When In Rome

What a weekend.

I've been saying that every weekend that I've been in Italy so far, but seriously, what a weekend.

It all began Friday morning when we got up way too early to be at the train station at 7:45 a.m. for our fast train to Rome. We met as a big group of CCI and architecture majors - led by our one and only Petra - for our first of three school-sponsored weekend trips outside of Florence.

The train ride was super fast and we arrived in the Rome train station just before 10 a.m. A bus picked up our group at the train station and took us to Hotel Navona, about 40 minutes away. We had just enough time at the hotel to check in, get cappuccinos from the best cafe in Rome (a believable title after drinking these amazing coffees) and meet Petra in the lobby for our tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. 

We walked to the Forum and Colosseum, only about twenty minutes from the hotel, stopping along the way for Petra and Erica (another professor) to point out places of interest. We spent some time standing outside Benito Mussolini's palace (known as "the wedding cake" by local Romans who have always despised this building), taking pictures and learning some history of the palace and the surrounding square (Piazza Venezia).

After that, we headed to the Forum where we ran into an unexpected problem. The Forum was closed due to a transportation strike. Apparently, the price of public transportation across Italy recently went up dramatically, so workers at the Forum were protesting by not showing up for work. We were still able to look down into the Forum via an overlook on the sidewalk, but we had to save our tickets for later and make our way down the street to the Colosseum.

Now, I'd been psyching myself out all week about the Colosseum because I just couldn't process the fact that I was actually going to THE Colosseum. That is, THE ANCIENT ROMAN COLOSSEUM. I hope you can tell, this was kind of a big deal.

This was a big deal, too.

So we're walking down the road, and all of a sudden, I look up and I see it, straight ahead in the distance. I literally stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and my stomach dropped like I was at the top of a roller coaster. I kid you not, I instantly had goosebumps all over because I was looking at the real Colosseum. The one I've seen pictures of and spent months in elementary school and high school talking about. THE Colosseum.

I can't get over it.

I did finally manage to start walking again and calm down enough for my heart to stop beating so painfully in my throat. I only took about fifty photos in the last length of street between the spot were I nearly had a meltdown and the Colosseum. Petra and Erica stopped us to talk about maps carved on a wall and depicting the Roman Empire at about four or five different points in history. All I really got out of this lecture was "Blah blah Rome blah blah ... Let's get in line for the Colosseum."

This is precisely where I nearly
 peed myself from excitement.

I kind of hop skipped and jumped my way down to the Colosseum and through the line because I was so ready to fight a lion. For real, that's all I could think about. I kept playing this video in my mind that I can only best describe as Lion King Fight Club. It would take place in the Colosseum and be the most badass movie ever made. And I want this to actually happen (ball's in your court, Mike Cooknick).

Of course, since we're Kent State and we're awesome (and we already paid for it) we got to line jump everyone and get in ahead of about 300 other people who were stuck waiting in line. It was a great moment.

Which meant that we had until 2:00 to explore the Colosseum and do whatever else we wanted. I've never been to Disney World, but this was probably better, considering my aversions to crowds, dehydration, touching anything with germs, standing in lines, spinning in circles, and the smell of pennies.

I teamed up with Lydia just like I did in Pisa to help her recreate her mom's photos. Thirty years ago, Lydia's mom and her mom's best friend backpacked through Europe and Lydia is trying to go to all the places the pair went to retake some of her mom's best photos. It's a pretty awesome project, and since it's like a giant Italian scavenger hunt, I've been having fun helping out with it.

It took us a few hours, but we were able to get most of Lydia's photos, as well as way too many of our own (I took about 300 photos in two and a half days).

Lydia and me with Maria and Jamie
(from Italy and England, respectively)
recreating one of Mama Coutre's photos.

Two thumbs up.
You live another day, Colosseum.

After we saw every inch of the Colosseum we could get into, including the "museum" areas where they stored artifacts discarded in the Colosseum by its original audiences occupants (helmets, jewelry, coins, carvings, etc) and model of what the Colosseum would have looked back in the day, or of the pulley system used to bring animals up from the menagerie below, we called it a day and headed to the Forum, our meeting point for a walk to the Pantheon.

Lydia and I stopped for gelato (I got butterscotch and Nutella - delicious), then met the rest of the group. It was only about a ten or fifteen minute walk to the Pantheon. It's really bizarre walking through Rome because you move from ancient structures, to modern buildings and back with no formal separation or distinction.

We passed a lot of cool archways and ancient columns and churches on the way to the Pantheon, but my favorite thing we passed was the Roman Cat Sanctuary. Seriously. There's a sunken ruin in the city dedicated to sheltering and feeding stray cats. It's such a popular tourist destination that I was able to purchase a "Gatti di Roma" (Cats of Rome) calendar at a Euro store. Best purchase of the trip so far.

The Pantheon was smaller than I expected, but still very impressive. Like most of the ancient buildings we've visited, it was incredibly detailed and ornate inside. I was amazed to hear that the Pantheon still functions as a Catholic church with mass held every Sunday morning. Can you imagine belonging to that congregation? Unreal.

I need Ron Hoellein to stand here
and preach to the masses.

We wrapped up our Pantheon tour around 6 p.m. and were free for the rest of the evening. At least most of us went back to the hotel to rest before dinner. Bethany, Erika and I got a private suite together, so our room was really nice. All three of us crashed as soon as we got into the hotel and napped for about two hours before Lydia came to wake us up to go for a walk. A small group of us wandered around Rome, enjoying how busy and beautiful this city is, and especially enjoying these lights.

Pittsburgh better top this when I get home.

We found a cute little restaurant on a side street that was featuring three course dinners for only €16. So we feasted on wine, bruschetta, our choice of pasta or meat (I chose spaghetti alla carbonara), and some kind of super delicious bread dessert topped with hot fudge and sweet cream (see Italian Eats). We followed a dinner with a stop at the local Irish pub for a little bit of dancing and a little bit of hanging out with the rest of the group before going home and going back to bed in preparation of another early morning.

