"You Get What You Pay For"

We got off the Vaporetto at the Accademia stop and after a quick left it was pretty simple to find the hotel for check-in. After checking in, we learned that our hotel was actually across the street and acted as a separate entity of the hotel we checked-in at (almost like a sister hotel). When our group went outside, none of us could spot our hotel entrance. The doorman told us it was "right across the street" but we certainly didn't see anything. After decoding the Venetian house numbering system we stumbled upon a small, solid wood door. This was the entrance to our hotel, of course. Going into the trip we knew we booked a budget hotel to keep the price low, but this was really "getting EXACTLY what you paid for."

Our rooms were up a tiny hallway and into a short corridor. We had one king size bed and a set of bunk beds that looked like they hadn't been touched since the 1970's. I could already tell that the three of us girls would be doing our best to squeeze into the bed and avoid the bunk bed dilemma altogether.

We dropped off our bags and quickly made plans to escape. First stop - Piazza San Marco!

Hello Venezia!

As if the staying up last night packing wasn't bad enough, our bus left this morning at 7 am for Venice. It was certainly a struggle getting everyone set on the bus for the 5 hour trip (whew). Our bus was suited for 50 though so it was really nice to get to stretch out and sleep. Although, I didn't sleep much, I was too captivated by all of the gorgeous mountainside we passed on the way there. I even got to see my first snowflakes of the trip. :)

When we finally arrived in Venice I could hardly believe that the city had no roads and no automotive transportation! It's something you always hear about Venice, but until you're standing outside the city staring at the never ending canals of water it's really hard to understand. Truth is: it was unbelievable! Our bus had to drop us off at the outskirts of Venice where the Waterbus (Vaporetto) would pick us up. The water bus is comparable to a metro in a larger city, only it takes FOREVER. If you've ever been on a boat you know how it can take quite some time to dock... well just think, the Vaporetto docks at dozens of 'stops' along the Grand Canal. We were on the Waterbus for quite some time, but I really didn't mind sitting back and taking in the beautiful gothic architecture.

Last Night in Volterra

Well today we reached another benchmark in our trip: our last full day in Volterra. My World Religions class had our final presentations and papers due today so after all that mess was over, we decided to take it easy and hang around the SIAF. The group met up for one last soccer match. It's always fun playing with those guys and I really look forward to the workout! I need all the exercise I can get with all the pasta I've consumed this month.

After that excitement I went back into my room and got ready for our last Tuscan group dinner. We invited Fausto, our personal driver in Volterra and our campus organizer, Giada. We are at the same restaurant we went to for our first group dinner in Volterra and had a really special last meal. We thanked our guests for all their help and they both briefly spoke about how much of a pleasure it was having us in Volterra. Sometimes when you immerse yourself in a new culture you forget that other people living in that culture are also learning about you. It was really great to have Giada tell us that we were the nicest and most cultured group of Americans she has ever met. It means a lot to heat that we represented our country in a good way.

The food in Volterra has certainly been my favorite in Italy and I'm reluctant to say I'm not sure when I'll ever be back here to enjoy a meal again. I'm really going to miss this authenticity... Tomorrow it's off to Venice and I have a TON of packing to do!  I have to pack my bag for Venice, Roma, and HOMA (hehe) all tonight... it's going so fast!

Cooking Under the TUSCAN Sun

Tonight was our much anticipated cooking class just on the other side of Volterra. I wasn't sure what to expect when we walked through a tall gate and into a courtyard to the entrance, but to my surprise the facility was BEAUTIFUL. It was a vaulted ceiling banquet hall filled with vintage Italian decorations. We hung up our coats and met our instructor, who only spoke Italian. Luckily, we invited our coordinator from the SIAF to join us and she was able to do translations for us... Not that it mattered - there's no way I will ever be able to recreate those dishes with the same essence, experience, or natural Tuscan ingredients.

The kitchen was enormous - every chef's dream! In the center of the kitchen was a vaulted skylight letting in plenty of sun to fill the room. The chef first talked about the variety of dishes we would make and passed around recipe books for us to take home (I'll have to translate it first, of course). We would end up making a total of seven dishes... whew!

