Thu, Jan. 23rd, 2003, 06:00 pm
humbling experienceI'm sitting in an internet cafe in Florence, surrounded by a mix of students, locals, and an air of insecurity. I just realized that I found this place just strolling around Florence and now I don't know how to get back to my apartment. It's been raining throughout the day.
My first impression of Florence: not as beautiful as Venice but not as surreal. The men are presumptuous and the women are kind. The people are generally helpful but seem to be always in a hurry, lots of Fiats and Vespas on the street.
I bought a wool scarf today for $5 Euro (about $6 u.s. dollars)
Very few people speak English here.
My roommates arrive next week.
Right now, my biggest concern is finding a sports bar where I can watch the Superbowl this weekend. I never thought I'd be saying that, but thanks to Robert, I've acquired an appreciation for the sport.
OK, I'm off for now, I'm almost on part 3 of The Fountainhead! The Alchemist is next!24 gennaio - January 24th
You can tell how good a cook is by the quality of his simplest dishes. Last night I had dinner at a small trattoria nearby the central market. I ordered one of the specials of the day: spaghetti con pancetta (bacon). In Italy they don't have the custom of using smoked bacon as they do in America. Pancetta is not smoked but aged 4 to 6 months. My plate was served piping hot with a large basket of rustic bread and a glass of red wine. There were no parmesan cheese or red pepper flake shakers on the table. Adding anything more to this simple dish would have been an insult. The flavor was just so unique to Tuscan cooking, you just can't get anything like it in San Diego. Once, there was a restaurant in downtown San Diego named Itri's. This was the only place I'd been to that served dishes anywhere close to how they are served in Italy. There is one other place, in South Pasadena by the name of Mi Piace that also serves fairly authentic Italian dishes. Today I plan to visit the Duomo, which is about a 4 minute walk from my apartment. As the days go by, I feel more and more a part of this wonderful city, or could it be, that this city is more a part of me, and I am slowly discovering it. We'll see.
27 gennaio - January 27th
One of my roomates arrived on Friday. Her name is Molly. Molly is 22 and from southern Oregon. We've been having such a great time these past couple of days. I really wish I was fluent in Italian, it would help immensely. As the days go by, however, more and more students from America continue to arrive. We've met quite a few. Classes began last week for many, and this week for many more. The few sports bars there are in Florence were packed full last night at midnight. They were showing the Superbowl live. Molly and I didn't get to watch it because there was no where to sit, so we went home. I heard just now that Tampa Bay won, that's really great! I took a little mini clip of the Duomo. Today Molly and I are going to pick up our cell phones. I just can't get over how wonderful it is here. I do, however, miss the liberties and open-mindedness of America. It's a different way of life here. Much more placid and real. But one can't replace the other, and without one another they wouldn't exist as they do. "...it's such a peculiar thing - our idea of mankind in general. We all have a sort of vague, glowing picture when we say that, something solemn, big and important. But actually all we know of it is the people we meet in our lifetime. Look at them. Do you know any you'd feel big and solemn about?" Being here has made me realize that, yes, i do.
5 febbraio - February 5th
I'm using the computer at school right now, because it's free. The Internet Train can add up after a while. I've been having a really good time here. All of my roommates are wonderful! Daryl is from Chicago and she's the wild one. Lizzie just arrived on Monday. She's very sweet. She's from Japan. I'm the "mom" from the group, at least that's what they call me. I've been doing most of the cooking and I give them advice. It's great! School is challenging, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I cut my finger on the 1st day, we were chopping vegetables for about an hour. School is wonderful! I'll be uploading pictures after class today! so keep checking back to see the great pictures from Florence and my "travels abroad" Ciao!
8 febbraio - February 8th
Saturday.... it's so nice to sleep in. All of my classes were so informative this week. I chopped, I cooked, I baked, I tasted wine, and I learned a little Italian. This morning, Daryl and I went to the market to buy some groceries. Tomorrow we are going to Rome. Florence is really growing on me, but it still does not feel like "home." I miss home and I miss my boyfriend and my family, and Xico of course. Today is a lazy day, I feel like I may be getting sick so I will take it easy today... no wine, no restaurants, just home with my MTV Italia and my new book: The Alchemist. (I finally finished The Fountainhead this morning.)
10 febbraio - February 10th
No classes today, it's Monday. We did not make it to Rome yesterday. Molly and I are sick. We stayed home to eat soup and study. Today I uploaded my pictures to a directory on this site. Tonight we get to watch Catch Me If You Can in English. That will be nice, to sit in a movie theater. Unfortunately you can smoke anywhere and everywhere (even at school) here in Italy, so people will probably be smoking at the theater. I hope not.
