November 23, 2009

November 23, 2009

Thursday night Kayla, Jillian and I ventured into the more residential area of Florence to visit Kelly at the wine bar she has been working at every Thursday. The bar has a free wine tasting every Thursday night and tons of local Italians come and socialize! It’s always really fun to be surrounded by all Italian and to really feel like we are in Italy! We loved the area that the wine bar was in because it was not touristy and barely anyone even at the restaurants speak English, which is a shock for us in Florence!
Later Kayla and I decided to go out to one of Florence’s most popular clubs called Twice, which my friend Tyler co-owns. It’s always so nice whenever we go there since we get complete VIP service because of Tyler. We had so much fun dancing and the best part is that the VIP section is roped off so we can stay away from the creepy Italian men that try to dance with us! I especially appreciated this on Thursday because Wednesday night I was actually followed by a young Italian man. It was really really scary! My friend Lindsay and I were leaving a bar and walking home then we separated to go in the directions of our apartments and I noticed a guy following me. It was really bizarre because he was literally like 5 steps directly behind me so I couldn’t see him unless I turned around but I could feel someone there. So I turned around looked him in the eye and said “Basta”—which means stop and glared at him, but he kept behind me. I was in the main city center and there were people up ahead so I luckily wasn’t completely by myself. But the guy never said a word as I kept saying things like “Can I help you?” “Go away” “What do you want?” he just had this creepy stare. I wanted to see if he would leave me alone if I crossed the street so I went over to look at a window display and he slowed down and got right in step behind me when I started walking again. I was really impressed with my thought process the whole time because I was thinking through all my options since I knew I couldn’t go home and lead him there. I was getting really close to the front of the Duomo where there where groups of people scattered around the piazza. I thought about going up to American tourists and talking to them for a few minutes until he went away then I saw some Italian police officers that I could go ask for help to walk me home, but I decided to stop next to a group of people and see what the creep would do before I made any decisions. The creep stayed like 30 feet away now but kept perfectly parallel to me with every step. I called my friend Lindsay on my cell phone who was at a nearby ATM and she literally came to me in 20 seconds. I pointed out the creep to her who was watching us from like 100ft away and we decided to go back to the bar where all our friends were by way of all the brightly lit streets and have one of my guy friends walk me home. So luckily I was escorted home, but I was pretty freaked out. Although the situation could have been much worse I was glad that I live in the city center where there are almost always police officers and that I took a few self-defense lessons prior to coming to Europe!

Friday my “Culture of Food & Wine” class had a fieldtrip to Parma, which is famous because of parmesan cheese. It was about two and a half hours north of Florence and the parmesan factory we visited was outside the main town. We learned ALL about every step to make parmesan along with the fact that it can’t be called parmesan cheese unless it is at least one year old and from Parma. In the storage room where they age the cheese on wood shelves the cheeses were stacked at least 30 feet high! Our favorite part of course was being able to sample two different ages of parmesan at the end. We went to a small restaurant in the town of Parma for lunch where they had several different kinds of prosciutto for us to try. I think it was strategic that they served us it for lunch before they took us to the official “Prosciutto Museum,” which was our next stop. It was interesting, but I don’t know if ever needed to know all that information! We got home around 7:30pm and all fell asleep, fieldtrips are tiring!

Saturday morning Kayla and I decided to make a trip to the Barberino outlet mall. It’s about a 40 minute bus ride to the mall where there are over 90 outlet stores. The outlet mall is in the beautiful hillside and is set up like a little village with a few adorable bridges over lush gullies. We spent a few hours looking around, but didn’t find much. Our outlets in the states in my opinion are way better! We had a relaxing lunch then headed back to Florence. It was nice to be in Florence for the weekend! Especially since it’s really starting to feel more and more like Christmas since most window displays have “Buon Natale” or Merry Christmas in them. There are beautiful Christmas lights hanging throughout the city! My favorites are the fleur-de-lis lights that hang from the buildings over the streets in the city center. So gorgeous! There are several markets in the piazzas since the holidays are approaching that have booths selling hand crafted goods as well as fresh olive oils and wines. We had fun looking around then Kayla and I made dinner together and had our dose of America by watching a few episodes of Law & Order SVU online!

Sunday Kayla, Jillian and her roommate Meghan and I packed lunches and took the city bus to the small town of Fiesole that is up on the hill a few miles outside of Florence. We were so excited to see an outdoor market going on in their main piazza as well. I got an adorable hand-made hat that will be perfect to keep me warm when I go to Interlaken, Switzerland in two weeks. We then hiked up this little road to a lookout point that has a few benches and enjoyed our lunches as well as the most spectacular view of all of Florence! It was slightly cloudy but it was gorgeous with the sun rays coming down from the clouds. Since Florence is surrounded by large hills and sits in a basin you could see the entire city including the Duomo right next to my apartment! We sat there for probably an hour just taking in the awesome view. I definitely want to go back up there one more time before I leave. A little above the lookout point is a beautiful old monastery that we explored a little bit before coming home. It was a perfect little half day trip, and it was a nice to escape the city! You really feel like you are in Tuscany and in another time when you are up in Fiesole! We loved it!

Lots going on this week with school, Thanksgiving and Rome! I should have lots to report next week! Love you all!!!

~Ciao Ciao,

Kara