While we were being introduced to the ingredients, I couldn't help but get distracted and defer my attention to the executive chef's right-hand-man who was perfectly chopping and dicing vegetables and garlic for us to use. I truly believe that there are only a slim percentage of humans who can chop that precisely - everyone else would be missing fingertips. After we watched the executive chef prep and create a sample of each dish we would create, we split into groups to divide the 7 courses. My group worked with cutting out pasta crusts, sprinkling diced pistachio and oils over the pate, and sneaking extra desserts ;)

Here's a list of the seven courses we helped prepare before we sat down to eat:

1. A chicken liver pate with accents of fig and apricot wrapped in lard. Decoration included sprinkling with finely diced pistachio and a drizzle of Olio. - I was okay trying this one on my first bite, probably because I had it with the apriocot and in a very small portion (without any lard). My second bite however...not so good. I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to swallow. This wasn't exactly the best item to try first because it was the only one I didn't like.
2. A spinach and cheese kiesh served in fresh cut pasta crust. Melt in your mouth delicious! The heavy egg yolk in the pasta dough made the shell a perfect combination with the spinach and cheese. Delizioso! 
3. A Native Italian Green "Cauliflower" (this is the best way the chef could describe it but it neither looked or tasted like American Cauliflower to me) mixed in with sweet corn grain (looked and tasted like a round heavy rice) and cream sauteed in a pan. This really was one of my favorites! I can still taste the exorbitant flavor of that crispy veggie!
4. Porcini Risotto with fresh mushrooms in a light and thick risotto sauce. I can't even describe the amazing flavors. I'm not a mushroom lover but I can already tell I'm going to crave this back home!
5. Grilled veal steak wrapped in fresh rosemary with a sprinkle of authentic mineral salt from Volterra and olio on top. The steak was actually grilled just to brown the outsides, then vacuum sealed and baked in the oven to cook the rest of the way - this assures the juices have no where to escape! *Another thing I learned: never use salt seasoning before grilling meats. You have to wait until it's done to add or the salt will pull the juice and flavor right out of it!
6. A side dish that tasted like a combination of celery and artichoke steamed and then marinaded in a light pesto sauce and olio.
7. Save the best for last: Dessert. Fresh pecorino cheese with natural Italian honey (not the yellow stuff we're use to) with a thin slice of Italian panforte (Thanks Meredith for helping me to remember the name!)

We all stuffed our faces with the delicious meal and thanked the kitchen crew for all of their help and patience with us. We hung around for quite some time giving toasts to the fabulous group of people we met on the trip. When we finally had to leave we sang American songs with Fausto, our Italian chaffeur and friend, the entire way home. Somewhere along the windy roads home I looked around and realized that I could not have asked for a better group of people to experience this trip with.

Finding More Buried Treasure

After leaving the Museum of Torture we spotted a restaurant with a large boar head outside the door. In Italy, eating wild boar is as common as eating pork in the USA. We decided as a group that if we were going to try some wild boar in Italy, a restaurant with a giant boars head outside would be a good place to do it. We walked inside to see a narrow hallway down to the back of the shop. We headed past the hundreds of red and white whites for sale to see only a small deli counter at the back of the "restaurant." Maybe we were mistaken - maybe this wasn't a restaurant - only a small shop with meats to go? After realizing before that nothing in Volterra is as it seems I should've known that there would be more either up or downstairs...

Brittany noticed the shop owner standing over by a stone staircase just off to the side. Click. He was trying to show us that we were suppose to go DOWN. We all followed him and were invited into the most beautiful underground dining room I could have ever imagined. It was like a mystical cave that can only be found in movies or dreams. When we went down the first flight of steps there was a small candle-lit couples dining "nook" overlooking a waterfall with colored lights rotating in its backdrop. It was completely unreal - if only I had a romantic date. As we continued down the stairs surrounding the waterfall we then entered a larger dining room with a piano and tons of wine racks. We kept on going until we entered their largest dining room. The final room could fit our larger group (nine of us girls) and was decorated with fairies and mystical creatures all around. Fairies and trolls stared at us while we too our seats at the bottom of the waterfall.

The underground passages

Hard to see the waterfall above the small fountain,
but this was our lunch environment!

