the bridge.
Not surprisingly, the other side of the bridge, in the area known as Oltarno, is basically the same as the rest of Florence. The streets were crowded, there was gelato on every corner, and tall beautiful buildings all around. Our main though process in crossing the bridge was to head to the Palazzo Pitti and walking around the Boboli Gardens. Too bad that by the time we got there and finished our gelato, it was closed for the day. It was only 3pm! So I pulled out my nifty guide book to try to find something else for us to do but unfortunately basically everything in Florence closes at 3pm on Fridays. Finally we decided HELLOO, TOP OF THE DUOMO! I'm not sure how but we have lived in Florence for a month now and walk past the Duomo literally everytime we leave the apartment, and we still hadn't climbed to the top!
We walked to the entrance and a woman was standing there telling us something in Italian about not going inside. She was mumbling something about the time and that it was too late but the sign said it closed at 5:30 and it was only 4:00. She turned around for a minute so I ran past her and went inside only to find out the it was in fact open. Only God knows why she was saying we couldn't go in. So we paid our 8 euro and began the journey to the top. The first few flights weren't too bad but then after the first major break, the stairs became spirals with room for only one person at a time. Then we made it to the dome but not the top which was cool since it overlooked the entire church. After this point we started up the rough/steep part. There was room for barely one person at a time and you were basically climbing up a ladder since it was so steep, meanwhile people are also trying to come down. I was scared to say the least.
We finally made it to the top and the climb was well worth the view. It was simply amazing to see the entire city. We were able to pick out all the spots we frequent to dinner and school and the street we live on! We stayed for a while just taking pictures and soaking up the view before gathering enough courage for the climb down. Even though we were going down, it took me almost double the time since it was so scary, I felt like I was going to fall forward and just keep tumbling from momentum.
Luckily, I made it down without tripping even once and we made it home safe and sound. We all laid around for a while relaxing before starting dinner for the night. It was taco night so I started on the meat while April cut up the veggies for our fixings. The meal was a little plain since apparently they dont sell taco mix in Italy, who would've thought? We were all stuffed afterward and headed to bed for an early night in preparation for our packed weekend!
Love and Miss everyone! XO
We walked to the entrance and a woman was standing there telling us something in Italian about not going inside. She was mumbling something about the time and that it was too late but the sign said it closed at 5:30 and it was only 4:00. She turned around for a minute so I ran past her and went inside only to find out the it was in fact open. Only God knows why she was saying we couldn't go in. So we paid our 8 euro and began the journey to the top. The first few flights weren't too bad but then after the first major break, the stairs became spirals with room for only one person at a time. Then we made it to the dome but not the top which was cool since it overlooked the entire church. After this point we started up the rough/steep part. There was room for barely one person at a time and you were basically climbing up a ladder since it was so steep, meanwhile people are also trying to come down. I was scared to say the least.
Luckily, I made it down without tripping even once and we made it home safe and sound. We all laid around for a while relaxing before starting dinner for the night. It was taco night so I started on the meat while April cut up the veggies for our fixings. The meal was a little plain since apparently they dont sell taco mix in Italy, who would've thought? We were all stuffed afterward and headed to bed for an early night in preparation for our packed weekend!
Love and Miss everyone! XO
Friday, February 18, 2011
My New Favorite Trattoria!
Hello Everyone! It's been a few days since my last post but, nothing too exciting happens during the week since I'm in class! I'll try to catch you up!
Monday, aka Valentines Day, was delicious! After getting ready the roommates and I started on an adventure to find a restaurant I read about in one of my travel guides. The place sounded perfect and in case it wasn't, we had two backup places on the same street! We were venturing into a new section of the city, Santa Maria Novella, so I wasn't surprised when we got a little off track. Unfortunately we missed our turn so instead of taking the direct route we just went a round about way. Some of the roommates weren't happy since they made the same mistake I had made the week before of wearing heels. We finally made it to the right street and then we just had to find the actual restaurant. After walking down basically to the end of the street we found it! We walked inside and were nervous since the place was alot more casual and smaller than the book had said plus no one spoke English. We waited a few minutes for a table to free up and sat down. The waitress came over and said RED or WHITEEE? We were mildly confused until she started making the sign for drinking, in that case we'll take WHITEEE! haha
Next a larger man from the kitchen approached us and asked us if we were English, well duhh. He explained that his English wasn't so good and that the only option for the night was a set menu and he was about to read it to us aka no menus. He rattled off about 10 choices and said to pick a first course. My head was spinning with all the choices but I settled for a seafood risotto. Then he started naming about 10 more choices and told us to pick our main dish. This wasn't hard for me since the first item he said was beef coins and potatos in a spicy tomato sauce, YES PLEASE! Finally he rattled off a few choices for sides and me being so preoccupied with thoughts of the beef, ordered roasted potatos even though potatos came with my meal.
Only a few short minutes later the first courses arrived and my eyes popped out of head head at the size of the portion of risotto in front of me. The risotto was amazing and had chunks of what I believe was lobster, shrimp, and crab but it was so big I had to ask my roommates for help eating it! The second courses came out shortly after and I had to prepare myself to keep eating since I was already on the verge of being stuffed, that is until I saw my dish. The beef was cooked perfectly and the sauce on the potatos was to die for. The roasted potatos came out at the same time and were also delcious so of course I ate the entire thing. Even though I was completely stuffed I couldn't help but want to order something sweet for dessert on Valentines Day. Everyone else agreed so we ordered some more wine and for dessert I got strawberries covered in homemade whipped cream. AMAZING! We were all insanely stuffed so we wobbled our way home and into bed. I know I've said this alot but this is my absolute favorite place in Florence! We got all this food for only 16 Euro, they didn't even charge us for our wine refills! We will definitely going back soon and frequently!
Tuesday was nothing exciting but on Wednesday I had to go to Ganzo to work the Wine Corner for my Tuscany and Its Wines course. Wine Corner is when one of the wine class sets up a table with usually two choices for red wine and one sparkling wine. Also available is an array of appetizers and a full bar. Each drink is 5 euro and then its all you can eat so it was pretty fun even though during my shift which was the first one, not many people were there yet. As we were leaving alot of people were entering so I think when we have to go back for April's turn at Wine Corner we'll go a little later.
