sleepy stomach.

I think the mere title of this post says more about my current state of tiredness than anything else. For some reason, since I got home from cooking class, I have just been beat. Unfortunately, with a research paper to write, bedtime will likely not be until some unmentionable hour past midnight. Yuck.

Cooking class was somewhat uninspiring again tonight, but I thought I'd share the fruits of my labor with you anyway.

We started with a stereotypical Italian antipasto (deja vu?), bruschetta al pomodoro. The usual went into the tomato mixture: chopped tomato, olive oil, salt, fresh garlic, oregano, and fresh basil. Toss, let sit, then top toasted Tuscan bread with tomato-y goodness. Add a little red pepper to spice up your life.

I was REALLY excited about our primi piatti when I first read the recipe today, but the end result was less than impressive. Orchiette al cime di rapa is an ear-shaped pasta made with turnip greens and anchovies. Of course, everyone in the class freaked out at the idea of anchovies, but in the end, you honestly could not taste them. The dish ended up being bland, boring, and sadly without any real flavor or identity. I liked the pasta shape, but ended up topping it with anything and everything I could get my paws on (salt, pepper, red pepper...more salt...and parmesan).

Parmesan cheese makes everything better.

Again, reading the recipe for this next dish, flan di zucchine, excited me much more than the actual food. I personally sliced enough zucchini to feed Ethiopia, then we blanched it. Layer the slices in the bottom of a pan and top with a mixture of egg yolk, parmesan cheese, beaten egg whites, and a dash of nutmeg. Top with more zucchini slices and bake.

Blah.

I did, however, love our main course, pesce al spada di marinara. We baked fillets of swordfish topped with chopped tomato, olive oil, chopped black olive, capers, breadcrumbs, and an array of spices. Simple, delicious...and hot. I may have burned my tongue wolfing it down.



Aaaaaand the finale! The dessert we made was actually not on the syllabus, but since we weren't scheduled to make one today, our very kind cooking teacher showed us the "proper" way to make a tiramisu! (Briana, tell Matt that I'll make him some when I get home.)

In case you were wondering, the proper way to make it is sans liquer, with straight espresso, lady fingers, eggs, sugar, and marscapone. Boom. Using a 100 g marscapone to one egg to one tablespoon of sugar ratio (depending on how much you want to make), separate the eggs, mixing the sugar into the yolk and beating the white until VERY VERY stiff. Add marscapone to the egg yolk mixture then mix in the whites. Prepare the espresso, then quickly dip the lady fingers in the coffee (do NOT leave them there to soak or they will be too soggy). Place a small amount of the marscapone mixture in the bottom of a pan, topping with the coffee-soaked lady fingers. Top with the rest of the marscapone. Refrigerate. Serve topped with cocoa.

Boom. Delicious. Simple. Italian.

Now I'm off to...procrastinate a teensy bit more before I finally settle down to write about Caterina and Marie de'Medici, Queens of France. You'd think they would be more interesting than they actually are.

Buona notte!

exotic.

It's been a fairly uninteresting day thus far, so I'll share a short piece we worked on in writing class today. We had to go out and find something about Florence that we consider "exotic" or different. Of course, I focused on food.

[I have to polish this up more for class next week, so any suggestions are welcome! But also keep in mind that it is a work in progress...]

In the middle of the largest outdoor market in Florence, and therefore the largest collection of tourists in Florence, there is a single stall that attracts none of them. An obviously Italian mob crowds at the open window of the tiny stand, which is ironically adorned with both the Florentine coat of arms and the highly recognizable red logo of Coca Cola.

My objective today is to search out the exotic parts of Florence, and even without traditionally exotic displays as colorfully plumed birds, bejeweled belly dancers or tasty tropical fruit, this minute stand has captured my attention, and mine alone.

The woman running the show is small, much smaller than the young man working with her, who is likely her son. She smiles the entire time I am watching, even as the grabby hands of the crowd snatch the white paper-covered plastic bags she is patiently handing to customer after customer, who devour the contents, leaning against the stainless steel of the bar before disappearing into the mass of tourists.

These Italians obviously know something that the tourists do not. No English signs are visible; there is no way for an American to discern precisely what is in these mystery sandwiches that the smiling woman is selling, yet somehow, they seem to understand that the advertised lampredotto is something to be avoided. They likely make no connection between the appetizing smell of cooking meat that wafts through the open window of the cart and the mounds of intimidating fleecy white meat piled indelicately in the displays of butchers less than 20 yards away in il Mercato Centrale. If they did, even the most gung-ho of tourists, sporting backpacks, aluminum water bottles, and Rick Steves’ guide to Florence, would be daunted by the answer to the question that no one will ask the woman running the stand: What exactly is lampredotto?
For the answer to this question would be likely to ruin any appetite: what you’d be putting in your stomach is cow stomach.

fiesole, falafel, and fickle weather.

