Going to Class(sort of) and Making Pizzas with Locals

Ciao! It has been a busy week with classes starting so I haven't had too much time to blog. I have now had my first full week of classes and it's safe to say I won't be going hungry during class this semester:

Monday 9am-11:30 Food, Culture, and Society
My professor for this class is Cecilia Ricci. On the first day, we learned about the different regions of Italy and what foods come from each region and how a particular dish may change based on what region you are in. And my favorite part was the tasting. We tasted 3 different types of Tuscan bread and learned why most tuscan breads aren't salted: because the prosciutto that is literally on EVERY sandwich here is so salty, it gets balanced out with the bland bread. We also tasted 3 different types olives, 2 types of honey (miele), and gorgonzola cheese. Everything was so delicious.

Monday 12:00-2:30pm Everything Chocolate
My professor for this class is Santa Cine (yes, her name is Santa). She is this adorable little blond woman who has a strong Russian accent. In this class we got an introduction to the world of chocolate and how it began with the Aztec Empire and how it used to be only a male's drink. We learned the difference between the cacao powder, cacao liquor  and cacao butter.We then got to taste 6 different types of chocolate: 85% dark, milk, white, a venezualan dark, and a 70% and 72% dark. We learned how to taste chocolate to be able to taste all the different notes such as fruity, or nutty. We put a tiny piece on our tongue and pinch our nose to be able to taste whether it is grainy or not. Then unplug your nose and note the first flavor that comes to your tongue. It was so interesting and obviously who doesn't love chocolate? Next week we are making chocolate bonbons!

On Monday night we went to this restaurant called Osteria dell-Agnolo. Dinner was amazing as usual..and then towards the end of dinner we realized we were the only people still dining, and the hostess started talking to us about where we are from and then asked us what we thought of the Italian boys. Meanwhile the guy making pizza, Ibrahim, was listening in and then it was decided that he had a crush on Colleen...one of the very few natural blonds in Italy. He invited her behind the pizza counter where he proceeded to teach her how to make a pizza, and afterwards the hostess said that Colleen could now be his "wife." Then the owner, Fabio, opened up a bottle of Prosecco and poured glasses for all of us while we waited for Colleen's pizza to be done. It was literally my favorite night thus far on the trip, we were all hysterically laughing. And tonight we are going back to the restaurant because the hostess invited us to aperitivo which is like happy hour in Italy. Can't wait for Colleen to see her husband again...

Tuesday 10:30-11:45 Beginning Italian
My professor's name is Dario and we learned the alfabeto and learned how to say simple phrases and words like: Come si dice? and Di dove sei? Those mean: how do you say and where are you from? Our teacher is great and enthusiastic so hopefully by the time my mom and dad get here I will be a little more proficient.

Tuesday 12-2:30 Pastas
Colleen and I have this class together and our professor is named Desi. He is from the ivory coast and has a really thick accent. We learned about the different types of pasta sauces: marinara, pesto, carbonara, arrabiatta, puttanesca, and amatriciana. And then we talked about the 60 different shapes of pasta and which are only made with flour and water and which are made with flour, water, and eggs. We also did another tasting in this class of bread, olive oil, olives, sun-dried tomato, parmesan cheese, and other things you could have in a pasta.

Tuesday night we went to a family style restaurant Il Gatto e Volpe with some of our other Cornell friends and then went to a bar called Red Garter where they have beer pong tournaments on Tuesday nights. There were some creepy 50 year old men sitting way too close to us at the table right behind us though, it was slightly creepy.

Wednesday 9am-11:30 Contemporary Italian Cooking
I also have this class with Colleen. The teacher is nice and knows everything about cooking and has cooked in some amazing places in his life: he's done the catering for fashion week in Paris and has cooked for royalty in Egypt. We did another tasting in this class, surprise haha. We tasted pears with pecorino cheese and honey which was SO good. And we also got to taste bread with this ricotta spread he made quickly: ricotta, vanilla bean, honey, and lemon and orange zest. AMAZING and so simple!

Can't wait to come back to America and make all these recipes for my family! Well, tonight is aperitivo so I need to go get ready and then pack since tomorrow we leave for our first trip! We're going to Umbria for the weekend...I may not have wifi but I'll try to keep you updated!