Thursday I had class again; Wine class was fun since we tried a white wine for the first time and it was delicious! We also tried a dessert wine and I can honestly say I felt sick after trying it, I will never order a sweet wine! The third wine was a red and extremely dry, not for me. After wine class I ate some left over lunch from earlier in the day and then headed out to Italian class. My head is really starting to spin from class, Italian is simliar to Spanish so its confusing me plus there are so many exceptions to every rule...I'm going to need to sign up for a tutor soon!
For dinner we went back to a cafe on our street that we had gone to before but has been closed for renovations. We honestly couldn't tell what they had renovated but it didn't matter since the food was just was delcious as we remebered. We ordered bruchsettetone for an appetizer which is brushetta with mozzerlla cheese melted ontop and I ordered gnocchi in a tomato, oregano, and garlic sauce for my entree. Both were delcious except I wasn't expected my gnocchi to be spicy!
Today we woke up really late to the sound of the cleaning lady entering the apartment. We looked at the time and realized it was almost noon so we jumped out of bed and went to the San Lorenzo market to get the items we need to prepare dinner for the night. It's my night to cook so I decided on Taco night! We got the meat and cheese fresh as well as the veggies needed for the filling at the market so if all goes as planned it should be a successful dinner!
Now April, Anna, Jen, and I are heading down toward the Santa Croce Piazza to get some 1 euro pizza then stroll around the city and maybe walk to the top of the Duomo! Tomorrow we are taking a trip with ISA to the town Assisi and then Sunday we are going with ISA to Sienna and San Gimingnano so I have a busy rest of the weekend.
Hope everyone back home is having a good time in the great weather! Love and Miss all of you!
Monday, aka Valentines Day, was delicious! After getting ready the roommates and I started on an adventure to find a restaurant I read about in one of my travel guides. The place sounded perfect and in case it wasn't, we had two backup places on the same street! We were venturing into a new section of the city, Santa Maria Novella, so I wasn't surprised when we got a little off track. Unfortunately we missed our turn so instead of taking the direct route we just went a round about way. Some of the roommates weren't happy since they made the same mistake I had made the week before of wearing heels. We finally made it to the right street and then we just had to find the actual restaurant. After walking down basically to the end of the street we found it! We walked inside and were nervous since the place was alot more casual and smaller than the book had said plus no one spoke English. We waited a few minutes for a table to free up and sat down. The waitress came over and said RED or WHITEEE? We were mildly confused until she started making the sign for drinking, in that case we'll take WHITEEE! haha
Next a larger man from the kitchen approached us and asked us if we were English, well duhh. He explained that his English wasn't so good and that the only option for the night was a set menu and he was about to read it to us aka no menus. He rattled off about 10 choices and said to pick a first course. My head was spinning with all the choices but I settled for a seafood risotto. Then he started naming about 10 more choices and told us to pick our main dish. This wasn't hard for me since the first item he said was beef coins and potatos in a spicy tomato sauce, YES PLEASE! Finally he rattled off a few choices for sides and me being so preoccupied with thoughts of the beef, ordered roasted potatos even though potatos came with my meal.
Only a few short minutes later the first courses arrived and my eyes popped out of head head at the size of the portion of risotto in front of me. The risotto was amazing and had chunks of what I believe was lobster, shrimp, and crab but it was so big I had to ask my roommates for help eating it! The second courses came out shortly after and I had to prepare myself to keep eating since I was already on the verge of being stuffed, that is until I saw my dish. The beef was cooked perfectly and the sauce on the potatos was to die for. The roasted potatos came out at the same time and were also delcious so of course I ate the entire thing. Even though I was completely stuffed I couldn't help but want to order something sweet for dessert on Valentines Day. Everyone else agreed so we ordered some more wine and for dessert I got strawberries covered in homemade whipped cream. AMAZING! We were all insanely stuffed so we wobbled our way home and into bed. I know I've said this alot but this is my absolute favorite place in Florence! We got all this food for only 16 Euro, they didn't even charge us for our wine refills! We will definitely going back soon and frequently!
Tuesday was nothing exciting but on Wednesday I had to go to Ganzo to work the Wine Corner for my Tuscany and Its Wines course. Wine Corner is when one of the wine class sets up a table with usually two choices for red wine and one sparkling wine. Also available is an array of appetizers and a full bar. Each drink is 5 euro and then its all you can eat so it was pretty fun even though during my shift which was the first one, not many people were there yet. As we were leaving alot of people were entering so I think when we have to go back for April's turn at Wine Corner we'll go a little later.
Thursday I had class again; Wine class was fun since we tried a white wine for the first time and it was delicious! We also tried a dessert wine and I can honestly say I felt sick after trying it, I will never order a sweet wine! The third wine was a red and extremely dry, not for me. After wine class I ate some left over lunch from earlier in the day and then headed out to Italian class. My head is really starting to spin from class, Italian is simliar to Spanish so its confusing me plus there are so many exceptions to every rule...I'm going to need to sign up for a tutor soon!
For dinner we went back to a cafe on our street that we had gone to before but has been closed for renovations. We honestly couldn't tell what they had renovated but it didn't matter since the food was just was delcious as we remebered. We ordered bruchsettetone for an appetizer which is brushetta with mozzerlla cheese melted ontop and I ordered gnocchi in a tomato, oregano, and garlic sauce for my entree. Both were delcious except I wasn't expected my gnocchi to be spicy!
Today we woke up really late to the sound of the cleaning lady entering the apartment. We looked at the time and realized it was almost noon so we jumped out of bed and went to the San Lorenzo market to get the items we need to prepare dinner for the night. It's my night to cook so I decided on Taco night! We got the meat and cheese fresh as well as the veggies needed for the filling at the market so if all goes as planned it should be a successful dinner!
Now April, Anna, Jen, and I are heading down toward the Santa Croce Piazza to get some 1 euro pizza then stroll around the city and maybe walk to the top of the Duomo! Tomorrow we are taking a trip with ISA to the town Assisi and then Sunday we are going with ISA to Sienna and San Gimingnano so I have a busy rest of the weekend.
Hope everyone back home is having a good time in the great weather! Love and Miss all of you!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Se ami qualcuno, portalo a Verona
Translation: If you love someone, bring them to Verona.