Florence's weather has been playing games with our hearts. After a teasing few days of sunny, warm goodness, I woke up today to a stubbornly overcast sky, with a side of chilly wind. Not the best weather for my writing class field trip to Fiesole, but we made do.

Fiesole is a small town loacted in the hills that surround Florence, famous for its ancient Roman ruins and spectacular views of Florence. I took a 20 minute bus ride up to the city and was welcomed with some pretty spectacular landscapes that refused to be captured on film. Rest assured that the real thing is so much better.

Yep, that sprawl of building is Florence. Hard to believe.

It was an uphill hike to get those shots, but compared to the hike in Cinque Terre on Sunday, this was nothing.


We settled in the courtyard outside an old Franciscan monastery to write. The topic was the clash between our expectations of life in Florence and the reality of actually living here. I wasn't fond of how my writing turned out the first time around, but with some tweaking, I feel like it could work. I'll probably share the piece I wrote on London before spring break first, but maybe you'll get to see both if you're lucky.

I spent most of the afternoon just bumming around the apartment before the roommates and I headed out for our usual Ethnic Tuesday dinner. Tonight's ethnicity?...Jewish? Haha. Gillian and I have been craving hummus like none other, so when she found a local kosher vegetarian place with HUMMUS as an antipasto, we had to go.

Now that I'm done enjoying my hummus and falafel, Sam and I are drinking wine in preparation for heading out to the bars. I'm already exhausted, so I'm steeling myself for a very long night out...wish me luck!

listen to your body (and your mother).

It's St. Patrick's Day, and while all the rest of the 20 and 21-year-olds are out getting their drink on with green beer (someone please agree with me here: green beer sounds like the most horrifying thing in the world), I am...at home wearing my PJ's, reading blogs, watching TV, doing crossword puzzles, and generally avoiding studying. I am not normal.

St. Patrick's day is not really a big deal to the Italians, except that they know it is a big deal to the thousands of Americans studying here, so they tend to go all out. In spite of this, I was planning on going out tonight. I SWEAR. I promised Sam that I would go on this epic (and uber expensive) pub crawl with her, but my stomach had other plans. After stuffing down a delicious (and cheap) cinnamon raisin bagel right before my cooking exam this evening, I started experiencing the worst stomach cramps ever. Food poisoning? Either way, I'm not going out, and my wallet and my GPA are thanking me. I'm sure Sam will survive without me, despite her skepticism at my texts begging off. Besides, with a midterm at noon that I am just not ready for, it's for the best. You just have to listen to your body sometimes (and your mother, who would agree that staying in tonight is the best option).

I am truly coming to realize here that I just do not enjoy going out. It's such a process, getting ready and then walking out to the bars, paying money to be sexually harassed by Italian men, and then stumbling home at 3 AM, only to wake up the next morning, still paying the price in the form of a hangover. Not my kind of fun. I enjoy going out and having a glass of prosecco with my apperitivo. I enjoy grabbing a cocktail at a bar and coming home early. But this whole partying-get-drunk-all-the-time thing just ain't my thang. And I need to learn to be cool with that, and just say no to wasting money on things that I don't enjoy. Cappuccino? Yes, please! Late night at the Lion's Fountain? No, thank you.

Aaaaand guess what else? A little birdie (or an email) told me that my long-awaited package had finally arrived! A frustrating walk up and down Via Magenta, 45 minutes and 13 euro later, I have BLACK BOOTS! Thanks, Mom!

They fit and everything!

Aren't they pretty?

I was going to wear them out tonight, but I suppose breaking them in in Dublin is almost the same thing as breaking them in on St. Patty's day, right?

This is what the rest of my evening looks like:

Don't worry, I'm not suffering alone; midterms have taken over here at The Palace:


Yep, I get to spend the rest of my night with a cup of coffee and this handsome man...

Oh, Cosimo the Elder, you're such a fox! Ti amo!

(Not.)

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Hold onto your [winter] hats; Florence is going green!

But more on that momentarily.

I started off the day with two midterms: one at 9 AM in my Italian Language class (Boom. Easy peasy.) and finished with a 12 PM exam in my Travel Writing class (Prompt: "Impressions of Florence"). I feel confident that I did well on both, and after I finished my essay, I flounced across the river to accompany Mary to a costume exhibit at the Palazzo Pitti, an old palace originally built by the Pitti family that was later taken over by the Medici. It is now home to several different museum exhibits.

