I Sort of Miss Cheeseburgers

WHAT'S GOING ON WHY IS IT OCT 25TH ALREADY?!?! This is not ok.

Let's start last night. A couple days ago Anna asked Hannah and I that even though we didn't like eggs in particular, would it be ok if she cooked with eggs? Of course, I said, I still love cake and such baked goods, it's not like we're allergic. Wrong answer. Not many host fams have dinner Sunday night (they'll have dinner Friday night instead, which is silly because we usually travel on Friday nights and are home for Sunday nights) and Hannah and I came home from the library so pleased with ourselves that there'd be a warm meal on the table for us when we got home. We'd had such high hopes because Sunday dinners are usually special and extra delicious and every dinner from last week was absolutely delightful and catered to our cravings. We started with tagliatelle with pesto. GREAT sign. Then Anna brings the salad bowl to the table. More great news! Then she brings the meat. And they're sausage-looking things. Small. I cut mine in half, and lo and behold there is a hard boiled egg wrapped in the meat. Shit. (Pardon my Italian but there's no better way to exactly describe how we both felt about that discovery). On the plus side, it was wrapped in a very savory meat, and if I didn't think about it, I couldn't taste the egg AT ALL and could easily avoid the unpleasant rubbery consistency of the hard boiled egg. Hannah couldn't do it. Anna expected us to have four each, and then split the last one. I had no problem with my first three, the fourth I shoved in my mouth, and then struggled with my last half. Anna left the room and Hannah looked at me deploringly and said "Help me" and put another half on my plate. I told her she owed me her first born and popped the damn thing in my mouth before Anna entered the room. That one was painful. It's dinners like these that make me wish we had a host dog. (Miss you Abby!)

Anyway. I was awoken last night by a massive thunderstorm around 6am. I kinda enjoyed it, it was really fun. But when Hannah's alarm went off at 7 I thought nuh uh, no way am I getting up and going to school like this. Lucky I didn't have class til 11, so instead of joining Hannah on the busride to school and getting work done in the library, I ate breakfast and snuggled back under the covers until I had to leave for class at 10:15. Great life decision on my part, because that's when the storm cleared up and apparently all the buses were an hour and a half delayed so even though Hannah left for her 9am8:20 she didn't get to school until 9:45.

I had my Italian oral midterm this afternoon, and Tim helped me practice. We had to bring in a photo and talk about it for 10 minutes. So I prepared a rather conversation piece about Jackie's deb ball and brought in a pic of the sibs at the ball. I wrote out what I was going to say to help me with some of the more extraneous vocab, and if I didn't have to speak it, it probably would've been the best Italian essay I've ever written! It went very well, to say the least.

My Medici class was on site as usual, but instead of wandering around the city in the rain (it did continue to rain off and on today) we hopped on a charter bus and went to visit four different Medici Villas outside of Florence, the country estates if you will. They were gorgeous and much more appealing than any of the other Medici homes around Florence I've seen! Moral of the story: if I was a Medici duchess, I'd choose to be part of the more humble branch of the fam and reside in one of these villas. They consisted of the country mansion, gardens that rivaled Versailles, and then other hunting grounds of ungroomed foliage. Though because we were on site out of our control, and because that class always runs late, we didn't return until 7pm. Hannah and I made our way home to a warm dinner on the table, and lucky Anna was more on spot with caprese salads and soup for dinner tonight!

Padua Day Trip

Ciao from this side of the world! This one is about going to Padua with my Black Death art history class. Taming of the Shrew is set here. I've now made it my goal to hit as many Shakespearean locations in Italy as I can while I'm here!

I was really tired last night and went right to bed when I got home, but my day started at 5:30 yesterday morning to make it to the train station for an early train to Padua. We took an express train to Bologna and then switched there, but the express train was the nicest train I'd ever seen! Too bad we were only on it for a half hour, and then switched to a not as nice train. But I slept the entire way so it really didn't matter!

By the time we got to Padua it was around 9:30 (though it felt more like 2:30 in the afternoon). We

walked into centro with Paola, our TA tour guide, and stopped for coffee at this cafe that was opened in 1863 with the intention of being open 24/7. The first McDonalds if you will. Cappuccinos and pastries were on the class, so we woke ourselves up at this very class and elegant cafe. Apparently there are different rooms in the cafe that are decorated based on different time periods (Egyptian, Roman...) as well as rooms decorated by color. Back in the late 1800s this is where the unification leaders of Italy would meet in these rooms and discuss, well, the unification of Italy. So this cafe had a big historical significance as well as great caps! I did a little sneaking around, and unfortunately I couldn't find a single one of these rooms though...