I have to say, I was surprised at how truly beautiful Verona, Italy was. The trip with Florence for Fun and all my roommates was a last minute trip booked earlier in the week; I put off booking the trip because I wasn't sure I was interested in visiting a city already known for being romantic and of course this weekend was the weekend before Valentines Day so Verona holds a festival called "Verona In Love".
After looking over the tour schedule for the day and the low price, I decided to book the trip. I'm so glad I did because it was AMAZING. Once getting into Verona by private coach bus, I was amazed to see how clean, traditional, and beauiful every single building was. I don't think there was one building I saw during our entire day trip that wasn't decorated with ivory vines, flowers, iron balcony gates, or something for Valentines day!
We began our tour with a break, since we had been on the bus for 3 hours. We ran across the street to a little bar for some cappachinos and an awesome chocolate/nutella filled croissant. The tour then really began in Piazza Bra; a gorgeous fountain and park situated right next to the Roman Arena. The Roman Arena is similar to the Colessum in Rome and is considered the third largest amphitheater in existance seating around 30,000 people. During the summer months, it rivals the Syndey Opera House with its Verona Opera Festival. To get into the center of the romantic city of Verona, you enter under the Porta Borsari which is an arch that is believed to be built during 1st century AD, AND ITS STILL STANDING TALL.
Next we went to the Lover's Well. The story behind the Lover's Well is that two young Veronese were in love but the man believed that the woman in the relationship was incapable of committing herself to him quoting that "the blood in your veins is as cold as the water at the bottom of the well" In response the woman said "if you really loved me you would jump into the bottom of the well to see how cold that water really is" Since the man truly loved her, he jumped into the well and the woman felt so terrible and missed him as soon as he jumped so she jumped in after him and the two disappeared together forever. Now people are suppossed to drop a coin into the well and while its dropping think about what they would like thier ultimate destiny to be and it will come true. Of course I threw some coins in!
While on our way to the next sight be were walked through Piazza delle Erbe, the most famous and exciting Piazza in Verona. The Piazza is filled with restaurants, shops, the fountain Lady of Verona, the 14th Century Garadello Tower which is topped with statues of the six divinities. This area was swarmed with tourists for obvious reasons.
Next we walked to the Ponte Pietra, a bridge that was originally constructed in 1503 then rebuilt several times in wood then stone then wood then stone etc. From the bridge we were able to see the Castel San Pietro, which was formerly an Austrian barrack and is now closed to the public but its still gorgeous.
After the bridge we made our way to Basilica of Saint Anastasia. The outside of the church was beautiful with a mix of reniassance and spanish architeture. We went inside and of course the ceiling paintings were breathtaking. The only weird part was that there was a church service in progress but anyone was allowed to enter and look around the church while this was happening. Anna and I felt super awkward so we made our way outside after only a few pictures.
After the church we went to the Arche Scaligeri. Apparently most Italian cities have like one major family that runs everything for years and then in taken down and disappear. Verona's family is the Scala Family. The Arche Scaligeri is a court yard outside of a church which is filled with the tombs of the Scala Family and protected by ornate iron fences.
Conveintly around the corner from the Scala family was Romeo's house. that is if you would like to call a cement wall with a sign and wooden garage door as a house. When I think of Romeo's house I think of a mansion like in Shakespeare but it's nothing like that at all aka disappointing.
Luckily around the corner from Romeo's wall were the Roman Ruins. The Ruins are actually located below the city so in a courtyard there were large glass circles you could look through. Its insane but there are still mosaics that are intact and beautiful!
Our last guided location was to Juliet's house. Our tour guide led us down a little road, we turned left and were greeted by swormes of tourists. There is a tunnel which is covered in peoples writing of thier lovers all over the wall which opens into a small court yard. The courtyard was jam-packed with people taking pictures, kissing, waiting in line to enter Juliet's house and go to her balcony, and poeple waiting in line to take a picture with the bronze statue of Juliet. We waited in line for 5 minutes before we were tired of waiting to stand on a balcony so we just went and took a picture with the statue. In my picture you can see that I'm grabbing her boob. No, I'm not a pervert, I had good reason! According to ledgend, if you rub Juliet's left boob then you are suppossed to get good fortune while finding a new lover!
After Juilet's balcony we were free to explore the city on our own. Of course our first priority was FOOD. Verona is known for the serving of cavallo aka horse. Our one roommates was totally against this and another doesn't eat red meat so the group split in half; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I wasn't going to pass up the chance to try some! Anna, April, and I asked our tour guide for some suggestions of place to eat, unfortunately we got a little lost looking for her restuarant before getting there. Once we got there we were shocked to see the menu where there wasn't anything for under 30 Euro, PASS.
We wandered the streets as it began to rain still looking for a place that served cavallo when we came upon a place that looked quiet from the outside. We opened the door was were greeted by a delicious smell of veggies, meat, dessert, and just plain goodness along all of the those ingredients beings hung on display! We waited a few minutes in the busy restuarant before anyone who worked there even saw us. Finally we were approached by an Italian woman who said something in Italian and we replied "Three please". Then to our surprise she goes "No. No Room. Bye." We stood there confused before a man working behind the bar came over and asked us if we needed help. We told him again that we were 3 but we were told NO AGAIN! He felt awkward when we asked if we could wait and stumbled with his words before saying the kitchen was closing. It was like 10 minutes until two on the busiest weekend of the year for Verona, we were clearly American and unwanted.
We walked around in the rain for about 20 minutes until we were starving, wet, and therefore aggitated. We went to other first restuarant we saw which ended up actually being pretty good. I was in the mood for meat since I was teased with the horse meat so I ordered beef stew with a side of veggies and roasted potatos. We all wanted to try Verona's specialty wine but it was 11 euro per glass, too bad I'm on a budget. Instead I ordered another Verona specialty drink, a spritzer! I'm still not sure exactly whats in it but its orange, bubbly, and yummy!
After lunch it stopped raining so we walked to another piazza where the love festival was taking place. The festival was surprisingly smaller than we all expected but we made the best of it by trying all the samples. I tried several white wines and ended up buying a Soave ( Veronese White Wine Specialty) and Verona in Love Limited Edition White Zinfindel, both to share with Anna. I also tried a bunch of different olive oils and cheeses which were delicious but not worth the euro's or having to carry them for the rest of the day.
