Spring Break Part 2: Firenze

I had been to Florence twice before in my life. I went once between 10th grade and 11th grade with my family, and it was wonderful- everyone spoke English, we saw wonderful art, we were able to walk everywhere, we ate great food. Then I went back with my friends when I studied abroad in Perugia, Italy (about an hour and a half south), and I just wasn't very impressed. I didn't get to speak Italian there because it was too touristy, the quality of the food I ate wasn't as good as Perugia's, the gelato overpriced, the night life non-existant, and I felt like I had already seen all of the city and its artwork (don't get me wrong, the David, Duomo, Pitti Palace and all that are amazing and I could spend hours looking at them, but I wanted something new to look at, too). In comparison to Rome, which I have found to be tourist-friendly, very Italian, and novel everytime, Florence was too small, overpriced, and too touristy. Needless to say, I had low expectations for my Spring Break trip to Florence. I had no idea what was coming.

You may be wondering why I decided to go to Florence if I had such low expecations. Well, one of my best friends, Andrea (roommate from TCU), is studying there, and Devin has seven friends from Penn State studying there who let us crash in their apartment. Turns out, life in Florence is a million times better if you can get off the beaten path a little bit. The Penn State girls' apartment was literally right next to the Duomo.

View from the top of the Duomo- we stayed in the yellow building on the bottom left!

I don't care if you've seen the Duomo a billion times, with its white, green and rose facade and soaring dome, its stunning every time. It also happens to be right in the heart of Florence, and a two minute walk away from some of the best gelato in Florence at a place called GROM (weird name, great icecream).



After flying over what I'm pretty sure were the Italian Alps as well as the beautiful Tuscan countryside, we arrived at the Florence airport (Leonardo DaVinci) in the late afternoon. We did some wandering for a bit to figure out where the train was that would take us to Santa Maria Novella train station in the heart of Florence. Then we figured out that there wasn't one, and that we could either take a bus for 4euros to Santa Maria Novella or take that same bus to the train station that would take us to Santa Maria Novella. We did the first, and it worked out beautifully. Since I've been to Florence a few times, I knew the way from Santa Maria Novella to Il Duomo (look for the big red dome and walk towards it), where we were staying. The Penn State girls had two really cozy/homey apartments, one on top of the other. They were all really nice and excited to show us around that evening and give us a place to stay. The one drawback to their apartment was their internet connection, which was incredibly slow. After they left for Barcelona the next day, the speed got a little better, but not much. I couldn't believe they were paying (a fair amount) extra for it in addition to their program fees. Aah the beauty of a homestay in the 17th arrondissement!

That night the Penn State girls took us to dinner around 9:30pm at a pretty well-known Florentinian restaurant called Acqua al 2 (the 2 is pronounced doo-ay). I was really happy to go there because my friend Brittany, with whom I studied abroad in Perugia, had tried to get everyone to go there when we visited Florence during our study abroad time (sadly, almost everyone opted for what they thought would be a cheaper dinner, only to find out that we spent almost as much as they did for not very good food). I ordered the Assaggio di Primi (a sample of first course pasta dishes), meaning I got to have a decent helping of five different delicious pasta dishes like Maccheroni alla Vodka (pink sauce), Fusilli Cord agli Spinaci (incredible spinach sauce), something spicy, gnocchi, and something else that I don't remember at the moment. Every pasta that came out was delicious, and it was a really good way to not have to choose from the never-ending list of pastas. I also got the Assaggio di Dolci (a sample of desserts). Since we were there at the end of the night, they had run out of the panna cotta and the tiramisu, so I made sure they gave me extra big helpings of the flourless chocolate cake and (I think it was) the Italian cheesecake. Either way, I definitely got my money's worth, because I got heaping helpings of really tasty dolci fatti in casa (homemade desserts). This place was really well priced- 12euros for the Assaggio di Primi and I think 4.50euros for the Assaggio di Dolci- for being such a nice place. I didn't get any of the Secondi Piatti (what we call entrées in the US) because the pasta was enough, but apparently there is a really good blueberry steak, and I also tasted someone's balsamic steak that was perfect. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone going to Florence, or San Diego, for that matter, since they have opened up a restaurant in downtown San Diego (which I plan on going to).