We made our way to the Arena Chapel/Scrovengi Chapel which is Giotto (who is arguably the forefather of the Renaissance due to his brilliant developments in fresco paintings) and it was a breathtaking experience. First we had to go into this de-ionizing room and sat in there for 15 minutes as it sucked all the humidity and micro pollutants out of the air and cleaned us of any harmful molds we might be carrying. Then we entered the chapel where we were allowed to walk around without lecture for 15 minutes. Standardly, you're only allowed 15 minutes in the chapel to look around. So a bell went off after 15 minutes, but we got to stay because our professor had booked us a double ticket for the Scrovengi Chapel, so while everyone was being herded out we were still drop-jawed in awe of checking out these fresco cycles. Giotto's fresco cycle in this chapel is one of the three most famous fresco cycles in the world, the other two being the Assisi fresco cycle (which probably influenced this fresco cycle) and the Sistine Chapel. The coolest part is I've already seen Assisi, and will be seeing the Sistine Chapel in the future! We were invited to a private viewing of the sacristy which Paola said was a real treat, but it wasn't nearly as exciting as the chapel, it only had a painted statue (ha, listen to me, it's was only a painted statue...which are like impossible to find dating from pre-black death era...)

Anyway, we made our way back to the city center and were treated to lunch on the class, and I enjoyed this Italian version of a salad bar with grilled Mediterranean style veggies galore! We were given two hours for lunch (which was way too much if you ask me) so we spent the rest of our hour and a half walking around the markets of Padua, where I got Jackie a pashmina scarf for a steal of a price. It's a gorgeous lavender color. So I'm set on souvenirs for J, I'm still on the look out for a cute scarf for Tori. I'm kinda stumped on what color to get her. I've seen this lovely red color that I personally think would look stunning with the khaki and navy (thinking about getting for myself now that I think about it) but I don't know if she'd like that...

We then proceeded to the Baptistery of the Padova Cathedral to look at the fresco cycle by Menabue, as an example of post-Black Death fresco and compare the regression in style. I like the apocalyptic scenes by the altar most, I'd seen Last Judgment's depicted before but this with the 7-headed beast and stuff was new (and possibly an indicator of how the people felt post-Black Death).

We made our way to our final site at the basilica of Sant'Antonio, your favorite patron saint of lost causes. It houses several chapels with a variety of examples of art from different time periods, but we focused on the Baroque reliquaries holding the tongue, voicebox, and jaw of Saint Anthony. It was cool to see the relics, but not so much spiritual as it was sort of weird and creepy (the tongue was this black and yellow shriveled thing...Happy Halloween?). The tomb of Saint Anthony was definitely the more spiritual part of the pilgrimage, with statues by Donatello decorating every inch of the marbled space.

We headed back to Florence at 5:55 on another class first class train, on which Courtney and I slept the whole way, and got into Florence around 7:30. I met up with Hannah and Sarah and Caitlin for dinner by the steps of the Duomo, Sarah was going to take us to this really cheap and really good Italian place (one of those places locals like to keep a secret), but Saturday nights are THE night Italians go out to wine and dine, so there was no way we were able to get a table at this place without a reservation. So we decided to save that spot for another night and Hannah and I took Cailtin and Sarah to Il Gato e La Valope for a delish and cheap dinner anyway! By the time Hannah and I caught the bus back to Oltrarno though, it was about 11, so I'd had a very busy day and had to crash, hence why this email had to wait until today.

I've been locked up in the library with Hannah since 11:30 this morning (again, we woke up at 9:30...just to give you a point of reference of what a production it is to get to school...) and I'm considering this a semi-study break. I've finished one out of three projects I need to work on, but I'm headed to print out boarding passes in a minute, yet another check off my list of things to do!

Two Months Left

WEDNESDAY

Hannah told me we have exactly two more months here. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

It got really cold really fast here. Last weekend was cool, but Wednesday it was COLD. No rain, just wind. Freezing. I wore my coat IN my classes. It's apparently illegal in Florence to turn the heater on before Nov. It's so cold. And I think it might be colder in our stone and marble apartment than it is outside. We had my Medici class on location, as usual, so we spent three hours sitting on stone benches in the Bobali Gardens. I'm still trying to warm up. Have I mentioned it's cold here?