We also went to a bakery where I wanted a piece of almond shortbread covered in grappa but unfortunately it was only avalible by the entire pie which i also didnt want to carry so I settled for an animal marzipan. I have no idea what it was but they are a specialty of Verona and were only .60 euro so I tried it. The middle was good but the outsiede which was bright pink was a weird taste so I quickly finished it before we walked around more.
Before meeting the group to leave for the day, we wanted to try what else? Gelato! The three of us decided that we were going to try gelato in every Italian city so at the end of the trip we could decide which city makes the best. For Verona i settled on Fraggola (strawberry) and something about mixed berry in a cone. The strawberry was pretty good but not my favorite and the berry tasted like Trix yogurt. Verona is definately not at the top of the gelato list. We still had some time to kill and it started to rain again making it cold outside so we wandered into a cafe and split a bottle of white wine.
The bus ride home we watched Romeo and Juliet then How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days while I doozed on and off and ate some of the free chocolate stuffed with nutella. It was a lovely day all around!
Hope everyone is enjoying thier Valentines Day, all the roommates and I are going to a romantic restaurant with a set menu near Santa Maria Novella.
Love and Miss all of you!
While on our way to the next sight be were walked through Piazza delle Erbe, the most famous and exciting Piazza in Verona. The Piazza is filled with restaurants, shops, the fountain Lady of Verona, the 14th Century Garadello Tower which is topped with statues of the six divinities. This area was swarmed with tourists for obvious reasons.
After the church we went to the Arche Scaligeri. Apparently most Italian cities have like one major family that runs everything for years and then in taken down and disappear. Verona's family is the Scala Family. The Arche Scaligeri is a court yard outside of a church which is filled with the tombs of the Scala Family and protected by ornate iron fences.
Luckily around the corner from Romeo's wall were the Roman Ruins. The Ruins are actually located below the city so in a courtyard there were large glass circles you could look through. Its insane but there are still mosaics that are intact and beautiful!
Our last guided location was to Juliet's house. Our tour guide led us down a little road, we turned left and were greeted by swormes of tourists. There is a tunnel which is covered in peoples writing of thier lovers all over the wall which opens into a small court yard. The courtyard was jam-packed with people taking pictures, kissing, waiting in line to enter Juliet's house and go to her balcony, and poeple waiting in line to take a picture with the bronze statue of Juliet. We waited in line for 5 minutes before we were tired of waiting to stand on a balcony so we just went and took a picture with the statue. In my picture you can see that I'm grabbing her boob. No, I'm not a pervert, I had good reason! According to ledgend, if you rub Juliet's left boob then you are suppossed to get good fortune while finding a new lover!
After Juilet's balcony we were free to explore the city on our own. Of course our first priority was FOOD. Verona is known for the serving of cavallo aka horse. Our one roommates was totally against this and another doesn't eat red meat so the group split in half; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity so I wasn't going to pass up the chance to try some! Anna, April, and I asked our tour guide for some suggestions of place to eat, unfortunately we got a little lost looking for her restuarant before getting there. Once we got there we were shocked to see the menu where there wasn't anything for under 30 Euro, PASS.
We wandered the streets as it began to rain still looking for a place that served cavallo when we came upon a place that looked quiet from the outside. We opened the door was were greeted by a delicious smell of veggies, meat, dessert, and just plain goodness along all of the those ingredients beings hung on display! We waited a few minutes in the busy restuarant before anyone who worked there even saw us. Finally we were approached by an Italian woman who said something in Italian and we replied "Three please". Then to our surprise she goes "No. No Room. Bye." We stood there confused before a man working behind the bar came over and asked us if we needed help. We told him again that we were 3 but we were told NO AGAIN! He felt awkward when we asked if we could wait and stumbled with his words before saying the kitchen was closing. It was like 10 minutes until two on the busiest weekend of the year for Verona, we were clearly American and unwanted.
After lunch it stopped raining so we walked to another piazza where the love festival was taking place. The festival was surprisingly smaller than we all expected but we made the best of it by trying all the samples. I tried several white wines and ended up buying a Soave ( Veronese White Wine Specialty) and Verona in Love Limited Edition White Zinfindel, both to share with Anna. I also tried a bunch of different olive oils and cheeses which were delicious but not worth the euro's or having to carry them for the rest of the day.
We also went to a bakery where I wanted a piece of almond shortbread covered in grappa but unfortunately it was only avalible by the entire pie which i also didnt want to carry so I settled for an animal marzipan. I have no idea what it was but they are a specialty of Verona and were only .60 euro so I tried it. The middle was good but the outsiede which was bright pink was a weird taste so I quickly finished it before we walked around more.
Before meeting the group to leave for the day, we wanted to try what else? Gelato! The three of us decided that we were going to try gelato in every Italian city so at the end of the trip we could decide which city makes the best. For Verona i settled on Fraggola (strawberry) and something about mixed berry in a cone. The strawberry was pretty good but not my favorite and the berry tasted like Trix yogurt. Verona is definately not at the top of the gelato list. We still had some time to kill and it started to rain again making it cold outside so we wandered into a cafe and split a bottle of white wine.
The bus ride home we watched Romeo and Juliet then How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days while I doozed on and off and ate some of the free chocolate stuffed with nutella. It was a lovely day all around!
Hope everyone is enjoying thier Valentines Day, all the roommates and I are going to a romantic restaurant with a set menu near Santa Maria Novella.Love and Miss all of you!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
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
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
Sunday, February 6, 2011
An exciting Saturday!
Yesterday was an extremely success shopping day! Anna, April, Jen, and I started the day at the San Lorenzo market which was much more crowded then the first time Anna and I went. The shops were all the same so I thought it would be easy to find the coat I liked last time I was there but of course nothing is as simple as it should be. We wandered the market and made a few small purchases but then decided we were all starving so we headed toward the Duomo to grab a quick lunch. On the way we spotted the jacket I wanted so we went inside the shop to try it on and it looked awful. We were about to leave when I spotted another jacket figuring what could it hurt just to try it on? I loved it! Its a black pea coat with double buttons up the front, its perfect to replace my other jacket plus it was only 30 euro!
