it's a beautiful day.

I hope that a burst of song filled your head when you read this blog title...IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY! A month ago, it was snowing. Today, it is in the 70's, sunny, and completely cloudless. Beautiful.

Today, I fell in love with Italy all over again.

My day started when I woke up around 10. Ate breakfast, the usual, enjoyed the beautiful weather out the window while I ate. Then Gillian and I finally made it over to the San Ambroggio market, another food market, located in the eastern part of the city. I personally have never been to that part of the city, so I enjoyed our walk in the perfect weather.

The market itself was...markety. Pretty sweet. I'm definitely going to miss markets when I am buying my produce at Publix in just over 6 weeks. Ew.

Haha, check out the stall owner smoking while he works. Typical.

Another lunch place that is on our list, and it's actually located IN the market. We would have gone here yesterday, but we had a date with Sergio.

We each bought a few things, and spent a bit of time inside, chatting with one of the cheese vendors. He had a thing for Gillian and kept giving us free samples of all kinds of things...three different kinds of pecorino, an unidentified kind of creamy cheese on a cracker, and finally, a large green olive.

Then we walked back toward the city center...

Yet another thing on our to-eat list: Florentine street food! Trippa, or tripe, which is...cow's stomach, is very common locally, and we are determined to at least sample it...no matter how scared we may be. I think Gill and I agreed to split one later, just to be on the safe side.

Then we came upon this little area, which I had no idea existed...

More used books.

I think the weather has drawn all of the couples out into the open...and they are not shy about PDA around here.

Then we stumbled into this little courtyard.

It's full of little junk shops! Most of them were closed, but I really want to go back and check on one in particular that looked like it had some antique postcards and prints inside.

Then of course, since it was Wednesday, we had our usual lunch at Sergio's! Sam's friend from home, Kasey, who is studying in Stockholm, joined us. I had the pasta e fagioli, a soup with little round noodles and beans, topped with the mandatory dose of olive oil. It was, as usual, delicious.

Before lunch, Gillian and I had done a bit of shopping at San Lorenzo. I picked up a pair of sweet shades and a bracelet for a few euro.

Thennnn the weather was so gorgeous that we took a blanket down to Piazza di Independenza and just spread out to enjoy the sunshine.

Sam did some homework...

While Gillian napped.

I, of course, took the opportunity to show off my new sunglasses! I haggled the guy from 20 euro all the way down to 5. Good job, me.

I spent most of the afternoon, though, with Sam's copy of Eat, Pray, Love.

I picked up directly from the park and went to my cooking class. I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't exactly enthralled with what we made last night, but free dinner is free dinner.

We started with pasta coi ceci, which is a kind of pasta and chickpea "soup" which, like most Italian sounds I have encountered, is thick enough to eat with a fork. On the side, broccoli al limone, broccoli topped with a lemon and olive oil sauce, and a nice slice of Tuscan bread.

For our main course, we made lamb with fresh mint, but I personally wasn't a huge fan. We roasted it, with the garlic and mint wrapped up inside, in the oven for over an hour, stopping to add white wine to the pan as it evaporated. There was just something weird about the taste (plus I got a particularly fatty piece). I wasn't a fan, and didn't stop to take a photo.

Dessert was cicerchiata, which is a kind of carnival food. It is essentially fried dough balls, which we topped with a honey glaze made from raw honey, crushed almonds, cinnamon, and lemon zest.

They were good, but again, uninspired.

I literally ran from my cooking class down to Via Ghibellina, where I met up with the rest of the API crew for Momix, the modern Italian ballet, which had been described to us as a mixture between dance and Cirque du Soleil. I have never actually seen Cirque, so I was a bit unsure about what to expect. Our seats were pretty sweet, on the top floor in a box front and center of the stage (though it took us about a year to find them...)

I enjoyed Momix, though it was quite different from what I had expected. The word "ballet" to me just automatically means choreographed dance to music, but this was much more...interpretive. There was a lot of play with light and different kinds of music and the "dancing" itself was unlike any ballet I'd ever seen.

At the end of the night, we walked home and enjoyed some freshly baked dark chocolate chip cookies that Gillian had (angrily) prepared earlier in the evening, while the internet had been playing games with her. A perfect end to a perfect day.

buona pasqua!

Buona Pasqua! Happy Easter! I'm only a few days late, I know you'll forgive me.

The weather played games with us all weekend. I would wake up inthe morning, and be incredibly excited because the view out our window would look like this...

But by the time I showered and got ready, the view would look like this...

Which would usually turn into an all-out downpour by afternoon.

We managed to make our own fun anyway. The celebration started a couple of days before Easter, when Gillian brought me along to a chocolate shop that had been recommended to her.

Here, the children are given giant, hollow chocolate eggs that usually have toys in them. There are all kinds of varieties, and they are all beautiful...and tempting.

This one was the size of a small toddler and cost more than 95 euro.

Gillian and I may or may not have bought one each, and though it did take a great deal of willpower, I resisted the 20-pound egg and went for a smaller version. The chocolate store is also home to a gelateria, and since we had been planning to get gelato anyway, we decided to gamble and try this new, untested and unrecommended place.

We were not disappointed.

My cone...dark chocolate with sicilian orange and "milk" flavors. SO GOOD. And cheap! That is quite a lot of gelato for 1.70 euro, let me tell you. I'm turning into quite the connoisseur.

Every Easter for more than 300 years has been celebrated in Florence with il Scoppio del Carro, or the Explosion of the Cart. The cart is pulled by four white oxen in a procession through the city until it comes to rest between the Baptistery and the main cathedral. A wire is attached somehow, and a white dove that is actually a "rocket" is sent down the wire to the cart, which is full of small explosives and fireworks. Apparently the belief is that if the explosion is successful, then there will be a good harvest that year.