Midterms are sneaking up on us next week, so Hannah and I are doing some serious cracking down. I have 36 slides to ID and memorize. But that's not a lot compared to past art history classes so I think I'm fairly fortunate.

THURSDAY

But it was absolutely gorgeous out Thursday. I'm not saying I wanted to sun bathe, but it was a beautiful fall day and the three (count em) layers of clothes and sweaters I wore to school all under my trench coat totally weren't necessary. I'm a nut.

I went to my museum to do some research in the morning. The creepy security guard told me I was cute and if I had a fiance. I said yes I did and that I had to leave for class bye. I met my friend Tim for lunch that afternoon and we chowed down on Chinese food done Italian style. That was interesting!  

Thursday my only class, Italian, was kinda canceled because my professor couldn't be there, but we took a practice midterm which was sort of helpful. I made study guides for my other classes and did some research for my internship. Thursday afternoon it was a beautiful day so I went for a run along the Arno (I'm edging out of the 10k-5k shape I was in, and I'll be the first one to admit that. Ruh-roh).

Later Thursday afternoon I went to Spazio Conversazione to talk to practice my Italian (next week is our midterm eeeek!). The theme of the night was "perche no pesto?" so we had pesto and papa e pomodoro, which was like a tomato stew it was SO GOOD. Afterwards Hannah and I went to Tim's wine tasting at his internship enoteca, and then returned home for another lovely dinner (Anna gets 2 gold stars in a row for being so spot on with what I wanted for dinner those two nights) of pasta pomodoro, pizzeta (cuts of red meat with tomato sauce and cheese on top, like chicken parm but with red meat) and green beans.

I have postcards to send out, but I cant find a mailbox in this crazy little city! Welp  

FRIDAY
Today Hannah and I signed up for a walking tour of Florence through the school. Tim said Thursday that he'd signed up for it too but it sounded lame and decided not to show up. He got me all nervous that it was going to be lame, but then Hannah reminded me, hey, this is going to be something really cool to do on our Friday morning, why not go? She was right. It was SO cool. We went to four different artisan shops on Oltrarno, aka our side of the Arno, where most of the craftsmen work. First we went to a guy who makes Florentine marble paper and leather/goldleaf embossed book covers. Apparently he's been on Martha Stewart, he's a big deal! Then we went to another world famous artisan, a metal smither. We didn't spend much time there but it was cool to see his designs. Next we went to a jewelry maker, who works in brass mostly. He pressed euro coins for us into the Florentine insignia. We had a ball in his shop, he was the most personable as well. Finally we went to a tanner and leather shop. We didn't see the tanning process like we'd seen the processes of the other artisans, but I did do a my leather shopping there, especially since we were given a 15% discount on the goods!

Later Hannah and I met up with three other friends to buy soccer tickets to go to the game this weekend. But apparently it's such a big game that only Tuscans are allowed to go this Saturday! Oh no! So we all went out for lunch, and then we took Sarah, Caitlin, and Dani to the brass artisan to show them his shop, and they loved it as much as we did.

Hannah and I strolled around Florence for the rest of the afternoon. Now I'm a little tired, but we're making our way out to Il Gato e Il Valope for dinner (I took Sam here, and we'd gotten lost. But he ended up loving and wants to go when he comes back to Florence with a class in Nov).

Florence Staycation

Sam came to Florence, and as if I needed to re-see the city with wide eyed fascination, we did, and it was amazing.

Sam's flight was delayed about 40 min, but I was waiting patiently when he did eventually arrive around 11:45pm Wednesday night. Even the cab driver wished him a happy birthday once we were dropped off at our hotel at midnight.