Saturday morning we met Petra and Rocky in the lobby at 9 to walk to Vatican City. Now, obviously I'm not Catholic, so this didn't have quite the same significance for me as for other members of our group, but coming from a family of Catholics and being Christian myself, I was very excited for this trip. And it didn't disappoint.

Our first stop upon entering Vatican City, was the Vatican Museums. Considering the only angle I've ever seen of the Vatican is the one of the Pope presiding over St. Peter's Square, I did not expect this museum to come out of nowhere, but that's essentially what happened. We turned a corner and walked right into a museum (well, not right into... security is tight).

And the Vatican Museums are beyond incredible. Rocky told us that each pope tries to outdo his predecessors by adding grander and grander additions or works of art to the museum, and that certainly showed. Room after room was filled with gorgeous and thought-provoking paintings, sculptures, and tapestries (each of those wall rugs costs enough to pay off the Italian national debt several times over... not sure how I feel about that in a church). But the artwork was amazing, and of course made even better by Rocky's deep knowledge of his subject.

The last leg of our art explorations was a stop in the Sistine Chapel. Yeah, the Sistine Chapel. It's just as good as you imagine and then some. Security was really tight, so we couldn't get pictures (I'm sure I could have snuck a few, but I was too busy staring with my eyes popping out of my head to think about that). One guard kept yelling, "Silence!" and "Silencio!" every few minutes since it's a sacred space.

Rocky told us that Michelangelo didn't paint the Chapel lying on his back like many people think, but standing on scaffolding, looking up at the ceiling. At the time Mike painted the Chapel, he was a nobody whom everyone believed was destined to fail the project. I bet they felt stupid four years later when Mike stepped back and was like, "You guys have anything more challenging in this city?" But Rocky also said that supposedly Michelangelo messed up his eyes so badly working on the ceiling, that from then on the only way he could read was by holding the book or paper directly above his head and looking up at it. Who knows if that's true, but I'm surprised he wasn't crippled doing those murals.

Another fun fact: In Michelangelo's original design, all of the figures were painted in the nude. The higher-ups in the Church at the time disapproved of this and hired a guy to paint robes on everyone. Even though the guy was a painter himself and trying to get his name out there with all his own original creations, he became known as "the underwear guy" for painting underwear on Michelangelo's work. And he never moved past that. How unfortunate. I can imagine him going to art shows and fighting to prove that he was good for something other than covering nether-regions.

Another fun fact: Michelangelo really hated the pope he worked for, so he painted him into the Sistine Chapel disguised as a demon and never got in trouble for it. Obviously Michelangelo was an artist with balls. Take that as you will.

After the Sistine Chapel, we went to St. Peter's Basilica which is also incredible. I know I keep recycling the same words (Wow! Neat-o!), but the architecture/art in Italy is mind-blowing. We spent a long time in St. Peter's too because it's St. Peter's. Let's be real here. We looked at every inch of the main floor, we went downstairs, we went upstairs, and then, Lydia and I climbed the Duomo.

Looking into the basilica from upstairs.

Climbing the Duomo was slightly terrifying. It cost €5 Euros, but was worth every Euro penny (not sure if that's what they're called). First you go up about four hundred steps. Then you step out onto a roof that looks like any commercial roof you've ever been on. It's sucks and Lydia and I were about to cry when we realized we were only about a fourth of the way up. We had to cross into another building and continue up into the Duomo.

The first steps were really wide, the second were really narrow, the third spiraled to the point that I wanted to throw up, so Lydia and I stopped to gulp fresh air at a tiny window.

After that, we continued up more spiral stairs, more spiral stairs, slanting spiral stairs (we were in the dome at this point, so you had to curve with the walls), spiral stairs smaller in area than my feet (no exaggeration here) that we tackled on hands and knees, then we climbed a rope ladder and finally reached the top.

I wonder if Pisa is this bad inside.

The view from the top of the duomo would have taken our breath away had the stairs not done it before we reached the top. We clutched stitches in our sides and stared out over all of Rome.

Lydia and me at the top!

When we finally got our fill of looking out over Rome, we went back to the bottom in search of lunch, which we found at a really cute little restaurant with delicious, cheap zucchini sandwiches and a very friendly staff.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Rome. Our two main stops were at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Me making a wish at Trevi Fountain.

Lydia and I didn't get back to the hotel until almost 6:40 and our group dinner was at 7. So we had to hurry to get ready in time to meet everyone in the lobby.

We walked to Trattoria da Luigi Restaurante for my first official Italian dinner. Course one was risotto and pancetta rigatoni. Course two was a salad. Course three was steak and potatoes. Course four was tiramisu. Course five was going to the bar with Petra for cocktails.

I was obviously super stuffed at this point, but I decided to go with the flow and order a cocktail to sip as I sat in a heated outdoor patio talking with the other girls and Petra. I figured something with mint would be a safe option, so I opted for a Spiced Mojito at Petra's suggestion. It was a good choice.

Waiting for our drinks: Caitlin, Yelena, Petra, Lydia, me.

We went back to the hotel after this and passed out from the long day. And Sunday was another long day. We got up bright and early for a tour of the Borghese Art Gallery (incredible, but I was dragging at this point) and of several churches.

The Sunday morning tour ended at the Trevi Fountain, where we got gelato to eat on the way back to the hotel.

We loaded up the bus from here, headed to the train station, and got back to Florence around 7 p.m. Bethany and I went to dinner with the guys at a Chinese restaurant on our street. This was the first time any of us had been there even though the guys live directly above it. The food was pretty good, but the service left much to be desired.

The first problem was that our waitress (the only one working) spoke neither Italian nor English. So that was tricky. We managed to order and get the right food, but then came the check-waiting marathon. No matter what we tried, we could not get the message across that we were ready to leave and needed the check. Finally, our waitress brought out a menu and showed it to Kevin. It seemed to us that the waitress was asking what he had ordered, so he pointed it out and asked for the check again. The waitress told him okay and, about twenty minutes later, came back with another plate of the chicken he had already eaten.

So that didn't work out the way we had hoped. We shared the chicken and went up to the register to pay, despite never having gotten the check. The cashier managed to flag down our waitress and figure our how much we all owed, but we weren't able to explain what happened with Kevin and he ended up having to pay for the second plate.

