One week left in Florence. I can’t believe this semester has past so quickly! I remember when I had only been here a week. I walked around Florence with Courtney today soaking up the hot sunshine and reminiscing about that miserable, cold, rainy walking tour of Florence that we went on the first week when we barely knew each other.
I’ve been embracing my last few weeks by eating delicious authentic Italian meals, spending the days exploring, finally doing the things that I said I could do later, and enjoying the nightlife. And, of course, eating gelato every day. Okay, maybe twice a day.
One thing both Casey and I wanted to do before we left was attend Italian mass in the Duomo on a Sunday morning. Since Catholic services are so structured, I actually could understand most of the service. My favorite part was the Apostle’s Creed in Italian and giving peace.
I went out to eat with the roomies to Dante’s the other night and my lasagna was absolutely delicious! When Taylor was in town, Casey and I took her to Il Francescanas, a super nice restaurant with bomb food. I got the gnudi which is kind of like huge gnocchi dumplings. Katie and I found a hole in the wall restaurant called Trattoria Anita that was amazing. We had 2 courses and a side. I got pasta alla Medici which had a white sauce, ham, and peas, and my second plate was chicken, beef, and…. Tongue! It had a weird texture but it was actually pretty good as long as you told yourself that you weren’t eating tongue. The waiter was shocked an American ordered such a dish and was so interested in what I thought about it. Tonight, Casey, Taylor, Liz, and I went to Acqua al Due and got the blueberry steak and a pasta sampler! Last week, I also tried my hand at making my own white sauce for some gnocchi. I used gruyere, gorgonzola, and parmesan cheese and it was a success.
Continuing my food rant, I signed up for a tasting Tuscany class and a gelato making class through my school. The good we made in tasting Tuscany was so delicious I never wanted to stop eating. We made Ribollita (a famous Tuscan soup), chicken liver, focaccia with salami and pecorino cheese, deep fried cucumber flowers filled with mozzarella and basil, and biscotti. Yum! The gelato making class was really interesting as well. We visited one of my favorite gelatorias and made our own chocolate gelato!
After all of this food, thank goodness Casey showed me and new running route! The center of Florence has become extra touristy and it’s impossible to take the straight shot to the Arno. I’ve found a new bike trail where I don’t have to dodge anyone that spits me out farther down the river, and I have been able to get quite a few good runs in on it.
The Italian TRL awards took place in Florence in Piazza Santa Croce. All of the streets leading up to the piazza were packed, and there were empty bottles and cans everywhere. It was an interesting night to say the least, and we enjoyed rocking out to some Italian songs for once instead of the American music I hear everywhere in Europe. Oh, and to lower the American reputation even more, Jersey Shore will be in Florence on Monday.
Another huge festival that took place in Florence recently is Notte Bianca- white night. It’s a cultural and artistic event and pretty much every street had an exhibition or musical performance, but it literally took an hour to walk down a street because there were so many Italians out. The party lasts til 6 am and everything stays open until then. Apparently the meaning of the event is hard to translate into English words, but it is something about a celebration of day light savings time-ish and longer days. I think… something like that at least.
Forza Fiorentina! That’s about the only calcio (aka futball aka soccer) cheer that I know for Florence. Our program took us to their game against Udinese, and it was crazyyyyyy. Fiorentina isn’t exactly having a good season, but they showed off a little for us and won 5-2. Every time we scored Katy Perry’s Firework played which we thought was hilarious. The Udinese fans were confined in stands that were surround by plastic walls, and you can only imagine the banging and yelling that went on. Both teams were yelling profanities back and forth. It was just wild.
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