Firenze

Last weekend we went to Firenze with my program. It started off a little rough. Leah, Sam, and I went out Thursday night for once. We went to dinner at a phenomenal place called Dar Poeta. It has the best pizza. I got a salmon pizza and Sam and Leah both got buffula, which had mozzarella, tomato, and basil. I am definitely getting that one next time I go. Then we met up with her friend Joe and went to a bar that she went to the other night. We got a big pitcher that consisted of a little lime juice, some ice, and a lot of vodka (?) for 15 euros. Leah didn’t want any so we drank it between the three of us. Then for some reason we decided to get another.  This one was the same, only with tequila. They were kind of deadly. We used the bathroom at the bar and were on our way. We met up with some other people who were going to a bar called Abby, but Leah, Sam, and I went to La Maison, a club. We were there for probably 30 minutes and got bored because there was no one there! Then we went back to Abby, and had a shot called a Scooby snack, which was delicious and called it a night. Got about 3 hours of sleep and woke up the next morning at six to go to Florence.

Highlights include-

Friday:

We stopped at a rest stop about two hours north of Roma. As I was coming out of the bathroom I was scanning the line looking for Leah when I see what I think is a familiar face- was it really my XC friend Jamie? So I basically stop, turn towards her, and we are staring at each other not saying anything for 5-10 seconds (you may not think this is a long time, but when you are making eye contact with someone while standing in front of them not saying anything, it is). Then I realize it is her! And she realizes it’s me! We were both just so baffled to see each other at this random place! It was really funny.

We got a walking tour of Firenze! Which is not that big at all and makes me appreciate the size of Roma even though at times it can be extremely overwhelming.

The duomo! A picture does not do this justice

View from the Ponte Vecchio.
On this bridge there are like 689508 jewlery stores.

Went to a chocolate festival! It was so stressful picking something to eat because there were so many options. I ended up getting chocolate covered strawberries and Leah got a chocolate covered banana. Then after we ate that we got hot chocolate. IT WAS PRETTY MUCH A MELTED BAR OF CHOCOLATE. You just can’t get stuff like that back home…

Hiked the duomo! All four hundred and something steps! There was a gorgeous view.

You can see la basilica di Santa Croce in the background.

Had what might be the best dinner I have had in Italy. We got fried carciofi (artichokes) and then I got gnoochi al pesto and Leah got THE BEST PASTA EVER- ravioli type pasta filled with cheese, maybe ricotta, and pears in a white sauce. I am drooling just thinking about it.

Met up with my friend Mel (Jamie and Michael’s best friend from Umass) and her friend that was visiting. We just hung out at her apartment because she was going to Venezia the next morning.

Saturday:

Cooking lesson! We made tagliatelle from scratch (two types of flour and egg) with a tomato-garlic sauce, an antipasto (eggplant, mozzarella, tomato, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano), and tiramisu! They gave us the recipes so hopefully I can make pasta from scratch when I get back to the states!

Leah and I went to the Boboli Gardens, which are part of the Palazzo Pitti. The gardens were beautiful and it was nice because right when we got there, the sun came out. We walked around the gardens for about 3 hours.

Zeus and Ganymede
I know all about this thanks to my mythology class
so useful, right?
oh wait, not useful outside of touring gardens with greek statues...

ZOMG NATURE

Stop number two at the chocolate festival. Got a (cylindrical) waffle on a stick covered in chocolate. And as we were eating, we got to see a parade of drums, trumpets, and flag wavers go by signifying the start of Carnivale!

When dinner rolled around we had scoped out a place we wanted to go. Somehow our dinner came out to be about 20 euros cheaper than it should have been. We were surprised about the price when we got the check and then added it up later and were like hmmmm. But anyway, I got a caprese salad, then ribollita soup, which is a Florentine specialty. It is a soup made from vegetables and bread and it is boiled twice! For desert we got vin santo, which is another Florentine specialty. You get a glass of wine and these biscotti things and dip them into the wine. Leah and I were a little nervous because the biscotti-wine mixture tasted kind of brandy like. After we finished the biscotti we were nervous to drink the liquid because we didn’t know exactly what it was. The waiter walked by and said, “Drink!” so I had a sip and it was sweet! It was really good.

After dinner Leah and I strolled around a little and found out the chocolate festival was still open! I got hot chocolate with amaretto.

Then after almost going to bed, we rallied and met up with one of Mel’s roommates. We went to one bar called the old stove or something along those lines and got a drink, then went to a bar-club hybrid called Red Garter. There were three different rooms: one for the bar, one for dancing, and one for karaoke. We got a booth in the bar part and met two guys from Holland. They were really nice and they convinced us to go to a club with them; Mel was getting home from Venezia around 1am, so we planned to meet up with her too. On the way we stopped at “the Secret Bakery.” It was an actual bakery, in a sketchy back ally open from 2am till 5am. What happens is, someone will open the door and you hand them money (1 euro for a pastry) and tell them what kind of pastry you want. They close the door and reemerge with a white paper bag with your pastry in it. it’s funny because there is a sign that says, “Please be quiet” and while you’re standing in line every once in a while someone will be like “shhhhh.” It was the best pastry I have had in italy! We met up with Mel and Norah and were on our way to the club. Meagan got a little confused, so we ended up going in a circle. By the time we got to the club it was about 2am, so since Leah and I had to wake up at 8 the next morning we just decided to head home.

Sunday:

Went to Pisa, but didn’t really care too much about it. It was cold and rainy and I just wanted to be back in Roma. We went in the duomo and baptistery and then headed to a pizzeria for lunch. Had a really good margherita pizza, which had a thicker crust; Roman pizza usually has a thinner crust. And we got some house wine. Two pizzas, a half liter of wine, small bottle of water, and espresso for both of us cost 20 euros total.

All in all it was a splendid weekend. My only issue with the whole weekend was I DIDN’T BUY ANYTHING. We went shopping every day we were there and I was so ready to spend money, but nothing ended up catching my eye! Oh well, so I decided maybe I’ll just go shopping tomorrow morning. Ciao!