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Buon Giorno!
So I cannot believe it is October already!The first month here went by so fast and I'm sure the rest will go by just as fast. This past week on Thursday I went to an art exhibition that my study abroad program told me about. It was the paper boat race on the Arno. It was pretty cool An artist who focuses a lot on paper made a bunch of paper boats (maybe 100?) and let them all go at the same time at the Ponte Vecchio (the famous bridge in Florence). So it wasn't a real race but a lot of people stop so watch the boats as they float down the river. I got to go down right next to the river to get a good view. Then later on Thursday night I went out to eat for one of my cooking classes. It was a field trip for the class. We went to a place called Osteria de'Pazzi. Oddly enough it was the same restaurant my roommates and I went to on one of our first nights in Florence! The restaurant has very typical Tuscan food. For our antipasti (appetizer) we got 4 things: bruschetta, tamponade (a spread made out of olives on toasted bread), toasted bread with beans on top, and tomatoes stuffed with breadcrumbs. The bruschetta and tamponade were my favorites probably because I love tomatoes and olives but they were all delicious. Then for our first course we had pasta in an arrabiata sauce(a spicy tomato sauce). Our other first course was something delicious but I did not catch the name and it was a mixture with several foods so I am not sure what it was unfortunately. Then for the 2nd dish we had pork. Then for dessert we had some cream puffs with a chocolate sauce. They were extremely good. Overall the dinner was really good and a lot of food! It was a lot of fun to go out with my class and some other classes. Plus going to a restaurant is a pretty good field trip!
This weekend was a pretty relaxing one because I did not travel too much. On Friday, 6 of us took a day trip to San Gimignano and Siena. We left Friday morning and took an hour train ride + a 20 minute bus to San Gimignano. San Gimignano is a very medieval town on top of a hill in Tuscany. The town looks down on many vineyards and small houses. The view was gorgeous. To me when you picture Tuscany in your head this is what it looks like. We spent a few hours walking around. I went into 1 church which was really pretty and a lot of the paintings inside were intact which is rare. Since the paintings are so old pictures are not allowed inside the church. There is a tower in the town that you can climb up and get a really nice view but we ran out of time so hopefully I'll go again! Also the city just had a lot of little shops and restaurants. One thing I noticed is how quiet it was (because it's a small town) which was nice and very relaxing. After we finished at San Gimignano we took the bus and another 30 minute train ride to Siena, another medieval town but much bigger than San Gimignano. We walked around to see a lot of the sights and some of the main piazzas. It was pretty cool, so many buildings from around year 1300. It is very weird but very cool to stand in a building that has been around for 1500 years. To get around the city we used a book my mom got me that has lots of travel information about Florence & surrounding areas in Tuscany. We used the book to find a place for dinner. We chose this little place that was said to be popular with the locals. We thought it sounded cool so we made reservations and went around 6:45. What an experience this restaurant was! It was this little place off the beaten path with about 10 tables maximum. Only 4 people worked there to cook and serve everyone. The kitchen was out in the open so you could watch them cook everything which was cool. Also they didn't have a menu (so that also meant all throughout dinner we had no idea how much everything cost!). After we sat down out waiter came over (who spoke almost no English) and listed the pasta choices to us, there were about 6-7. On the spot we had to tell him which one we wanted. I went with the tortellini. Within 5 minutes the pasta was served to us! It turned out to be green tortellini (so it probably had spinach mixed into the pasta dough) and then spinach and ricotta were inside the tortellini. The pasta was delicious! You could tell it was very fresh. After that the waiter came over and did the same process with the meats. They had pork, steak, chicken, veal, and fish. We chose one as before, right on the spot. They didn't write down anything we said either, they remembered it all. As you can tell in this restaurant you didn't get any information about how the dish was prepared or what was in it. In Italy they generally don't give you a description of each menu item so sometimes you don't know exactly what you are ordering. It makes it interesting and a fun surprise to find out what it actually is. I ordered the fish and it came fried. It was simple but very good. After that they came and listed the desserts they had. It was a tough choice because they all sounded delicious. There was tiramisu, biscotti with vino santo (a specific wine that goes with biscotti), a lemon torte, "grandma's torte" which has a cream and almonds, and a few other choices too. I ordered grandma's torte and it was really good! The entire meal was delicious and in the end only cost 27 euro for salad, 1st course, 2nd course, dessert, water (because you buy it in bottles here, getting tap water in restaurants is very uncommon and often not available), and a cover charge (typical in Italy because you don't usually tip). We had a great time, the waiters/cooks were very nice and it was fun to practice a bit of Italian. After our meal we took the train back to Florence and got back around 11 (about a 1.5 hr train ride). I was pretty tired at the end but the day was a lot of fun!
Then Saturday morning, 2 of my roommates and I got up early to go shopping at the market. I bought a Florence Soccer jersey because I am going to 2 games here! We mostly browsed because Florence has a huge market so it is fun just to walk through. The market is every day( except maybe Sunday) and it has tons of stuff. There are TONS of leather items: purses, bags, key chains, shoes, wallets etc, scarves are also everywhere, some stands have typical touristy things like magnets, key chains t-shirts etc. Also funny coincidence, while at the market I actually ran into a few people studying in Rome for the semester from Stonehill. After spending a few hours at the market I just relaxed back at my apartment for the rest of the day.
Today I am relaxing a bit and will probably just do some homework.
This week I am going to my first soccer game on Wednesday of Florence v. AC Milan. I was told they are the equivalent of Red Sox v. Yankees so a good game to go to! Generally the tickets are very expensive but this is a benefit game to fundraise for something so the tickets were much cheaper. On Tuesday night I might go listen to a Beatles cover band (that plays every Tuesday) that is supposed to be really good. Thursday night I am hoping to get check out something I've heard about here called the secret bakery. Apparently there is a bakery here that supplies a lot of other bakeries. They are open from 3am-5am. They don't advertise and you have to be very lucky to stumble upon them. I have read and heard directions from a few people and they are something like turn down this certain alley and go through the frosted glass doors. There is no sign for it, it's just by word of mouth. You can go in and buy a few pastries for pretty cheap and they are supposed to be just freshly made. Hopefully we will be able to find it!
This upcoming weekend I will be going to Verona and Venice each for a day so I am excited about that!
Well that's all for now! Thanks again for all the messages on my message board I am really enjoying them
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