A little more than a leaning tower

Thursday morning I took the train to visit my cousin Laura (she came to Florence last month) in Pisa. She met me at the train station and we walked around the city and headed to the obvious destination...the leaning tower of Pisa! I've seen so many pictures of it that it was surreal to actually see it in person! Luckily it was a beautiful day so I got some great pictures. Laura helped me take some of those touristy cliche pictures which I had to have. I don't have too many because I didn't want to bore her but I probably could have been there for at least another hour experimenting with random ways to "hold" up the tower. After many failed attempts I finally managed to get one that was decent.

At night I met Laura's friends from the University of Pisa and we got aperitivo. Aperitivo is like the Italian happy hour.  You buy a drink at a restaurant and there is a full buffet of food! It's usually around 7 euro. Her friends were a lot of fun and two of them spoke English so they helped me communicate. It's exhausting trying to speak Italian for that long. It also made me realize how much practice I still need. It was a great night though...they taught me some Italian slang and I taught them some American slang! For example, it's funny that we call someone "chicken" if they're scared of something. In Italy, they say rabbit. There were a lot of little random things like this that we talked about.

The next day, Laura and her roommate made me lunch. It was sooo good!! Pesto with fish and then chicken and eggplant. yumm :) I hung out for a little longer then headed back to the train station. There really isn't much else to do in Pisa besides see the tower but because Laura is there I'd like to go back. Pisa is only about an hour away from Florence so it's perfect for a day or one night trip!

Eventful Weekend

So much to catch up on...last weekend was definitely the most eventful one I've had so far. It was filled with a lot of fun and very different things! I thought I should catch up now before I get even more behind after this weekend.

Ferragamo Museum

Salvatore Ferrgamo is an Italian shoe designer with amazing shoes and clothing that I will hopefully one day be able to afford! For now, I'm lucky enough to go to the museum and store in Florence to admire the pretty things :) We went for my advertising class which definitely beat sitting in the classroom!

Collection of shoes from the past

The shoes that Drew Barrymore wore in Ever After

Fiorentina v. Inter Milan

At night, we went to an Italian soccer (football!!) game. Obviously I had to prepare by purchasing a Fiorentina scarf from the market :) This was one of my favorite things I've done so far!! Fiorentina and Inter are pretty big rivals so the fans were intense! When we were near the stadium people were sprinting to get in on time. The cheers and chants were fun to listen to as well. I guess Italians + any soccer game = intense.

The stadium is walkable which is nice so hopefully we can go to another game. Inter won 2-1 but it was still an awesome experience. The only downfall to the night was the rain (no pun intended) but we still managed to have a good time!

Me and 2 of my roommates (Alyssa and Andrea) before the game

GOALLL

Wine Tour

Last week we went wine tasting in the hills of the famous Chianti Classico at the Castello Il Palagio winery. It was so beautiful and really cool to see and learn more about how the wine is stored and made. The best part, of course, was the actual wine tasting itself. We got to sample 4 different wines made at the winery. Chianti Classico, Rose, Supertuscan and a sweet dessert wine. We were also given a plate of delicious food and bread with olive oil that was made there. End result? We bought 6 bottles of Chianti Classico (my favorite!) for the apartment for nice dinners and a bottle of extra virgin olive oil! Chin chin! (cheers)

Olive tree

so cute!

Viarreggio Carnevale

Viareggio is a city about an hour north of Florence on the coast. The carnival celebration there is said to be the most important in Italy and all of Europe. It's known for its paper mache and often politically charged floats. This is what Viarregio should have been...

Instead it was rainy and cold :( The experience was not what we expected but we managed to get one picture. Note that we're smiling...this was when we first got there and we were optimistic that the rain would stop.

 

I'd like to visit Viareggio again on a nice day and go to the beach! As for the carnival experience...I'll have that in another city. We're going to Venice tomorrow to celebrate!! Can't wait to bring out that mask again, although mine probably won't even compare to what I'll see...

Cappuccino, Espresso, Espresso

This is the approximate order of my coffee consumption in a day. Sometimes an extra espresso, sometimes one less. Or a cappuccino in the afternoon and an espresso in the morning. Either way, the Italian culture revolves around these little cafes, or "bars" and I can't get enough.

As a dedicated (or is it addicted?) Starbucks goer, I was concerned when I learned that there are no Starbucks in Italy. Instead, there is at least one little bar on each block that serves coffee, pastries and other food. There are no takeaway cups and drinks are enjoyed standing at the bar or sitting at a little table. My wine culture teacher said that we should drink espressos like Americans drink alcohol (fast) and drink alcohol like Americans drink coffee (slowly, and enjoy it). Makes sense considering I can't enjoy the bitter taste of espresso for a long time. Espressos have grown on me though (loaded with sugar!) but cappuccinos are still my favorite! The best thing is they cost only around a euro which beats a $5 American coffee. 

