The Arno at dusk

"The emperor's gaze traveled past the peacock and the lake, past the court of Herat and the lands of the fierce Turk and rested on the spives and domes of an Italian city far away. 'Imagine a pair of woman's lips,' Mogor whispered, 'puckering for a kiss. That is the city of Florence, narrow at the edges, swelling at the center, with the Arno flowing through between, parting the two lips, the upper and the lower. The city is an enchantresss. When it kisses you, you are lost, whether you be a commoner or a king.'"

Salman Rushdi
The Enchantress of Florence

The "upper"

The "lower" 

The Arno

My first calcio game.

After missing our train to go to the chocolate festival (I know I was pretty sad too) we decided to go with plan B...CALCIO! (aka soccer). This was my first real calcio game and it was between Florence "La Fiorentina" and Reggina. Although, our seats were the nose bleeds of nose bleeds I had a lot of fun, and I even saw my first soccer fight during the the first 5 minutes of the game. It was between these two fans that went after a soccer ball that had been kicked out of the field. It was pretty crazy. 

The best part is that Florence's colors are purple, so everyone EVERYONE (except Stephan who definitely stuck out) wores purple....I don't think I have every seen so many men wear purple!

This was our view, supposibly this overhang is an architectural miracle (but I have no idea why)

hehe

OUR FIRST POTLUCK...

was a success! We didn't have to much food, but the food we did have was amazing. Gaby of course made rice pilaf, pasta carbonara, and tasty tasty creamed spinach, Avery made some bomb cheese bread, Sam made her famous Panzella, and me and John made ICE CREAM SANDWICHES (with Nutella!!!). There was also some pasta salad, grilled veggies, and Ribollita (tasty!!!!) It was pretty amazing. 

Here's the mates at the end of the night.

Passing out the AMAZING ice cream sandwiches (the secret....cookies, a layer of nutella, and gelato.)



Sam taught us how to belly dance, it was probably the most ridiculous thing. I definitely can't move my hips that way. Haha. 

John decided to take pictures of EVERYONE at the potluck with his dorky glasses. It makes for some very nice pictures but I think I take the award for be the biggest dork. 

The Sickness

Sorry I haven't written in like a week (or maybe two) but I've been a little sick (lying on my death bed sick....hehehe not really, but sick) and I decided TODAY, or actually.....technically yesterday, that I was sick of being sick so I tried to make myself better by making brownies and mexican food but that only kind of worked, it made me happier and a little better but I'm still sick and now I can't sleep. It's like 5:00 in the morning and I think I may have that sickness, like the one in 100 Years of Solitude when everyone get insomnia because the little girl has insomnia and then everyone starts forgetting things, like what they use a cow for so they have to make symbols on the cow so they remember but then they forget what the symbols are and now I've forgotten how everyone gets better so I am going to go watch the office, and maybe take a nyquil and hopefully....eventually, I will be able to go to sleep. And also I am going to buy real medicine tomorrow because obviously the brownies and mexican food only partially worked.

Ok and writing this only makes me a little crazy....I'm just really tired. :)

NIGHT!

Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire...

I'm not going to lie, but this mini-adventure was all about finding the H&M in Bologna... and nothing else. But it ended up being so much more, it was a chance to not know where we were going and a chance to get lost and discover new things.

So of course, the first place we stopped in Bologna was H&M where I got new coat, gloves, and cardigan for the cold winter that is quickly approaching. After H&M we walked over to the church where they were having a festival for the patron saint of the city. The church was open to the public so we walked inside to check out the service and the POPE was there!!! no just kidding, we thought it was the Pope (papa') but it was a new cardinal which was still pretty cool. He was giving service in Italian and I actually understand part of what he was saying. He was talking about the family and how we were all family. After listening a bit we checked out the artwork in the church, the frescos and sculptures all which were so different because each chapel, each different area, was designed for all the different families. It was pretty cool. Also what was really cool is on the floor inlaid in the stone is a line that cuts through the church almost at diagonal. It is the meridian line and was calculated and designed by the famous astronomer Geovanni Domenico Cassini.

After the church we let our noises do the wandering and we found this roasted chestnut stand (which we could smell a block away!) and me and Gaby bought a small bag of roasted chestnuts. It was the first time I have ever had a chestnut and let me just say they were the most wonderful little things ever. Still incredibly warm they had a very meaty, kind of sweet, kind of garlicky taste that was amazing. We ate as we walked and when we finished the bag we ended up in front of a pizza place that like the chestnuts, smelt amazing. It was amazing and cheap. We both got two slices which were put on top of each other like a sandwitch and continued our walk to the next and final destination. Now of course our final destination (according to the Gelato Rule) was Gelato. I don't really remember the flavors I ordered, one was chocolatey and the other carmelly, but they were both delicious and a great end to the most inexpensive and filling meal I have had in Italy. Being very well feed we walked back to the station to catch the last train home. It was a very nice day :)

Rosh Hashanah

Tuesday was Rosh Hashanah and because two of my roommates are Jewish (as well as their art studio teacher, Marsha) we hosted a semi-traditional Rosh Hashanah dinner/potluck/get together for all the art studio students (and me) who have been super busy with their Academia exams (not me). We had the traditional matzo ball soup, "brisket", latkas, kugal as well as corn bread, salad, wine, limoncella and several desserts.

Gaby did a lot of the cooking, and as usual it was amazing! I think out of everything my favorite was the matzo ball soup and latkas. Tasty!


Latkas...which were delicious. We don't have a cheese grater so we sliced potatoes so the looked like the came though a cheese grater :)


Gaby singing while making Lataks


I'm just really excited about all the food. I was jumping for joy.


our oil can, I just wanted you guys to see how big this thing is. It's huge...I mean's it's bigger than John's head!


All the amazing desserts...there was even homemade fudge :)

MEXICAN FOOD!!!

Yes Mexican food deserves it’s own topic. As a person who live(d) on rice, beans, salsa, and tortillas in California, moving to Italy has been somewhat of a culture shock when it comes to food. I knew it was going to be hard and I knew I was getting myself in a tough situation but I can successfully say that I have lived a whole month without eating Mexican food. No burritos, no rice and beans, no quesadillas, no salsa,…NOTHING. But tonight (September 29, 2008) I had “Mexican food” or what people in Europe consider to be, “Mexican food”.

We went to this place called “Tijuana” and bought strawberry margaritas and burritos. The margaritas were actually very tasty (the highlight of our night) but the burritos on the other hand well, I don't want to complain to much but the flavors didn't taste right. Honestly at this point all I cared about was the fact that it wasn't pasta. Anything but pasta at this moment is AMAZING.

But I still miss
MEXICAN FOOD
and brownies
and Thai food
and peanut butter
and In-and-Out burger
:(

an Italian "Mexican" burrito.

Corri La Vita

Last Sunday was the Corri la Vita (http://www.corrilavita.it/home.php), the big breast cancer run/walk in Florence. Unlike previous walks I've done for breast cancer in Sacramento, this walk took us outside the center of the city and across the Arno where we had free admission to several different gardens and churches. It was a pretty low key relaxing walk, I felt like we were all strolling and taking our time rather than speed walking though the course. I had a lot of fun and it was great way to get out and enjoy the nice day.


taking group pictures is hard...this is most of the CSU students that attended the walk.


The roommates before the race.


The view of Florence from one of the gardens we stopped at.


The end of the race!