We stopped at the most crowded pizzeria in Piazza del Duomo figuring if it was crowded it must be good! Jenn and I decided to split a piece of pepperoni pizza and a ham and cheese calzone. Well the calzone was cold, and the pizza ended up being priced according to weight so we paid 4.50 euro for a slice of pizza. Not good. Fortunately the taste of the pizza made up for the expense and the crappy calzone.
Next we went to a book store so I could buy the rest of my books then went to get gelato at GROM only a few doors down. It was delicious and they had flavors I had never seen before like apple, pear, and caramel. Unfortunately its frowned upon in Italy to request samples of the flavors so I just played it safe and ordered a hazelnut and chocolate chip mix. I didn't like that the chips were dark chocolate but once I got past them, the hazelnut was unreal.
We walked with our gelato to the chocolate festival in Santa Croce and were greeted with a giant marching band dressed up as jokers. We wandered the festival looking at all the crazy creations people can make out of chocolate like roses, shoes, and tools!
I bought two truffles, a Fragola filled chocolate lady bug and a Fragola and champagne truffle. The lady bug was amazing and its still saving the other truffle for another time. Of course I still hadn't had enough unhealthy foods for the day and ordered a cup of strawberrys and pineapples covered in melted chocolate. I feel a bit repetitive but DELICIOUS!
Around this time we were all feeling stuffed so we walked off all our calories along the Arno in the sunshine. We made our way all the way past the Ponte Vecchio where we had never been before to find an H&M to shop at but when we got to the address there was no H&M. April asked a taccachi stand and the owner told us haccha a emme (apparently italian for H&M) doesn't exist there, its really across town. Fortunately Jen had to walk down designer row for her class so we went in shops like Gucci, Prada, and Roberto Cavalli before making our way to H&M. We finally got there and I was in heaven, its massive! Four floors of all my favorite clothing! I ended up buying 2 shirts, a skirt (so I can go to church since you aren't allowed to wear jeans), and a purse.
We all went home got ready then headed out to dinner. Shelbi and Jen were both meeting friends so dinner so Anna, April, and I ventured out to find a restuarant that had good reviews from one of my travel guides. It wasn't a far walk and the atmosphere was cute and the waiter even cuter. Too bad when I had questions about the menu we realized he barely spoke English. I ended up ordering beef tortellini in a meat sauce and it was delicious! Along with dinner we shared a bottle of delicious white wine.
After dinner we met back up with Jen and her friends at our new favorite bar, The Lion's Fountain. The crowd is a good mix of girls, guys, locals, and students and the ceilings is covered with American university t-shirts signed by students. The music is a good mix playing, Sublime, Bon Jovi, and Black Eyed Peas. We stayed for a little while then headed to another pub for some drink specials. The Fish Pub can't be described as anything other than creepy. The people, the decor, the drinks. We stayed for one drink then headed to another pub to check out their specials. The Old Stove was packed with locals watching a futball game and sharing beers. We stayed for one drink then moved out of their view of the television. We decided to go back to the Lion's Fountain since we liked it and met some new friends. We stayed at Lion's Fountain until it got pretty crowded and then decided to go with some locals to a 90's and 80's bar. We wandered the streets before coming across the discreet location of The Blob. The music was all of the 90's and 80's and the place was filled with locals. We mingled and danced the night away.
Today Anna, April, and I ventured down the street to the Wash and Dry since that washing machine still hasn't been fixed and we were getting down to our last pairs of socks! The washers and dryers were surprisingly large and efficient, too bad its 3.50 euro per wash and dry. It was worth the money to have some clean underwear though! For the rest of the day all the roommates worked on homework and researched what we are doing about our trips and spring break.
April is working on making her delicious cheesy cream sauce and Anna is washing some dishes in preparation for dinner tonight. Since its the Superbowl, I looked around a little and made reservations for all of us to watch the game. Shelbi goes to school in Philly so shes rooting for the Steelers and Jen is a die hard Packers fan, sooo tonight should be interesting!
Love and miss everyone! xo
We stopped at the most crowded pizzeria in Piazza del Duomo figuring if it was crowded it must be good! Jenn and I decided to split a piece of pepperoni pizza and a ham and cheese calzone. Well the calzone was cold, and the pizza ended up being priced according to weight so we paid 4.50 euro for a slice of pizza. Not good. Fortunately the taste of the pizza made up for the expense and the crappy calzone.Next we went to a book store so I could buy the rest of my books then went to get gelato at GROM only a few doors down. It was delicious and they had flavors I had never seen before like apple, pear, and caramel. Unfortunately its frowned upon in Italy to request samples of the flavors so I just played it safe and ordered a hazelnut and chocolate chip mix. I didn't like that the chips were dark chocolate but once I got past them, the hazelnut was unreal.
We walked with our gelato to the chocolate festival in Santa Croce and were greeted with a giant marching band dressed up as jokers. We wandered the festival looking at all the crazy creations people can make out of chocolate like roses, shoes, and tools! I bought two truffles, a Fragola filled chocolate lady bug and a Fragola and champagne truffle. The lady bug was amazing and its still saving the other truffle for another time. Of course I still hadn't had enough unhealthy foods for the day and ordered a cup of strawberrys and pineapples covered in melted chocolate. I feel a bit repetitive but DELICIOUS!
We all went home got ready then headed out to dinner. Shelbi and Jen were both meeting friends so dinner so Anna, April, and I ventured out to find a restuarant that had good reviews from one of my travel guides. It wasn't a far walk and the atmosphere was cute and the waiter even cuter. Too bad when I had questions about the menu we realized he barely spoke English. I ended up ordering beef tortellini in a meat sauce and it was delicious! Along with dinner we shared a bottle of delicious white wine.