I'm not surprised I love these little bars so much, afterall, Starbucks was created from and inspired by these Italian bars. I'm now making it my mission to find the best place in Firenze to get coffee...might get one right now actually. yum :)

Protest in Italia

I had planned on spending this rainy Sunday afternoon doing homework, relaxing and of course eating some Nutella. However, a friend of ours that lives near the Ponte Vecchio told us about a protest going on in the streets. Obviously, we had to see what it was all about. We looked online to learn more about the rally. The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi had paid to have sex with an underage prostitute named Ruby the Heart-Stealer (really...?). Anways, a group of women called a nationwide strike in cities throughout Italy and some other countries. The picture on the right was taken by my friend Kevin from his apartment (such a good view!) I took the rest of the pictures when we went to see the rally for ourselves.

I haven't seen many protests so I don't have much to compare this to but I was surprised at how peaceful everything felt. There was a lot of cheering/chanting and upbeat music but it didn't seem threatening at all. I was also suprised because there were hardly any cops around trying to manage the crowd. It was definitely interesting to be surrounded by everything and be a small part of it. Never a dull day abroad!!

Updates

I've been slacking on updating this...I'm really going to try and keep up now! I'm just busy enjoying every moment here :) Highlights of the last 2 weeks (woahh..how has it already been that long?!): 

Piazzale Michelangelo & San Miniato

San Miniato is a church located on one of the highest points in the city. Our program set up a walk/hike for us around the city of Florence. We started at the Ponte Vecchio then walked up and circled around the city until we reached San Miniato...the views were amazing the entire way! The church was beautiful inside and the view was definitely the best I've seen. Definitely worth the work out up there :)

The Piazza Michelangelo is close to San Miniato if you just keep walking along the road. We took the long way to get there but you can also walk up from right near the Arno River. In between San Miniato and the Piazza is an amazing gelato place and restaurant (wish I could remember the name!) that's on a cliff and overlooks the entire city. The Piazza is probably one of my favorite places in Florence.

Walking up to San Miniato

Still walking...

A little higher...

The view!

Meredith visited from Milan

Meredith came last weekend and it was so exciting to see her! We went to the duomo, Piazza Michelangelo, San Lorenzo Market and the Ponte Vecchio. I also bought a leather jacket and purse at the leather market. This was entertaining...we talked to the merchant for an hour as he explained to us what made one zipper better than another and how great he thought Chicago was because the word "chic" is in it. It was fun & I love my new stuff!

Conveniently, there was also a huge chocolate festival at the Piazza Santa Croce (2 blocks away) so we spent a lot of time there :) The chocolate festival is there for 2 weeks and changed vendors after a week. It's fun to browse and try samples (& buy even more...) It's crazy how many kinds of chocolates there are. One stand had chocolate sculpted into things like dogs & other random objects. Mer and I bought some Cioccolata Calda (hot chocolate) & it was sooo good! It tasted like melted chocolate & had whip cream on top...definitely the best I've had!

    

We also went to a restaurant, Il Latini that was incredible. We did family style and got so much food and wine for a more than reasonable price! It's a smaller place and I think you need a reservation. It was also very crowded which is always a good sign. Definitely one of my top recommendations for Florence food! I loved the atmosphere here...it could have helped that they gave us 2 bottles of house wine as we were leaving! It was a good ending to a weekend with the best friend :) I'm looking forward to visiting her in Milan!

Coming back to Firenze soon!

Classes

All my classes have been great...I thought I would struggle sitting through 2.5 hours but they're all so interesting! For my Renaissance Art class, we have a lecture the first half and then go somewhere in the city the second half which makes everything a lot more relevant and interesting. In Exploration of Wine Culture we tried 2 wines from the Piedmonte region of Italy: Moscato d'Asti and Roero Arneis. The first is a traditional, sweet sparkling wine and the second is a dry white wine. I was definitely a fan of the first one! We learned how to read labels and taste/smell certain things in a wine...a skill I'm trying to understand. How does a person smell leather in wine? I guess I'll find out...My italian class is going pretty well...so far I remember everything we're covering.

Upcoming Trips

We finally made some decisions about traveling! We've planned a Venice day trip for Carnivale, Rome, Munich for Springfest and Amsterdam! We're still working on Spring Break (Almafi Coast maybe?) We also want to go to Bologna, Pisa and Milan but those don't need as much planning because we would just take the train and do a day trip.There are so many places I want to see and not enough weekends! Already considering planning where to go backpacking after graduation... 

Alright well time to do something Florence-like with my day! I'm going to try hard to keep this updated! A presto...