Also, if I go back there, I'm definitely getting take out. It cost €4 for my meal, but the service tax was €2. That's basically a 50% tip for horrible service! Not making that mistake there again.

After dinner, I went right to bed, but it was a spectacular weekend that I know I will remember for the rest of my life.

I feel like I should have a more profound ending to a post about such a profound experience, but I don't know how much more I can type right now, nor how much you can read. So this will be where I leave you for now. Time for dinner and homework...

Love you all!

In Tavola Recipes

Recipes from our cooking class last night! All recipes are courtesy of In Tavola, Florence, Italy.

Vegetable Millefoglie (Millefoglie di Verdure)

1 large Eggplant

2 Zucchini

1 boiled Potato

3 Fontina Cheese slices

Grated Parmesan cheese

   Salt

   Pepper

   Extra Virgin Olive Oil

   Oregano

Oven Temperature: 395°F

Preparation:

Cut the eggplant into thin slices widthwise (slices should be circular). Mash the potato with a potato masher. Cut the zucchini into small slices.

Put the mashed potato and the zucchini cubes in a bowl and dress with salt, pepper, a large pinch of oregano, and a splash of oil. Mix well.

Line a baking dish with parchment paper and place eggplant slices in the dish with a few centimeters between each. Top with a spoonful of the zucchini mixture and a slice of Fontina.

Make another layer with the eggplant slices and zucchini mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.

Drizzle with olive oil and bake 25 minutes. Once out of oven, let millefoglie rest for a few minutes.

...

Fresh Egg Pasta (Pasta Fresca all’Uovo)

2 Eggs

¼ cup Flour of Durum Wheat

2/3 cup Flour Type “00”

   Salt

Preparation:

Put the flour in a mound on a large wooden pastry board, making a large well in the center of the mound. Break the eggs into the hole. Add a pinch of salt.

Beat the eggs, salt well then slowly begin incorporating the flour from the inside perimeter of the well into the mixture with a fork. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Gather the dough into a ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

With pasta machine:

Cut dough ball into two equal parts. Working with one half at a time, add sprinkle of flour, fold dough in half, add more flour, and fold in half again. Roll with pin. Repeat twice.

Run dough through machine at settings 1, 3 and 5, folding and repeating until pasta is desired consistency.

(For ravioli, finish on setting 6.) 

...

Meat Sauce (Ragu’alla Bolognese)

9 ounces Ground beef

1 Onion

1-2 Carrot(s)

1-2 stalk(s) Celery

1 lb. Tomatoes peeled

1 spoon Tomato paste

½ glass Red wine

   Salt

   Pepper

   Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation:

Cut an “X” in the bottom of each tomato. Drop each tomato briefly into a pot of hot water (not quite at boiling point). After about one minute, remove tomatoes and run under cold water. Peel, cut in half and remove seeds. Dice tomato halves.

Mince onion, carrot and celery.

Fry vegetables with a little bit of olive oil.

Add the ground beef to the vegetable and continue frying.

Add half glass red wine, tomatoes and tomato paste. Add generous pinch of salt and pepper.

Cover and cook sauce for 2 hours.

Yield: 6 servings

...

Tomato and Garlic Sauce (Sugo all’Aglione)

2 lb. Tomatoes peeled

5 whole cloves Garlic

5-6 whole Basil leaves

4 small Peperoncino (or other dried chili peppers; optional)

   Salt

   Pepper

   Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preparation:

Cut an “X” in the bottom of each tomato. Drop each tomato briefly into a pot of hot water (not quite at boiling point). After about one minute, remove tomatoes and run under cold water. Peel, cut in half and remove seeds. Dice tomato halves.

Pour olive oil into a large saucepan, covering the bottom (about 1 centimeter deep).

Add the garlic to the oil and cook over medium-high heat until garlic begins to brown.

Carefully add the tomatoes, peperoncino and basil leaves. Stir with wooden spoon.

Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After about 5 minutes, check flavor and add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Remove garlic before serving.

Yield: 4 servings

...

Tiramisu

2 Eggs separated

2.5 oz. Sugar

9 oz. Mascarpone cheese

Savoiardi cookies

1 cup Italian coffee

1 tsp. Brandy liquor

   Cocoa powder or grated chocolate bar

Preparation:

Whip together 2 oz. sugar and egg yolk until well mixed.

Beat egg whites and ½ oz. sugar with a mixer until firm, but not stiff.

Add Mascarpone cheese to sugar/egg yolk mixture.

Once incorporated, gently fold egg white mixture into Mascarpone base.

Quickly dip Savoiardi cookies in coffee/brandy mixture. Be careful not to soak cookies.

Layer the cookies and cream in small serving dishes (preferable clear or glass so you can see the layers), beginning with the cookie and finishing with the cream. Sprinkle top with powder or grated chocolate.

Chill in refrigerator at least one hour before serving.

Yield: 4-6 servings

In Tavola

Ciao, amici! Being that it's Tuesday again, I spent most of the day in class. After that I came home, napped, checked Facebook, did laundry, then went back to school with Bethany, Erika and most of our classmates to meet for a one-time-only cooking class.

Petra met us at Cerchi at 7:30 to walk us to In Tavola, a Florentine cooking school on the other side of the Arno. 

If we hadn't been with Petra, we all would have missed this little culinary school since it is literally a hole in the wall. 

When we got there, we were immediately directed to split into groups of four or five and pick a work station in one of the two large kitchens. I joined in with Yelena, Erika, Lydia, and Jess, and we quickly got to work on our dinner and dessert.

But not before posing like Iron Chefs in our plastic aprons.

First, we made the tiramisu that would be our dessert (cream mixture/coffee-soaked cookies/more cream/more coffee cookies/chocolate powder/fridge) and dough for the noodles. I succeeded in making my flour into a little volcano to hold the eggs, but I failed miserably at cracking my first egg so that part of it landed on my shoe.

Alessandro, our instructor, came by just in time to see me evaluating the situation with the eggshell still in my hand. He made a joke about how I was already turning out to be a problem and took away my scraper so that I had to use a fork to mix the flour and eggs into a smooth dough.

