a day of rest

Yesterday was very chill. Giuseppe and I went to Mesopotamia Kebap. It’s not my favorite, but I do love that they make their kebaps extra spicy. We spent the afternoon chilling out in Piazza Santa Croce. Early in the evening, he made a crema di asparagi soup that was awesome although he thought it was cream of scallions. I was still hungry after that, so I went to La Mucca sul Tetto for dinner. Delicious. After that, I went to the cultural association to meet up with Jack for some gin and tonics. On the walk home, Kadir of Istanbul Doner Kebap invited me to have a ciggy with him. I was drunk enough from the wine, limoncetta, grappa, (all at dinner) and gin and tonics to agree. I chilled there for a while talking to some other American students: Jordan, Amy, and Gar.

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.

new best week ever?

I’m really sorry that these weeks are flying by and I’m behind on updates.

Saturday ended in a nice and relaxed way. Giuseppe prepared veal cutlets and pesto pasta for dinner. I convinced him to go out with the girls and me since he was sitting on the couch with a book open on his lap staring into space. Do not confuse that with actual studying for midterms. He said he would “only have one drink.” Famous last words. We played Kings with the girls and Liane’s visiting friend before heading out to a few bars. Fun and chill night.

Palm Sunday was fantastic and even more relaxed. I got up early, went to mass, and then went back to bed. When I got up again, Henk and I went to lunch at a self-service restaurant both cheap and delicious. We walked around the city for a while and met up with Juan on the bridge north of Ponte Vecchio to drink some yerba mate. Using Henk’s tripod and Juan’s camera, I self-timed the picture of the three of us in the previous post. After that, we went to the Irish-pub-owned-by-Japanese-people to catch the second half of the Fiorentina/Genoa game and get some pre-St.-Paddy’s-Day beer. Henk and I stopped by Grom on the way home for some gelato. I went upstairs to borrow a book from The Girls Next Floor that ‘Seppe and I had befriended the other night, and they invited me to go to dinner with them and meet some of their friends. Dinner at Rubaconte. Gelateria Dei Neri after. I read half of Next by Michael Crichton, which I borrowed from the aforementioned girls upstairs.

Monday one of my teachers took us to the restaurant in the five star hotel by our house. Sadly it wasn’t an eating visit, just a viewing. He recently resigned as their executive chef. It’s a beautiful hotel. Rooms range from 700 to 3000 Euro a night. And they boast the biggest hotel suite in all of Europe. (I can’t remember the metric measurements.)

After that we took our midterm for food styling, and I handed in my portfolio for graphic design. I went to aperitivo with Sergio, my one Italian friend, Liane, her friend Robyn, and Giuseppe. We went bar hopping for St. Patrick’s Day but never actually made it to an Irish pub. Is it ridiculous that my drunkest Italian night was for an Irish holiday? Well, just goes to show that what an Irish bartender said when my friends and I pub-crawled in Ireland a few years ago: “Once you’re drunk in Ireland, you’re honorary Irish for life. Salinte!”

Tuesday was my day off. I spent it running errands. “You know what would make dinner better? Wine.” So my friends and I went to aperitivo. After that, we watched L’Auberge Espagnole. I had bought a copy since I told so many people about it. It was a fun experiment because the film is mostly in French, but the only subtitles were Italian. “You know what would make the film better? Wine.” So we bought a few bottles on the walk back to my apartment. After the movie, we wanted to go out but nothing too crazy. We decided to go sit on the bridge. “You know what would make the bridge better? Wine.” [I’m really not kidding about people saying these things all night.] Unfortunately we couldn’t find any wine en route to the bridge, so we just brought beer instead.
Marissa, Helen, Henrique, Juan, and I also formed a new clique. We realized while sitting on the bridge that we have quite the international mix. We’re the new Planeteers. Juan is North America/wind, Henrique is South America/fire, Marissa is Europe/heart, Helen is Africa/earth, and yours truly is Asia/water. Yeah, we’re cool.

Wednesday I had my Food Writing and Italian midterms. They were both pretty straightforward and, I thought, easy. That night, Marissa and Helen brought me to an aperitivo across the river at a bar where they hate Americans. “Speak only Spanish or Italian tonight. They will serve us faster.” I don’t mind that they hate Americans because certain college students aren’t good ambassadors. Plus I love being in bar with mostly Italians. It feels more genuine.

We were still hungry when aperitivo ended, so a bunch of us – Yes, a lot of our friends showed up. – got panini and pizze from Pan Pergo a stone’s throw away. Then we decided to go to Jack and Juan’s house to figure out the rest of the night. Marissa, Prima, Ross, and I decided to sing the entire walk, probably to the annoyance of the rest of the group. Here’s a copy of our quartet’s set list:

• In the Jungle
• Hakuna Matata
• Love Today
• New York, New York
• It’s All Coming Back To Me Now
• Total Eclipse of the Heart

Quite eclectic.

