Ciao amici!

Since I have legions of demanding fans, I have decided to write a final blog post to commemorate my time here.  This blog post will take the form of superlatives that are mostly about food and whatever else I think of.

Best Gelato:  My favorite gelataria is definitely la Strega Nocciola.  They have two locations in Florence and its family run and the guy who runs the one I usually go to always gives me a student discount. Their fruit flavored are excellent especially the strawberry but I risked my lactose intolerance for lavender which was amazing.  Runners up in the gelato category include Baccio from Roberto, Lime from Antica gelataria Fiorentina, and blackberry from gelataria dei neiri.

Best panino:  Another hard category considering how many sandwiches I ate.  My favorite sandwiches were the tuna sandwich I had at corner pub in Venice, the turkey sandwich from nobile bistro in Florence and the vegetarian sand which from panbriaco.

Best bread: sciaciatta.  The Italians don’t believe in using salt in their breads which basically makes them flavorless but sciaciatta has olive oil in it and it’s super delicious.  Good thing some of my favorite sandwiches were made on this bread!

Best pasta:  I ate tons and tons of pasta on this trip.  I ate a lot of pasta out and about but honestly the best pasta we had was probably at the home stay.  My warm and fuzzy feelings are only slightly dampened by the fact that most of the time I was full after eating the pasta, which was only the first course.  Stand outs include lucia’s troffie with homemade pesto sauce (she literally cut the basil from her garden), tagatelle with bolongese, and spaghetti with tomato sauce.

Best non gelato dessert:  Lucias biscotti cookies, which I have the recipe for hooray!!! (Even though it’s all in grams)

Best non pasta home stay food: I have definitely come around to prosciutto and cantaloupe and also the pork Lucia made on the second night was super delicious.

Worst homestay food:  anything with anchovies or capers.  Also still not very keen on eggs.

Best pizza:  Gusta pizza marinara

most used phrase:  “oggi ho mangiato…” Which means today I ate.  All other food vocabulary was also frequently used at dinner.

Most worn item:  a toss up between my Italian sneakers and mom’s white sweater.  Also sunscreen.

least worn item:  Lilly items.  Europeans don’t really wear colors so any of my Lilly stuff makes me stick out like a sore thumb.  Towards the end of the trip I realized Americans are identifiable pretty much no matter what since the fashion is just so different, so at the end I whipped out my elephant shorts a little more often.

Best class:  between Italian and art history definitely Italian.  I feel like I actually learned a lot of Italian and at this point my conversational Italian is probably better than my conversational Spanish.  Italian class was generally somewhat entertaining.  Art history was usually not but that was mostly due to our professor.

Best art:  the David

best view:  the view from our homestay really is so good, but the view from the top of the duomo is a little bit better

best homestay mom:  Lucia, duh.  We really feel we lucked out with our homestay experience.  The food was amazing and we learned a lot of Italian.

Best TV watching e perience:  watching Italy win a eurocup game was really fun but I’m also slightly invested in an Italian soap opera now.

most missed food:  chicken.  I will really miss Italy but I am looking forward to some chicken nuggets tomorrow.

I must return to my packing cubes now.

Arrividerci!

Flying Solo

ciao amici!

Yesterday I decided not to go to the cinque terre which turned out to be a pretty good decision.  Kerri said that the road wasn’t actually as curvy as the road to sienna, but that the hike which was advertised as a pleasant stroll turned out to be “no joke” and since we all know how much I love hiking it was probably alright that I decided to stay behind.

I began my morning by attempting to sleep in but then waking up at 7 because that’s just how it goes now.  I lounged around until 10 at which point I decided to go into the city center and do some things.   First I went to the strozzi palace where there was an art exhibit on loan from the Guggenheim.  I’m now very tired of looking at Renaissance paintings, especially of babies with the faces of full grown men, so some modern art was a refreshing change.  I really liked the pop art that was on display towards the end of the exhibit.  They were really big and very cool to see up close.

