TGI Tuesday?

Yesterday was pretty uneventful until I finally took Julia’s advice on “the best aperitivo” and went to Kitsch with Anna, Alison and Liane tagging along. It was good. We liked the drinks, the bartender, the food, the place, and even the slideshow projection on one wall. After that, we went back to Liane and Alison’s to drink vodka and play Thumper and Buzz. Liane made a comment about how she wishes she’d birthed Mindy, and I made a similar one about wishing I’d fathered her. Then she and I also contemplated what our child would look like if we ever had one. We settled on Mindy. We also realized it would be a very messed-up child, having a pothead mother and an alcoholic father and all. But it would be damn good at foosball, with both her offensive and my defensive skills. After that, we went “barhopping” several times between our favorite cultural association and my favorite bar, beginning with all the girls except Liz and adding Agata, her friends, Sergio, his friends, Domenico, Morten, and Thomas to our party in the process.

the freakin' weekend

Friday was a lazy day, mostly due to the rain. Eventually I found my umbrella and went to an aperitivo with Southern Anna and Payton, her friend visiting from Spain. The aperitivo had a huge buffet, so it was more meal-with-drinks than drinks-with-snacks. Good times. After that, we went back to SA’s apartment and played rook with her roommate Sarah At midnight it was Payton’s birthday, so Anna brought out one of the many surprises she’s planned for her visit: A “Charlie Cake.” It’s a box-mix chocolate cake drenched in a sauce made of butter, evaporated milk, and sugar. It’s the kind of dish where you look at the ingredients and wonder how it can possibly go wrong. Decadent.

The rest of Saturday I slept until going to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to hang out. On the way home, I realized I was hungry so grabbed dinner at Baccarossa. (If you ever click any “where’d ya eat?” link, make it this one. Best meal I’ve had in Italy, easily in the top four meals I’ve had ever.) Even though dinner involved a number of ingredients that aren’t among my favorites, it was one of my favorite meals ever. After that, and the numerous glasses of wine with the courses, I stumbled off to The Cultural Association to meet up with ‘Seppe, Alison, and Jess. When they went home, I hit up Tijuana with the Girls Next Floor and their friends. In the street outside, we had a reunion of sorts with all their friends from Thursday night and from dinner the other week. A bus almost hit the twelve of us. That was cool, I guess. I closed out the night having a tea party at Rex with John, Tia, and Aneesha, friends of his visiting from Rome. John makes a proper cup of tea.

long but eventful!

Saturday night started off great and didn’t end as well. After the delivery guy dropped off the booze (yeah, seriously) that Jack had ordered from the liquor store owner we’ve buddied up with, Giuseppe and I decided to go to aperitivo (happy hour with snacks) at the bar rather than sit around while waiting for the others to gather. A few rounds of rum and some tasty snacks later, I went over to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to have dinner. Mindy, who is queen of all things vegetable although not a vegetarian, cooked some and tortellini.

We came back to my apartment for cocktails, shots, and cake. And somehow the pre-game became the big game. And we lost. Badly. Some of us were team players but a few rookies handicapped us.

Happy birthday, Jessi shot!

Sunday, regardless of what they did for the weekend, pretty much everyone was recuperating. Spent the afternoon at my bar unsurprisingly. Grabbed dinner from the Cinese place down the block with Giuseppe, Henk, and Juan. Then we had a high-stakes game of poker and met up with Jack at Loch Ness. Pool. Mojitos. Foosball games. (Ghibellina 4 / San Freddiano 2.) Bloody Marys. Jack has been added to the ranks of Stephanie, Laura, and Ben as an official Andrew smoking buddy.

Our apartment is open 24 hours/never sleeps, loves hot moms, and has Brazilian soul.

Monday I thought would be busy, but it was surprisingly relaxed. My friend Jeremy, who also went to Tulane and lived in Butler freshman year (6th floor) had told me he would be in Florence for a few hours. I thought he meant the afternoon, but he called in the morning, so I got to see him before class. We just got coffee, pondered if it was too early for beer, and caught up on each other’s life. He teaches English in Tunisia now and is at the end of a month of vacation traveling. It was surreal to meet up at The Duomo with someone I associate with New Orleans, but it was amazing to talk with someone else who understands and misses that lifestyle. I walked with him to Santa Maria Novella since he wanted to check it out before catching a train to Bologna at the station next door.

the weary traveler

I was photo-finish just-barely in time for my Food Styling class. We had another chef as a substitute teacher today but used our actual teacher’s recipe.

Filet of sole wrapped around steamed mussels and topped with caviar, chives, and shrimp foam; served with a mussel shell stuffed with sole roe and diced zucchini flowers.

Delicious, which is not at all surprising. Our sub came up with the stuffed shell idea on-the-spot. Very cool.

After class Jack and I did a lot of walking. We went to get our new textbooks, made a stop at the chef apparel store, hung out at my apartment for a while, went to the bar, went to a sportswear store, and then went to dinner at the apartment of The Girls Next Block. After I hung out with them for a little while, including a gelato walk with Mindy and a balcony chat with Liane. When I got home, I just sat on the couch and watched Henk paint. It looked like he was starting a mural on our wall in his own blood, but it was cool. After I took the following picture, I noticed how much of our apartment is accented in red. From random papers and books scattered to our beer and wine bottles to the floor and pretty much the entire kitchen.