We ended up spending most of the night at Jack and Juan’s. Marissa and I reenacted our favorite Disaronno commercial. And then the game of touch cup started. And that was the beginning of the end. We ran out of wine and then probably out of rum. By then, everyone seemed appropriately “pinted” (Helen’s Zimbabwean slang). In the course of all this, we took over fifty photos, which I’ll upload eventually. A few of us left and went to a few bars, but that didn’t last very long.

Thursday AKA yesterday I had my Food & Society midterm. All the essay questions could be answered in one sentence, if not one word. We made arancini (fried rice balls, as in balls made of rice and then deep-fried, not balls made of fried rice). We shot a few more recipes and then turned in our portfolios for Food Photography. Check my facebook “what’d ya eat?” album if you want to see those glossy pictures. I had a chill night: Napping, getting online at a bar, catching up with David, hitting the sack again.

Today is Good Friday, and I've been running the errands I’ve put off all week. Laundry, cleaning, travel arrangements for spring break, etc.

Is it still a Lenten sacrifice if you love what you’re eating? For lunch I made a tuna salad out of yellowtail/yellowfin (AKA hamachi), cannelini bean, red onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and freshly ground black and cayenne peppers. An original Andrew creation: “Insalate di tonno all’ Andrea.”

Tonight is a little going-away dinner for Prima, and then who knows what will happen the rest of the weekend. I leave for London and more importantly Chad on (Easter) Sunday, so I can’t promise another update anytime soon. I’ll try though. Buona Pascua!

worth a few thousand words

Here's a few pictures from last week, super-sized to make up for the delay.

Wednesday with Marissa - We love red backgrounds.

Thursday with Giuseppe - We love turning 21.

Friday with Ross - We love piggyback rides.

Saturday with Mindy - We love purple.

Sunday with Henk and Jack - We love bridge graffiti.

Florence still rules, thanks.

Tuesday I noticed in pictures that my hair was getting shaggy, so I stopped by the haircutting place on my street. I told them to “leave it as long as possible but clean it up” since I didn’t want it short until spring on the 20th. But they cut it all off.

That’s cool. I can deal. Plus my friends’ reactions are varied but generally positive. And entertaining. “You look good/younger/Asian/Italian.”

When I got home, Giuseppe immediately brought up dinner. His idea, like always, was Chinese food from the place down the street. Works for me.

Later that night, after power naps and some iTuning, we went to our favorite “cultural assocation” to meet up with Juan and Henk to play some pool and be there for Marissa’s debut as Iceland’s Next Top Bartender. Naturally, Helen and Prima were there too. Joe and Liz showed up for a bit. As did Jack. Prima seems keen on adding another “roommates team” to our league, but her apartment doesn’t have enough players. Our apartment’s foosball record against Jack and Juan is now 4:3.


Cesare was playing acoustic guitar that night. What a great artist. His repertoire of covers is eclectic, but everything sounded great. He had most of us singing and/or dancing along.

Wednesday I slept in until grabbing lunch with Henk at Nerbone, a trattoria in the Mercato Centrale. Salsicce e fagiolo. (Sausage and beans, a classic pairing.) Delicious.

Food writing was devoted to the process of laying out pages in a cookbook. We had a guest lecturer, a photography and graphic design professor. The president/founder of the school stopped by for another impromptu visit for an update on our semester project.

Italian was distracting. The soundtrack for the day was ‘70s and ‘80s disco hip-hop. Oh, and the lesson plan was occupations and three and four digit numbers.

Lisa and I invited her friend Caroline and my roommates to join us in our dinner at Pizzaiuolo where she and I finally got something we’d been discussing for the past month: DEEP-FRIED CALZONES.

My roommates and I went from there to the “cultural association” to meet up with the same crowd from the night before, sans Liz and Joe. The cologne Henk bought in Paris last weekend pretty much elicited the reaction Axe commercials pretend Axe has. The girls flocked to him like moths to a flame. Prima was on him all night. For serious.

Thursday our cooking class got the best recipe so far. It’s famous worldwide but originates from the region known as Emiglia Romana. LASAGNE. I cannot describe how good it was. We made everything from scratch using fresh, authentic ingredients. And it was just a basic lasagne too. Freshly made pasta, Padana Grana cheese, Bechamel sauce, and a beef, pork, and porcini mushroom ragu.

The teacher from next door stopped in. (I thought to yell at us for being loud in our excitement, but that wasn’t the reason.) She proposed a joint session next week. So our “Food & Society” class and her “Wine Exploration” class are pretty much going to merge into the best class EVER next week. Eating, drinking, socializing, and exploring. What’s not to love?