After dinner we met back up with Jen and her friends at our new favorite bar, The Lion's Fountain. The crowd is a good mix of girls, guys, locals, and students and the ceilings is covered with American university t-shirts signed by students. The music is a good mix playing, Sublime, Bon Jovi, and Black Eyed Peas. We stayed for a little while then headed to another pub for some drink specials. The Fish Pub can't be described as anything other than creepy. The people, the decor, the drinks. We stayed for one drink then headed to another pub to check out their specials. The Old Stove was packed with locals watching a futball game and sharing beers. We stayed for one drink then moved out of their view of the television. We decided to go back to the Lion's Fountain since we liked it and met some new friends. We stayed at Lion's Fountain until it got pretty crowded and then decided to go with some locals to a 90's and 80's bar. We wandered the streets before coming across the discreet location of The Blob. The music was all of the 90's and 80's and the place was filled with locals. We mingled and danced the night away.Today Anna, April, and I ventured down the street to the Wash and Dry since that washing machine still hasn't been fixed and we were getting down to our last pairs of socks! The washers and dryers were surprisingly large and efficient, too bad its 3.50 euro per wash and dry. It was worth the money to have some clean underwear though! For the rest of the day all the roommates worked on homework and researched what we are doing about our trips and spring break.
April is working on making her delicious cheesy cream sauce and Anna is washing some dishes in preparation for dinner tonight. Since its the Superbowl, I looked around a little and made reservations for all of us to watch the game. Shelbi goes to school in Philly so shes rooting for the Steelers and Jen is a die hard Packers fan, sooo tonight should be interesting!
Love and miss everyone! xo
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Sto male :(
Hello Everyone! Sorry its been a few days, things were busier with class and unfortunately but predictably, I've caught a cold. After a few days I'm starting to feel better but I'm still stuffed up :( Anyway, I'll start where I left off...
Anna and I went to our Cultural Anthropology class only to be greeted by a large, pessimistic professor. As usual we were asked to fill out a sheet with our name, major, home university, why were were in florence, what we wanted to learn from her class, and 3 words to describe ourselves. Usually after filling out the sheet we would pass them forward and begin class but this woman decides that we all have to share our answers. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing except after you read aloud your feelings, she shuts you down and laughs at you. After one girl said that one of her words was 'family-oriented' the professor asked if her family felt the same way, laughed out loud, and said NEXT. After we got through everyone's brief biography she handed out the syllabus. It states that we have to make a presentation to the class every week, we have a 10 page research paper, weekly quizzes, mid term, final, and 3 mandatory trips that we must fund on our own. Anna and I looked at each other wide eyed as the professor began to show her lecture slides. On one of the first few slides there was a picture of famished people crawling toward water when our professor explains, "In about 30 years when I'll hopefully be dead, all of you will slowing die out since the earth is going to run out of water resources. HAHAHA" Stunned from the morbid comment I looked at Anna and we both decided that when she announced our mid-class break, we were leaving and dropping the course. I'm not going to waste my precious time in Italy slaving over course work for an unhappy woman when I could take the course at home and actually enjoy it.
After leaving class we called the roommates and had them meet us for dinner. We decided on a little ristorante that was on our walk back to the apartment, it was perfect because it had a set menu for only 12 Euro. I ordered beef tortellini as my first course, roasted veal as my second course, and a fruit medley as my dessert, all accompanied by a glass of sweet white wine. After dinner we headed home and went to bed in-preparation for our thursday classes.
My first class of the day on Thursday began at noon, Tuscany and It's Wines. I absolutely adore my professor, and can't wait for class next week. Our syllabus includes light homework such as enjoying a glass of wine then describing it in a one page paper, a mid term, a final, and a prepaid trip to a wine vineyard. Every class we are taught about a specific feature of wine and given a lecture then a break. After the break we are given three different wines to sample and then given brief information about them. I'm really hoping to learn alot from this course and my professor.
After class I went grocery shopping then headed home and made myself some lunch. After lunch I met up with my friend Chelsea and we headed to Italian class. The class was informative but also torturous with a cold, I was sneezing, coughing, and constantly blowing my nose! Of course everytime I sneezed the class and professor would all shout SALUTE! (Good health in Italian) then look at me all red faced and with a tissue glued to my nose, beyond embarrassing. From class I went straight home, did my Italian homework while it was fresh in my brain then went to bed. I woke up an hour later feeling refreshed and famished. Luckily the roommates began cooking while I took my nap!
For dinner we had a mixed green salad, fresh bread, and rollitini pasta in a red sauce. For a dinner accompaniment, I had picked up a bottle of red wine that I needed to taste as homework for my wine class. Usually I don't drink red wine but after learning about it in class that afternoon I gave it a shot and it wasn't terrible, but still not my first choice. We all cleaned up from dinner and decided that it was a Thursday night and we should all go out to celebrate a successful first week of classes! A few boys we are friends with from the program invited us to join them in trying out a new jazz club so we got ready and headed out!
Of course I made the dumb mistake of wearing heals. We ended up getting lost and surprisingly, aimlessly wandering around cobble stone streets in heels is not fun. After reaching several dead ends and making numerous circles, the girls and I decided to make our own fun and left the boys. We ended up a bar around the corner from our apartment where we had been last week. The place wasn't nearly as full as last week so there was actually room to dance and we were all having a genuinely good time singing along to our favorite songs. We were all getting tired and decided it was time to call it a night. We walked over to the booth to get our jackets, everyone walked away with theirs but when I went over to get mine, there were no more coats. I grabbed my friend and had her help me look through other plies of of coats but it was useless, my coat was gone. Of course after having such a good night, something had to go wrong, my favorite and only coat gets stolen.
Friday morning I woke up feeling sicker then before and completely regretting going out the night before when I was already sick and now my coat was gone. I stayed in bed watching TV for a while and turned down the girls when they asked if I wanted to go out shopping and strolling around town since it was beautiful out. I slept and read through most of the day finally getting up to shower around 4. The girls came home and we watched from TV and did homework until we decided to go out to dinner around 8. As usual we never know where we are going before we go, we just walk around and hope for the best.
After walking down a few streets into a neighborhood we haven't seen yet, we saw a large group of people and walked their way. As it turns out, they were all waiting outside the theater for a show but there was a packed restaurant right across the street. We checkout the menu and headed inside. I ordered gnocchi in a creamy tomato sauce covered in melted mozzarella cheese. It was beyond delicious and I ate every single gnocchi. After dinner my sweet tooth kicked in and I decided to order a dessert, pear and chocolate mini cake. The cake wasn't so mini and was covered in melted chocolate and had vanilla pudding on the side. The cake was beyond moist inside and wasn't too rich, and the slices of warm pear inside were the perfect touch. After seeing how much I was enjoying my dessert, my roommate decided to order another one for herself! We walked off our dinner on the way home then got ready for bed and watched tv before falling asleep.