After the art exhibit I went to my favorite cheeseless pizza and some gelato.  I’ve recently taken to trying the vegan flavor so that I can expand beyond only fruit ones.  The vegan favors area usually kind of weird but typically turn out to be pretty good.  yesterday  I had coconut which was much better than I originally anticipated.   After lunch I walked over to piazzale michaelangelo which is a piazza where you climb up to have a great view of the city.  When I got to the top, it looked like the heavens were about to open so I promptly made my way back down.

On my way to take shelter I stumbled upon the Gallileo museum so I decided to go there.  The museum was really cool and it was great to see some science related things!  They had a bunch of old globes and maps which were cool to see and also a lot of navigating instruments.  There were a bunch of different rooms related to medical sciences, astronomy, and even cooking!  They also had gallileo’s finger on display which is apparently a thing that is done.  I would have found it kind of gross but I already saw st. Catherine’s decapitated head in the cathedral of sienna so a decaying finger really can’t phase me anymore.

I then headed home to take a short nap and do some hw before dinner.  I took a 2.5 hour nap instead.  Dinner was very yummy and we had pasta with pesto for the first course which was super delicious, but I am definitely looking forward to not eating 1.5 plates of pasta every night before the meal even starts.  It makes Lucia so happy when we eat her cooking though so I will push through.

After dinner we decided to go out.  This was the third night in a row we told Lucia we were going out and the previous two times we never actually made it out, partially due to my inability to move from the bed due to my stomach reaching maximum capacity.  She had friends over last night thought and we were like ugh out host mom is more social than us so that was the motivation we needed.  We met up with some friends from the program which was fun and of course the highlight was the secret bakery.

this morning we finally had a day off and since I hadn’t had enough Nutella in the past 8 hours we went to la milkeria where I got a Nutella filled crepe.  It was very delicious.  Then we walked around the city for a little bit before Kerri and I came home to do some work.  Dinner tonight was good but we got anchovies on our pizza again UGH but then we also got chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches so it turned out alright.  Here’s hoping this is the end of the anchovies!!

Buonanotte!

Italian pbs and other fun

Ciao amici!

I am on a roll and blogging two nights in a row wow.  This morning Kerri and I set our alarms to go for a run and then when we woke up it was raining so we were like just kidding and went back to sleep.

We took the bus this morning and c’era molto traffico and I got to class late and ran up   4 flights of stairs only to discover that I was still the first person there because Italians are much more lax than I am.  Italian class was good today and we talked about different places we’d like to live and also learned a bunch of words about socializing and dating lol.

After italian I went to a super good sandwich place with Kerri, Jamie, and our new friend Mariana!  Mariana joined my Italian class yesterday and she’s from Mexico.  She’s super cool and speaks English really well and told me I can practice Spanish with her anytime I want even though I don’t remember how to conjugate non-Italian verbs now.  Our sandwiches were very delicious and afterwards we got gelato/sorbet which was also very yummy.

Then I had art history and for dinner tonight we had a dinner with the program where we went to a supposedly very good pizza place.  It was pretty yummy but not my favorite.  They put wine in the sauce which was kind of weird but the crust was high quality.

Kerri and I hurried back after the pizza dinner to watch an art history program about Florence that’s basically on the Italian pbs.  LUcia told us about it 4 times she was so excited about it.  I understood maybe 37 percent of what was said but I still picked up a few words and learned that no matter how hard other people try they just can’t be as good as Michaelangelo.

The trip to cinque terre on Saturday is still on even though it’s supposed to rain a lot.  Some girls booked an overnight there so that’s the main reason it wasnt cancelled.  I’m debating staying behind because the bus ride will be like it was on the amalfi coast and I’m not sure if it will be worth the illness if it’s going to rain the whole time.  Stay tuned for decisions!

Side note: even though I did not have a very good time in sienna that was where new moon was filmed so maybe I should have appreciated it more??? Edward would be so disappointed in me.

Buonanotte!!

Planes, trains, but please not automobiles

Buongiorno loyal followers!

It has been far too long since my last post but I have unfortunately been studying for midterms (even though we basically just started classes lol).  Now that my midterms are over I can return to the blogosphere in what is surely the second most anticipated return of the summer behind the return of Bachelor in Paradise.