Food photography. Our on-location assignments around the city were cancelled due to inclement weather, so we spent the afternoon cropping and selecting pictures for our portfolios. It was nice to not have to walk around in the cold, but it wasn’t nice to not have the option to eat/drink all afternoon. I snapped this on the way home:

That night, Jack and my friends’ dreams were realized. We, the two culinary students, made dinner together. Dinner for twelve. And it gets better. Our friend Eddie volunteered his expertise, pantry, and knife set to help us out. So the group got three culinary students working for the price of two. Or rather for the price of free since Jack and I bought all the food that Eddie didn’t bring in his goodie bag. When I got to Jack’s apartment (after a month of supposed-to-go-ness), we planned the menu and then went to his neighborhood supermarket to get everything. Oh, and their apartment is amazing. If it had a single bedroom option, I would totally try to live there next semester.

Cooking dinner was quite fun and entertaining. While Jack and I went food shopping, Eddie started whipping egg whites and preparing antipasti and contorni.

By night’s end, Jack came to the conclusion that, had we a professional kitchen and professional equipment, we could open a restaurant. Eddie seriously had to MacGyver a lot of kitchen stuff. He burned a broken tray (like a car radiator) so we could bake in it. Turned a garlic bag into a makeshift cheesecloth. Et cetera. We almost had to find a wire hanger and turn that into a whisk. Luckily by the time the girls got there, we had cleaned the place up.


Although we lacked tools, there was no lack of friendly help. Juan, Giuseppe, and Anton were all ready and willing to beat, chop, and slice-and-dice (respectively) anything we asked them. And we had Daft Punk blasting on the iPod, which I think is excellent cooking music.

We started cooking around 8:00, served dinner around 10, and finished around 1. It was a true Italian style meal: Late, relaxed, and with lots of wine.

Our final menu was:

• Tortilla chips and guacamole
• Minestrone
• Pan-fried garlic crostini
• Artichoke and rosemary risotto
• Pepper/lemon/basil-marinated beef rolled with prosciutto
• Tiramisu

Juan had brought some Yerba Mate from Argentina, which is an excellent tea about as strong as coffee. So that was a nice way to wash everything down.

I thought I was just impressed that we made everything and nothing went wrong. (Especially since we made minestrone and tiramisu in less than half the time you’re supposed to.) But according to all our eaters, everything went really, really well. And now we’re painted into a corner we’ll probably have to do several repeat performances.

And yeah, it was a really fun night. Easily the best night I’ve had in Florence even though we didn’t go out. Good food. Good drinks. Good music. Good company. Good times.

Henk and I stopped into our neighborhood Latin bar for a little dancing and caipirinhas before bedtime. Those were nice night caps.

Friday Yesterday morning at noon Henk and I got up and went to the “eat-all-you-can” Japanese restaurant for lunch. Mmm. After an afternoon of digesting and my mandatory weekly Lost episode, we went to aperitivo at another bar. Which will probably become my favorite aperitivo bar. The place is nice, the food spicy (probably to encourage drinking, but it doesn’t phase me), the liquor quality, the drinks strong and well-mixed, and the bartenders amazing. By amazing, I mean they have the kind of flair you see on The Food Network or Travel Channel.

We went to the cultural association to play foosball and pool. Marissa was working again. Liz and Anna met up with us, and we introduced them to the friends we’d made at pool, Paule and Adam. A few rounds later, the l’auberge Italienne crowd (Liz, Anna, Henk, and I) went off to a Russian bar for gyros and beer both good and cheap.

Saturday This morning I went to the hospital for my appointment with the orthopedic doctor re: my knee. It’s been a month since the injury. There is no damage to the ACL, but there may be minor damage to one edge of the meniscus. We decided the best course of action would be to get an MRI (and any resulting arthroscopic surgery) back in the states. The surgery isn’t urgent and wouldn’t require a recovery period of longer than two weeks. But two weeks of not walking and then a week on crutches would do some serious damage to my semester, academic and extracurricular.

But hey, all that aside, I have a clean bill of health! Party on.

Liz, Liane, Anna, Henk, and I went to a late lunch at I Ghibellini before they went off to the Uffizi. I decided to go to the bar and post all this. And then I’m going to rest up because tonight most of the gang is returning from Rome and we’re all supposed to go out on the town.

And now we’re caught up back to the present. But surely not for long.

week's off to a good start

Saturday was relaxed. As was Sunday. I’m really glad I wrote about that inane Brad Pitt conversation the other day because on our way to the market, Liz found this:

I know. It’s like God sent her a giant postcard. I would never have allowed her to pick up something off the street and put it in our building, let alone on her bed. But knowing how much it meant to her, I did.

That night, Giuseppe and I went to the cultural association and got a couple of drinks. After that I stopped by The Pucker Party at Twentyone, where I didn’t see any familiar faces this time. But I made a new friend or two. It’s called “Pucker Party” because you were supposed to “get pucked up” and make out with someone in front of the bartender for free shots.