It took me longer than everyone else because of this, but we got all of our dough made and started on the sauce and stuffing for the eggplant. We chopped tomatoes for the sauce and zucchini and potatoes for the stuffing, then cut the eggplant into round, thin slices.

We set the tomatoes to simmer into sauce and made triple decker stuffed eggplant towers with the zucchini/potato mixture and slices of cheese, topped with olive oil and more cheese.

Alessandro showing us how to make the eggplant towers.

After this, we retrieved our dough and rolled it out into noodles (the most time-consuming step, but one of the most fun).

Jess rolling the dough.

Lydia and Petra using the noodle maker.

Once our noodles were complete, it was time to dump them into the simmering tomato sauce and wait for everything to finish cooking so that we could plate it and take it to our tables in Tavola's dining room. 

Ta da!

This was a really fun class and the food was by far some of the best we've had in Firenze. The dining area at In Tavola is super cozy and inviting and we had a great time enjoying what we had so much fun preparing. Also, the staff was absolutely amazing and kept us laughing in the kitchen and all through dinner. 

It's a shame this was our only cooking class of the year, but Alessandro gave out recipe booklets for everyone to take home that have the recipes for each of the four dishes we made this evening. I can't wait to recreate all of this at La Casa de Aprile later this semester! This might be what we end up making Nicolo since we owe him a dinner now. 

Squisito!

Lydia's Pisa Video

I stole this from my friend Lydia. I actually had no idea she even made this until just now. I had no part in it, but you can see me in my red coat in a few shots.

Enjoy! All the credit goes to Lydia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AnFRMfIcho4

Why The Tower Leans

An explanation of the Torre pendente di Pisa (Leaning Tower of Pisa) from the book "Rick Steves' Italy" by Rick Steves himself :

"Pisa's bell tower is nearly 200 feet tall and 55 feet wide, weighing 14,000 tons and currently leaning at a five-degree angle (as of June 2010). It started to lean almost immediately after construction began... The Tower was built over two centuries by at least three different architects. You can see how each successive architect tried to correct the leaning problem - once halfway up (after the fourth story), one at the belfry on the top. 

"The first stones were laid in 1173... Five years later, just as they'd finished the base of the first arcade, someone said, "Is it just me, or does that look crooked?" The heavy Tower was obviously sinking into the marshy, multilayered, unstable soil. They carried on anyway."

Steves then goes on to describe two centuries worth of attempts to correct the lean in the Tower. Really? That's how it happened? This sounds like the most haphazardly thrown together building ever. "This building is screwed, but let's keep going just for the hell of it?" Okay. I wonder how many other projects this crew got after green-lighting a leaning tower...

Still not level? Try putting on another story. 

Lean With It

Allora... this weekend was just a little bit crazy.

Actually, Friday wasn't. Friday was extremely chill. Those of us at Aprile woke up just early enough to go to a local farmer's market by the train station, where we stocked up on fresh fruits, veggies and cheeses. That was a lot of fun, trying to speak Italian with the vendors and haggle the prices down (the prices were already very good to begin with in most cases, but I still managed to get 2 Euro off a basket of strawberries and bunch of bananas). 

After that, we went to a real grocery store to buy bread, meat, Nutella, milk, and the other things we couldn't find at the market. We hauled all of this out to the nearest piazza and stopped for lunch at Il Ghibellini.

Bethany and I split a very delicious ham pizza, while Erika (the vegetarian) opted for mushrooms and artichokes. We had a great time eating and relaxing, then got to the hardest part of any restaurant excursion in Firenze: how to pay the bill. 

We sat for a good half hour waiting for a waiter to come past and give us our bill. No one came. We got up and walked up to the front of the restaurant to see if there was a register for us to pay at. There wasn't. So we sat and waited, worrying about the chicken we picked up at the grocery store and looking around at the other customers to see what they did (when in doubt, imitate the locals). Unfortunately, the only other patrons at this time (it was a little early for Italian lunch) were a couple making out in the corner and two guys who had just sat down and hadn't even ordered drinks yet.

We compensated by wandering around until someone came and asked if we needed help.

Fifth Lesson Learned: When in doubt, look cute and clueless. It makes up for the fact that you're an ignorant American.

The waiter told us that in Italy, people usually like to relax after a meal and he didn't want to seem rude by rushing us with a bill. Makes sense. But we're Americans. We like to get in, get out, get going. No one understands that in this country. (Wait for the Nicolo and Franco story later in this post; and a word of warning right now, this post is going to be LONG because a lot happened this weekend.)

The rest of Friday was mostly uneventful. We finally paid our bill and made it home, dragging armfuls of groceries the last twenty or twenty-five minutes of the walk. After that, we were kind of worn out, so we took naps, then spent the evening playing cards and drinking wine. (We were also too full from lunch to eat a real dinner, so instead I made a killer banana and Nutella panini.)

Thank you, Bobby Flay.

Saturday. The best day of the weekend. Kevin and Glenn picked the three of us up at our apartment and we all walked to the train station to meet the rest of the group for an 11 a.m. train to Pisa.

We figured out how to swipe our bank cards to get into an ATM booth and how to buy the correct tickets from the self-serve ticket machine (which spoke in an odd combination of broken English and female robot: "Peek your teekets in de lowair right"), and made it safely onto the proper train with time to spare. 

It took about an hour to get to Pisa, and with the gorgeous Italian countryside all around us and plenty of "Harry Potter" quotes on train travel to throw around, it was a very fast hour.

It didn't occur to any of us to figure out where the Leaning Tower of Pisa actually is until we walked outside the train station and found ourselves in a piazza in a legitimate city. We had all anticipated stepping out into a field and walking straight to the Tower. There weren't even any signs for it. So we went back in the station, checked the map and headed off down what we hoped would be the correct street.

There were actually a lot of streets between the station and the Tower, but we got to enjoy the quaint houses and shops of Pisa as we followed a vague path.

Finally, we got to a point where we turned a corner and suddenly, there it was.

We should have known to follow the smell of America.

