Another week of wine and food pairing with Marco! Yay!!! On Monday, our theme was meat. We cooked Lasagne al ragu alla Bolognese, Lombata di Vitello
e patata al forno, and Frittelle di mele e Marmellata di Fragole (apple
fritters) paired with different varieties of red Italian wines (Barbera,
Lambrusco di Romagna, and Brachetto).
Another delicious day full of learning. Afterwards, we went shopping in the leather market to find
Shannon a leather jacket. It was
fun trying on all different styles and colors of jackets. The man that helped us liked to call
himself “Discount” because he gives all of his student friends good
discounts. Discount really loved
this one leather jacket he liked to call the “Shakira” jacket and made us both
keep trying it on several times.
It was humorous for us. He
really helped out Shannon find her favorite leather jacket! Successful day in the leather
market. The leather market is
extremely popular here in Florence.
Florence is known for all of its leather products including jackets,
purses, wallets, belts, duffels, shoes, etc. You have to get something leather in Florence; it is just a
rule! Later that night, the
roomies and I went on a little boat ride, which traveled under the Ponte
Vecchio and along the Fiume Arno.
We had the cutest little boat (kind of seemed like a large gondola) and
the cutest little boater “directors” named Marco, Paulo, and Lucas. Such classic Italian names! They directed the boat by using these
LONG wooden sticks that they used to push off of the bottom of the river. The Lorenzo di Medici ladies that set up
the event for us told us facts all about the river and its importance to
Florence. Christin, Shannon, Torri
and I mainly just giggled and had our own little side conversation the whole
time about the most random things in the world. The boat ride was perfect timing to see the most beautiful
sunset at the end. When we got off
the boat, we were all craving some good eatin’ and some free wine, so of course
we head towards Dante’s. We heard
that Dante’s gives great student discounts including free wine! All the roomies continued our bonding
conversation and ended up being the last people at Dante’s without even
noticing. I love how time flies
when you are surrounded by people you love! It was time for gelato. We stumbled upon this place that was magically still open
just a couple doors down from Dante’s.
It was the most delicious gelato I had ever had. I keep saying this, but this time I am
forreal. I got this blueberry
cheesecake flavor and it was a masterpiece in my mouth! A great start to the week.
On Tuesday, we slept in a little bit because we knew we had
a day full of events in front of us.
Shannon and I began our day with a meeting from our LdM advisor,
Ambra. And let me tell you. Ambra is the kindest, most
enthusiastic, helpful, and genuine advisor. She is the designated advisor for all of us API kids, and we
were required to just have a short meeting with her to tell her how we were
doing with the cultural change, how class was going, etc. She definitely loves her job and is
perfect at it. It was a mystery on
where we were going for class on Tuesday for me. Usually, we read the syllabus to see what we are doing that
day, but the only information I knew is that we were not going to be in the
classroom that day. We head past
the Duomo and down an alleyway to a place called Alessi. When I first walked in, I thought it
was just a candy store because the room was filled with all sorts of chocolates
and goodies. That was until Marco
explained that we are going underground to their wine cellar! You would have never have guessed that
this place sold wine if you just walked in for a few minutes. He took us to a back room then down a
staircase. When I walked down, I
saw hundreds, maybe thousands of wine bottles all arranged along the walls,
tables, and centerpieces. All
organized according to the wine region in Italy (Veneto, Toscana, Lazio,
Umbria, etc.) I am always
impressed everyday with how much Marco knows about wines and food. He is so educated and animated about it
all! We had the chance to try two
wines: a red Chianti wine and a white wine called Vernaccia di San
Gimignano. Marco made a few jokes
about having too much wine and being too “happy” (in his Italian peppy voice)
because we weren’t pairing it with any food today. Haha.
Afterwards, we had an appointment with another gelato place that was a
mystery. This one he wouldn’t tell
us because he wanted it to be a surprise.
So, we walk out of Alessi and right across the street is GROM, the
notorious gelato shop known all over Italy for having the BEST gelato in Italy
and maybe all over the world. This
is a HUGE compliment because there is seriously a gelato shop on every street
corner in Italy, especially Florence.
Marco just walks across the street, then stops, turns around and puts
his hands in the air blurting, “surprise!” What a treat!
We got to go in the backroom and learn about Grom’s history, how Grom is
going global now, and how Grom makes its infamous gelato. We even got to have a free two-scoop
gelato cone! You could tell Marco
was so excited to have been able to give us this opportunity. It was so cute.