Sunday was chill. Liz and I spent the afternoon wandering around. We crossed the Ponte Vecchio and walked in hilly neighborhoods across the river. That night I went out to dinner and spent as much time walking to dinner as I did dining. I guess it’s about time to introduce Lisa? She’s in most of my classes and my partner in the writing and photography projects. She’s cool, and she’s a little older than me, which is nice because sometimes I feel like the voice of reason among I’m coming from a different perspective than all the junior-year-abroaders here. Our assignment for the week was a restaurant review (of a specific place, Sabatino). Of course, because it was Sunday, it was closed. And we kept wanting certain other restaurants, so we went to like four more. And they were all closed. We wound up at a place by my house, . After dinner, Liz, Liane, Jess, Anna, Aneet, and I went out to Moyo for drinks. The blondes and I stopped into the cultural association for some quick shots. It was a fun night.

Monday’s classes flew by and were pretty good. It was molecular gastronomy day in Food Styling. We “fried eggs” without pans, oil, or actual eggs.

The "yolk" was made of orange, lemon, and carrot juices and the white of banana yogurt. We also made “caviars” out of those juices and green apple juice. Through the magic of molecular gastronomy, the yolk and the caviar both had a thin membrane that when broken released the thickened liquid inside. Very cool.

Our other work for the day was an amuse-bouche: Bruschetta in a teaspoon. We changed the textures of all the typical ingredients (tomato, olive oil, garlic-rubbed bread) except basil. The taste when you finish eating is exactly the same although the chewing experience is quite different.

Graphic design was another “series” project. In this case, ten slides of the numbers 0-9. I finished them all, but some could use refining. I’d post a few, but they’re saved on the lab computer at school.

That night, it was “Lisa and Andrew go to dinner, take two.” We met at the Ponte Vecchio again and then recruited Jack, who lives in the neighborhood of our restaurant. Sabatino was good. It was nice to go out to eat with two foodies/classmates because we discussed the entire meal (regarding tastes, textures, techniques, etc) way more in-depth than average people ever would. Alongside all that critique was approval though. Good dishes. Good times.

party on

On Tuesday night, since Henk didn’t want to walk because he was sick and I didn’t want to cook again, we went to dinner at the trattoria next door, which was awesome, again. We got a platter of grilled meats and vegetables. The waitress, same one from the last two times, gave us complimentary aperitifs and digestifs this time. God, I love that place.

Wednesday was the usual: Food writing and Beginning Italian. My food writing class went out to dinner (since the day’s lesson was “restaurant reviewing”) at Buca Dell’ Orafo, which is right next to the famous Ponte Vecchio. I don't know if I've mentioned but I'm the only guy in that class. It's like swimming lessons in a pool of estrogen. The rose seller outside the restaurant glared at me because I didn't buy a single flower for "my fourteen dates." We had a seven-course family-style dinner. Chef Giordano, a character in his own right, kept plate after plate coming as well as bottle after bottle of red wine. Clearly I was sitting at the right end of the table since we cleaned all those plates. This was especially true of Sara, Samantha, and me.

"Pass that down here. We'll finish it."

Then I met up with some friends for the grand opening of Twenty One, a new venue owned by a promoter we’re acquainted with. It’s supposedly “the twilight zone between a bar and a club.” It was pretty fun. Every class I have here was well-represented by drinking, dancing people having a great time. The party was by invitation only, and I hadn't gotten mine from a friend because I was late due to aforementioned dinner. There were tons of people outside on phones calling others panicking or frantically searching pockets and purses for cards. I felt pretty lucky as I was walking to the front door and Fabio (the promoter, now club owner) shook my hand and waved me in. Of the people who regularly appear in my writing, only Jack, Giuseppe, Henk, and Anton (who part-times as a promoter) were there. The music was great. I didn't need any drinks since I was extremely drunk full from dinner.

A few hours later, I went to a Russian bar to meet up with Henk, Joe, and Juan and then we went to Twice to meet up with Anthony and his friends. Some drunk American girls followed us around and kept trying - inexplicably - to dance or to talk about sports stats.

The next morning I got great news. Guess who's not getting deported from Italy! I got a letter back from the government legalizing my stay in this country. Tight.

My food/culture/society class made two nearly-vegetarian dishes today. They were both filling and delicious. I thought of my parents because they would have loved them.

peperoni alla venezia (yellow bells sauteed with eggplant, tomato, garlic, wine, and of course, olive oil) and "risi e pisi" (pea risotto with parmesan and pancetta)

For my photography class, we were split up into groups and assigned different culinary aspects of the city to photograph ON-LOCATION. So we had to walk around the city and take pictures of various things. My group was assigned specific pastry, bakery, and chocolate stores. (The group that had first pick took gelato. Bitches.) But we had lots of fun and still stopped at Dei Neri for gelato anyway.

Henk and I grabbed dinner at the oil shoppe before he left for the train station to go to Paris. Then I took a long nap and got up when Jack and our friend Eddie came over. Somehow we were all hungry again - they'd gotten food on the way over - and went to "The House of Sizzle" to get one of their dozen burger selections. Mine was a BLT Burger. I'm pretty sure the bacon was actually pancetta but no complaints. That and the fries helped satisfy the American craving.