Thursday we took our time in the morning and went out for a light Italian breakfast (pastries and cappuccinos/tea) at a cafe by school, and enjoyed our breakfast in the garden at Villa Rossa. He was blown away by the school, he said it put the Faraday House to shame. I had Italian from 1-3, and he has midterms this coming week, so it gave him a couple hours to do some work. Everyone who I'd ever spoken to at Villa Rossa knew he was visiting this weekend, so they were visiting and introducing themselves while we were sitting in the garden, he was such a superstar! After class we made our way through the city of Florence for a nice afternoon tour. We went from the Duomo to the market in San Lorenzo, to Piazza della Repubblica with the carousel, to Piazza Signoria and my museum, to the Arno and down Ponte Vecchio. He went with me as I purchased my gold necklace, helping me decide between the big heart or the more delicate version (I got the latter). Sam was shopping a bit himself, and while his purchases were few he admired the Italian leather belts and pashmina scarves and silk ties. Thursday night we were invited to dinner at Anna's and she and Antoinetta were there waiting for us, putting finishing touches on dinner. It was the BEST dinner we've ever had with Anna, she pulled out ALL the stops! We sat in the formal dining room (something she apparently reserves for visiting family and holidays!) but started our meal with aperativo, or cocktails and appetizers in the living room. We've NEVER had wine on the table with Anna, but I think I had more drinks in one sitting with the liquor she kept pouring for us. We had white wine during aperativo, red wine with dinner, and sweet dessert liquor with dessert. It was great. Sam was so flexible with the language barrier, I'd translate for him or if he wanted me to explain something more I was able too. He was such a trooper. We had a huge meal of gnocci with pesto for our first course, followed by roast beef with salad, potatoes, tomato, bread, and cheeses. Dessert consisted of our favorite pesce con vino and little miniture mousses. Everything was so fun and so delightful. Sam later said that that dinner was one of his favorite parts of the trip! We did go out for Sam's birthday to a wine tasting with a big group of SUF friends, then made our way to the discotecs. I had so much fun out with him, and I think he enjoyed it just as much.

Piazza della Repubblica

Friday morning we had an early wake up call for our wine tour in Chianti. We met Dani, Hannah, and Caitlin at Tuscany By Bike's Florence office. We were taken to Chianti by van with a Scotsman, Andy, followed by another van driven by the Irish Keith. Both young and really funny, they addressed Sam and I as one entity the entire day, "Oy, Lovebirds, put your helmets on, we're riding now" (imagine that in an accent, we were dying). We started at a 9th century castle that produces several kinds of wine and olive oil. We tried a red wine, and indulged in the olive oil with classic Tuscan bread. I ended up buying a couple small bottles of the olive oil, as did Sam. We then were fitted with bikes and we set off on our 23km bike tour around the country side. It was a lovely day, and all of us absolutely enjoyed the ride. It was fairly flat, with one killer hill at the end that was an optional ride. Sam, being half of the competitive couple we are, challenged me up it. Everyone else (except for an older Swedish couple) passed on that opportunity and hopped in the van. Sam and I start going up the hill, and half way up he hopped off his bike and started to push. He looked back at me. I was gonna kill him. Luckily we had the option to quit half way and get picked up by the van. It was a funny experience, but seriously, if looks could kill I might not have a boyfriend still. We laughed about it immediately afterwards though. It was fun! With an hour left in the tour we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant (included in the tour) and enjoyed salads, pasta, and tiramisu. We finished the tour and were driven back to Florence in time for dinner. Still full from lunch, Sam and I made it back to the hotel to nap for a bit, we were exhausted from the previous night and our long day in the countryside. Around 8:30 we made our way out for a late dinner (normal by Italian standards, however), and unfortunately I got us lost! I felt SO bad, but he just laughed with me about it. We found it several minutes later, Il Gatto e Il Valope, the cat and the fox (from Pinnochio...get it?) and he treated to me to a lovely dinner. Sam really liked that restaurant and said he'd like to go back when he comes back to Florence (he's going back in a little over a month for a class trip).

At the castle for the wine tour

Saturday we got off to a late start and began our day with a decadent lunch at my favorite restaurant by the Arno. It had such a beautiful view and such great food. It was very romantic. He did a little shopping (he got a tie with fluer de lei on it, and then realized he might not ever wear it...you don't tend to wear a lot of ties in the military...oops). We made our way up to Piazzale Michelangelo after lunch, a short walk from Ponte Vecchio. The panoramic view was gorgeous in the afternoon sunlight poking through the clouds. We lounged up there until we got caught in the rain, and took refuge in the basilica of San Minito, where he asked for the art history lesson of this out-of-the-way church. After trying to wait out the rain for an hour, we hiked back down to the city in the rain, wet and giggling. Apparently we're bad luck for weather, we got absolutely poured on back in London late one night (that was cold and miserable, but I was a trooper), and now we were traversing through Florence in the rain. Sam thought this was more romantic though, it wasn't as cold and dark, and we warmed up with warm waffles topped with nutella and gelato, and cappucino and coffee. Around 7 he wanted to see if we could get out of the rain with a museum, but most close around 6:30, though we tried nonetheless. We instead explored the Loggia della Signoria by my museum and examined the Roman marbles. We nibbled on pizza and beer afterwards by the Duomo, and called it an early night for our early start the next morning.