On Wednesday, the theme in class was FISHIES. Our class made three dishes involving
fish and one dessert. My little
group was assigned to the calamari and fried shrimp. For those of you who do not know, calamari is fried
squid. And yes, we were literally
given a pile of fresh shrimp and another pile of fresh squid. It was our duty to tear them apart and
cut them up properly in order to fry them. I was brave and volunteered to take care of the squid at
first. The procedure to take apart
a squid goes like this: you rip apart the body and head, reach inside the body to
pull out its insides and this weird bone thing that looks like plastic, then you
cut off its eyeballs which spew purple liquid (that’s why we wear an apron!),
then you squeeze its head and out pops its "tooth" and it looks like
it is giving birth to it. Really
weirdddddd. I got lightheaded
after about thirty seconds and had to switch over to the shrimp. That was much better. This probably wasn’t my favorite themed
day taste wise, but it is always fun to learn something new! After class, Shannon and I hiked/ran up
to Piazzale Michelangelo. Piazzale
Michelangelo is a piazza located on top of this mammoth hill that overlooks the
entire city of Florence. I
couldn’t believe that I hadn’t been here yet! We had wanted to make this hike since we got to Florence and
we were so happy we finally did.
Definitely the most breathtaking view of Florence ever! At night, the roomies all hung out
together while we studied a little for our Food and Wine Pairing Midterm. This was a beautiful night of bonding
between Christin and I. I have
truly found a genuine, new friend that I absolutely adore. I am so happy that Christin goes to
Texas A&M because I don’t know what I would do if we could not continue our
friendship that has been growing the past few weeks. Where have you been all my life Christin!?
Thursday, we woke up a little earlier than normal to refresh
our memory on what we had studied a little the night before. Shannon and I grabbed a Latte Macchiato
topped with some chocolate at a little corner coffee place called News
Café. Sounds very American, but
it’s not don’t you worry. We sat
there for about an hour just reviewing casually and laughing about what we were
actually studying. By the time we
had to start walking towards LdM to take our midterm, we had successfully
memorized several wine and food pairings, eight recipes including all
ingredients and steps, seven types of cheeses, and six types of wines including
name, type, year, alcohol content, name of producer, wine district/province,
wine region, and types of grapes.
WHAT?! During our midterm,
Marco cooked us a surprise treat for when we finished. We finished the midterm! Yay! Easy as cake.
The class got to enjoy two types of yummy pastas and a chocolate
croissant that Marco made us all by himself when it usually takes sixteen of us
to make that in the entire class time.
Haha. It was a good reward
for completing the midterm.
Shannon and I also rewarded ourselves by going shopping. There is so much shopping in
Florence. I could shop forever!! Shannon and I had an extremely
successful day in the markets making some excellent purchase. We were able to bargain with the
workers and get some really good deals.
We not only love shopping for ourselves, but we are on the look out for
stuff for our sisters and moms, too.
I love picking out stuff that I love and I know that they will love. After all that shopping, we were inspired
to go on another run! Today, our
mission was to find Cascine Park.
In Cascine Park, there is what they call the “Tuesday Morning Market”
where every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. they have a HUGE sale of all sorts of
items ranging from clothes to jewelry to food to animals (hehe) for HUGE
discounts. Some clothing items for
even one Euro! We hear this is
definitely the place to be on Tuesday morning, so we decided to scope it out to
know where to go next week. It was
an adventure getting there, but thankfully we found a smoother pathway back
home to Conti. For din din,
Shannon, Christin, Torri, and I went to a place called “The Diner” to eat some
American food!! I got a yummy
burger. It was good to have some
meat! We walked off our dinner by
doing some window-shopping through the streets of Florence. I really like how even though it is
dark outside and the shops are closed, the shops keep their lights on so that
you can admire all of their items in the window at night. While we were walking back to our
little home, there was a long path of people carrying candles coming out of the
Duomo. We couldn’t figure out what
was going on, but we could hear these beautiful, hymnal voices bouncing off the
walls of the buildings coming from far away. It was another one of those small moments that reminded me how
beautiful life is and how lucky I am to be here in Italy! Now, I sit here in my bed about to
finish my blog and I am about to begin packing for my weekend trip ahead of
me. VENICE, VERONA, AND PADOVA…here
I come!
Tanto Amore,
Diane
No comments:
Post a Comment