The exhibit was interesting, but tiny! It only took us about 15 minutes to get throught the whole thing. So since the weather has been so nice (of course, during midterm week when we are all being antisocial cave creatures), we decided to take advantage of another Pitti feature: the Boboli Gardens. Today, it was sunny and probably in the mid-sixties: perfect garden-exploring weather.

The "Gardens" were so large that it was more of a park. It is definitely going to take another visit to feel like I've really seen everything Boboli has to offer.

The back of the Palazzo Pitti.

It's almost...dare I say...springtime!

We made another friend! He even let us pet him.

Because...what is a garden without a statue of an obese man riding a turtle?

Tomorrow is going to be full of all of my favorite things...shopping at mercato centrale, lunch with Gillian at Sergio Gozzi, and then...studying. Studying all afternoon until my cooking exam at 6 PM after which we are PUB CRAWLING for St. Patrick's Day. Epic.

Hope your day was as green and gorgeous as mine was! Ciao!

in fair verona we lay our scene...

I am actually currently at the wifi-offering caffe just down the street from The Palace (I shall whenceforth refer to my apartment as "The Palace," mostly for my own amusement) because when I left this morning around 11:30 AM, there was no internet. I have since received word that the internet is indeed back up, but I am currently living outside the law: I bought a month of internet on February 9th and have yet to renew it, though it was working up until March 12. I am afraid that my luck has run out and I will have to actually pay for my internet (horrors), so I'm hanging at the caffe in order to delay that inevitability.

So as you know, my roommates and I scooted off to Verona on Friday afternoon, after first completing the final step of our permesso di soggiorno (uh, probably spelled that one wrong...Gillian?) applications, meaning that we are now officially LEGAL residents of Italy...at least until May. Funny that we have been here for almost 2 months by the time that is done. Also, can we just take a moment of awe at the fact that we have been here for almost two months? That's eight weeks, 42 days, and too many hours for me to calculate. I have a little over two months left, and if the second half flies by as quickly as the first, I'll be home before I know it.

Anyway, we brought our bags with us on our permesso field trip, so we headed directly to Santa Maria Novella after that. We bought our one-way tickets to Verona, and then sat around for almost an hour before our Eurostar train to Bologna left (can we also talk about how ridiculous it is that it cost 24 euro to go from Florence to Bologna and only 7 to go from Bologna to Verona? Stupid Eurostar train.)

May or may not have gotten a little bored while waiting at the station...

We were actually waiting at McDonalds, and since we were there for almost an hour, temptation overtook Marissa and me. We just had to have a.....

Tiramisu milkshake!

I've been talking about getting one pretty much since our first week here but sadly...

It did not taste anything like tiramisu. It wasn't bad, just bland. Blah.

After our culinary experimentation in milkshakes, we caught the Eurostar to Bologna. Such a quick ride! Only about a half hour. We didn't realize what a quick transition we'd have to make to catch our train to Verona, only about 10 minutes! And let me tell you, the Bologna train station is CONFUSING! Apparently there are central, east and west platforms. Our train was due to depart from Platform 3 Ovest (west). We found platform 3, and were slightly concerned when there was no train listed as arriving, and no people on the platform with us. We stood there for a bit before I happened to notice a sign that said "Binari est e ovest ->" and it suddenly dawned on me that we were NOT on the ovest platform as I had previously thought. We literally RAN (apparently I pranced, much to the amusement of my roommates) back to where we had started, one platform over from where our original train had dropped us. We had literally one minute to board, and the door actually closed before Sam got on. Luckily, some friendly Italians responded to our frantic Italenglish and terrified looks and opened the door to let her back on. Crisis averted.

When we finally arrived in Verona (two and a half hours later...phew!) we had to walk to the hostel. Fortunately, the weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, cool and sunny.

We saw this right as we walked in. I'm thinking it was originally a part of the old city walls.



Corso Porta Nuova, the large street we came in on.

A piazza...whose name I'm blanking on. It was really cute though.

The directions to our hostel were pretty straightforward and we found it with little trouble. It was actually a B&B, not a hostel, which means that we shared two double rooms for the low, low price of 22 euro per night. Not bad at all, considering I will be paying more than that to share a 12 person room in Amsterdam....ugh.

Marissa's and my room.

After chillaxing a bit and freshening up, we hit the streets to walk around a bit before dinner, which was recommended and marked on a map by our friendly hostel owner. We hadn't been walking 10 minutes when we were ambushed by a woman carrying paper hippopatomus crowns, who insisted on taking our picture. Grazie, signora!

After wandering for a bit we were famished, but realized that we had gone completely the wrong direction from the restaurant il signore had recommended. Whoops. So we trekked it back across the city with minor difficulty before finding...al Bracere!