For lunch I ordered a Wild Boar panini with aged sheep milk cheese, lettuce and sweet balsamic vinegar. I was relunctant that I would finally be trying wild boar, but it actually turned outs so much better than I imagined. Even though the sandwich was huge, I finished every last crumb of it. I found myself scraping the last drops of balsamic off the plate with my fork. The balsamic here is so much better than back home. I'm still not sure how I am going to manage when I get back home and try to find half of the fresh ingredients I've been blessed with here. I guess you can say I'm pretty spoiled here. Not only was I eating a delicious lunch, I was eating it in a uniquely beautiful underground cave. The environment alone  made my meal a success, but after trying that sandwich I was officially in love. I simply must go back!

This picture does no justice to my wild boar panini

After lunch we headed to our favorite cioccolaterria (chocolate shop) in all of Volterra. On top of it being as beautiful as every other reastraurant in Volterra, it also had such interesting and delicious varieties of desserts. Their enormous show case of chocolates featured any and every kind of treat you could ever want. Too bad there were just too many to try them all. This wasn't our first time trying some sweets from this shop, and I'm confident it won't be our last. :)

Chocolate locks, keys and tools at the Cioccolaterria

Torturous Volterra

Today was our main exploration day in Volterra - it certainly didn't disappoint. Last night we stayed up all night planning our day so we could see as much as possible while walking around. Some of the information we came across was...interesting? First thing we learned is that the palace we were hoping to visit is not open for tours. Of course that was pretty disappointing but then we learned that the reason it isn't open to tours is because the palace has been converted to a maximum security prison (YIIKES). Always good to know. It gets better - the maximum security prison also participates in experimental imprisonment where most of the prisoners are permitted to do work stay. However, the prisoners are most popular for performing in a dinner theatre group where they serve tables and perform on stage for 100+ crowds on Friday nights (scary)! One of their special drinks is a blood cocktail - not sure if that's a joke related to Twilight or the prisoners past experiences but either way it's kind of creepy...I've never felt intimidated or in danger here whatsoever, perhaps this method is working? Either way, I still don't think we'll be attending one of their performances - just in case!

We all opt'd to miss out on that fun and look into the Torture Museum (to go along with the creepy/scary theme) once we got into the city. Fausto (our fabulous bus driver whose family owns the only transportation services in Volterra) happily pointed us in the right direction down via Gramacia. The museum of torture was originally located in Florence before being moved to Volterra and it was certainly a wake-up to how brutal the inquisition was as well as how bad the women were oppressed in historic Europe. At the entrance we were greeted with a giant chair filled with spikes and bondage that was used for acquisition - pretty intense! Inside the museum were twisted devices used to keep women quiet, punish bad children, execute the guilty, and question suspects. I left the museum with a loss of appetite - but ironically we all headed into one of the first restaurants we saw for lunch.

I am either really terrified or a great actress

Series of Unfortunate Events: Blog on Hold

Well everyone looks like it was too good to last... today my computer crashed. I'm quite suprised because I have a MacBook and I have never had any issues with it until now. Sadly I won't be able to update my blogs regularly and most of the blogs I wrote over the past week (in process of publishing) are now lost on my computer. I will try to re-write them but I'm not very optimistic about getting up to speed with things. Stick with me and stay tuned! I'm currently working from the ONE computer available at the SIAF center (which I have to share with 4 other people who are computer-less) that is ancient and has 1990's technology...this should be interesting.

Suprise, Volterra!

Volterra just keeps suprising me day after day! I can't even believe such a place would exsist. It's like it's pulled straight from a book...

Let me start my night off with dinner (as usual) in the city. We walk into our favorite restaurant (where we have befriended the owner and his family) to get some food to find the small ristorante is swamped! We start to leave when he suddenly tells us to wait...apparently there is an upstairs? We follow the hostess up the stairs hesitantly not knowing what to expect (I always thought maybe they lived up there) and are welcomed with a HUGE dining room filled with even more people. There is a giant frescoe on the ceiling and I am astonished at how beautiful everything is arranged. There is a large party taking up almost the entire room so then the hostess decides to put us in yet another dining room upstairs...where does this space come from? Everything seems so tiny!

I have yet another delicious meal - gnocchi with bacon, pepper, and a blush cream sauce and of course I share two dessert dishes with my friend Lauren - Torte della Nonna (grandma's tarte) and a tartufo (chocolate ice cream in a solid frozen ball of fresh cocoa powder and a small vanilla center). Amazing to say the least. We take our time eating to be sure we don't show up at the pub "Americanly" early.