I'm feeling better after resting all day yesterday so we are all going to go out for the day. I need to get books for some of my classes, need a new converter, a new coat, and of course need to visit the chocolate festival that I missed yesterday! Love and miss everyone! xo
Anna and I went to our Cultural Anthropology class only to be greeted by a large, pessimistic professor. As usual we were asked to fill out a sheet with our name, major, home university, why were were in florence, what we wanted to learn from her class, and 3 words to describe ourselves. Usually after filling out the sheet we would pass them forward and begin class but this woman decides that we all have to share our answers. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing except after you read aloud your feelings, she shuts you down and laughs at you. After one girl said that one of her words was 'family-oriented' the professor asked if her family felt the same way, laughed out loud, and said NEXT. After we got through everyone's brief biography she handed out the syllabus. It states that we have to make a presentation to the class every week, we have a 10 page research paper, weekly quizzes, mid term, final, and 3 mandatory trips that we must fund on our own. Anna and I looked at each other wide eyed as the professor began to show her lecture slides. On one of the first few slides there was a picture of famished people crawling toward water when our professor explains, "In about 30 years when I'll hopefully be dead, all of you will slowing die out since the earth is going to run out of water resources. HAHAHA" Stunned from the morbid comment I looked at Anna and we both decided that when she announced our mid-class break, we were leaving and dropping the course. I'm not going to waste my precious time in Italy slaving over course work for an unhappy woman when I could take the course at home and actually enjoy it.
After leaving class we called the roommates and had them meet us for dinner. We decided on a little ristorante that was on our walk back to the apartment, it was perfect because it had a set menu for only 12 Euro. I ordered beef tortellini as my first course, roasted veal as my second course, and a fruit medley as my dessert, all accompanied by a glass of sweet white wine. After dinner we headed home and went to bed in-preparation for our thursday classes.
My first class of the day on Thursday began at noon, Tuscany and It's Wines. I absolutely adore my professor, and can't wait for class next week. Our syllabus includes light homework such as enjoying a glass of wine then describing it in a one page paper, a mid term, a final, and a prepaid trip to a wine vineyard. Every class we are taught about a specific feature of wine and given a lecture then a break. After the break we are given three different wines to sample and then given brief information about them. I'm really hoping to learn alot from this course and my professor.
After class I went grocery shopping then headed home and made myself some lunch. After lunch I met up with my friend Chelsea and we headed to Italian class. The class was informative but also torturous with a cold, I was sneezing, coughing, and constantly blowing my nose! Of course everytime I sneezed the class and professor would all shout SALUTE! (Good health in Italian) then look at me all red faced and with a tissue glued to my nose, beyond embarrassing. From class I went straight home, did my Italian homework while it was fresh in my brain then went to bed. I woke up an hour later feeling refreshed and famished. Luckily the roommates began cooking while I took my nap!
For dinner we had a mixed green salad, fresh bread, and rollitini pasta in a red sauce. For a dinner accompaniment, I had picked up a bottle of red wine that I needed to taste as homework for my wine class. Usually I don't drink red wine but after learning about it in class that afternoon I gave it a shot and it wasn't terrible, but still not my first choice. We all cleaned up from dinner and decided that it was a Thursday night and we should all go out to celebrate a successful first week of classes! A few boys we are friends with from the program invited us to join them in trying out a new jazz club so we got ready and headed out!
Of course I made the dumb mistake of wearing heals. We ended up getting lost and surprisingly, aimlessly wandering around cobble stone streets in heels is not fun. After reaching several dead ends and making numerous circles, the girls and I decided to make our own fun and left the boys. We ended up a bar around the corner from our apartment where we had been last week. The place wasn't nearly as full as last week so there was actually room to dance and we were all having a genuinely good time singing along to our favorite songs. We were all getting tired and decided it was time to call it a night. We walked over to the booth to get our jackets, everyone walked away with theirs but when I went over to get mine, there were no more coats. I grabbed my friend and had her help me look through other plies of of coats but it was useless, my coat was gone. Of course after having such a good night, something had to go wrong, my favorite and only coat gets stolen.
Friday morning I woke up feeling sicker then before and completely regretting going out the night before when I was already sick and now my coat was gone. I stayed in bed watching TV for a while and turned down the girls when they asked if I wanted to go out shopping and strolling around town since it was beautiful out. I slept and read through most of the day finally getting up to shower around 4. The girls came home and we watched from TV and did homework until we decided to go out to dinner around 8. As usual we never know where we are going before we go, we just walk around and hope for the best.
After walking down a few streets into a neighborhood we haven't seen yet, we saw a large group of people and walked their way. As it turns out, they were all waiting outside the theater for a show but there was a packed restaurant right across the street. We checkout the menu and headed inside. I ordered gnocchi in a creamy tomato sauce covered in melted mozzarella cheese. It was beyond delicious and I ate every single gnocchi. After dinner my sweet tooth kicked in and I decided to order a dessert, pear and chocolate mini cake. The cake wasn't so mini and was covered in melted chocolate and had vanilla pudding on the side. The cake was beyond moist inside and wasn't too rich, and the slices of warm pear inside were the perfect touch. After seeing how much I was enjoying my dessert, my roommate decided to order another one for herself! We walked off our dinner on the way home then got ready for bed and watched tv before falling asleep.
I'm feeling better after resting all day yesterday so we are all going to go out for the day. I need to get books for some of my classes, need a new converter, a new coat, and of course need to visit the chocolate festival that I missed yesterday! Love and miss everyone! xo
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
I have a perfect jacket for you, just you...not Lady Gaga!
Yesterday was my day off so I planned to run errands with Anna in the morning and then go shopping and cook dinner at night. The day got off to a late start when I didn't wake up until 11:20am! Our room is so dark that when you wake up it looks like its the dead of the night when it's really almost noon! Anna and I got ready then walked down to the ISA office so we could sign up for all the trips we want to go on with the program. The office is adorable with modern art on all the walls, pamphlets and fliers for activities on all the shelves, and welcoming smiles on all the directors.