Sam's flight was at 7:55 this morning, so we checked out around 6:15 and got to the airport early. I saw him through security (of course I cried...again) and we reminded each other how excited we are to explore our next adventure in 10 days...Paris for fall break!

View from Piazzale Michelangelo

I got back around 8:15, to find I was locked out of the house. When Anna leaves her key in the door on the inside, I can't turn my key. I ran the doorbell but she wasn't up and it wasn't waking her up. So I sat around for an hour and fifteen minutes waiting for a sign of life. I was thinking about stashing my bag from the weekend somewhere in the lobby of our apartment complex and going out for breakfast at the American diner, but I was more exhausted than hungry, and was too tired to really care about being locked out. I just had to be patient (Hannah was in Perugia for the chocolate festival and was texting me to pass the time). I got in around 9:30, Anna made me breakfast and I crashed until 1:30 when she treated me to gnocci con pomodoro sauce for lunch. I spent the rest of Sunday missing Sam and doing the homework I'd ignored the rest of the weekend. Sam got in around 10:30 my time (9:30 his) and his day progressed the same way mine did (without the locked out part!).

Internship and Spazio

First of all, last night I was up til 2:30 doing homework. That might be the latest I've been up since I've been here. But midterms are two weeks away and I'm freaking out. And I'm freaking out about this weekend with Sam. Cue nervous break down. Hannah thinks I'm being ridiculous, which, of course I am!


Needless to say that when my alarm went off this morning for my run, I hit snooze and slept in til 9. Today I went to school early (to finish the damn homework) with Hannah. I only had a short Italian class today, but I was due at Palazzo Vecchio for my internship at 3, so I hiked over there after class (and did some more homework while I was waiting for Gaiele to be ready for me). I expected to be at the museum for about half an hour, and then ended up being there for and hour and a half. But I was ok

Piazza Signoria, where you'll find Palazzo Vecchio

with it, Gaiele (who's like my go-to person at my internship) took me through the secret passage ways of the castle. It was pretty really awesomely cool. For some of the tours, they dress up as duchesses and dukes and other historical figures, and the costumes are GORGEOUS and super authentic looking ("based on the true designs" according to Gaiele). She appraised me and said I would probably be perfect for Vasari's wife, who had long curly blonde hair and who was Botticelli inspiration for his Birth of Venus. UM OK NICEST THING ANYONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME since the Birth of Venus is MY painting and MY FAVORITE in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. I died. I didn't ask if I'd be giving a character tour. But trust me, I will let you know if I do.

Speaking of character tours, I'm looking into applying for an internship with Disney this summer. That application is currently in progress.

After Palazzo Vecchio I went back to school for Spazio Conversazione, a program run by the Italian department where Italians come to talk to American students to practice their English, and for us to

I walk by Ospedale Innocenti, the first Renaissance building, everyday to school

practice our Italian. It's held every Tuesday from 5-7, and Hannah and I tried to go last week but couldn't find it. She was the one who was really harping to go so she could work on her Italian, but I was the one who left absolutely LOVING it. I had a blast. The two Italians I was speaking to, one a 16 yr old girl who's grandma is a host for two SUF girls, and one who is a student at the Florentine University, starting talking about the student strikes going on here. Ummm what? Apparently the govt is cutting off money to the public schools (which have really strong programs) to help the private schools get better (which aren't as strong as the public schools. Some are, but some suck). In order to change this they're cutting spending in education so programs and professors are being cut, and students are revolting and protesting, at every level from high school to the university. Fascinating. For a while it was really helping my Italian, then things got heated and they just started speaking way too fast in Italian so the Americans (me and two other girls at the 101 level) got completely lost. But it was a great experience!

The Five Cities

So yesterday Andrew and I decided to meet at the train station at 8:30 and try to make our way to Cinque Terre. We had all the time in the world, we were just going for fun, had no appointments or mandatory return time, but we learned a lot after we realized transportation yesterday just wasn't in our favor.