I personally missed the actual explosion, but got to see the cart being pulled away by the oxen after the event.

After that, I went home to celebrate with the roomies!

Lovely morning picture, but check out how big it is! It's the size of my head! And the chocolate is of much higher quality than the stuff they use to make those nasty hollow bunnies with in America. I gave half to my roommate Marissa because Lord knows I don't need that much chocolate.

We had a nice Easter dinner (after trekking through the POURING rain to the other side of the river) at Dante's, which had been recommended to us multiple times, partly because of the food, but mostly because as students, we get free wine. We each ordered a pizza and had a few glasses of wine. When we left the restaurant, it was raining even harder, and our feet were already soaked, so we called a cab to take us home, where, in our wine-induced giddiness, we may or may not have started an all-out berry-throwing war. I think there were berries in every corner of the apartment by the end of the night. Don't worry, parents, we woke up the next morning and promptly swept, mopped, and picked up every last berry.

Oh! I forgot to mention that I spent most of Easter constructing a crostata, or fresh fruit and custard tart, like one we had made in class earlier in the week. I didn't manage to get a picture of it before we demolished it, but Gillian did. I kind of messed up the custard, but it was still delicious. I was quite impressed with myself.

Gillian and I are now off to check out the San Ambroggio market, which is just another one of Florence's food markets, but we have been itching to see if it is better than il Mercato Centrale. The weather is also gorgeous, so I'll probably hang outside before meeting Mary for lunch at Sergio's later this afternoon. Mmmmm, minestra here I come!

my bologna has a first name...

It's I-T-A-L-Y! Ha! Just kidding.

Saturday, Gillian and I took a day trip to Bologna, the capital of Italy's Emilia Romagna Region, a little over an hour north of Florence by train. It is known as one of Italy's gastronomic capitals, since it is the home of both Parma ham and Parmaggiano cheese, obviously two of the country's greatest culinary successes.

We got up super early (around 7 AM for me) to catch the cheapest train possible, which was due to leave at 8:35. Of course, when we got there 15 minutes early, the train was already sold out, forcing us to take the more expensive (though faster) train at 9 AM. We arrived around 9:30 and headed, mapless, toward what we hoped was the city center.

After rounding the first corner, we spotted a white tent...the market we were hoping to encounter? Not quite. Possibly even better.

A used book sale!

We both leafed through some random things for a bit. We ended up returning later in the evening to purchase a gag gift for Sam, and Gillian got a guide to Italy's restaurants. It only cost 1 euro, probably because it was published in 2002...no worries, though! We still knew most of the restaurants in the Florence section.

Then we found a set of stairs that led to a park...





Most of the statues were of animals being brutally killed and/or eaten by other animals. Cute.

We then stumbled into an ENORMOUS flea market, full of cute jewelry, old clothes, sunglasses, and enough bongs to make Amsterdam blush.

Typical Italian dog.

At this point, we have no idea where the city center is, so I caved and bought an ENORMOUS and totally overpriced map. It was the bane of our existence for most of the day, but we were able to map a route...barely.

Literally, maybe half of the map is showing in this photo.

We walked toward il Mercato Delle Erbe, which is Bologna's largest, and supposedly one of the best in Europe.

We eventually found it...

And fresh pasta! Bologna is known for its freshly made egg pasta, especially the tortelloni.

Of course, I bought some Parmaggiano-Reggiano cheese.

I personally prefer il Mercato Centrale here in Florence...it is much homier and less...fluorescent than the Bologna market. The Erbe market's stalls were more formal and technological, and I just missed the more agricultural feel of Florence's best market.

Next, we walked toward the city's historical center.

This is a "walk through" instead of a drive through, haha. Cracked me up.

King Neptune fountain, located in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna's biggest and most important square.

At this point, we were feeling a little hungry for lunch, so we walked in the general direction of one of the places that Gillian had oh-so-considerately written down before we had left.

I think you can figure that out, even if you don't speak Italian.

Of course, Italy likes to screw with us, so the place that Gillian had found recommended was either closed or shut down, so we walked into a trattoria that had its menu handwritten outside, which we have always found to be a good sign. We decided together on two dishes and then split them.

Tortelloni con panna e prosciutto

And tagliatelle con ragu bolognese
[Check out Gillian in the background, preparing her camera]

We were both huge fans of the tortelloni. The cream was very light and delicious, and the ham, obviously what the city is famous for, was amazing. I also really liked the tagliatelle, though it was a bit meat-heavy for both of us.

At this point, we decided to sample some of Bologna's other cuisine...namely, gelato! Sorry, no photo, but rest assured that it was delicious-looking, as well. We wandered around another used book shop for a bit, trying to find a cheap cookbook or any other interesting thing that could catch our eye. Then we decided to abandon the map and just...go.

We found this nice piazza, before retiring to a coffee shop to just sit, talk, and observe the very interesting population of the city. Bologna is home to one of the oldest universities in Italy (in all of Europe, maybe? Gillian?) so there were a lot of students, and some very odd tourists. We also saw our fair share of daschaunds and French bulldogs. After our subpar lattes, we returned to the used book fair to purchase the aforementioned items. We walked and walked some more, and decided to get a snack before our train.

We stopped at an osteria that Gillian had, again, written down before called Osteria dell'Orsa. I ordered a sandwich with mushrooms, cream, and brie and a glass of white wine, while gill had a couple of crostini. Neither of us was disappointed when we returned to our train, which departed at 8:18 PM.

All in all, a very relaxing and gastronomically pleasing day, though I will say that I was not blown away. I feel like if we had actually spoken to someone who had lived or studied there and gotten their take, we would have succeeded more at our restaurant-picking. Either way, a nice day with my great roomie...can't go wrong with that!