After leaving the ISA office, we walked along the Arno River. Seeing the Ponte Vecchio in the sunshine is beautiful! We easily found our way to Ganzo, the restaurant that we both have meal vouchers with through our program. Ganzo was crowded with students and customers but we were helped right away to pick up our vouchers and then sat down for lunch. The menu choice is to get soup and pasta, a make your own salad, or a sandwich with a side. I choose a ciabatta con roast beef e peccorino e roast potatos. I was nervous for the cheese since I had never heard of it but it was delicious! The ciabatta was fresh, the cheese tasted similar to asiago cheese, and the potatos were roasted perfectly! I am so glad that I have the meal vouchers and I'm also joining a wine club through Ganzo that meets weekly to taste and discuss food pairings with different wines.
After a stuffing lunch, Anna and I got lost looking for a building were we are supposed to have class. Luckily while wandering we found girls who are in the same program as us and were able to point us in the right direction. I dropped Anna off at her class and then went back to the apartment to OOVOO for a little with Mom. Shortly after getting home, the other roommates called me to join them for some shopping and gelato. I didn't end up making any purchases but a friend in the program, Luke, introduced us to some of the best gelato available in Florence. We walked into the shop and immediately it smelt like heaven, there were pastries and chocolate covering every available spot in this tiny shop. The gelato is made fresh in the back so I played it safe and ordered vanilla which I have no other words except, utterly. amazing. It was beyond creamy but not runny, and the favor was what vanilla should actually taste like. We took our gelato outside and sat at the Piazza de Republica in front of the merry-go-round, it was simply blissful.
Unfortunately the teeny cup of gelato ended so we went up to Luke's apartment to make comparisons to ours. The location was right on the piazza but was also down a sketchy ally and up 2 very steep flights of stairs. The apartment was pretty ordinary except they had art on the walls and a toaster oven! We were so jealous because we don't have a microwave OR a toaster oven. After the brief tour we headed back to our apartment to begin cooking dinner for the night. On the way home, I stopped to pick up a notebook for class and of course they are all overpriced so I ended up buying one large notebook for 5.50 euro and a folder for 1 euro.
For dinner, April cooked for the roommates an alfredo sauce with angel hair pasta. While April created her own alfredo sauce, I prepared a light salad, and Anna cut up some bread to dip in olive oil and balsamic. The dish ended up being delicious and we bought proper wine so the meal was a success to say the least.
Today before class, Anna and I walked around San Lorenzo which is a road dedicated to tiny shops selling everything from jackets to watches, face masks to sweat shirts. As we were walking all the vendors come up to you and are like "HI! CIAO! BUONGIORNO! LEATHER!" We learned to ignore them and keep walking until one vendor runs up to Anna and exclaims, "I have a perfect jacket for you, its perfect! It's just for you, not Lady Gaga!" We both burst out laughing and but kept walking....was I seriously called Lady Gaga this morning?! We walked for a while and I ended up buying a pair of authentic italian leather gloves with a cashmere lining for warmth.
After becoming a celebrity for a brief moment, I headed to my first class! I had World Religion and was able to find it no problem so I was about 10 minutes early and one of the first ones to class. My instructor seems like she knows what shes talking about and is dedicated to the subject. The class is going to be a decent amount of work since I have readings and homework assignments due each class along with a midterm, a 5 page paper, and a final. After class I headed home and made myself a fresh salami and mozzarella sandwich accompanied by some tomatoes while OOVOOing with Uncle Marty and Aunt Lisa. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen and am ready to head to my Italian class and then meet Anna for our Cultural Anthropology class together.
Miss everyone! xo
After a stuffing lunch, Anna and I got lost looking for a building were we are supposed to have class. Luckily while wandering we found girls who are in the same program as us and were able to point us in the right direction. I dropped Anna off at her class and then went back to the apartment to OOVOO for a little with Mom. Shortly after getting home, the other roommates called me to join them for some shopping and gelato. I didn't end up making any purchases but a friend in the program, Luke, introduced us to some of the best gelato available in Florence. We walked into the shop and immediately it smelt like heaven, there were pastries and chocolate covering every available spot in this tiny shop. The gelato is made fresh in the back so I played it safe and ordered vanilla which I have no other words except, utterly. amazing. It was beyond creamy but not runny, and the favor was what vanilla should actually taste like. We took our gelato outside and sat at the Piazza de Republica in front of the merry-go-round, it was simply blissful.
Unfortunately the teeny cup of gelato ended so we went up to Luke's apartment to make comparisons to ours. The location was right on the piazza but was also down a sketchy ally and up 2 very steep flights of stairs. The apartment was pretty ordinary except they had art on the walls and a toaster oven! We were so jealous because we don't have a microwave OR a toaster oven. After the brief tour we headed back to our apartment to begin cooking dinner for the night. On the way home, I stopped to pick up a notebook for class and of course they are all overpriced so I ended up buying one large notebook for 5.50 euro and a folder for 1 euro.
For dinner, April cooked for the roommates an alfredo sauce with angel hair pasta. While April created her own alfredo sauce, I prepared a light salad, and Anna cut up some bread to dip in olive oil and balsamic. The dish ended up being delicious and we bought proper wine so the meal was a success to say the least.
Today before class, Anna and I walked around San Lorenzo which is a road dedicated to tiny shops selling everything from jackets to watches, face masks to sweat shirts. As we were walking all the vendors come up to you and are like "HI! CIAO! BUONGIORNO! LEATHER!" We learned to ignore them and keep walking until one vendor runs up to Anna and exclaims, "I have a perfect jacket for you, its perfect! It's just for you, not Lady Gaga!" We both burst out laughing and but kept walking....was I seriously called Lady Gaga this morning?! We walked for a while and I ended up buying a pair of authentic italian leather gloves with a cashmere lining for warmth.
After becoming a celebrity for a brief moment, I headed to my first class! I had World Religion and was able to find it no problem so I was about 10 minutes early and one of the first ones to class. My instructor seems like she knows what shes talking about and is dedicated to the subject. The class is going to be a decent amount of work since I have readings and homework assignments due each class along with a midterm, a 5 page paper, and a final. After class I headed home and made myself a fresh salami and mozzarella sandwich accompanied by some tomatoes while OOVOOing with Uncle Marty and Aunt Lisa. I just finished cleaning up the kitchen and am ready to head to my Italian class and then meet Anna for our Cultural Anthropology class together.
Miss everyone! xo
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