I beat him there, so I went to the help desk and asked what train I needed to take to get there. We needed to get to La Spezia, and the first train leaving was 9:57. Fine by us, we weren't in a hurry, and so we bought our train tickets and waited by our platform. We got on our train and slept a little, chatted a little, consulted my guidebook about Cinque Terre a little, and waited for the La Spezia stop. After 2.5 hours, we were getting antsy, but we pulled into a train station that said "La Spezia" so we hopped off immediately. Turns out, it was La Spezia Minore, whereas we'd wanted to get off at La Spezia Centrale, one stop further (we weren't the only ones who made this mistake either, several Italians and tourists alike were stuck on the platform with us). Next train to La Spezia Centrale: 30 minutes. 

We FINALLY get to La Spezia and headed to the nearest tourist information booth. We bought our Cinque Terre tickets that give us access to all four coastal footpaths, and unlimited train use between the five cities. Cinque Terre consists of 5 coastal cities: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso, which are interconnected through a series of hikes (about 7K distance) that range in difficulty. We hopped on yet another train from La Spezia to our first city, Riomaggiore, and we were bursting at excitement because now the fun part was going to happen!


We caught our first glimpse of the ocean from the train and Andrew and I nearly peed ourselves. Andrew grew up by the Jersey Shore so he was equally if not more excited than I was. The first hike from Riomaggiore to Manarola wasn't a hike so much as a paved path along the cliffs. It was beautiful!! And the weather was PERFECT, not too hot, but not cold at all. We were dying. Just wait until I put up pictures!!!

View from Via dell'Amore

The path from Manarola to Corniglia was closed because it was too slippery, so we hopped on a train that got us to Corniglia about 3 minutes later. We wound our way around the town until we found the path to Vernazza--but not before we had to clime 350 steps to the top of the city! We did it, huffing and puffing (and taking plenty of time to stop for pictures) and continued on to the Vernazza path. Now this was where the hiking began. It was about a 3K hike (90 min) up and down, steps, rocks, dirt, mud, you name it. And we hiked our way, sweating bullets but it was so beautiful climbing those mountains next to the ocean! And we had a goal in sight: the last city had public beaches, and we brought our swim suits, we were going in the ocean no matter what. I also have to give mad props to everyone else on the trail: there were more grown ups hiking along than there were college kids or students like us. 

View of Vernazza

As Andrew said, "I give a lot of credit to anyone over 50 doing this" and seriously, these 50+ adults were whizzing past us. I ran a 10K two weeks ago, how was this so hard? I mean we did have to pick our way along those footpaths. But it was a lot of fun.


Once we hit Vernazza we were starving, we hadn't stopped for lunch. So we slipped into the first cafe we found, ordered a big plate of pesto lasagna (I don't know if I'd recommend it for the future, but at the time it hit the spot) and dug in. Vernazza was bigger than the other three cities so we took time to walk around the bay area and look into the little stores. By the time we were ready to make our way to Monterosso, the final city and the final path (also supposedly the most difficult), it was about 5:30. The fourth hike was estimated to take 2 hours, and we were worried about hiking in the dark, so we decided to take the short train ride to Monerosso and enjoyed the beach for about an hour. The water was cool, a little warmer than home, and MUCH saltier. We ran into some fellow Syracuse Florence students (Andrew and I were both wearing SU sweatshirts, they recognized us), and then called it a day around sunset.

Monterosso at suns

A 3 hour train ride later and we were back in Florence around 9:45. It was a long day, but I LOVED Cinque Terre and want to go back and hike that final path. Hannah really wants to do it now so I told her I'd definitely be down, and now we've learned about our timing and everything, so we can look into an earlier train into La Spezia from Florence, and we know not to get off at the first stop. It was a learning experience, but I had so so so much fun. It was also a really cheap and fun day trip. I loved it. I can't say enough good things about it.

Someone's In the Kitchen

Sam teased me when I hesitated when he asked me what kind of chicken recipes I could whip up this weekend, and that hurt (come on, our family is a red meat kind of family! The only chicken recipe I knew I could whip up out of thin air was my favorite grilled chicken with the pasta!), so to prove him the inferior cook I impulsively signed up for an Italian cooking class Monday afternoon! Student Life

Our handmade pasta

offers four of these cooking classes right in Villa Rossa (which apparently has a secret kitchen located under the Language classrooms!) for only 20 euro, which provides you with a 4 course meal and hands on instruction.  Sign ups had started that morning, but after talking to my friend Tim in my Italian class, I was 100% convinced that this was something I wanted to do, so I ran to the Student Life Offices, and there had been a last minute cancellation and I got the very last spot. Awesome. I called Anna and told her I wasn't coming home for dinner and met the cooking class at 5:30. 