This morning I caught myself standing in front of a jewelry store, looking in. I had a pastry in my hand and a cup of coffee in the other.... so Breakfast At Tiffany's!!!! It was great, to remember that.14 febbraio - February 14th
Just finished my regional cooking class for today. We made Tuscan soups! My favorite was the Acqua Cotta soup. We also made a tomato and bread soup, it was O.K. My favorite dishes this week were from my Tradition of Italian Cooking class. We made sformato de zucchini and some "cat tongue" cookies. Take a look! Tonight we will be having a Chinese dinner with some of the other cooking students. I'll be sure to post pictures of that as well. Next weekend we'll be in Nice (French Riviera) and then after that Venice for the Carnival, then our internship begins. Yeah! I am so excited.
17 febbraio - February 17th
Well I had a very nice weekend. On Friday night we went to dinner to a Chinese restaurant. I had Tsingtao beer. It was my first time out with Mai and Ryu, two Japanese students from my classes. Afterwards a few of us went to Salamanca, a Spanish Restaurant/Tapas Bar and had some sangrias. We had so much fun. After a while, Bea, Vanessa and I left. Vanessa lives on the other side of the river so I walked her to the train station and Daryl & Molly met me there. We walked all the way over to Piazza Signoria to go to Full Up. I sat down at the bar because my feet were so tired from walking in my boots. I ordered a screwdriver. In Italy the common orange is a blood orange so that's pretty much what you get everywhere. So my screwdriver was red. You can view more pictures from that night here. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. Yesterday Daryl and I decided to be tourists. We walked over to the Duomo but it was SO CROWDED so we walked over to the Bargello and it was closed. Then we walked over to Piazza Signoria and took some pictures. I WAS going to take a picture of the fake David but it was behind a cage so it wasn't even worth it. They have a lot of fake sculptures around here. By fake, I mean that they are copies, because they have to keep the originals indoors to protect them from the elements. Finally, we made a really good dinner last night at the house. As for now, I'm off to the Duomo, this time for real.
24 febbraio - February 24th
So much more to say. I have done so much in the past week, I don't even know where to begin. I finally made it to the Ufizzi Gallery. This museum contains all the beautiful paintings we see in history books, such as Botticceli's Birth of Venus and many more. There are so many famous works of art, I wish I could have photographed them all, unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the gallery. But I took some anyway, and then I got in trouble.
. . . . .
On Wednesday night we went to a Brasilian restaurant: Maracana. This was like nothing I had ever seen! They had a big show with Brasilian dancers and performers and danced Capuela (or is it Capoeira?) I took a lot of pictures.
. . . . .
On Friday after class, a few of us took the bus up to Piazza Michelangelo. This location provides some of the best views of Florence. You can see the river Arno, the bridges, Bruneleschi's Dome, and much more. You can also see the 6th or 7th wall that surrounds Florence. At one time, Florence was enclosed by 7 walls that surrounded the city. These walls have since been destroyed to allow for modernization of traffic ways. Remainders of the last 2 walls are scattered throughout the city. The second "fake" David is also up there. There are 2 fake Davids in the city, the other is behind a cage at Piazza Signoria. I'm going to see the real one tomorrow or Wednesday. From the Piazza Michelangelo, we walked up to the oldest church in Florence: San Miniato. This church was built 400 years before America was even discovered!!! Much was added to it in the centuries that followed. I was so amazed by the architecture in this church. Everything was carved out of marble, the floor in the church is composed of tombstones from the 19th century. This church has a gothic crypt and an intricate altar. I couldn't take pictures of the crypt because it was just too dark. Outside the church there is the cemetary garden where famous Florentines are buried. I took some pictures, you can link to my photostream at the bottom of this journal to view all of my pictures.. . . . .
Finally, this weekend, we drove up to Nice and Monaco. Nice was so beautiful! I know it sounds trite, but it was so... "french!" It was the 1st day of the Carnivale. We got to see the flower parade. The next day we went to the market. This market was so wonderful! All of the fruits, vegetables, spices, fish, cheeses... were SO FRESH! I haven't uploaded these pictures yet because there is just so much to say about Nice and Monaco, but for now, you can take a look at the 2 pictures I took in Monte Carlo by clicking here. Clicking on the picture will bring you back to this page. Today I tour the Duomo, so there will be more updates later.27 febbraio - February 27th
My trip to Nice this past weekend was wonderful to say the least. Ethel, Bea, Daryl and I rented a car in Florence and drove to Nice. We left at 6:00 in the morning and arrived in Nice before noon. Nice is so pretty, it reminded me of pictures I've seen of New Orleans, I guess because it's in Provence. The architecture is so different and the art more modern than Florence. Florence is the birthplace of the Renaissance while Nice houses art from the 16th century. We stayed in a hotel close to the center of town and just a couple of blocks away from the flower parade. Everyone was carrying flowers in their hands and the people were much more polite than in Florence. The food was more expensive than in Florence. I ate french onion soup (my favorite) and french fries...(when in France...) The next day we drove through all the coastal towns and stopped for lunch in Monte Carlo. We were back in Florence by 10:00 pm. Please take a look at the pictures, especially the wonderful market.