We had a very exciting and somewhat fun filled weekend.  First we traveled to Chianti for a wine tasting.  The scenery was gorgeous and we walked about a mile before getting to the actual factory.  Then we had the wine tasting where we had 4 different types of wine all of which were red.  I did pretty well until the “super Tuscan” which I honestly thought was disgusting and I couldn’t choke it down.  According to the winemaker it is his favorite because it’s “incredibly dry.”  Tbh I know nothing about wines but now I know I don’t like incredibly dry ones!  Afterwards we took lots of pictures and I found out when I got home that my shirt was on backwards.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to travel to sienna and San Giminagno.  The bus ride over to sienna made me feel very nauseous which did not put the day off to a great start.  Once we arrived in sienna, it started pouring rain.  Luckily (or unfortunately) we spent most of our times listening to the art history teacher talk about art in museums.  I really like learning about the art, but the art history teacher. Could  definitely  learn to be a little more succinct.  We also climbed up a bunch of spiral stairs to go to the top of a tower.  This made me naseous and it rained at the top of the tower.  All in all sienna was not a great time.

Luckily Saturday was someone redeemed by our trip to San Giminagno.  This is home to two of the best gelato places in the world (literally called Gelato cHampions of the world and world’s best gelato) Most people tried both locations in order to compare which one was better but I only sprang for one because I was still kind of carsick.  I got raspberry and rosemary with lemon which was indeed a delicious combination.  I think the world champion of gelato store had earned its name.

Sunday was much better because we traveled by train!  The train ride was very pleasant and enjoyable.  I slept for most of it but when I was awake there was some good looking scenery.  First we went to Pisa where we saw the leaning tower and that was pretty much it.  Pisa was full of tourists and we tried our best to find an authentic place to eat for lunch, but the restaurant we ended up picking was not great.  After Pisa we went to Lucca which was a great.  It was a super cute town and it was not full of tourists which was great.

On the dinner front Lucia has been feeding us very well and I continue to eat way too much pasta.  I am improving my Italian and the other night I even worked Rollie Ribbit  into the dinner conversation.  Lucia was very impressed with his long lifespan. I also continue to expand my food horizons.  I ate eggs again and I have also eaten several types of fish.  The tuna here is great and I order it on sandwiches pretty often.  One thing I did not eat was the crostini toscana that Lucia made for us.  Kerri and heather tried them and did not give them rave reviews.  I decided against eating the crostini Toscana and I was super glad I didn’t because after dinner we looked up the recipe and it was anchovie paste, capers, and chicken liver!!! Lucia felt bad we didn’t like it though so the next night we had pasta with pesto and tomatoes, homemade hamburgers and roasted potatoes. It was molo buono.

Our weekend trip to the beach might be cancelled this weekend due to rain.  Stay tuned to find out what happens!!

arrividerci!

 

 

Tastes like Chicken Because it is

ciao amici!

This hasn’t been a super eventful week so far as we are settling into Florence pretty well, but I have observations and marginally interesting stories to share nonetheless!

On the food front, I have been forced to become a more adventurous eater.  For lunch I can usually find something up my alley, but for dinner I don’t want to offend Lucia so I try my hardest to eat whatever is on the table.   Usually the first course is pasta or something of the sort so that isn’t a problem (except for the anchovie pizza RIP my taste buds). This week our first courses have been tagatelle with bolongese sauce, tortellini with meat inside that was in a broth and was very reminiscent of chicken noodle soup, and today we had a super yummy traditional florentine dish that of potatoes, tomatoes, and basil in a soup-esque form.  The main courses are more questionable.  We always have vegetables to go along with the main course so that’s good.  We’ve had prosciutto and salami a couple times which I’m not very keen on.  The other night we had a quiche which I also didn’t really like, but I ate a whole slice of it anyway.  Tonight though we had homemade fried chicken!!  The breading was very light and I was very happy to have chicken.