After that, we went to Salamanca and met up with a bunch of girls who I now know live on the same street as me. Eventually Juan, a bunch of other girls we know, Ross, Nick, Giuseppe, John, and more girls (in that order) showed up.

I love Salamanca because it's a Spanish tapas restaurant by day / Latin bar at night. And half the bar is a regular bar and other half is like a nightclub complete with green laser lights. After several pitchers of sangria, some of the girls, Juan, Ross, and I went to the dance floor to cut it loose and for a while even get up on the tables. Great times.

Okay, with all these new names, it's getting confusing again. Here's the second edition of the Andrew's-regular-friends-in-Italy cheat sheet, broken down by apartment:

l'auberge Italienne - gents: Giuseppe, Henk, myself
l'auberge Italienne - ladies: Liz, Aneet, Anna
the Girls Next Block: Mindy, Liane, Alison, Jess, Primavera
Donne interNazionale: Primavera, Marissa, Helen
across the Arno: Jack, Juan, Anton
designer district: Ross, John, Joe, Nick

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).

happy hump day

Tuesday was pretty laidback. I did laundry, tried to go shopping but didn’t like anything I saw except for the one sweater I bought, got some espresso, forgot to go to the market, and spent the afternoon in the FUA lab since my bar was rewiring and not internet capable. ‘Seppe made salad and pasta for dinner. I took a nap… that turned into going to bed for the rest of the night.

It's Wednesday. Although my classes start at noon, they go until 8:30. So it's my long day and most definitely the "hump" day. I'm at the bar again. The internet works again, which is the main reason I come here besides the friendliness of the staff and their knowledge I usually want a bottle of water instead of a shot of espresso. Henk thinks I'm here so often because I use it for a romantic rendezvous. I wish! I have my morning quickie here with Facebook and my afternoon delight with Blogger. That's about it.

Anyway, since this is such a boring entry and I'll be in class the rest of the day, I'll take this time to plug a video for those of you who haven't seen it yet. It's the ORIGINAL "Apologize" music video for the ORIGINAL OneRepublic song. It was made pro bono by a fan. It's so much better than the Timbaland remix and video, but at least he made it famous.

fine settimana all'italiana

Saturday after Giuseppe had gotten up and we’d showered and found our respective keys, we went to the café to check e-mail and get some espresso. (Which, by the way, even though is stronger here is so much better. I still only drink it when I need to wake up. Same goes for cappuccino.) We went to lunch at this panini place that Henk had found. Sadly the time he took me there it was closed. But it was open now and was great.

I spent the afternoon icing my knee and napping since I hadn’t gotten that much sleep the night before. ‘Seppe woke me up in time to go to aperitivo at the bar/cafe I live at. I’ve already befriended the baristas, now I just need to get in with the bartender. We caught the tail end of the Milan/Parma game, which ended in a tie. The aperitivo was good. Red wine. Finger sandwiches, Italian sliced meats, olives, bread. I was tempted to make an imitation muffuletta.

We also made a stop at a clothing store. The mannequins which are the Italian standard are ridiculous. They’re all two inches skinnier than Giuseppe (whose waist is 30, max) and two inches taller than me (5’10). I have seen no one in this country with those proportions and am pretty sure no such man exists. But the clothes, of course, were nice.

I spent part of the night watching Divorzio all'italiana, which is an Oscar winner, highly entertaining, and not too optimistic regarding marriage. Giuseppe’s longtime friend Laura is visiting. The two of them just stayed in to get ready for a busy day today, but Henk, Juan, and I went out. We started at Kikuya, which is a great bar that has an Italian location, a Japanese(?) name, Irish beers on tap, and Brazilian music. One of the baristas at my café/bar apparently works nights there, and she hooked us up with nachos. Those just made us hungry for more food, so we went to the Mediterranean place near the apartment for gyros and mirsarasemi (a Persian dip new to me, it involves grilled eggplant, garlic, onion, tomato, and egg). Then we adjourned to Salamaca, the Spanish-tapas-restaurant-by-day / Latin-club-bar-by-night next door. I didn’t stay very long to give my knee a rest, but it was more fun than the first time we went when it was too packed to breathe.

Now it’s almost noon on Sunday. I’m at the café/bar online of course. So here’s something kind of crazy. The “church” we’ve been going to for mass is actually a Franciscan basilica. AND I just realized it’s the burial place of Machiavelli, Galileo, and Michelangelo. I knew they were buried at a church here in Florence but not at my neighborhood church. Craziness.

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.

just another mangled knee Monday

So I went to my food styling class yesterday and upon getting there realized that the walk had not been the best idea for my knee and decided that I was definitely not walking all the way to my computer graphics class. Food styling rewarded me nicely for the walk though. Today was molecular gastronomy day. We made an amuse bouche (one those bite-size gifts that chefs send restaurant patrons with the menu) that was basically a spoonful of re-imagined shrimp scampi. The other dish was a not-quite Caprese Salad (buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomato, basil, and olive oil). Our fake-aprese, my term not the chef’s, was pureed-then-steamed cuttlefish (like a squid with a shell) shaped like a sphere of mozzarella, tomato confit, and of course basil and olive oil. We prepared all the ingredients together and watched the chef plate a serving, and he gave a few of us a chance to construct our own plates. This was mine:

After that, I walked back home with Jack, who was en route to his Italian class. Of course we stopped to grab slices of pizza at Sabrina. When I got home, I immediately took one of those prescribed painkillers and then ended up napping an hour or so.