I think it was Yelena who first decided she was famished upon seeing the Tower, and we all realized we were too. So I took the above photo and we turned right around to go back for food at the ristorante we had just passed a few hundred yards behind us.

We lucked out by having a really sunny day in the 60's, so we ate outside on the street/patio and feasted on margherita pizza and bruschetta.

Lydia and me looking attractive.

Full of carbs and tomatoes, we headed back to the Tower, where we spent three hours trying to take the perfect picture with all the other tourists.

A little to the left...

The weather was perfect and we had nowhere else to be, so we figured we would take all the time we needed to get our pictures exactly as we wanted them, and we did.

We spent our last hour or two before sunset wandering around Pisa. There are actually several really cool old buildings in La Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles: the field the Tower sits in), so we walked around them and took some more pictures of the architecture.

We wanted to visit Camposanto Cemetery on the edge of the field because it's supposed to be another popular tourist attraction, but we got there at closing time and couldn't get in.

After that, we called it quits and made our way back to the train station for our trip home.

Erika, Bethany and I made it back to our apartment shortly before 8 p.m. and were ready for dinner at this point. As I was preparing the ingredients for a grilled cheese and the other girls were deciding on their own dinners, we heard a knock on the door.

I opened it, and who should it be, but our favorite neighbor Nicolo and another equally attractive young Italian whom Nicolo introduced as his best friend Franco.

As it turned out, Franco was visiting Nik for the weekend and they hoped we would join them for dinner  at 9, if that was not too late for us. I turned to block the stove where I had just set a sandwich to grill, and we - trying to remain as calm and collected as possible - accepted their invitation.

After the boys left and we closed the door, it took about ten minutes of the three of us jumping up and down and suppressing squeals and giggles to get us to relax enough to focus on getting ready. We got a bottle of wine from a store on our street (hoping it would be suitable since none of us really had any idea what we were looking for) and changed out of our Pisa clothes just in time for the boys to knock on our door at 9 sharp to inform us dinner was ready when we were.

And dinner was amazing. Nik and Franco had made us steak, roasted chicken and potatoes and salad (American foods for the Americans) and it was all fantastic. We spent most of dinner going back and forth asking questions: Nik and Franco about American culture and the girls and I asking about Italian culture. Nicolo speaks very good English, but Franco hardly speaks any English at all, so Nik had to keep translating what we said. It made all of our stories that much funnier because one of us would say something and everyone but Franco would laugh (he just sat there looking puzzled). Then Nik would translate for Franco and Franco would laugh too, which set the rest of us off again. When we ran out of questions, we began talking about our experiences in Italy so far and the differences between Kent and Firenze (including the way ambulance and cop sirens sound different in Italy than in the U.S., which we had to go to YouTube to prove to the guys).

All of our stories seemed better in Italian as Nik acted out what we told him for Franco's benefit, and Franco, equally dramatic, would respond with more sweeping gestures.

Once everyone had eaten more than his or her fill, Nik and Franco cleared the table, we pushed all the furniture in Nik's apartment aside to make room for dancing in the little apartment. Nik asked for our preferences, but we wanted him to choose. The compromise was Coldplay and Dubstep, an interesting combination, but one all five of us really enjoyed. It cracked me up that even Franco, with his lack of English, knew all the English words to the songs.

It was great making some Italian friends (and having a super delicious, free meal) and when the three of us finally got to bed, we were all exhausted from such a full day.

Naturally, we slept in late Sunday. Some of the other girls were coming over after lunch to meet before walking to Piazza Michelangelo (an outlook over Firenze), so we waited around for them.

As we were waiting, Nicolo and Franco knocked on the door again to ask about our plans for the day. The girls arrived while we were talking to the boys, so naturally the boys invited our whole group over for espresso...

While we were talking, we shared our plans to head to Michelangelo, and Nicolo and Franco volunteered to be our escorts.

It ended up taking longer than it should have for all of us to get across the Arno and up that hill because Yelena stopped for a sandwich, Maria for shoes and Franco for cigarettes. Finally, we made it and realized it was definitely worth the intense climb up the super steep hill.

"Everything, Simba. Everything the light touches."

We stood up there until just after sunset, staring out over the entirety of Firenze. It was another one of those moments here that actually takes your breath away, and it was a perfect almost ending to the weekend as the six of us sat in silence (with the exception of a wonderfully mellow singer entertaining guests on the main steps) and watched the sun sink over the hills.

Franco, Yelena, me, Lydia, Bethany, and Nicolo.

When it was finally getting dark, Bethany and walked home with the guys, while I went to the supermercado to pick up pasta for dinner at Lydia's apartment.

Yelena and Lydia made excellent spaghetti with chicken, onions and peppers. Eight of us ate and recapped the weekend, then cleared the table for another game of Pit. We called it quits around 8 and I headed back to my apartment to do the homework I'd been putting off since Thursday.

Unfortunately, I just missed Franco leaving to head back to his home in Cortona, but Bethany and Erika passed on the message for me that he said good-bye.

It's rough heading back to class today after such a perfect weekend, but it's only another week until Roma. I'm sure this was only the first of many Italian weekends to remember.

Sometimes It Never Makes Sense

Late-Night Italian Television: We interrupt this report on pilgrims and preserved corpses to bring you approximately three minutes of soft-core porn, followed by man-on-the-street interviews about definitions of English words like "trample."

What?

Arches, Golden Arches and Nik

I can't believe I've already been in Italy nearly two weeks. This semester is going by WAY too fast and I don't like that feeling.

Our first week of classes officially ended today. After Italian with Gloria, we had our first field trip with Rocky (for our Italian Art class). We met Rocky in the Piazza della Repubblica at noon and received little headsets to hear him while he lectured on the architecture all around us.

He described how Florence was the first Roman Forum (political, religious and commercial center) and pointed out that the Piazza is located at the crossroads of Cardo, the first "highway" in Italy and the only direct route to present-day Roma from Firenze, and Decamanus, the east to west highway.

We learned why Firenze is laid out the way it is and that our current home city was the capital of Italy from 1865 to 1870.