The pub here, Quo Vadis,  is the only drinking establishment in all of Volterra... let's just say we weren't hopeful that it would live up to our Roman standards. We walk into the pub so excited just to see more than 10 people in one place for the first time since we've been here. The pub is calm and people are casually grabbing a drink. We notice a few more tables and walk over to sit as a group... one of the girls happens to notice a bunch of people making their way down a large flight of stone stairs - something is telling us to follow.

SUPRISE - there is a huge lounge down in this stone passage filled with people socializing and playing billards. Oh wait, it gets better. We look around the corner (continuing to follow the native Italians) and realize that there's even more - a disco room! There is American music featuring the Beach Boys (yes, really), Aretha Franklin and lots of modern American music. I truely couldn't believe it. I felt as though we had found a buried treasure. An entire nightlife scene thriving underneath the ground in Volterra - who would've ever guessed!? The entire night I was in disbelief of how awesome it was to be in the ONE place available in Volterra with what seemed to be all the young people in town. This is 100% an experience I will never forget and will tell people about for a long time. It's one of those things you truely must see to believe.Stone walls, underground = no noise leaking into the streets...why don't we do this in America?

Visit their webpage here...(it's really hard to find on your own!)

My summary of Volterra thus far - There's always more than what we see.

Twilight(ish) in Volterra

I can completely understand why Stephanie Meyer chose to set Volterra as her “Vampire” town in the Twilight series – it’s 100% perfect for the scene.  Volterra is filled with a alleyways, tall walls, random stairs, dead ends and lots of "secretive looking" doors. The city is very small and it seems as if only one store is open at a time. There are no “hours of operation” for businesses; they just do whatever they want here. It’s very family-oriented and laid back. I also found out today that Volterra is much older than Rome and other Italian historic cities - in fact it is one of the oldest. There are even ruins of an amphitheater and forum on the north side of the city.

Since the sun set during our soccer game earlier (see football blog) there wasn’t much time left to explore the city – we just went to grab some dinner. First thing I noticed: The language barrier is certainly MUCH greater here. It makes sense because it’s such a small and non-touristy city. It's going to take some getting use to but I think it's going to be such a great learning experience. Even though the menu was in Italian, I managed to order gnocchi with fresh crabmeat for dinner. The crabmeat was so juicy and delicious, probably because Volterra is so close to the Tyrrhenian Sea.

After dinner we went to an underground (literally underground) cafee that served desserts and hot chocolate (aka fresh melted milk chocolate in a mug). They also had a game room with slot machines (?), a foosball table, an Internet cafee and a closed bar. The downstairs was 200x larger then the upstairs counter. It was sort of packed – this must be the local thing to do on a casual Monday night... I personally have no complaints. 

Ready For Some Football!?!

After getting my things unpacked and figuring out the SIAF campus our group decided to take advantage of our turf soccer field outside our dorms. A group of about 18 of us split into two teams to play a casual/hardcore game of Italiano football! We ran around for over an hour and a half... My team won of course. ;)

I’m really excited that our group came together to play today. Everyone has become such good friends, and the group dynamic is really working out. I'm so glad I decided to bring running shoes and workout clothes - I wouldn't have wanted to miss out. To further the "awesomeness" of playing soccer on the mountaintops of Volterra, Italy – add vineyards and farmland behind you with a gorgeous pink sunset over the hilly horizon.

I think we’re going to play everyday while we’re here – it will certainly help me burn off all my Italian calories.

Coming Around the Mountains...

Blek! That bus ride was comparable to a never ending roller coaster! We were coming around the mountain all right... up and down and up and down with a ton of sharp U-turns and one lane roads where you can look straight down the mountain to an unforgiving death. The bus ride was scary and very harsh on the tummy. Our professors' son even lost his breakfast after a long series of tight right turns. I think I'll need to try some dramamine before we go on our day excursions or I could be next!

Besides the rough ride - the sights were endlessly beautiful! Vineyards and backroads continuously visible from our windows. It was so difficult to get a good picture though because of the windy roads we traveled on.

