Florence PART TWO

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I figured after 1,346 words, it was getting lengthy so welcome to the second part!

Where was I again? Oh yes, Florence 😊

After out museum fest, we shopped around at some great stores. We also walked through the street leather market. Long story short, after lots of bargaining and second guessing, we all purchased a leather bag each and they all had an imprint that said “made in Italy” on it.

That night we went to dinner at a place recommended by the hotel when we asked where to get Florentine steak. It was pretty good, I had lasagna, Abby had roasted chicken and potatoes and Carrie got a steak! I can admit to the repetition of pasta that I ate in Florence, but it was seriously so good I didn’t want to bother with anything else.

The next day, the reason why we were in Florence, we were to meet our Food History class at 11 at Piazzale Michelangiolo, a look out spot with panoramic view of the city. We went to breakfast at that same spot, had some more good pastries, then tried to find that Piazzale. On the way, we got lost, asked some guy for directions, and he told us it was 4 kilometers away. NO. WAY. We decided to go anyway, we wanted to see the view and were told we could meet up with the class at any point before 1 when we had to show up for lunch. The walk there was ridiculous. It was the first and only hill I climbed while in Florence. It took us probably 10 minutes to climb the awkwardly spaced out stairs and when we finally got to the top, we were felt like Rocky! We ended up getting there around 11:30 at that point, and figured we would just meet the class at the restaurant. The view was great, and as we ran around taking pics, we recognized some people from our school! They said they just got there on the bus that Umbra provided that day for students. They were stuck in traffic so were late, making us early! That worked out great because we got to take the bus down that ridiculous hill and it dropped us off literally on the other side of the city. By that time, both Food History classes were together and we walked to our chocolate tasting at a shop called Vestri. We got 3 different pieces each, then headed off to the restaurant for our 5-course “Renaissance theme dinner” at La pentola del’Oro.

We sat at 2 long tables, were served food family style and were given bottles of wine, bread and water. Our professor translated for Chef Alessi of the restaurant, explain what we were about to be served. First came out a fettuccini with lime and ginger seasoning. No one finished it, to say the least. Then we got a blended potato dish with some sort of sauce on top, a crowd favorite. Third was a veal dish in a weirdly over-seasoned sauce. Next, a turkey dish in another odd sauce and bordered with (chilied?) pumpkin pieces. Finally came dessert: a sweet, dense cake with pine nuts on top. I loved that one. Everyone agreed that the dishes were almost “too flavored,” if you could believe there’s such a thing. But the whole experience was definitely fun.

After that, we did even more shopping around and walked back to our hostel with 3 friends from school who decided spur of the moment that they wanted to stay another night in Florence. We got them a room in our hostel and they loved it! We all napped then headed out for dinner, back at the place we went the first night, and I ate even more pasta but got tiramisu for dessert! Our friends definitely approved so we were glad about that! We made a cheap wine run, went back to the hostel, all got ready, hung out together then left to experience Florence night life!

The night was fun, but we were lost a lot it seemed. It was so different to be talking to all American students instead of being in Perugia where we struggle to talk to Italians who come to the bars we go to. That night I actually ended up running into a girl I went to school with since kindergarten who was studying abroad in Florence, it was so unexpected! We didn’t end up getting home til after 2 but that was fine with me! The next day, we had to check out by 10:30, but were able to keep our backpacks behind the desk til we came back to grab them and take the train back at 2:15pm. In the meantime, we went to breakfast at a place called The Diner, which was totally 100% American. Between the 6 of us we had pancakes, omelets, breakfast sandwiches and iced coffee. It was perfect. My mom warned me that I wouldn’t have anything like American breakfast while I was here, and she was right...til now! I doubt we’ll find another place like that while in Italy, though.

The train was on time, and we traveled back into the land of snow and hills: current Perugia. We trudged through the snow with our backpacks into our negative degree house, where my Nutella just sitting in the cupboard was frozen and we had to make and eat dinner in our winter coats. Not ok. We blew 4 fuses in 2 hours and went to bed with our illegal space heater blasting in our room all night. It made me miss the hostel! I can’t forget though, that we did get to watch the Superbowl that night at a bar that showed it on a big projection screen and served beer in mini kegs and chips and spicy salsa. Nothing like watching it at school in NY, especially because it started at 12 and ended at 4am, but was still fun and I watched the whole thing.

Today I had 5 classes which included a presentation in one and a cannoli tasting in another! My group got our grade right after our presentation in International Business, an A-, and the cannoli served as my breakfast and lunch so I was pretty happy.

Tomorrow I have one class, will make some travel plans I hope, then have a dinner with my professor from SBU, his wife and the rest of us Bonnie kids.

Thank you to anyone who really read or even skimmed these entries. I just want to write everything down so I never forget anything I did! Otherwise, I know I will. Thank you again! Ciao for now <3

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Photos

not as good as it looks..
1st course of Renaissance meal. too much lime and ginger!

pancakes!!!
so so so so day making