After Piazza della Repubblica, we walked to Piazza della Signoria, home of Palazzo della Signoria, the original town hall of Firenze and the first town hall in all of Italia. We learned the stories behind some of the major statues in the Piazza (a lion symbolizing the strength of Firenze, a copy of the David, Hercules killing the thief Cacus, Judith slaying an invading general to save her city, and a nationally hated depiction of the god Neptune - seriously hated; Rocky said when the statue was first built, Florentines peed in the pool at the statue's base to show their disdain for what they considered a hideous blemish on the city).

I don't think it's all that bad.

My favorite part of this whole trip though, was in Piazza della Repubblica where Rocky explained to us the inscription on the "Triumph Arch" overlooking the Piazza:

L'ANTICO CENTRO DELLA CITTA

DA SECOLARE SQUALLORE 

A VITA NUOVA RESTITUITO

It turns out this is an Italian inscription reading, "The ancient center of the city, from centuries of squalor, to new life restored."

And that, ladies and gents, somes up the entire history of Florence: The original epicenter of the Roman Empire, crippled by the fall of Rome and four centuries of Dark Ages, rebuilt into a thriving, modern city. 

Pretty cool, right? Just wait, it gets better.

La Vita Nuova is the title of one of Dante Alighieri's first (and shortest novels), written nearly 600 years before this arch was constructed. In normal Italian speech, this phrase would be written la nuova vita, but the reverse ordering of the words is a subtle tip of the hat to Firenze's most beloved writer. How many people do you think pass that arch every single day and never realize the key, the definition of this bella citta is literally hanging right above their heads?

Unbelievable.

After my mind was blown by Mr. "I'm-A-Walking-Encyclopedia-of-Italy" Rocky, I had Comparative Media again (we talked about our favorite music and how Francesca thinks she's old because she loves the Beatles... honey, don't), then went home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening organizing my notes and reading. Erikaaaa (that's the Italian pronunciation) was in bed with a stomachache, so when Bethany got home from class, she and I got ready to go to McDonald's (I'm so ashamed to type this, but it happened; in an attempt to redeem myself, I did order a McRoyal, a burger we definitely don't have at Mickey D's in the States) with the guys.

But, as I was in the bathroom (horrible timing...) I heard a strangely familiar male voice in our living room. I finished drying my hands just in time to race out of the bathroom and wave good-bye to Niccolo, who apparently stopped by to let us know our door wasn't completely shut and also that we should never hesitate to knock on his door if we ever need anything. 

This encounter certainly brightened the mood in la Casa de Aprile for the evening. We've spent a decent portion of our time since Mickey D's planning what to make Niccolo (he told us to call him Nik) for dinner in order to win his friendship (and hopefully his love...haha; we're crazy about him). 

At least we learned that he doesn't hate us - in fact, he has our best interests at heart and is trying to be a very good neighbor. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go help Bethany and Erikaaa brainstorm more plausible excuses to invite Niccolo over...

David

Wednesdays are going to be cake days.

We began this morning with Italian (if you haven't figured it out, Italian is my only daily class), where nothing interesting happened other than Gloria drawing stereotypical smiley faces. Hans di Berlin was drinking out of a beer stein, Robert and Kurt di Amsterdam were smoking pot, Yoko and Kyoko di Tokyo had what Gloria called "Asian eyes." Yeah. I love Gloria, but her classes are goofier than anything I've ever sat through. I did, however, greatly appreciate the fact that Yoko and Kyoko led to some sort of Italian rant of which I only caught key terms like "John Lennon," "New York Citta" and "Apple." Oh, Gloria.

After class, Erika, Lauren and I went home with Lydia to plan our spring break trip. We ended up not going to Lydia's for this last night because we were cold and tired and the walk to Lydia's is SO FAR and up about fifteen flights of stairs. So we did it today and got our trip almost entirely mapped out and down to the point where we have begun booking hostels, flights and trains.

A quick lunch at a cafe next to Cerchi (this place had no tax for sitting, so Erika and I got cappuccinos too) and it was time for the only class I hadn't been to yet: The Genius of Florence.

This class is part history of Firenze and part field trips every week. I'm more excited about the latter part, but today our professor Fabrizio taught us about the founding of Firenze in 59 A.D. by a soldier named Fiorino. Firenze was a military camp until 1138 A.C. when someone came up with the idea to build a wall around the now functioning citta and call it a Republic. Firenze saw the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 A.C. and joined the Kingdom of Italy (renamed "Italy" in 1948 when it lost its royal title) in 1861: five years before Venice and nine years before Rome.

The cool part of this lesson was learning about the famous commoners Dante Alighieri and Michelangelo, both of whom came from pauper beginnings to become two of the most celebrated visionaries in European history. Fabrizio told us that in his day, Michelangelo would have been more well-known and wealthy than Steve Jobs was at the height of his career. Very impressive for a guy with no internet.

All this talk of Michelangelo inspired us Via Ventisette Aprile residents to head over to the Galleria dell'Accademia to see the real Michelangelo's David. (Eat some gelato, visit some priceless works of art, repeat.)

Glenn and Kevin had already been there earlier in the afternoon while Erika and I were at Lydia's, but they were so eager to see the David again that they raved about it the whole way from school to the Galleria.

They couldn't quite put how incredible this statue is into words ("smooth" was thrown around a lot...) and after seeing it for myself, I can fully understand the guys' dilemma.

We toured a good portion of the Galleria, but we spent a long time circling David. It's mind-numbing to think that something so incredible was created by one single man. I was awed by the fake David in Piazza della Signoria, but the real thing makes the copy look like a Playdough project.

I could see what Glenn meant when he said the statue was "smooth." There is not a single out of place bump, line, scratch, chip, dent, stroke, anything on the David. The overall perfection of the whole thing is overwhelming, but David's hands and arms are the most impressive part. The lines of his fingers and the veins in his hands and biceps are incredibly detailed. You can see the bones in his feet and the muscles in his neck.

The whole thing is so perfectly detailed, I could swear I saw David breath as we stood there admiring this centuries old masterpiece, hooked up to sensors in the ground monitoring any and all pressure or stress on the David 24/7/365. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he had pulled loose from these sensors and stepped down from his pedestal while we watched, walking right out into the streets of Firenze.