The restaurant was apparently an old, converted church. The inside was SUPER kitschy...looked half like an antique shop, half like a restaurant. It was two stories, with an upper loft where some sort of reception dinner was going on. The food was excellent. I had an unpictured bowl of linguine with fresh pesto and tomatoes and shrimp. My main complaint is with Italian cuisine in general...they do not peel the shrimp for you! So my fingers got all pesto-y while I attempted to peel them. Unfortunately, I'm not very nimble, and I ended up getting frustrated with the whole process and leaving several behind.


After dinner, Sam and I debated going to a bar to get a drink, but in the end, we were too tired to go through the whole process of getting ready and going back out, so all four of us just stopped and got cappucinos. After savoring the espresso-y goodness, we headed back to the hostel for the night. It's crazy how riding a train all day can tire you out!

We got up bright and early (uhhh...9 AM) to be ready for 10:30 checkout. Breakfast provided by the hostel was decent...toast, cereal, and yogurt, mostly but it did the job for me, anyway. I filled up, hoping to put lunch off for as long as possible. We packed up, left our keys, and hit the city for a few more hours. We ended up back in the same large piazza with all of the bright stores and restaurants pictured above, but this time we took a closer look at the park across the way. I was particularly amused by this:

Do not go barechested.

The piazza I was talking about. I'm blanking on names again, ahh, sorry! Such a fail.

The weather was totally gorgeous again, and it really felt like springtime!

The old Roman amphitheater is in the same piazza as the park and all the shops, so we hit that next....after some necessary touristy cheesin'.

A group of women having some sort of bachelorette party took our picture after we took theirs.

The view from the top. Phew, were those steps STEEP and KILLER!

So steep we had to go down on our behinds...

But not before snapping some shots of the city from the top as well.

We walked back the same way we had gone the night before, towards Casa di Giulietta (Juliet's house) and a particularly alluring chocolate fountain-sporting gelateria we had seen. The street we walked on, Via Mazzini, was so beautiful, especially to a shopaholic like my roommate Sam.

There were tons of stores of every kind lining the street.

Even this little guy stopped to window shop! (Or maybe his owner was inside.)

Aha! The gelateria!

Stracciatella (chocolate chip) and some sort of chocolate-hazelnut combo that I'm forgetting. It was thicker and heavier than most gelato I've had, more typically ice-cream-like, but still good. I'm becoming such a gelato connossieur!

After that, we walked back towards Juliet's house, passing Piazza Erbe, which I think was my favorite part of the city. There was a market going on there and the buildings were just so...stereotypically Italian, with all of the terraces, plants, and shutters. So pretty.

I think prisoners must have been kept here. Note the chain.

Fresh fruit! Just what my breakfast was lacking. I picked up a pear and a banana for snackage.

After a bit of meandering through the market, we went to Casa di Giulietta.

People had adorned the walls with tributes to their Romeos as well as notes wishing for one.

Juliet's balcony.

I didn't realize it before, but apparently Romeo and Juliet is actually based on a true story that took place in Verona. I'll have to do more research on that one later.

What? Everyone else was doing it. Apparently it's good luck, and you can see that her breast is all kinds of shiny from millions of tourists groping it. I had to do it.

FRIENDS REFERENCE.

"I caught him kissing Mr. Garibaldi."

"Who is Mr. Garibaldi?"

"DOES IT MATTER?"

Now I actually have to find out who Garibaldi was.

This was on a plaque outside of Romeo's house, which we wandered forever to find...only to realize it was just this plaque with a door in a wall. Cool.

With not much else on our agenda, we decided to follow the river towards Verona's duomo.

Along the way we made a few friends...this is Richard.

Sam also found her dream ride: a mint green Vespa.

Verona's duomo, or main church.

And as a self-respecting English major, I couldn't walk past a statue of Dante without taking a picture of it.

After this, we were all pretty wiped, and we realized there wasn't much else we truly wanted to see in Verona. We got another cappucino, picked up our bags and headed back to the train station. The ride back to Florence was much quicker (fewer stops between Verona and Bologna going back the other way), and we got home just in time to enjoy dinner at a vegetarian joint just down the road from our apartment. Delicioussss. We have pretty much been holed up in our apartment studying (internetless) ever since.

I have two midterms tomorrow (Italian and Travel Writing), cooking on Wednesday, then history on Thursday. I'm finding it hard to stress; I either feel super confident in myself or I'm just not taking my classes here seriously (worry not, parents, I am doing fine so far). I promise to do some studying tonight...after I catch up on my shows and do some online crossword puzzles. Nerd.