After a nice weekend in Naples, I slept in a bit on Monday before going to the Central Market to pick up some food for the week. My favorite purchase was dried fruit! It's so good here and they have like every type of fruit. For lunch the roommates and I decided to go back to the Oil Shoppe, a fav lunch stop. I got a spicy meatball sandwich which was amazing!!! Class was same old same old, then since its Monday that means cooking! Cooking class was amazing, we made homemade pear and gorgonzola stuffed ravioli in a mushroom and prosciutto sauce--too die for!!! It's really not super difficult to make, as long as you have the time to make it. I really want to try and make the ravioli at home, but it might turn into a disaster, haha but we'll see. We also made a risotto, prosciutto rolls, and a ricotta and fruit desert. All of it was really good. Never can complain about that! After class, the Italia World Cup game was on so we met up with a few other people at a bar around the corner from class to watch the game and grab a few drinks. Let me tell you, as much as I hate soccer, the World Cup is a lot of fun to watch in Europe. But I really can't stand all these games ending in ties. It's so anticlimactic. But at least I'm in good company. After the game, we grabbed gelato at Grom and then it was time for bed.
On Tuesday, Jaclyn and I decided to venture out on a little shopping adventure, Tony tagged along for some of it, before we had to start studying. We had our midterm in class. Well in the words of Stefano, "not an exam, it's just a test, so don't worry." Didn't really make much sense to me either, so we spent the majority of the afternoon in the library attempting to study. After the midterm, which wasn't too bad, we walked out of class to find three 2011 Aston Martins parked in Plazzo Strozzi. It was part of Florence Fashion Week. Pretty cool. The night turned out kinda rainy so a bunch of us decided to cook at Jaclyn's Apartment to save some money. The original plan was to go out and celebrate finishing the midterm but since it was raining we all just staying in and hung out. Nothing too eventful.
Wednesday I went to the Bargello Museum because I needed to get started on my visual analysis. I decided to pick the Sacrifice of Isaac by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. Their bronze work is amazing. But Brunelleschi's is by far my favorite. The Bargello had a ton of other really cool stuff too. Afterwards, I got some gelato and went leather jacket shopping with Kaysee and Emily. I found a beautiful chocolate brown leather jacket from our friend Luca's shop. Got a great deal on it too! I just wish it would cool down now so I can wear it!! Lots of people skipped class on Wednesday, except for me and a few others so class dragged on. For dinner Courtney found this Mexican restaurant that we had to try, Tijuana. It really wasn't worth it-- I really hated it actually but at least the drinks were good. At least now I know I can't get Mexican in Italy. haha.
A few of us decided to go to Palazzo de Michelangelo to watch the sunset, so Courtney and I had to book it up there after dinner. We made it just in time, but my legs were killing me afterwards, since the palazzo is on top of the hill, overlooking all of Florence. The sunset, despite the rainy afternoon was beautiful!
We all decided to go out that night since Tuesday was kinda a bust. So I had to book it back to the room to change real quick and meet everyone else back at the Palazzo Veccio. The despite drinking several beers, the night consisted of walking all over the freakin city! I swear after 6pm I walked at least 10 miles! None of us could decide where to go, and we kept separating but it was an adventure regardless. We ventured to Old Stove to sing some karaoke, danced at Twice and ended at Secret Bakery. Like I said we were all over the city Wednesday night. I was so excited to finally end up at Secret Bakery! It was so amazingg. Warm croissants, and I saw him squirt the chocolate and cream into it! So cool!
On Thursday it was a rainy day in Florence, ended up sleeping in taking a long and relaxing shower and actually blow drying my hair. I did a little research for my visual analysis too. In the afternoon, during a brief stint of rainlessness I decided to venture to the Jewish Synagogue. Well the brief stint didn't last long and I got caught it the worst rain and hail storm I have ever seen--outside, by myself, in the jewish quarter, soaked. It was not a fun experience to say the least. Finally made it to the synagogue, soaking wet (it was defiantly a waste to do my hair in the morning). But once inside it was completely worth it. The synagogue is beautiful, and upstairs there was a museum fill with the history for Florentine Jews. It was so interesting to learn about what the Jews were doing, while in class I'm learning about what the Catholics are doing at the same point in history--added another dimension. It was also really nice to get in touch with my jewish faith after so much Catholic influence for three weeks, so many churches, so many crosses, so much Virgin Mary and Jesus-- it was time to see a Star of David and a some Hebrew! Pretty refreshing, actually.
And since we're on the top of religion, it's really interesting to note that the Renaissance history of Italy/Europe is basically all religious. I'm sitting in class today and my professor is like oh of course you know the story of blah blah blah, and I'm like blank, actually most of us in class are too. It's so funny to compare Italy culture with American culture. In Italy, you are expected to know the stories of the Bible, its so obvious that our professor in Roman Catholic-- and there's no such thing at being politically correct--Catholic is correct. In the States our professor would never be able to openly talk about religion this way-- its so interesting, but also overwhelming, especially how important Virgin Mary is to Roman Catholics. I could go on forever talking about this--but I think you get the point.
Anyway after visiting the synagogue I had lunch at Yellow Bar--great pizza place-- before going to our last class field trip to Pitti Palace. The Palace was beautiful, overlooking the Baboli Gardens. The Medici's really had it going on, they had everything, all the best art, palaces, gardens, food, power, money, churches-- you name it! For dinner a bunch of us went to Daniel's apartment since Luca decided to cook us all an authentic Tuscan style dinner. It was so good, especially the sausage. :) I love Luca.
Of course the meal isn't over without some gelato, found a new place with Hope and Jordan near the old orphanage and it was really good! Stuffed from a good meal it was time to pack for Venice. In typical procrastination fashion I managed to fit in a few skype sessions and watch the season three premier of True Blood before finishing packing and heading to bed :)
Yes I think you need to make the homemade pear and gorgonzola stuffed ravioli in a mushroom and prosciutto sauce for me. Thanks. K BYE!!
ReplyDelete