Food, Drink, and Dancing
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2007
1
6
23
Trip End
Dec 16, 2007
Florence,
Italy
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Ciao! Well yesterday and today were very eventful! Both good and bad. At school yesterday, as you could see I was able to e-mail everyone and post my entries. Kara, Dana, and Arod found a cheap market about 10 minutes away and while they were gone Erin and Kelly took naps. I edited some pictures and attempted to go for a run.
Running in Florence isn't that easy. You think it'd be great to run and get to know places. Yeah well not when the sidewalks are two feet wide, everything is cobble stone, and there are bikes, vespas, and cars everywhere! And random chain "barriers." Well a guy on a normal bike almost ran into me, so I attempted to jump over a chain barrier...I managed to get my weight over my feet...so I kept trying to take those huge steps/lunges to catch myself. But the inevitable happened, I fell. My phone flew behind me, I attempted to break my fall with my hands and landed in a volleyball sprawl and immediately picked my phone up and scurried off away from a few tourists and Italians who saw me. I was sooooooo embarrassed. But it's sooo my luck. The one time I go to run and get some extra exercise, I fall. I managed to cut my palm up. It's a bit sore today and red. But, I have learned a valuable lesson, slow down and don't overachieve while running. Also, it's bad enough all the Europeans were looking at me funny while I was running. Kaitlin said when she ran they looked at her funny as well, and I have to admit I have not seen one European running. DJ took us to a gym and told us we could get a "deal" for 3.5 months for 155€.
Arod and Dana
But that's like $207 USD. So instead I'll run and carry groceries from the market to the apartment.We ate at a local sandwich place DJ showed us, I can't find my receipt so I don't remember the name of it. But it's easy to get to! All the sandwiches were priced equivalent to a cheap sub in the US. It was so great! And the owner - sooo nice. He helped us with our Italian, he was the epitome of "Italian" he had a tattoo on his right shoulder, did I mention he was JACKED?! He was too funny. And my caprese sandwich was amazing.
Later we met up with DJ and the boys and a few other kids that also go to school with us and he invited us to our own "personal" wine tasting! First we went to have dinner where we met Joseph Pino, the owner of the restaurant Salumeria Verdi. I had a patate e pesce (potato & fish) dish that had fresh tomatoes, basil, and peppers in it. It was sooo good! And Pino only charged me 4.30€ for the dish and a water ($5.75USD). Then he closed up his restaurant (mind you he opened it up for us specifically). Then took us down the street to his personally owned wine cellar, called Pozzo Divino. Pozzo meaning "well" and Divino referring to the wine God, "Divino" (literal translation=divine)...hence, Well of the Divine. He gave us a tour of his cellar and explained how he finally obtained his life dream of running and owning a wine cellar. So he sat us down in a den (all 18 of us) and started to explain to us the process and tradition of wine making and the different branches of rosso & blanco wine (red & white). We tried one white and three reds, all of which were quite different from each other (peach, black cherry, raspberry, grape).
After Pino's tasting we went out to a bar/club called Twice. Kara had rum and coke, Erin had mojitos (which was all alcohol with a shot of soda), Kelly had a rum and coke, Dana and Arod had mojitos I think? I had a good ol' Jack and coke. It was so much fun. We all laughed the whole time. Sooo many Italians and Americans in one little place. We started laughing about it tonight at dinner while reminiscing.
We fixed our first dinner. Dana made red pasta sauce with spices, mushrooms, and sausage in it. So good. We had broccoli, and a bruschetta that Kelly made. I made sweet tea (of course). It was really great to get us all together and actually "live" in our apartment. Before dinner the person above us was blaring Aerosmith and Metallica...so of course I was stoked!
I miss and love you all and wish you were here with me experiencing these amazing things!!!
Arrivederci!