Ravioli with sage and butter sauce

Jacopo was our chef, and he taught us how to make homemade pasta (from scratch, it was SO COOL) and roll the dough for spinach ravioli (severed with a butter and sage sauce), tagliatelle which sort of looks like fettuccine, and tagliolini which sort of looks like angel hair. We made the dessert while some people were kneading the pasta dough (tiramisu!) from scratch as well. We worked on the sauces, cutting vegetables, sauteing vegetables, steaming vegetables, mashing the sauteed vegetables into a puree...it was so cool. I paid most attention to the sauces which I figured would be easier to replicate than homemade pasta. We made a tomato sauce with plum tomatoes, garlic, carrots, celery,
red onion, and virgin olive oil, and mushed it all up until it wasn't chunky, then chopped up some basil and let that simmer. That tomato sauce went with the tagliolini (angel hair). We also made a pepper cream sauce with roasted peppers, garlic, olive oil, and cream. That went with the tagliatelle (fettuccine).

It was THE BEST food I've eaten since I've been here. Everything was so flavorful and fresh and delightful. I had so much fun. I didn't sign up with anyone I knew so I made friends with a bunch of people, and am probably going on a wine tasting trip this weekend with a girl from Bucknell (Joanna) and her roommate from Santa Clara (Brianna). It was great. It did run a little later than I expected, though, so I didn't get home til about 11.

You Sound Like You're From London

It's been a great weekend! We did so much in so little time, and I really enjoyed London, I could see myself living there some day.

First of all, let's talk transportation. After all the horror stories I heard about flying RyanAir, it wasn't so terrible getting to London and back on my own. Sam had booked a bus for us for midnight to take us into the city close to his apartment, and my flight was supposed to get in around 11:30. My flight was delayed on the way there by about a half hour, but I'm a savvy enough traveler to be able to make up the lost time running through the Stansted airport quicker than any other of the passengers. However, they caught me at customs. Italians customs wasn't a huge deal either way, coming or going, but once I hit the London border, it was an intense wait with serious passport control. As I handed my customs form to the uniformed woman, she noticed I'd left blank where I'd be staying during my two-day trip. When I failed to answer ("Boyfriend's appartment" didn't seem to suffice as an answer. How was I supposed to know!) she still stamped my passport and sent me on my way. I was too tired and stressed from the delays to care. I ran through my final stretch of the airport and found Sam waiting for me with baby yellow roses and a pink gerber daisy and a water bottle (I was parched). Lucky he's savvy enough to realized a 12am bus wasn't going to cut it an rearranged our transportation so we caught at 1am coach. An hour bus ride later, we hopped in a cab and pulled up to his apartment.


Friday morning Sam and I made omlettes and a big breakfast (I'd been craving breakfast food SO BAD since I've been here...Italians don't do breakfast really) and took our time getting out the door. We hopped on the Tube and began our day at the Tower of London, thousand year old fortress that is home to the crown jewels, and was home to several famous kings and queens and prisoners. We got a "tour" (It was raining so we sat in the chapel and listened instead) from a Queens Guard who I thought was in character, but is actually a military personnel for the queen with a great public presence. He told us the history of the Tower, and told us where we should check things out in the fortress. Anne Bolyne's private quarters are at the Tower, so is her beheading site and her tomb. The other two Henry VIII beheaded queens are there are well, Jane and Mary. Sam was excited for the jewels, so we took our time oohing and aahing and picking and choosing which diamonds I'd like in the future.

Tower of London

Right next to the Tower of London is the Tower Bridge over the Thames, where we went and saw Dead Man's Hole, where official would fish out dead bodies from the Thames. Charming. We made our way over to Dickens Inn, where we dinned on fish and chips and Sam taught me the proper way to drink a Guinness.

After lunch we hit the Tube and made our way to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We continued to walk around these big landmarks in the rain as I gawked at the Romanesque architecture (we only have Gothic architecture in Italy...the climate doesn't permit large use of stain glass windows in churches because then the churches become oven-like here in the south of Europe) and made our way to the National Gallery around 4. We had a play to catch at 5, but Sam "conveniently" needed to use the restroom at the National Gallery, and I told him it'd be cruel to put me in a museum like that for a short period of time. Too bad so sad, we were going anyway. And man was I glad we did!! It wasn't nearly as large as I'd expected it to be (in terms of architectural space, it did have a large extensive collection) but it's literally a treasure trove of paintings. I just so happened to stumble upon Da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks" and the sketch of "Mary, St. Anne, and Christ" which I just so happen to have to write papers on for my Leonardo class. No big deal, just wandering around the National Gallery, stumbling upon some priceless Renaissance works. It was amazing, I was so happy.