The best picture I could find of the bus ride... all the other pictures everyone took were pretty blurry :)

We are staying at the SIAF center just outside of Volterra (a remote campus of the University of Pisa) and wow is it beautiful! Our dorms are split up into several apartment style buildings and each room has it's own bathroom (shower, toilet, and heated towel rack - fancy huh?). We also have maids that come in to make our beds, remove our trash, and give us fresh towels... I'm excited about having a made-up bed to squeeze into every night haha! There is also a pool, fitness center, recreation room and turf soccer field to keep us nice and busy.

I am slowing myself down today by taking some time to unpack and take in the amazing views we have of both the city in front of us and the mountains behind us. Everything is so beautiful - I can't wait to go into Volterra and see the city!

Check out my campus: SIAF Volterra

Arrivederci, Florence!

Our 4 day visit to Florence seemed much too short. We are already packing our things up to head on the bus to Volterra and Pisa. Our travels seem to be going from big city to small town as the trip goes on... Starting in Rome was an adventure with loads of history and big city fun, Florence was a smaller city but had it's shopping niche and lots of nightlife as well, as for Volterra....hmm...who knows what we are getting ourselves into. The population of Volterra is about 10,000 - smaller than the University of Delaware! It should be a completely different experience traveling there.

As for Florence - I really hope I can return some day to take advantage of this city after I have completely indulged myself in its history. The artwork was beautiful and so were the historic structures and I would love the opportunity to research them all and go back to invest myself in city. Perhaps a guided tour around the historic district would have been helpful - but we seemed to make due exploring on our own. This city was more relaxing then Rome but still with an adequate dash of fun nightlife.

As I am start bringing my bags downstairs to the lobby I'm quickly starting to realize how fast these last 15 days have flown in front of my eyes...

Arricederci, Firenze! I hope we meet again soon.

Last Finds in Florence

There were three quirky things I found in Florence that were particularly interesting...

1. The Medici symbol can be spotted randomly all around town - the oval crest with 6 balls inside. This became some form of an "I-spy" game for us around town.

2. There are some really intricate doorknobs all around the city. They all have Renaissance inspiration and I never found two that were the same.

3. The "Padlocks of Love" are located right along the river in Florence. For those (like me) that had never heard of this tradition: the idea is to have two lovers write their names on a padlock along with the date and then lock it onto this long chain to remain there for eternity. The key is thrown into the river to symbolize locking up your love and throwing away the key forever.

Leaving Our Mark - Last Night in Firenze

Tonight was our last night in Florence and I was extremely excited when Elyse told me her guide book suggested an American bar called Lions Fountain where we could go to watch the Jets and Patriots playoff game. Once again, a taste of home brought right here to me in Italy. The bar was filled with Americans, Italians and other English speakers from all over the world. Lions fountain was decorated really bizarre with graffiti written all over the walls and tons of college t-shirts hanging all over its ceiling. The shirts were so cool - past American travelers wrote their names on them along with details about their trip. Of course we wanted to participate but where would we find a University of Delaware t-shirt to contribute? By fate (of course) Brandon wore a University of Delaware t-shirt to the bar. His girlfriend Rachel was quick to offer his shirt as a donation to the Lions Fountain ceiling... Brandon actually ended up being so excited and willing to give up his shirt :)

All 17 of us that went to Lion's Fountain tagged the shirt with our names, graduation years, and greek letters for those in fraternities or sororities. We then filled in the names of those on our trip that weren't there. We also tagged the walls in a spot that had less graffiti so ours would stand out. Knowing that our shirt will be hung up in the bar for years to come was a great way to leave our mark on the city.  We'll certainly be recommending the place to future UD Italy abroad students...What a great tradition! :)

Feel the Burn...

There seemed to be a lot more people exercising in Florence then we ever saw in Roma… this may have been the inspiration I needed to finally lace up my shoes and go for a run myself. Danielle and I took off across the Ponte San Niccolo towards the Downtown district. I decided to do the 1.5 mile suggestion that was on the jogging card in our hotel room which consisted of running right along the Arno. Running along the water and over 2 bridges kept me feeling tireless; like I could run forever since everything was so distracting and beautiful. When I finally came back I could hear the giant bubble bath in my hotel room calling my name. Guess what – I did it! I took advantage of that opportunity and hopped right into the bubbly tub. I soaked in the tub for just about an hour. It was so relaxing and felt extra good after my muscles were nice and sore from the run.

