Fortress Towns-wandering the winding way to Monteriggione and Volterra *Never sit in the back seat of a car in Tuscany if you’re “going for a drive”. *The best restaurants are not found be looking them up in the Italian Yellow Pages. Just take a drive at sunset through the wild woods of the Tuscan hills and you’ll find, in the middle of no where, lights illuminating the way to a rustic villa, 20 cars lined up, and the smell of local cuisine, maybe wild boar and roasted potatoes, or home made ribollita and crusty bread, already winding it’s way to [View Full Entry]

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An American in the Orient-smores and sushi for dinner Thursday night, my friend Bonnie, who is from Hong Kong, China, hosted a “dolci e apperitivi” potluck dinner. Her boyfriend is a Florentine who now runs the family resturant, along with his 3 children. Invited to this dinner were 8 other female Japanese students, all of whom have (including Bonnie and I) in the past or are currently in the same Italian language class. Although the rules had been set and Japanese was “outlawed”, the girls slipped more than once (and even then a few were from Osaka or another p [View Full Entry]

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zooming in [View Full Entry]

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Planned to go to Pisa today. Woke up at 10 to the gentle sound of rain on my roof. I open the shutters and peer at the steady sheet of drizzle. Just what I thought. Back to bed. This seems to be happening every Saturday I decide to break from my sleepy, dreamy rest. Well, I'm up. And I've got an entire day ahead, and a working umbrella. THE BARGELLO An hour later, however, I decide to visit a museum in Florence I’d never been to, but had been reading about. The Bargello, originally called the Palazzo del Popolo in mid [View Full Entry]

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Stories needed to be told: Opera del Duomo-Santa Maria del Fiore- (information thanks to Lorenzo, with whom I enjoyed a "ciocolatto caldo" a half an hour earlier. And may I point out at this opportune time that Chiaroscuro, the cafe where we enjoyed our beverages, offer not just hot chocolate but also cioccolate calda (pronounce the c in calda as a h) with ammeretto, or mint, orange, vanilla, nocciola, or perhaps even white chocolate, fondente, milk or latte. The list went on and not even the waiter could stop mid stream.) So. here's the real point to a little known story [View Full Entry]

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Il Papa- “I have looked for you and now you are here for me” (with reference to the thoughts and opinions in email corrispondence with several people, Italian and not, on this topic) Shamefully, I am one of those Americans that does not have more than the basic understanding of US History, no less the complicated relationships within the story of world history that have changed and modified our understanding of human civilization (and of truth). I cannot, however, skip touching upon a very historic event which has occurred in Italy this past month, just because I a [View Full Entry]

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today's adventure. haven't left my city for a while. time to step out. Take a train to Siena, city on hill, characterized by steep streets and known for Piazza del Campo, originally used to race horses. This piazza, almost oval, is lined by restaurants and outdoor cafes, and absolutely crowded with gelato-licking tourists. Siena feels like a smaller Florence in architecture and energy. I walk randomly through the streets, through smaller walkways, under many arches, streets rising and falling. I come to the piazza al duomo, which feels oddly empty and void of energy (whereas that of the Fir [View Full Entry]

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Have I told you yet about… -one day when I was in Vicenza with family, I borrowed the bicycle to take a ride through the ochre-colored fields? Sunny, a bit of wind, the mountains to my left, an old clock tower, the very center of a very old village, straight ahead. I take a main street for only a bit, and then turn into more residential streets and finally a path made for walkers and bikers through fields, accompanied by a tiny, winding, clear and alive, stream. It is quiet, peaceful. One my way home, I take random streets, and peddle [View Full Entry]

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Pavia and Milano March 26, 2004 When I was a teacher, I once had a conversation with several teachers that helped me understand the difficulty I was having with some of my students. We talked about the different perspective and character that develops in the children of families whose ancestors chose to immigrate to the United States and the children of families who were forced, commonly through slavery, to adapt to the United States. I realized that history (family, personal, ancestral, world…) is one of the strongest forces in developing who we are and the way we analyze the wo [View Full Entry]

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March 24th Thursday morning 9:45am. Mercato Centrale. Klajd finds his way past the meat counters with whole chickens, cow intestines, bull tongue, all ready to be bought, boiled, grilled, herbed and eaten. We walk past the bread vendors and stacks of dried mushrooms, peppers, herbs and olives. He comes to the fish area and after dismissing several bags of mussels, decides on one vendor’s wares….this is the bag of mussels, after one sample is delicately sliced opened and sniffed, that he buys. My kitchen grew warm and the oven was soon converting salty water filled shells [View Full Entry]

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