We dashed off to Liecester Square, which is the Broadway of London, to catch our matinee of Avenue Q. We got there with perfect timing, and I was laughing from the moment the lights went down til the final bow. Oh my goodness, it was one of the best performances I've seen in my life. Sam was the perfect person to see it with, no way could I have seen it with you guys, its very raunchy and modern and uncomfortable, in the funniest ways possible. It's like Muppets out of college trying to figure out what to do with their lives. I loved it. Sam enjoyed it too! Though after our big day and our late night Thursday, he was tired and said he didn't know if he was going to make it through the second act. We grabbed ice cream after and made our way back to his apartment and called it an early night, I'd finally hit my wall too.

Borough Market

Saturday we slept in and ate breakfast on his terrace with some London sun shining. Our plan was to check out the London markets and explore Hyde Park together, maybe do a little shopping. We started at Borough Market, which is now officially my favorite place in the whole wide world. It's a food market, and when Sam was explaining it to me, I figured it was like a farmers market. No. It's the most wonderful place I've ever seen. There are food stalls selling every kind of delicacy you can imagine, from wild boar and venison kebobs to curry stands to Turkish delight to different kinds of cheese and sausage stands. We sampled everything that there was to try, and then decided to grab lunch at one of the hot food vendors. I got a lamb kebob sandwich that came with a spicy marinade, coleslaw in the bun, and greens. Sam went for the wild boar and venison. Mine was definitely the more flavorful of the two, I think Sam was a little disappointed his didn't taste super exotic. We washed down our lunch with hot mulled wine. My only regret is that I didn't get a bag of turkish delight to bring back. Sam's coming to Florence in 10 days though, so maybe I'll put in a request...

After lunch we headed towards Tate Modern, one of the biggest modern museum collections in the world. It was a really cool couple of galleries, but it didn't hold the same fascination for me as did the National Gallery. Though when I walked into one gallery room to find a Pollack on one wall, a Rothko on another, and a Monet on the third, that was pretty awesome.

We left Tate to find our sunny London day disappear to fine London mist, but we hopped on the Tube

Globe Theater with Sam

anyway towards Hyde Park to find the elusive Peter Pan statue. It was actually a hop skip and a jump around the corner and not so elusive after all, but it was a nice walk around the park despite the weather. Lots of Londoners seems to be out anyway.

Then it really started to come down, so we headed back to Sam's apartment to refresh ourselves and make dinner for a potluck at his friend's apartment. We made a great tomato meat sauce and headed over in the now-pouring rain. Unfortunately the Tube now decided to get tricky on us, and because of several closed stops, we had to transfer a couple of times. But we got there, and we weren't late after all, and helped with final preparations for dinner. Jordan, the girl who's apartment it was, made ratatouille with Mary (one of Sam's roommates), Mary also made a caprese bruchetta, then we joined in with Sam's sauce and pasta, and Dan and Erick (Dan is Sam's roommate, Erick is one of Sam's best friends) brought more bread and the wine. It was great dinner, and Sam's friends are really great and REALLY funny. Did I study abroad in the wrong country?

We were going to go out to a pub after dinner, but by the time we'd cleaned up and rallied the troops, it was still pouring, the Tube workers were on strike, so we had to walk home in the torrential rain, and we all got back to Sam's apartment cold drenched messes around midnight. Sam and I settled in with hot tea and a movie, it was all perfect nonetheless.

Beautiful family dinner

An early wake up call (7am) later, Sam and I headed out around 7:50 after a quick breakfast and packing up to take the bus back to the airport. Sam rode with me and took an 11 bus back. My flight was at 11:20. I headed through security, straight to my gate, got right on the plane, no delays, everything went smoothly. I changed my 4:10 bus from Pisa to Florence to the 3:10 bus, and got back to Florence around 4:20. By the time I caught my bus to the other side of the Arno, it was about 5:20. I've unpacked, regrouped, waiting patiently for Anna to come home and feed me dinner, and now planning our Florentine adventures for when Sam gets here in 10 days.