First few days in Florence
14 February 2008
So, I have survived my first week in Florence. I was so busy, first getting into my apartment, then going to welcome dinners for school and Global Experiences that our first actual evening in our apartment was Friday night! I have lucked out because my two roommates both love to cook! They are also from Arkansas, so I get to experience a bit of Southern food! For our first dinner they made roasted chicken, gemelli pasta with tomato sauce, amazing stir fried zuccini with onions garlic and tomato, crostini (crispy bread) with green olive oil & the best balsamic vinegar in the world, with a 2 euro bottle of white Tuscan wine that was quite good.
Saturday was amazing. Mostly because I got to sleep in until noon, followed by walking around the city and taking pictures. For those of you who may not know, I am not a morning person. I like being awake early, it's just the getting up part that I have trouble with. Every week day here I am up and on the bus by 8:30 am, so Saturday's sleeping in was much needed. I woke up to a nice knock on my door that was Sasha asking how I wanted my eggs cooked. How nice! Of course I got up, showed Sasha how to make coffee on the Italian stove top coffee maker, followed by a delicious breakfast of fresh squeeze juice of oranges and kiwi, fried eggs and proscuitto (an Italian cured ham), and tiny cornetti (croissants) with amazing European butter. Simply mazing.
We walked around the city all afternoon, until about 7 pm and got to see the sun cast a pink glow on the Duomo. After the sun went down we got dinner at my favorite Italian place: Trattoria Bordino, which is off the beaten path, has amazing food for great prices. Oh, and they don't speak English there! It also happens to be located on "Chocolate Chip Street", no joke.
Sunday we were going to go grocery shopping, only to find out that Esselunga is closed on Sundays!! We walked down the river to Piazza del Santo Spirito where they have an antiques fair and market. We found vendor that has almost every type of dried fruit you can think of. They are all the same price so you just scoop whatever you want into a bag. I got cherries, kiwi, pineapple, banana, lime, what I believe are kumquat slices, and 2 large slices of candied orange dipped in chocolate! I liked everything except for the lime (super gross) and the kumquat. Now I know for next time! It's good snack food to have, especially for the low blood sugar days of walking too much.
At the market we bought some cheese that is a mixture of goat/cow/sheep milk, pancetta, and garlic that was in some sort of brine. All this we made into a delicious dinner (except for the cheese of course!).
I put together a small photo album from Saturday's pictures. Click Here to see them.
Saturday was amazing. Mostly because I got to sleep in until noon, followed by walking around the city and taking pictures. For those of you who may not know, I am not a morning person. I like being awake early, it's just the getting up part that I have trouble with. Every week day here I am up and on the bus by 8:30 am, so Saturday's sleeping in was much needed. I woke up to a nice knock on my door that was Sasha asking how I wanted my eggs cooked. How nice! Of course I got up, showed Sasha how to make coffee on the Italian stove top coffee maker, followed by a delicious breakfast of fresh squeeze juice of oranges and kiwi, fried eggs and proscuitto (an Italian cured ham), and tiny cornetti (croissants) with amazing European butter. Simply mazing.We walked around the city all afternoon, until about 7 pm and got to see the sun cast a pink glow on the Duomo. After the sun went down we got dinner at my favorite Italian place: Trattoria Bordino, which is off the beaten path, has amazing food for great prices. Oh, and they don't speak English there! It also happens to be located on "Chocolate Chip Street", no joke.
Sunday we were going to go grocery shopping, only to find out that Esselunga is closed on Sundays!! We walked down the river to Piazza del Santo Spirito where they have an antiques fair and market. We found vendor that has almost every type of dried fruit you can think of. They are all the same price so you just scoop whatever you want into a bag. I got cherries, kiwi, pineapple, banana, lime, what I believe are kumquat slices, and 2 large slices of candied orange dipped in chocolate! I liked everything except for the lime (super gross) and the kumquat. Now I know for next time! It's good snack food to have, especially for the low blood sugar days of walking too much.
At the market we bought some cheese that is a mixture of goat/cow/sheep milk, pancetta, and garlic that was in some sort of brine. All this we made into a delicious dinner (except for the cheese of course!).
I put together a small photo album from Saturday's pictures. Click Here to see them.