Later on in the evening, I received a frantic phone call from Aneet and Jess.

Let me put a prologue to this story: The men here love Jess. We don’t know exactly why. Perhaps her warm complexion? Her dark hair? Her Cleopatra eyes? In the past week, I’ve personally seen no less than four complete strangers hit on her, only her, even with the other girls around. One even bought her chocolate (Twix) out of a vending machine.

Anyway, lately the attention has been getting less fun. Tonight Aneet and Jess were apparently being followed around by two shady strangers... who would even wait for them outside whatever store they would enter. Ah, the curse of beauty. (Aneet is Indian, the culture whose women I believe generally have the finest facial features of all. And I already explained Jess’s situation.) They called me from a store a few blocks away and asked me to walk them home. Which I gladly did of course. I limped over there as fast as I could, ready to take on any bad guys. At least this way, my damaged knee would be due than more to a drunk chick. Thankfully no such encounter happened.

I walked them to class after and then had a most pleasant surprise. A phone call from Chad! He’s in London and doing well, and naturally we’re planning visits and possibly spring breaks. This pretty much made up for any rottenness of the day so far.

So when I got home, I decided to give Trattoria Tirovino, the restaurant literally next door, a try. Although I do love standing, particularly while cooking in a kitchen, I decided the flights of stairs and any further kitchen work would make my knee hate me even more. Dinner was excellent, by the way. It’s dangerous having it so near my home.

I spent the rest of the night icing my knee in the living room and watching Giuseppe's Top Gun dvd. He was doing homework and on his computer. And Henk was being European and artistic enough for all of us by painting while drinking red wine.

Sunday, a great day

After being great Catholics, Liz, Prima, Giuseppe, and I planned our day over cappuccino. ‘Seppe went off to Arezzo with Henk and others. (Had I two functioning knees, I would’ve gone.) Liz hit up the train station to look at travel rates for spring break and other trips. Prima and I decided to grab lunch at our neighborhood theater’s restaurant. While walking, she got distracted by a leather jacket in a store’s window. So she bought it. But it is quite a beautiful jacket, it looks fantastic on her, and it even matched what she was wearing at the time.

Liz eventually joined us for lunch and after lasagna and gnocchi, we spent the afternoon studying in her apartment. Then the day got really good. A representative from the landlord’s office – Let’s just call her Mrs. Claus. – rang our doorbells and dropped off two giant sacks of apartment supplies for us: Bathroom rugs, new towels, two eight-piece sets of stainless steel pots.

Fusilli with marinara sauce doctored with tomatoes, garlic, onions, mushrooms, and Parmesan cheese. Breaded, fried, and baked chicken breasts covered in marinara and the freshest buffalo mozzarella.

The girls got so excited they made dinner for me. Prima accidentally made her nicknames. (Apparently “Primavera” as a first name confuses some of her roommates and sometimes she is referred to as “Primapasta” or “Parmigiana.”) So primapasta parmigiana was half our dinner. And Liz made chicken parm. Both were amazing. It was easily the nicest homemade meal I’ve had here so far. John came over eventually to hang out. He’d been invited to dinner but was fashionably trendsetting-ly late.

My roommates and I closed out the night by watching Half Baked, which Giuseppe found inexplicably on his flash drive. We were not baked at all.

no internet in our apartment

Giuseppe: where r u?
Me: haha, I feel like it's been forever since we IMed each other.
Giuseppe: lol i know
Giuseppe: i thought you've lost the loving feeling
Me: haha, NEVER

second day of school

So I wasn't as excited for my "food writing" course as I was for "food styling," but it was awesome. I can't believe I actually get to study this sort of thing. It's pretty much an English (e.g. that subject which should have been my major) class focused on food. The professor is young - She could pass for a student - and very laidback. We were doing the around-the-room introductions and got sidetracked several times on food, whether it be obviously common interests or local restaurant recommendations. It is a lecture course, and there's no lab fee but apparently we are expected to do "field research." So we HAVE to go out and eat things, so we can write about it. Awesome. And I was happy to find out not all the students here are from Stonybrook like the clan that's set up in my neighborhood. The room was almost all-American but diverse in state geography. Small world time, one of the girls (I'm the only guy) is from Bethesda and went to Holy Child, so obviously we had a few mutual friends.

My Italian professor walked in wearing leather pants, sat on his desk, and turned on a little boombox that played “September” by Earth Wind & Fire. Already a cool class. Also, he never actually turned it off during the class. He just lowered the volume and put it on loop, so he could talk over it. He also picks up the whiteboard if the people in the back can’t read the bottom. He’s already yelled at me twice for using Spanish words when I don’t know the Italian ones, but he does seem nice. He also takes requests for our classroom soundtrack because of an extensive CD library.