The rest of the museum was impressive, too, with other sculptures and paintings, but I'm pretty sure all five of us kept sneaking peaks back at the most trafficked statue in the building as we wandered around.

It's unbelievable to me that I am blessed enough to live for the time being in a city so full of the world's most admired treasures. I can't count the number of times I've looked at the Duomo, or another ancient building, or now the David and asked myself how it could be humanly possible. There's no way in my mind that one man could create something like the David from a single solid rock. There's no way human hands could design and actually create a work of architecture as daunting and inspiring as the Duomo. I know the pyramids are often thought of as some of the most impossible human creations, but I'm certain even those responsible for the pyramids would stand in disbelief before some of the works I've seen in Firenze.

La bella citta, indeed.

Oh, we have to be serious now?

Tuesdays are going to be long this semester.

We started this morning with Fabio's Intercultural Communication class again. Today we watched a clip from "Pay It Forward" where Kevin Spacey's character assigns his students the following essay subject:

"Think of an idea to change our world and put it into action."

Fabio encouraged us to discuss what this assignment could mean and how it applies to our lives as foreigners right now. He said we will be going back to this idea a lot this semester as we try to change our perspective of the world and learn to embrace diversity within ourselves.

This is turning out to be my favorite class so far. Fabio asks really tough questions that encourage some serious soul-searching. It's fascinating to hear his views on culture and individualism, and to think about what it means to me personally to call myself an American.

Right after I.C., we had Italian with Gloria again, who was just as scatterbrained today, but at least I learned how to introduce myself in Italian.

We followed this class with lunch again at the 2.50 sandwich shop, then headed to the large lecture hall for Italian Art with Rocky. It turns out Rocky is from Connecticut and moved to Italy about a decade ago. Even though I can understand my Italian teachers when they speak, it's refreshing to have Rocky who understands our culture and concerns a little better than the other professors.

I think I'm really going to love Rocky's class. We have our first field trip Thursday at the Piazza Repubblica. We have field trips every week to various museums, churches and architectural sites around Florence. It's going to be great!

Right after Rocky's class, I have Comparative Media with Francesca. Today was a short class. Francesca introduced herself and we introduced ourselves, then went around the class discussing what "communication" means to us and what channels we personally use to communicate.

After class, Erika and I stopped at the grocery store again and bought enough to stock our fridge for the first time this semester. I bought more of those shelf eggs and came home to make a delicious gorgonzola omelet.

Tonight we'll be heading to the four-girl apartment to book our spring break trip to Interlaken, Croatia and Greece. I hope it goes better than yesterday when we tried to book trips... We narrowed down where we wanted to go, but didn't get around to booking anything. Instead Erika, Bethany, Kevin, and I played Rummy and made pasta, then went to another apartment where our attempt to vote on trips turned into a party. Not exactly productive. But hopefully we'll do better tonight with a more compact plan.

Kevin Spacey and Fabio

Day One of classes is officially over. I didn't have to be up until about 9 a.m. today since my first class (Elementary Italian One) doesn't begin until 10:45.

We made breakfast at home today and ate together since Erika and I are in the same Italian class and Bethany's Italian Two class is also at 10:45.

Fourth Lesson Learned: Shelf eggs are pretty tasty.

Remember a few posts back how I said they don't refrigerate their eggs in Italy? I bought a carton of brown eggs at the supermercado two or three days ago that I found sitting on a shelf between the bread and the cereal. If you want eggs in this country, that is the only way to buy them. All the dairy here is sketch.

So this morning I ate an egg that has been sitting out on the counter for several days and drank a glass of milk out of a carton that's been sitting in the pantry for a week. Freaky, right?

I was a little terrified to try the egg, since earlier this week two of the other girls from our class ate cured sausage and got sick because "cured" basically translates to "Here, eat this raw meat."

But I do love eggs and have been craving an omelet for the past week, so I decided today would be the day to be brave and go for it.

Since we have yet to find butter anywhere, and they certainly don't have PAM, I poured some olive oil in a skillet and cooked one egg into an omelet. I put the omelet on a piece of toast and made an egg sandwich that turned out to be surprisingly delicious and filling. I might even venture to say that my shelf egg was better than the eggs I eat in America (definitely far and beyond the liquid ladle eggs they serve at Eastway in Kent).

The taste was good enough to almost allow me to forget that I was drinking week-old, non-refrigerated milk and days old non-refrigerated eggs (and yogurt - which I'm becoming addicted to since I found really cheap, delicious yogurt here - but the yogurt they do refrigerate). It was a fantastic breakfast.

The three of us made our way to class and arrived ten minutes early for our respective Italian classes.

Erika and I had class with Gloria in the Giotto classroom. We learned the alfabeto and classroom phrases like, "Yes, I understand;" "No, I don't understand;" "I have a question;" and many other short, helpful phrases. We ended the class by practicing spelling our names in pairs.

Our second class was Intercultural Communication fifteen minutes later in the same classroom. Our professor for this one is Fabio. This was my first time meeting him, but I really like him so far (I haven't met anyone yet whom I don't like).

We spent most of the class introducing ourselves and asking Fabio questions about life in Italy.

"Culture shock is always positive," Fabio told us. We talked about how anytime you experience something new, you learn something good that can be taken away to make you a better person. It's a great way to look at an unfamiliar situation.

Fabio said he wants this class to help change our way of viewing the world and to mature and shape us to be world ambassadors.

... But he also told us Kevin Spacey would be visiting our class. We all just kind of stared at him.

"Like, the actor Kevin Spacey? The Kevin Spacey?" I asked.

It took us a little while to figure out Fabio was kidding. I think we might have problems with that this semester since Fabio seems to be very sarcastic, but with his accent, it's difficult to pick up on his sarcasm.

It turns out Kevin Spacey is just one of his favorite actors - "I wish I knew him and could invite him to come to class" - and Fabio will be showing us movie and television clips from Italy and America to help us recognize and understand differences in culture.