After my nice long bubble bath I lazily put clothes on to go downstairs for our buffet dinner at the hotel. I wasn’t necessarily impressed with the food but the roasted potatoes were delicious! We had salad, two different pastas in sauce, brisket, salad, potatoes, and soup. Ehhhh…at least it was a free "all-you-can-eat" meal so I was nice and full.

An Artsy Exploration

Today we started very early again by walking over to the Uffizi Gallery for a 9:00 tour. Our professor had a really good walking tour guide in his travel book and it really helped me to appreciate each individual work of art in the museum. Seeing the Birth of Venus and the and Allegory of Spring (both by Sandro Botticelli) were so incredible. Understanding the symbolism and the time period the paintings were created gives you an enhanced emotion when you look at the works.  Many of the works by Leonardo Di Vinci were also absolutely beautiful. I can’t even believe I had the opportunity to look at the work of such famous Italian artists. The tour was pretty short and well worth the visit just for the gorgeous appearance of the museum itself. Tip for those who want to go there someday: There’s an awesome view of the Ponte di Vecchio at the end of the last room - just look out of the window!

After the museum the group was ready for some European coffee. I chose a caffe latte which was delicious and very cheap. We then walked over to Santa Croce to see the tombs of famous Italian influences including Galileo and Michael Angelo. Since it was Sunday, the 11:00 mass was going on when we arrived -it was so awesome to see people attending casual mass in a church of that size and importance. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to spend every Sunday in a church like that. I just hope those practicing in their parish don't lose appreciation for its beauty and significance.

Michael Angelo's tomb

Next we walked up to piazza D'Azeglio where we found a quaint playground surrounded by what I would believe to be a suburban area in Florence. In the square many of the pet owners do not keep their dogs on leashes – they are free to run around and play with other people and play with other dogs. They were all just so friendly… is this a “dog” cultural norm in Italy? ha!

After that we walked up towards the Giardino dei Semplici and the University of Florence. We continued to see small squares and interesting buildings. There isn't anything in this city that isn't decorated and elaborate. We even found a carousel in one of the squares near Piazza Signoria. We all wanted to go on but when we got a little closer we realized that the horses were much smaller than USA carousels and we would probably break them! Before going back towards the hotel, we wanted to grab a quick and light lunch (our free group dinner is tonight so we didn’t want to fill up too much) and we stopped at a bakery/caffe that served outdoor lunch. We sat outside in the sun and our view of the Duomo and Florence was so pretty. I had a salad with mixed greens, black olives, walnuts, brie, and croutons with a gorgonzola cheese melted over the top as a dressing. I haven’t been a big fan of the gorgonzola in Italy (because it is really strong) however this was light and very, very delicious. Afterwards some of the girls stopped at a gelato shop to grab some dessert while Lauren and I went to a candy shop with fresh chocolates to buy a few ganaches. We all shared the desserts and while the chocolates were TO DIE FOR – the gelato here still just hasn’t been able to compare to Portofino’s in Roma. On our way back we stopped again at Pizzaz Signoria and saw the courthouse where the orginial David once stood (a replica now stands in its place). Right next to the square we saw a sidewalk chalk artist elaboaratly drawing a recreation of a section of the Allegory of Spring…it was so fabulous that we decided to give him money – his work was just so good we couldn’t help ourselves.

Ristorante Pizzeria le Follie / J Joyce

Tonight we decided to grab a dinner directly next to the hotel at Ristorante Pizzeria le Follie. The menu selection was pretty limited, but I was really in the mood for pizza after having that amazing tortellini soup at the small authenic Italian place we had lunch at earlier. A couple of the girls ordered pasta dishes including a linguini in clam sauce that had a little pepper kick at the end (sooo delicious) and a other pasta dishes that we also very delicious. I honestly felt sort of "pasta-ed out" and decided to go with their popular Caprese pizza (yes, I have eaten anything Caprese like crazy since I've come here). My pizza ended up being the very best at dinner and was phenomenal. Since the menu is so limited I am not sure that I would recommend the place for those looking to really go outside the box (however the linguini in clam sauce was certainly worth it!) but it was still an adorable local place with great pizza. This is probably why their name has the word "Pizzeria" in it... hmmm.