When I got home, Henk was making dinner. (I might break this streak by noting it, but I haven't cooked a single meal at home since arriving here.) He made a red pasta with ground beef, peppers, olives, and of course tomatoes. Even Aneet - who has yet to take to the food here - was impressed. Chocolate and Nutella toast for dessert. And of course trusty house red to wash it all down.

The three of us and most of the group wound up at The Girls Next Block apartment, where the game of the night was Kings/Waterfall/Circle of Death. Of course, it took a few minutes of round table to settle on the rules. By far the best moments were when Liane made the rule that everyone had to assign the person to their right a character to stay in during the game. Going clockwise around the table.

• Jack: Snoop Dogg
• Primavera: George W. Bush
• Henrique: Speedy Gonzalez
• Giuseppe: A baby
• Me: A german
• Liane: Drunk Primavera

Good times. After all that, only Jess, Mindy, Henrique, and I stayed out at an Argentinian bar on our street. Henk and I continued our booze journey around the world while the two girls split French fries and a banana split. (They looked good. Thick, non-uniform fries and a split made with gelato.)

"Superbowl" Sunday

Sunday morning Liz, Giuseppe, John and I went to hear mass at Santa Croce, our neighborhood church. I can’t believe something so beautiful is so close to us. It’s all stone, stained glass, and sculpture and pretty much a museum the other days of the week. I could understand most of the service because catholic mass is so uniform and because of my limited knowledge of Italian and somewhat knowledge of Latin. John suggested we make this our home base but try to go to a different church every weekend. Well received idea.

Afterwards we went to the café. (By the way, I keep calling it a café but in actuality it’s a bar as we found out when we left the other day and the drink specials and free antipasti were out.) We did various internet stuff and sipped cappuccinos and mused at how incredible it is that this is our life now.

My roommates and I went off to Carnevale in Via Reggio. (Venezia was too far and too expensive.) Henk and I felt responsible to attend because of Brazil and New Orleans, respectively. ‘Seppe had never been before and took advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We were sure if more people knew what Carnevale entailed, they would have gone. We got on the train with literally four seconds to spare. It was awesome. The floats were crazy. EVERYTHING moved. Animatronics. Think "It's A Small World" at Disney but with larger than life puppets. Every single one blared music. It rained confetti instead of beads.

This time we got on the train with four minutes to spare, which is a little better. We got back just in time to go to the Welcome Party at Space Electronico, a club which (ironically) I’d been to years ago when I was on spring break with Gonzaga. The food was decent, certainly not catered by Apicius. The roast pig and the risotto both stood out as quite good, I thought. The American bar, naturally, was showing the Superbowl but none of my friends nor I made it all the way through. None of us had any invested interest in either of the teams and slowly realized we missed all the things associated with The Bowl (wings, beer, chips, commercials, halftime show) more than the actual game. Some of us just got more food at the gyro place underneath our apartment and then hung out at the girls’ place. Busy day but busy in a great way.

introducing... everyone

So I was supposed to show Aneet, one of the girls downstairs, the café I go to this morning. I woke up well past noon and was worried she’d been waiting for me. I called and accidentally woke her up. Anyway, I let her sleep in some more and just went to the café to get breakfast and cappuccino and post the last update. I also joined the neighborhood gym which may be closer to my apartment than Reily was to Aron.

On the way back into the apartment, I ran into Liz, one of her roommates, and decided to go with her to look for an outlet converter. We recruited Aneet, ‘Seppe, and Henrique –all of us had different things to look for – and had a successful and speedy hunt. Even with the brief window-shopping stops the girls made. On the way back, we ran into two of Aneet’s friends from Stonybrook/FUA, John and Ross. So we took them, the girls’ other roommate Anna, and the other girls, who live a few blocks away, to the café. (I know all these people suddenly are confusing, but bear with me.) The lady there seemed amused that I brought so many friends who wanted hot drinks and internet. Sadly not everyone was able to connect, but everyone got a chance to check on someone’s computer.

When we got home, Iron Chef Italian made vermicellini with marinara sauce for everyone. Iron Chef Brazilian made a lettuce, red cabbage, and tomato salad from scratch – not bagged – and I just played sous chef to ‘Seppe. We also had sliced bread, olive oil and vinegar for the salad, and of course salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. And of course a selection of wine: House red and juice-box white (that the girls had left last night). We finally got to make use of our dining table and all those extra chairs. Worked out ridiculously well for a first meal. The three girls from downstairs, Jack, and Juan all came to dinner. We had a great time. I hope to repeat many more meals like this although other people are welcome to host/cook if they’d like. Everyone helped clean up though. I’m amazed at how genuinely nice everyone is my new friends are.

first meal in our apartment

After dinner we went to the other girls’ apartment: Liane, Jess, Mindy, and Alison. Giuseppe “no offense, guys” wanted to move into their spare room, but their final roommate, Primavera, showed up. She’s from Mexico and now replaces Jack as the baby of the group. (They’re only babies in age, not in maturity.)

