Everything has been wonderful as always here in Florence! A huge change occurred in the city center as the new Florence mayor made the area surrounding the Duomo a pedestrian only zone so it is completely free of cars! It is amazing and all the Florentines are so happy about it! It actually affects me as well because my apartment is literally on Piazza Duomo so my walk to school is much more carefree as I don’t have to dodge cars just lots of tourists and gypsies! My only concern about this big change is…how am I going to get to the airport with all my luggage to come back to the states? I’m literally going to have to haul 4 months worth of souvenirs and clothing a few blocks just to be picked up by a taxi! I guess I’ll just deal with that as it comes!
My school arranged for us to go after classes last Tuesday to a Tea House. It was so neat! It was cozy, dimly lit and decorated with Indian designs and incense. The owner named Rocco had quite the personality and was so excited to share with us some of his favorite teas and how he made them. The first tea he brought our group was a Chai tea, which happens to be my all-time favorite tea. It was unbelievable! He told us he makes his Chai with 5 different blends of spices before mixing it with black tea, white sugar and cream. The intense flavor was far better than any Chai I’ve ever tasted! We all thought it tasted like Christmas in a cup! SO good! The second tea was a pineapple tea that was served lukewarm, which was interesting. It had a great taste, but after having had the Chai we weren’t too impressed. With the teas Rocco also brought out various kinds of pound cake he had made for our group earlier that day. Everything was so delicious and it was nice to have some food that felt a little more American.
Another big change last week was that I decided to get bangs! I had been contemplating getting them ever since I got to Italy, but was working up the nerve to actually do it. One of my roommates is really good at cutting hair and always cuts her own hair so after she gave one of my other roommates bangs I really started thinking seriously about her giving me them as well. I finally did it last Wednesday night! They are definitely taking some getting used to, but they are fun for the time being. They look pretty dramatic if I were them straight down so I have been pushing them to the side. We will see how I feel about them as time goes on!
This last Tuesday my school arranged for us to take a cooking class at a cooking school called In Tavalo. It was set up with various cooking tables so all my friends and I had a stove and countertop to work on. The first dish we made or “antipasti” was this eggplant dish. I had recently tried eggplant and didn’t love it, but this creation was fantastic. We had a hilarious chef that helped through all the steps of cooking our meal named Roberto. Roberto over the course of the evening told me that I had “sexy hands that aren’t meant for the kitchen” after watching my manicured fingers daintily try to peel the potatoes. He proceeded to give me the nickname “Miss America.” It was pretty funny. But anyways the eggplant dish was a thin slice of eggplant then a layer of cheese topped with a dollop of a mashed potato mixed with zucchini pieces then another eggplant slice with another tier of the same cheese and mashed potato/zucchini mix topped off with one last slice of eggplant. This was then placed in the oven to be baked and it turned out amazing!!! It was so easy to make and was a really interesting, different, but delicious appetizer. Our main course was ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese finished in a butter and sage sauce. It was so fun to make the pasta for the ravioli from scratch! We kneaded the egg and flours together, rolled it, cut it, and placed it through the pasta press several times before individually cutting each ravioli piece. They turned out amazing and eating our creations was even more fun! The dessert we made was a panecotta that was really simple to make. It basically was cream, sugar and gelatin that we mixed then refrigerated. They served it to us drizzled with a strawberry sauce. So basically our meal was amazing and it was so fun to cook an authentic Italian dinner with my friends.
This last Wednesday night Jillian and I went out for drinks with my friend Tyler and his friend “G” to this mellow little lounge called Lochness. Afterwards we all went to fashion designer Roberto Cavalli’s new club called Cavalli Club. Its located on the other side of the Arno River from where I live and would only be a 25 minute walk or so, but it was nice since Tyler lives in Florence that we got to ride in a car since it has been pretty cold at night time! The club was amazing. It is very trendy and chic and Cavalli’s signature leopard print covers the seats and stairs throughout the club. A huge screen plays reruns of Cavalli’s fashion shows and absolutely gorgeous round crystal chandeliers hang in numerous spots. Cavalli spent over $3 million to renovate the location for the club which was actually an old church!!! He left the vaulted ceilings in place, but it feels pretty strange when you think about it that the DJ booth and dance floor are now where the alter of the church used to be! Kind of ironic. But we had so much fun and a bunch of kids from our program ended up showing up as well. At the club there was even a special brand of vodka called “Roberto Cavalli Vodka” it was crazy!
Thursday night we all had a surprise birthday for our friend Ryan at his house. It was Mexican themed so his roommates decorated the apartment and everyone brought chips, salsa and guacamole. Someone even made a make-shift piñata since those are hard to come by over here in Italy! We all had a great time and later went to a Mexican restaurant. I wasn’t a fan, it was greasy and gross. But honestly while I’m in Italy I want to try to stick to the Italian cuisine anyway.
Today (Sunday) there was an Olive Oil Festival going on in several piazzas throughout Florence. The biggest one was in the piazza in front of our school called Piazza della Reppublica. There we probably about 40 booths set up selling various olive oils, cheeses, wines, honeys, jams, spreads, meats, chestnuts, cookies, etc. Our favorite part was of course the samples! It was so much fun and felt just so Italian! It is definitely important to take advantage of all the fun things Florence has to offer because there is always something interesting going on!
Our time in Florence is slowly dwindling down so we are trying to make the most of every minute of every day that is left! I’ll keep you updated!
Xoxo
Ciao Kara
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