Buonasera!
xoxo

Pub Crawls and Discotecas

Ciao! So the pub crawl thing on Friday night didn't go exactly as planned, but we did get to eat some amazing pizza. We went to Ghibellini's for dinner and were put in the basement where Mikey noticed all the "non-italians" were put. Everyone in the basement was either American or speaking a language other than Italian, which just inspired us to try harder not to look like American tourists.  Nonetheless, we had another amazing meal. We got a liter of the house red wine and then I ordered the Ribollita soup and Colleen and Mikey had the minestrone. Both were delicious. We then ordered one Margherita Pizza and another one with mascarpone and prosciutto. Colleen and I got dessert: Chocolate Tartufo and the Raspberry Panna Cotta. We then went home to get ready to go out but when we texted some of our friends, they had already left for the pub crawl so we tried meeting them at the first bar Uncle Jimmy's. Uncle Jimmy's felt very American: covered in Graffiti and college t-shirts on the walls. When we couldn't find our friends we left and went to another bar called the Old Stove where we were the only Americans. We left there pretty quickly and then went to Astor, this place where we get coffee in the morning but then it turns into a bar/club at night where we met a group of American boys from Washington who had fake tattoos on their knuckles: one said "Reckless" another "Low key" and lastly "The Thril." The other one named Justice was too cool for the fake tatt. So....they then led us to another bar called Yab but we did not want to pay the 10 euro cover so we went to another location of the Old Stove that felt more like an irish pub. Needless to say, we got rid of the boys. We got free french fries there because the kitchen was about to close and then we ordered hard cider which was so good. They also gave us free limoncello shots! So I guess even though we weren't on the official pub crawl we did still have fun getting lost and getting to see more of Florence night life.

The next day we slept in until 1pm....woops! Our bodies are still not adjusted to this lifestyle haha. So we got dressed and decided to explore more of Florence. We were starving so we first stopped at Antico Noe, an amazing panini shop where I got my first of MANY caprese paninis...literally my perfect meal. And then Mikey and I got americanos at this coffee shop by the duomo...so good. We first went to a department store called Coin and wanted to see if we could find a good pair of sweatpants(were still cold at night!) but we didn't really find one. Then we also went back to the straightener store (Paolo's place) because he gave us the wrong one! He gave us the right one so that was good and then we went shopping a bit more and then went to the market Centrale where we bought scarves, almost bought some journals and also got fresh pecorino cheese to eat for a snack when we got home. We also stopped at this meat market where we met the meat Nazi who gave us some delicious prosciutto. That was our little snack when we returned from our busy day. And then later that night we went to this adorable little trattoria called Trattoria Anita where we had amazing pasta, and Mikey's less than thrilling chicken which does not merit a picture on here. We then went back home to get ready to go out to Space, this club where one of Dana's friends from home was having her birthday party...and also happened to be friends with one of Mikey's camp friends. So we got to Space...which I have no idea how to describe other than insane. We had no idea what we were doing but we were brought upstairs to this area where we apparently had our own "table" and free drinks were brought up to us like every half hour...and they played American music which was amazing. It was so much fun, a little sketchy, but crazy. We left the club around 2:45am and walked this girl home who was leaving alone. She tried to show us where the secret bakery was but we couldn't find it:( And then we saw this wasted Italian guy actually pass out in the middle of the road...and they say the Americans are the drunk idiots??? I think not...anyways, today was another sleep in until 1pm day.

We did a "dress rehearsal" of walking to school today so I know where to go tomorrow when I have class alone at 9am, those of you who know me know that I am the WORST with directions, but hopefully I should be ok. And today we also got our first gelato at Gelateria de Neri where I got Straciatella...my fav! And then we came back tonight and cooked our first dinner in the apartment: Salad, lemon Chicken, roasted eggplant, peppers, and zucchini, and ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta. And tomorrow real life kicks in....and I actually have to be a real person and go to school. We'll see how that goes.....

baci e abbracci

buonanotte!

Can I get your Italian number?

Ciao...buonasera! Today was a successful day in Firenze....after a late night last night full of a few struggles. We had a long day of orientation yesterday, and we were all exhausted. We did a little grocery shopping on the way home and got a 5 liter bottle of wine for 4 euros..we could get used to this lifestyle! Then last night we went to a dinner that was hosted by our program at this beautiful old hotel called the Palazzo Borghese. We had an Italian feast including bruschetta, eggplant parmesan, penne with arrabbiata, and risotto with asparagus. And tiramisu for dessert. Everything was pretty good...and it was free so why not?
We then went home to get ready to go out, and I was the smart one who decided to plug in the hair dryer and I blew a fuse in the apartment. So we had no power and our hair was soaking wet...not ok.  After searching, we realized there were two different circuit breakers in the apartment so we finally got power back on but by now it was almost midnight. Then we ventured out to find our other friends' apartment but when we got there, realized we had no way of telling our friends we were there....woops! And then we really looked like lost Americans just standing outside a sketchy apartment...so we went home:( And curled up in our cold apartment(the first night it was only 16 degrees Celsius...apparently this is normal?) and watched Eat, Pray, Love to inspire us to learn more Italian.