It looks like he's painting the wall with blood, but that's okay.

Tuesday morning I got up and went straight to our neighborhood market. It’s overwhelming at first, but after a stroll through you can figure out easily what and where you want to buy. Grocery shopping was never this fun. I came back here, cleaned the kitchen and did the basic prep work. Cutting the spinach off the roots, seasoning the meat, checking my frozen veal stock (from the osso bucco a million years ago), folding garlic and butter together, and making rosemary olive oil.

fresh produce at the market

I showed Liz where the gym was, so she could get her membership. We both opted for a quick workout even though it would mean an extra shower each. After said shower back here, I started cooking. Liz couldn’t come to lunch because she had class, but I happily fed my roommates, Jack, Mindy, and Aneet. I sautéed the spinach with olive oil, garlic, onion, veal stock, and lemon zest. And I pan-seared the steak (marinated in sea salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, and green onion) in the rosemary oil and garlic butter. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

bistecca all'Andrea (as in, "Italian for Andrew") over sauteed spinach

After lunch, people dispersed. The girls went back to their apartments. Giuseppe went to the computer lab, Henk took a nap, and Jack hung out for a while then went home. Now I’m at the bar, drinking a macchiato and trying to decide whether to stay for aperitivo.

By the way, I drink coffee now, but only one small shot a day unless it’s morning cappuccino. It’s so much better here than America... excluding of course any gifts from Tara or Alison when they worked at Café Luna.

the freakin' weekend, baby

Friday was laidback. I don't even remember what I did, just that I woke up after only five hours of sleep and couldn't fall asleep again. That was unacceptable. The afternoon flew by. I went to dinner with my roommates. Bread, olive oil and vinegar for dipping, pizzas, a bottle of Chianti. Good times. Henk and I went to get gelato at Grom, which might be my favorite gelateria in the world now. Then we went over to the apartment of The Girls Next Block to pre-game, and then to the apartment of the girls downstairs to pre-game, and then out with a bunch of people to Moyo. I didn't stay out too late because I got sleepy. I did manage to wait until midnight to buy Jess the requisite birthday drink.

Today I went to the hospital. They said the knee is healing well and to come back in two more weeks. After that, 'Seppe and I went to lunch. I love me some pasta arrabiata (the "angry" one... fresh tomato sauce spiced with red pepper and other things).

second week closin' out

So my Valentine’s Day was pretty uneventful. I was thinking about asking one of the single girls (no one in particular) out to dinner just for convention’s sake, but when Anna offered us all a dinner at her apartment, that plan went away. Dinner was good. Layers of potatoes, onions, chicken, cheese, and a little mayonnaise. What’s not to like? Pretty much everyone was there. A few guys left early to go to an extracurricular meeting. Then after dinner, some went home because of an early morning or to get gelato just because. At one point, Anna and I were talking about the recipe, Liz was on the phone with her boyfriend, and Prima was on the phone with hers. Jack just looked up and said “I feel like I’m watching three TV channels: The Food Network (Anna and me), AMC (Liz), and Telemundo (Primavera).” Eventually, I just went upstairs to crash and rest my knee.

Friday was likewise unmemorable until the afternoon when Henk, John, and two of his friends joined me at the café I currently haunt. Eventually Liz called to ask if I wanted to help Prima move out of her apartment(!). She’s not going back to Mexico. She just moving closer to The Duomo. So much drama. Sadly I could only lift and not carry, but I did recruit the other guys here and lead them to the apartment of The Girls Next Block. Prima gave me a gift bag of delicious groceries which for some reason she didn’t want to take with her. After she and her packing entourage left, I just hung out with Jess while she waited for the other three to get home. The reactions ranged from disbelief to indifference. And someone was worried they’d get a “psycho crazy transvestite” as a new roommate.

Eventually since we were all hungry and hadn’t gone to the market, we went out to dinner at Trattoria Tirovino. I’m glad everyone likes it as much as I do. I’m not sure if it was the owner’s or Liane’s idea that she eventually meet his son, but as long as she doesn’t break his heart and get us banned from that place, it’s fine with me.

We went back Next Block and Jack came over, bringing with him Travel Scrabble. (Apparently Twister was also an option, but I certainly can’t play and would just spin. “Left hand, Liane’s ass.”) I always have the worst luck with hard letters at this game! I got stuck making words like squall, wax, and something I can’t recall that involved z.

Now it’s Saturday. Half of my friends are exploring the city of Siena. The other half are hiking through a Chianti vineyard and then wine-tasting. (‘Seppe declined both, so I’m expecting him to be fun when he wakes.)

So, I decided this morning that I will continue to rest my knee the rest of this weekend. But once Monday starts, I am obliterating the no-further-than-five-minutes-from-home rule and resuming life to the best of my dis/ability. This includes: Classes, marketplace, pedestrianism, photography, nightlife, weightlifting, drinking, and general shenanigans.

I live in a postcard.

I will celebrate that with or without my knee’s consent.