7 marzo - March 7th
I have SO MUCH going on right now, it's hard to find the time to update this site, however, I must continue to do so. Last weekends "Carnivales" in Venice and Viareggio were so wonderful. Venice was cold and very crowded. There were so many people disguised in masks and costumes. The wine was super inexpensive so we all decided to buy our own bottle and cup and drink that throughout the day. Please take a look at the pictures. I still have to post the pictures from the Carnivale in Viareggio. The two Carnivales were very different. The parade in Viareggio was so outrageous, I can't wait until you see the pictures.
. . . . .
In other news... we have our first restaurant simulation next Tuesday. Our instructors divided us into groups, each group handling a different group of plates. I was placed in the Antipasti group. I was also assigned as "Head Chef" for that group so I am very excited! I'm doing very well in all of my classes. Today we had to cook cod fish and cuddlefish. I actually tasted the cuddlefish dish and it wasn't bad. The cod fish dish just smelled too fishy so I didn't taste it, but it looked pretty good. We prepared it with a side dish of polenta. Tomorrow our wine class is taking a field trip to Chianti. We will have wine tasting and Bistecca alla Fiorentina at the winery's restaurant. My Wine Appreciation instructor is so knowledgeable, I know we'll have a great time there. I will continue to post pictures at least once a week, so please check back to see the updates!14 marzo - March 14th
I finally uploaded the pictures from Viareggio. It has been such a busy week. We had our Restaurant Simulation on Tuesday. It went quite well. I've been trying to upload the pictures from Chianti and the Simulation but it is very time consuming, plus, I don't have access to Flash, Dreamweaver or even Photoshop here, and the connection speed isn't lightning fast either. For now, you can take a look at the photos from the Carnivale in Viareggio.
time is 16:45
I just added the pictures from Montevertino. Our wine teacher, Peter Fischer, took us to a winery in Chianti called Montevertino. The owner Klaus taught us a great deal about wine making and, paired with what we've learned in class, I was able to absorb much more. You will also see pictures from where we had lunch. I finally got to taste the Bistecca alla Fiorentina. It was SOOOOO delicious. We also tasted some typical tuscan dishes like penne with rooster sauce, stuffed chicken liver sausage, chicken liver crostini, wild boar salame, and so much more. Klaus provided all of the wine. We had 5 or 6 wines to taste with each course. It was a meal I will never forget. Of all the things I've learned in Tuscany, appreciating food and wine has been the most pleasant and impacted me the most.29 marzo - March 29th
Today is Saturday. The past two weeks have been extremely busy for me. I went to Torino, had mid-terms, went to Greece, now I'm back in Florence. I have so many pictures to upload but I just haven't had the time. I'm hoping to upload them all on Monday. I will, however, add one picture today. This is a picture I had Lorenzo take last night at dinner with Daryl and her parents. They are here in Europe visiting their daughters. We had dinner at Cafe Mediceo (where I work.) It was such a wonderful dinner and the owners gave us a HUGE discount on the food. I'm still feeling a little dizzy from the ferry ride in Greece. I got really horrible motion sickness because it was a 9 hour ferry ride! Today I'm going to stay home to write out recipes and work on my cross-stitch. As far as the war is concerned, the war protests and peace demonstrations have become a regular thing here, I just hope it doesn't get much worse.
3 aprile - April 3d
Wine class was cancelled today. This means I wont have my mid-term results until next week. I have a bet going on with Ethel to see who has the highest combined mid-term scores. The winner gets treated to bistecca by the loser. So far I'm 3 for 3. Two more to go. The only way Ethel can win now is if I bombed the last two exams, which I'm sure I did well on. Since I had some unexpected free time this morning I took the opportunity to update my website. Click on the picture below to take you to the practical portion of our culinary mid-term examinations:
18 aprile - April 18th
Well, I have been very sick the past few days. I thought I had SARS, but I was mistaken, or if I did, I'm the first one to recover from it yet. Anyway, as always, I have a ton of pictures to upload. I went to Tenuto di San Vito and had a wonderful lunch at Genaro's restaurant; I had a typical (well, almost typical) Manila dinner at Ethel, Bea and Trina's house; I went to a professional soccer match, Florence vs. Brescello, now THAT was quite an experience; I went to VINITALY and tasted over 50 wines; and, today I will be taking a tour of the Verrazano winery at 3:00 p.m. so... I must go now, here are some pictures from the Manila dinner:
9 maggio - May 9th
I know I have not been updating my website but I have been very busy. You can see the rest of my pictures by clicking the link at the end of this jopurnal. I've included pictures from the soccer match, Vinitaly and Greece... more to come later!
I finally made it to PISA... two weeks before returning to America.
June
I just finished uploading all the pictures from our trip to Genaro's and Andrea's restaurant in the Tuscan countryside. Take a look at all of the fabulous pictures!
Click here to go to a gallery of ALL my Italy pictures.
Iif you have PicLens installed, even better.