After we got back from a late dinner we decided to look for a local Italian hangout near our hotel so we wouldn't have to walk far. We ended up crossing the Niccola bridge (right across from our hotel) and going to J.Joyce - an Irish pub on the right hand side. It really amazes me how many Irish/American pubs there are in Italy. If these bars are the way Italians and Americans justify Irish pubs then I can't wait to go to Ireland someday and see the real thing. I'd love to know how an Irish pub REALLY is. The night was laid back and fun - I got to speak French again while discussing American politics and world views, British accents, Italian stereotypes, American stereotypes and lots of other political influence. Crazy... I truly never thought that my french would pay off but it certainly has. Between the outdoor heated courtyard space/outside bar and the inside bar ( warm and cozy) I personally thought J.Joyce was a success.

*Fun fact: I got a free Peroni Rugby scarf for ordering a Peroni at J. Joyce haha! Beer promos seem to be following me no matter where I go in the world.

Looking Good in Leather

After climbing the Duomo most of our study abroad group voyaged over to the open air market to do some  serious shopping - and I do mean serious. I myself ended up with a ton of gifts for people back home, a brand new leather bag (30 euro) and a leather jacket for myself (a STEAL for 60 euro). The jacket fits like a glove and I'm officially in love. I definitely got to practice my bargaining skills and I would just like to say I did pretty darn well. If I didn't want to ruin surprise presents for those back home I'd be able to tell you about just how well I did :) I honestly could've walked around for hours contemplating on buying more goods but fortunately I only bought things I absolutely loved and I am so satisfied with my shopping experience!

In between our shopping adventures we decided to grab lunch at the most "hole in the wall" type place Rachel, Brandon and I could find near the Duomo.  We ended up walking into a restaurant that looked like combination of a butcher, deli counter and weird grocery store. When we sat down towards the back of the restaurant we quickly noticed that no one in the entire restaurant spoke a wink of English. We even had to guess at the names of the entrees we wanted...opps! I ended up getting the Tortellini soup - tortellini with meat in a broth sauce...DELICIOUS and competely authentic. I was so glad I ordered it even thought their soup is so simple it was 100% what I was in the mood for.

My tortellini soup on the bottom-right!

After the Duomo and shopping everyone was exhausted!! Too bad for us that we had a tour set up for 3:00 at the Galileo Museum. There was probably a lot more to get out of it, however we were all so tired that it was hard to focus. Every once in a while I would hear something particularly interesting and lighten up to listen in - but for the most part I did not find it particularly interesting. With that said, I did however get a kick out of the fact that Galileo's middle finger, index finger and tooth act as relics in the museum. Centrally located in Galileo's room are those remains. Was he flipping me the bird for not paying attention? Maybe so.

Climbing the Duomo

Before spending 4 hours of rigorous power shopping through the open air markets today, a group of us decided to practice become this ultimate stair masters by climbing to the top of the Duomo - 463 steps! Not just any 463 steps...463 spiral, steep, ancient, small, and unforgiving steps with little oxygen. The punishment seemed bearable when we finally reached the top and could see the city in its entirety - much like the top of the Vittorio Emmanuelle Monument's peak in Roma. You could see for miles and miles and perhaps it was even more rewarding because of the strenuous exercise we did to get up there. Did I mention that we had to climb down them as well? While going up was hard on the body - going down was very hard on the mind. Looking down an endless flight of very steep stairs that never ends certainly takes its toll on your mind. I thought about doing to Rocky pose when we finally got back to the bottom, but decided that probably wasn't such a good idea.

Meeting the Perfect "Man"

Early this morning in Florence I was blessed with a great opportunity - meeting the worlds most perfect man. Where did I find him you ask? The Gallery of the Accademia. I made a left hand turn down the hallway in the museum and there he was standing under a beautiful dome with glamorous lights shining down on him - David by Michael Angelo. His place in the museum was designed deliberately for him to stand - protecting him from the harsh weather he originally stood in outside the courthouse for years and years. While his body was not proportioned correctly (his hands, arm length, etc.), it is arguably difficult for anyone to not be blown away by the detail of this piece. Angelo even included the muscular veins popping out of David's  forearm and hands. Besides his unfinished sculptures - the rest of the museum did not appeal to me. Much of the work there included plaster replicas and I didn't know much of the few pieces of Renaissance artwork that surrounded David's room.  In the Accademia's defense - the entire second floor was closed for a restoration.

The statue on the left is a replica of David outside the old courthouse in Plazza Signoria - no photos were allowed inside the Accademia