In other food related adventures, Kerri and I have gone to the grocery store a couple of times to buy snacks.  We usually end up getting fruit to eat during the breaks between our classes.  The Italian grocery store is an interesting experience.  There is an entire row of Nutella related products, two aisles dedicated to pasta (this is a lot compared to the relative size of the store) and sadly for me, no tissues anywhere.  (Do Italians just never blow their noses??)  We also noticed the prominence of the “pan di stelle” or star bread which is basically the Italian yodel.  Sometimes Lucia leaves them out for us at breakfast and we take them for a snack later and maybe I just wanted to harken back to my childhood but they’re actually pretty good.  When Kerri and I went to the store we discovered that pan di stelle was everywhere!! It comes in cake form, mini to go packets, regular sizes, and there was even a pan di stelle pudding.  Whoever makes yodels has really missed a marketing opportunity.

Sadly, on one of our many church visits, I accidentally left my ll bean water bottles the church.  I was very sad about this, but knowing that I would not make it without a water bottle a splurged for 4 euros on one of two water bottles that Conads (the grocery store) had to offer.

BUT THEN the next day in class one of my friends who came into the church in the class after ours found and picked up my water bottle!! (S/o to Sydney even though she doesn’t read this blog but I am eternally grateful) Good thing I made my 1 euro donation to the church and lit a candle because that must have been why my water bottle was returned to me.

tomorrow is a national holiday so no school tomorrow!  We also may or may not go hiking depending on the weather.  Updates to come!

buonanotte!

 

 

 

 

V is for Venice

ciao amici!

The wifi is back and so am I! Our home stay wifi had some issues and our luxurious two star hotel in Venice did not have wifi, But now have returned to Florence and luckily the wifi is back in action!

Before we left for Venice I ate some more exciting foods (I still don’t like eggs) and learned how to fill out paperwork in Italian should I ever need to!  We also went to some churches where we talked a lot about pointed arches and got to see frescoes that may or may not have been painted by a young Michaelangelo!  I was also reunited with my one true love Diet Coke aka Coca Cola light.

On Friday we were off to Venice!  We took a bus to the end of the mainland and then took the “people mover” to the island.  Then we took a 40 Minut walk to our hotel.  Our hotel room was very interesting and had four twin beds pushed together into one giant bed.  The bathroom had more available floor space than the main room.  The hotel made up for the bed situation by providing us plentiful amounts of Nutella at breakfast.

After we got to Venice we walked around and got pasta for a late lunch and figured out how to use the water bus system.  The water buses were always pretty crowded and not all that pleasant but they were way cheaper than using a water taxi.  For dinner we had a group dinner at a pretty good pizza restaurant.  The dessert involved a lot of lactose so instead I received an artfully cut pineapple for dessert.

The next day we took the bus to Murano, the glass blowing island.  We watched a glass blowing demonstration which was really neat and then we wandered around the stores on the island. By the time lunchtime rolled around we were pretty hungry and decided to bite the bullet and go to one of the more expensive restaurants on Murano rather than wait for an hour and a half to go to back to Venice and get food.  We went to a really cool modern restaurant.  I got pasta (again) which was once again good.  The waiter was so impressed with our Italian that he even told the other waiter not to speak to us in English because we spoke Italian!

After Murano we took a gondola ride.  It was pretty pleasant but we started off in the main lagoon and tbh I felt kind of seasick but once we got into the small canals it was pleasant.  It was fun to go on the canal ride, but it’s not something I feel like I would need to do again.

After the gondola we went up to the top of the st marks bell tower.  Luckily they had an elevator so it was a very easy trip to the top. The view was amazing and we could see the entire city as well as the outlying islands.  For dinner we got (surprise) pasta making three meals in a row that I had eaten pasta for.

Today was our last day in Venice and we decided to go the the Peggy Guggenheim museum which was right by our hotel.  We got reimbursed for up to 10 euros for “cultural activities” so the museum visit was totally free!  I really enjoyed visiting the museum.  There was a beautiful garden out front and most of the rooms in the gallery had large windows overlooking the canals.  They had a couple Picassos, some works boy Jackson pollack, and Salvadore Dali.  Most of the art was really cool!  Howeve, I won’t pretend that I understood the giant piece of graph paper that was supposed to be representative of the relationship between nature and humanity.