We hung out at their apartment for half an hour, which is easily the homiest of all the ones I’ve seen so far. Clearly someone sublets. No student apartment is that nice. I still prefer ours, but I am jealous of their kitchen how well-equipped it is. We bummed around awhile and finally left when Alison began proving herself the mom of the group. Think I’ll-make-the-decision-if-no-one-else-will of Meredith minus the we’re-going-soon-but-not-really of Lizzie. Don’t get me wrong, she’s chill.

Almost all of us went to get gelato and then half of us went to meet Anton at the “American” bar. Jess, Mindy, myself, and the three Latins (Primavera/Mexico, Juan/Argentina, Henk/Brazil) went. Chad would be so proud. Having people there to practice my Spanish and Portuguese with somehow made the place more acceptable to me. And those welcome-to-Florenza Cuervo shots Prima and I did certainly helped.

Eventually the girls and I left to go back to first-floor L’Auberge Italienne (ours is third-floor) to hang out with those residents – Liz, Aneet, and Anna for those of you keeping track. Jack and ‘Seppe were both there. John had shown up too. He and Liz were in the kitchen eating rather fragrant and envy-inspiring “kebaps.” We just spent the rest of the night hanging out. I don’t know when we passed getting-to-know but not we’re all hanging out like we’ve always lived here.

So, a mini-guide to help for future entries:

L’Auberge Italienne 3rd floor: ‘Seppe (SUNY Stonybrook), Henk (Brazil), & myself
L’Auberge Italienne 1st floor: Liz, Aneet, & Anna (all SUNY)
Girls Next Block: Liane, Alison, Mindy (all SUNY), Jess (Chicago), & Prima (Mexico)
Guys Across River: Jack (Chicago), Juan (Argentina), & Anton (SUNY)
Guys In Designer Store Area: John & Ross (both SUNY)

In conclusion, there’s a lot of SUNY (10), although they didn’t all know each other before here, a smattering of Latino (3), a little Chicago (2), and I.

just settlin' in

So when I got back to my apartment after the walking tour, I saw semi-unpacked luggage in the living room and a guy asleep in the other bedroom. About ten minutes later, Giuseppe, my other roommate, had woken up from his nap and came in to officially meet me. (We’d been in contact in the states. He is a volunteer EMT and firefighter, so unless I’m really stupid, I’m not dying in Italy.) Really cool guy but very brief first impression since he ran off to go to registration. When he came back, Henk (who is teaching me Portuguese phrases) and I went with him to meet some friends from Stonybrook and their roommates.

We went out to dinner, where I had an insane “Fantasia” pizza that came out with peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, capers, ham, and hot dog. Which of these does not belong? But it was surprisingly good. And wine and bread that deserved each other. The wine was neither sweet nor dry and the bread had no taste. After dinner we got some delicious if overpriced gelato ($7.50 a cup) and went barhopping, but none of the bars were anything special. One was an “Irish pub” without any bear, another was completely geared toward American students, and the last was great but too packed to breathe. We did get free Spumante (Italian champagne) and free shots from a club promoter though. “Welcome to Florence!” But the night was still fun because I got to meet and get to know about a dozen people, some of them live a few blocks away from me. Some of them live downstairs – the girls we were looking for when we met the angry lady.


Yesterday was pretty good. I got up and watched LOST and then took a shower and went to school to pay some final fees. And to my surprise, I got a chef jacket and hat! Apparently I need them for some of courses. Now I just need to buy black pants to wear to classes with them. I was one of the several who showed up on time, so I got to leave pretty early. Jack, one of the guys from the night before and I left around the same time, so we went to run errands. (He’s my first non-roommate friend partly because he goes to Apicius, partly because he was the only person who knew his cell phone number, and mostly just because he’s a nice guy.) Sadly the central market was closed and the post office was out of the “permission slips” we needed to live here, but we still got a good walk around the city. We stopped by the grocery store to check prices and compare them to home and the market and then ended the afternoon at a café with sandwiches, and of course, espresso and cappuccino.

I came back just before ‘Seppe and Henrique arrived with groceries from the same supermarket I went to earlier. We were thinking about making dinner but then decided to go out with the girls from the night before for dinner, which was at I Ghibellini and amazing. It completely made up for the dinner the night before.

After dinner, we came back to our apartment to drink wine. Some of us opted for “Never Have I Ever” to get to know each other better. Then after some shots, we met up with the rest of the guys and girls last night at the same super-American bar but then left to taxi to a club. The club was fun but the cover and drinks were overpriced. Still a good night because of the people. I have everyone’s names straight now, and a few nicknames to match. I will introduce them into mi giornale soon I’m sure. ‘Seppe and I got home at four in the morning.