This morning the first thing we did was get our Italian phones so now we can text and call eachother! Then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a free brunch with our program, the attempt at American food was a little less than thrilling though. Then we decided to wander a bit and run a few other errands. We took pics at the Ponte Vecchio, did some window shopping and then went to our school to finalize some papers for our permit to stay. And then we went on the most important errand....we got italian hair dryers and straighteners! And the owner of the store was so cute and nice. Dad you'll be happy to know that his name is Paolo...dad was wondering how long it would take me to meet an Italian named Paulo. Thankfully, he was like 40 and not creepy and very nice. He also gave us a mini Italian lesson! So now we can safely blow dry and straighten our hair without blowing a fuse. Then we went to another store to get fleece blankets so we can stay warm in the apartment. Tonight we are on a mission to eat good pizza and we are going on a pub crawl...should be fun!!

Day 1...or 2...the jetlag is kicking in....

Buonasera!!! Just want to say first that I am here safe and sound...that is for my mom who sent me many worrisome texts today, it's harder than you think to get wifi here but now were all set up and good! But as per usual, today was not without its hiccups haha. The flight from Amsterdam was pretty uneventful I watched three movies and had a whole row to myself. I didn't get much sleep despite my tylenol pm, probably only 2 hours total. I arrived in Amsterdam at 6:30am and had to go through a mini customs and another security check point. And of course I didn't know I had to take my camera out of my bag and had to search the whole thing and I think they almost were gonna do a pat down on me but saw my terrified face and let me go...thank gosh!! I then had a layover for 3 hours, met a lot of other people in my program and got a Starbucks coffee...coffee never tasted so good:) I arrived in Florence at about noon and immediately went to get my luggage. Thankfully, nothing was lost and customs was a breeze...literally a dog sniffed my bags as I walked by and that was it. Then all the people in my program were herded together like cattle while we waited to be picked up by a shuttle. We all wore stickers that said our address....and mine is via Sant'Egidio 12, which proved to be the worst address of the day. The cab drivers wanted to take people whos addresses were near each other and clearly mine wasn't near any of these addresses. Everytime a cab driver would look at my address they would shake their head no. I was getting pretty pissed and normally I would have said something but I figured I'm in a foreign country so I better hold my tongue. I was the last shuttle to be picked up...at 2:30. Then i was taken to the wrong address where the keys didn't work, and after a minor spaz finally we arrived and I had to drag my 50 pound bag up like 2 flights of stairs to our amazing apartment where Colleen, Dana, and sleeping beauty Mikey were waiting for me:) They were a sight for sore eyes...our apartment is beautiful and newly renovated, you can still smell the fresh paint!! And we had a gift basket sitting on our kitchen table with olive oil, pasta, and nutella in it. I had never been so happy to be home! We live i our own little "palace" as our landlord calls it and we have our own private courtyard that we have mostly all to ourselves and we live right above a spa! I will post pics of the apartment tomorrow. But for the most important part....we went to dinner tonight at Gastones's right near apartment and decided to treat ourselves. We got a bottle of Chianti to start and now I'll let the pictures speak for themselves......

Calamari and Chard Soup with Olive Oil and Garlic Toast

Dana's Spinach and Ricotta Gnudi

Colleen's Tagliatelle with Hare Ragu

Dana's Woven Sole with Broccoli Puree and Roasted Pumpkin

Colleen and Mikey's Gustade Salad with Roasted Vegetables

My Roasted Cod over Sweet Potatoes and Leeks

Mikey enjoying some after dinner biscotti

Ciao e benvenuto! This is my first attempt at blogging so for those of you who choose to follow me while I travel to Italy for the next 4 months...bear with me! I decided that this would be the best way for me to document my trip not only for myself but for my family members who still haven't caved and given into the world of Facebook.
So, those of you who know me well, know that I love everything food (and wine) so that is what you can expect me to post about most. And since my last trip to Italy when I was Junior in high school involved some rather unappetizing hotel food (including some mystery meats), I am excited to do it right this time around. Of course, I won't be just eating so I'll be sure to post about all my other adventures, and knowing me, they will include plenty of drama. My parents say that drama just follows me wherever I go....so let's see if they are right! I'm sure I'll have a good story or two for you so be sure to check in regularly! I'll try to post at least a few times a week...Now time to go do some more packing, this girl is going to Italy!!!