We grabbed some sandwiches for lunch (thankfully it was not pasta) before heading out into the monsoon.  The rain was horrible and several people’s umbrellas snapped in half.  We made it to the bus station only to have the bus be an hour late.  At least we had enough time to change into something dry.  On the way back we stopped at an Italian rest area which was fascinating.  There was ample wine and cheese and despite my best efforts to find a granola bar I could not so logically I bought a chocolate bar instead.  I am glad to be back in the home stay and ready for another exciting week!

A domani!

A gelato related injury

Ciao a tutti!

Today was another exciting day in Florence. I placed into level 4 for my Italian class which technically means I am an advanced beginner woohoo! I looked through the textbook and we don’t go through very many new grammar points, but we cover things in lots more detail than we did in my course at William and Mary. Since we were trying to get though so much grammar we didn’t focus as much on speaking or vocab and this class will help us with all of that. There are three other girls from William and Mary in my class as well and about 7 more people from all over the world. Today I sat next to and talked to a girl from Israel!

During the break between Italian classes today we went to News Cafe for a cappuccino. I don’t really like coffee, but I also didn’t realize that Nutella could be added to coffee! It was delicious but milky so in order to keep my lactose intolerance in check I’ll have to reign myself in.

We went back to class for another round of Italian and then it was time for lunch. Today we went to another excellent hole in the wall sand which place. I had a vegetarian sand which, but despite all the progress I am making in expanding my culinary horizons, I still don’t like mushrooms. After lunch we decided to get gelato and then the accident happened.

I got a lemon sorbet and as we were walking out my gelato fell off of the cone. In a moment of fast reflexes I caught the gelato with my free hand. Unfortunately, my reflexes were too quick and I ended up bashing my nose with a full water bottle since it swung up when I went to grab the gelato. It hurt a ton and now I have a bruise on the bridge of my nose but no major damage. To top it all off the gelato really did all fall of the cone 5 steps later.

We had our first art history class today and I think it will be good a class. We didn’t do a whole lot today but tomorrow will be our first field trip.

Dinner with Lucia was delicious again. We started off with pasta in a bolognese sauce that was very yummy. Then we had a traditional Florence style pork, fresh tomatoes, and zucchini which was all yummy. For dessert we had fruit (not touching!!) and homemade cookies. The conversation tonight was the best yet! We talked about our classes, how we had our first Italian cappuccino ( that got a little dicey explaining that I probably shouldn’t have had it because milk, but it was worth a try) and where she learned to cook so well ( her mom). We also share a common love of going to the movies and watching TV. She told us about her favorites and I attempted to explain the amazing race in Italian. All in all a good dinner!

My last update is that my sneakers are great. The girl at the checkout counter who said “oh Stella sport! You love your stellas!” was correct.

Ciao e a domani!

Heart Failure is in Style

Today was our first day of classes at Linguaviva.  After a delicious breakfast spread provided by Lucia, Kerri and I headed off to school.  We successfully shaved 15 minutes off of yesterday’s navigation time and it’s actually a pretty pleasant walk from our home stay to the school.  I seemed to be in style with with my small, High-cut black backpack, but mine didn’t say heart failure on the back of it.  We saw at least 15 people throughout the day wearing heart failure backpacks And now we’re wondering what they’re all about.

The first day of school was fine.  I took a placement test and learned that I didn’t know as much Italian as I thought I did.  I accidentally told the lady admin stirring my oral exam that I had a lot of grandchildren instead of cousins, but she told me that I spoke well for one semester so it’s really anyone’s guess what level I’ll be in.  Stay tuned for more details tomorrow.

For lunch we went to Mercato Centrale.  I have now realized how overpriced it is there after having the worlds greatest sand which yesterday so I probably won’t go black three as much.  I was feeling desperate for some veggies after just a few days so the beet, carrot, and apple smoothie I got was actually much better than I expected.

After lunch we explored the city some and I bought some exciting new sneakers!  They are very cute and I can’t wait to wear them around and look good while soothing my aching feet.