Fabio assigned us homework to describe who we are in three sentences, to be handed in and discussed in class tomorrow. That's going to be rough, but Fabio told us that's the idea. He wants to challenge us a lot this semester. Part of our homework every week will be to choose one new experience that challenges us, puzzles us or just makes us think because of it's foreign nature, and remember it to discuss in class. We can present these experiences any way that suites us - through writing, speaking, video, art, etc. Those are going to be very cool assignments as well.

After class, we got sandwiches (ham, goat cheese and spinaci) at a corner store on the same street as the school and did a little grocery shopping. Now we're hanging out for the afternoon and beginning to plan our big weekend trips. Any ideas where to go in Europe?

Sleeping In

So today was a very lazy Sunday. I slept until 10 a.m. and woke up alone in the apartment, since Erika and Bethany slept over at the six-person apartment after going out last night.

I didn't know this until I woke up and found myself alone, but I was able to locate them by sending a few Facebook messages. I spent the next hour or two alone on Facebook and reading "Every Day In Tuscany," a book I brought with me by Frances Mayes, the author of "Under the Tuscan Sun."

Once le Ragazze di Aprile were reunited, we made mozzarella, spinaci e pomodori paninis on our George Foreman panini press and cafe Americano in our espresso maker (because we have both of those things - I can feel your jealousy) for lunch.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the house until I went to the four-girl apartment for spaghetti dinner with Lydia and Caitlin. It was a brief but relaxing evening hanging out and learning a new card game from Lydia (Dutch Blitz; similar to double solitaire; lots of fun, even though Lydia crushed me).

I got home just in time for my 8 p.m. Skype date with the one and only Mike Cooknick (Oh my god Mike Cooknick the Mike Cooknick I know him!). And just got off Skype with him and my mom. It was so good to see them, even though we realized there wasn't much to talk about because of the blog (although we must have found something to discuss since we talked for two hours).

Anyhow, now it's time for a few more cookies (we found chocolate chip cookies at the 99 Cent store that are actually really good) and maybe a little reading before bed. Tomorrow is the first day of classes and I have Italian at 10:45. Luckily, it's not a super early day, but it will be early enough.

So buona notte, amici! And I will write again soon.

A Day With My Favorite Italian

It's the weekend! At last.

This week has been amazing, but I am so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Bethany and I headed out early again this morning for our last 9 a.m. orientation with Gloria. We just made it on time, even though I was dragging because the brand new tennis shoes I wore all day yesterday gave me really bad blisters. I really wish I had a pedometer to see how much I've walked this week. I heard someone in one of the groups bought one and walked two miles in the two hours with Gloria yesterday. I believe that.

Today's lesson was on art and how Michelangelo "liked to make fun and so he was boonched in the nose" (as Gloria put it). That's why his nose is broken in so many portraits of him, apparently.

Gloria also told us that Michelangelo's David was carved out of another sculptor's rejected marble. The other sculptor started to carve a person out of the marble, gave up, and gave it to Michelangelo, who refurbished it into the David. Talk about flip this rock.

We toured the sculptures at Piazza della Signoria - the gateway to the Museo Uffizi - walked through the alleyway (a work of art in itself with its own sculptures of famous Florentines and actors posing as living sculptures) and wandered around the Arno and Ponte Vecchio while Gloria talked about tourists and provided more history about the Ponte Vecchio. I missed much of this last part because I was having trouble getting close enough to hear her mouse voice. At least I already know one important thing about Ponte Vecchio : Dr. Lecter himself spent some time hanging out there.

"I came halfway around the world to watch you run, Clarice."

Yes. Because anywhere Hannibal is must be a prime vacation spot... And on a lighter note, I stood there today!

We also toured some of the ancient churches here. Many of them look very plain and unimpressive from the outside, but are just as gorgeous and full of art as any museum (and much more amazing than many museums I've seen) on the inside.

I didn't get any good photos in the churches because none of them allowed photos without a flash, but it was a fun tour nonetheless.

After this, I walked to Il Duomo where I sat on the front steps and waited for Elena, one of my best friends from high school, who is currently studying in Rome for three weeks and was able to come visit me in Firenze.

We caused quite a scene and probably looked like really obnoxious Americans running to meet each other in the Piazza. But it was so awesome to be able to hang out with an old friend from home in ITALY. I mean, who does that? Especially at our age. We're unbelievably fortunate.

The first thing we did was get paninis for lunch and head to a sunny bench on the Piazza to eat while we caught up on what Elena has been doing with her Italian class in Rome and what I have been doing here in Firenze.

While we ate, we fed pigeons bits of our sandwiches, until an Italian woman next to us scolded her son for imitating us... oops. Dumb Americans.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at the outdoor market at Piazza della Republica, where I bought a scarf and was accosted by some man trying to sell me a leather jacket. I tried on a jacket in the style I've had my heart set on, but the guy was so pushy, I ended up not buying. Also, he dumped water on my sleeve and tried to light me on fire to prove how durable the jacket was. These vendors are intense.

Elena and I then made our way back to the statues we toured in the morning and took our photos posing as some of our favorite famous Florentines.

A living statue dressed as a really creepy cupid blew us kisses when we walked past. Elena took a picture of a really fluffy dog that clearly thought it was a lot tougher than it actually was since it barked and growled at her.

We walked along the Arno while Elena took a lot of the photos I've already taken this week. It was hard to get over the fact that we were in Firenze together hanging out together just like we've done since high school (but in a much grander scale today).

Once we got too tired to keep going, I took Elena back to my apartment for a tour and to meet the roommates before the two of us went to Il Giardino del Barbano Pizzeria where I got pizza with my roommates our first night. We shared a delicious funghi pizza and salad, then sat around awkwardly wondering how to pay. The Sexy Waiter from our first night took our money from the table and we left, but not before we saw the waiter pointing at our table and saying something, at which the other waiter and the cooks laughed... Fantastic.

Elena hung out at our apartment again for about an hour before leaving to catch her train back to Rome.

Bethany and Erika just went out with the rest of our group, but I'm staying home to watch Italian TV and relax before an early bedtime. I'm wiped out from all the walking today, but it was another perfect day in Firenze. I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow and spend the day relaxing.

Buona notte, tutta!