Dinner tonight was exciting.  We are slowly working on our conversation skills.  Our first course tonight was miniature pizzas.  Mine were made without cheese!  However the pizza had anchovies on it.  They were terrible but I choked the  down anyway.  The main course, in a miraculous turn of events included lots of fruits and veggies!!  We had salads, carrots and potatoes, and melon.  There was also prosciutto which I was t a huge fan of but I ate some of it.  For dessert we had fruit salad (I am finally getting over my fear of fruits touching each other) and ice cream sandwiched with lactose free ice cream!!   I was very happy with this development.

Arrivederci!

 

The first three days!

I have arrived in Italy!  The plane ride was good but nothing too exciting.  I watched how to be single which I could have written myself and the latest Nicholas Sparks movie which I won’t spoil here.  The highlight of the plane trip was the Amsterdam airport.  It was large and beautiful and very well maintained.  There was shrubbery sprouting out of the ceiling over the security line.  I wanted to play the piano in the middle of the main terminal but a five year old was hogging it for the whole time.  Maybe on the return trip.  I have also learned the difference in portion sizes since my large smoothie probably would have been a kiddie size in the US.

After arriving in Florence Kerri and I successfully secured a taxi and were off the hotel.  We were selected to stay in the step-child hotel which was about a block away from the main hotel and only 10 students were staying there.  We would have been fine with this but Kerri’s luggage had gotten lost and we had decided to have it delevivered to the other one because we hadn’t been told where we would be yet.  We had to keep checking at that hotel throughout the day to see if her luggage had arrived, which was kind of a pain.

The hotel was fine, but very cozy.  The three twin beds nights as well have been a king size.  We had another roommate, Caroline, who was very nice.  I felt bad that I spent so much time sleeping when we first arrived, but after 3 dramamines plus jet lag sleep was  necessary.   After a very long nap, I woke up so that we could meet Kerri’s friend Jessie who was finishing up a semester in Florence.  Jessie and her friends had lots of tips about where to eat and where to go in Florence.  We grabbed gelato at “la Strega Nocciola.”  I had a combination of strawberry and lavender which was really delicious. Then we hit one of the hotspots of Florence, Gusta Pizza.  We got there when it opened and the line was already around the block, but the pizza was cheap and delicious.  We ate our pizza overlooking the bridge and watched the sun set over the Ponte Vecchio.

On Saturday we went as a group to get our phones and then split off for lunch.  I suggested that we go to Mercato Centrale, which I remembered from my last trip to Florence but I was disappointed when the food wasn’t as good as I had remembered.  That night we had a welcome dinner at a local restaurant.  The food was delicious, but there was way too much of it.  To make up for this food, we went back to the same gelato place we had gone the day before. We got full plates of two different types of pasta before we even had the main course!

That night Kerri, Jamie, and I decided to check out some of the nightlife that Jessie had suggested to us.  The bars were fine, but the real highlight of our evening out was the secret bakery we went to.  The secret bakeries afr scattered throughout Florence and they tend to open late at night, around 2.  The bakers are all baking for the morning, but each night a line forms outside the back door of th bakeries.  If the line stays quiet the baker will bring freshly baked goods out.  For one Euro I got a freshly baked croissant filled with warm Nutella!  It was amazing.

Today we finally arrived at our host family!  After accidentally buzzing in to the wrong apartment building we finally made it to our house.  We have a great room with a view of the duomo!  Our communication with Lucia is limited and I’m really carrying the team on this one, but we managed to have a  decent conversation at dinner!

On my last note, I have become a more adventurous eater!  Today we went to a sandwich place for lunch that Jessie said was the best sandwich she had ever had.  It did not disappoint!  The line wins filled with locals so that’s how you know it’s good.  I decided to get the roast beef sandwich and I didn’t know what half of the vegetables on it were.  It turns out they were artichokes and eggplant.  Somehow the sand which still turned out to be super yummy!  I am hoping my average 10 miles of walking a day will ward off the Florence 15 but only time will tell.

Ciao e a domani!