It just so happens that Andrea lives literally across the street from Acqua al 2, so while we were waiting to sit down, I went and saw her and her place. I buzzed her apartment and she stuck her head out the 4th floor window and shouted "Ellie!!" and we ran up/down the stairs to meet each other. It was really nice to see the familiar face of a best friend from home. She was making dinner for herself, so she came and met us down in the basement of Acqua al 2 where we were eating after dinner. The Penn State girls had some place they wanted to take Devin, and Nikki went with them. I decided to go with Andrea because, aside from the fact that she's a good friend of mine, she is a lot more into Italian culture and language than the Penn State girls, and that's right up my alley.

Andrea took me to see a Beatles cover band that plays every Tuesday night at a club/lounge called Be Bop. It was definitely a student hang out, but there was such a mix of students there- Italian, American, Hispanic, etc. Andrea is Mexican, and she has made friends with a couple of girls from Colombia (I think), and all three are very good at Italian, so I heard a lot of Spanish and Italian that evening, which was fine by me. The cover band was, well, a cover band. We had fun dancing to a mix of Beatles songs as well as some Green Day and Rolling Stones, among others. At one point, a middle-aged American couple walked in. I think they were expecting to find a joint filled with people their age reminiscing about the good old days :) or something- they seemed a little out of place amongst a whole bunch of college students. But I was happy to see them decide to stick it out and actually really get into the music they had found. We heard some good ol' Revolution, Can't Buy Me Love, and Hey Jude, so I was happy.

Then Andrea and her friends and I went to this club called Full Up because we were supposed to meet my friends from Paris and the Penn State girls there. We didn't stay there all that long because I didn't want to stay up really late and be tired for the next day. So around 2am, we left Full Up and Andrea led our little group to a tiny side street. When we got to the alley (off of Via de' Neri, after some googling), absolutely nothing was happening or lit up, so Andrea thought she had taken a wrong turn. But a minute later, a few men on scooters pulled up and lifted a metal gate to reveal a little baking warehouse known as the "Secret Bakery": the bakery that gets started in the wee hours of the morning to make most of the pastries found in the bars and bakeries around Florence. With no counter, nor cash register, nor greeter, this was definitely not retail.

Andrea picking out our pastries at the "Secret Bakery"

The bakers barely addressed us, but they weren't mean at all. They just had a job to do. Andrea picked out a couple of chocolate croissants, we paid our 80-ish euro cents, and then we sat down on the curb to enjoy our treats. This was the warmest, most meltiest croissant I have ever had. Parisian pain au chocolat has a hard chocolate center, but the chocolate in this pastry was more like the consistancy of warm nutella. Aaah it was wonderful! After an American couple poked their heads out of their apartment and told us to pipe down, we went home to our respective (and very close) sleeping quarters. A great beginning.

Nikki, Devin and I woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We decided it was a perfect day to climb Il Duomo.

Brunelleschi's Duomo

But first, a walk around Florence and lunch were in order. We walked through the ever-extending market filled with leather jackets, purses, and wallets, as well as touristy trinkets and ceramics, all the way to Il Mercato Centrale, a building which houses a gigantic food market.

A pasta and wine (and other things) stand in Il Mercato Centrale

We had a lot of fun browsing through things, and Nikki made it her goal to leave Florence with a leather jacket. We headed over to a restaurant that the Penn State girls had recommended called Trattoria Zàzà, right near the Mercato Centrale. We sat on the covered patio in the sun (because at the time, it was a little cool, but by the end it was a little too warm), above which were strung colorful lights. I'm sure ZàZà is a really fun and colorful place to be at night. I ate a really delicious plate of tagliatelle al cinghiale (very wide and thin flat pasta with ground boar sausage) that I could go for at this very moment. Eat at this place, too.

Trattoria ZàZà for lunch

Next it was off to see the Duomo. Devin and I had both seen it before, but Nikki had never been to Italy before, so we decided to go in on the ground level and climb it. I had actually never entered the church on the ground level as far as I recall, so that was a new experience that I really liked (plus it was free, so why not?). Devin's shoulders, unfortunately, weren't covered, so she couldn't go enter the sanctuary. Nikki and I quickly looked around, and then we all got in line to start our ascent to the top of the dome.

Brunelleschi's Dome from a different perspective

On our way home we decided to stop for the first time at GROM for gelato. Although there was a line out the door, it didn't take long for us to get up to the counter so we could order our crema di GROM (cream with random chocolaty things mixed in- really good) with whatever other flavors we so desired. I got crema di GROM with bacio (hazelnut chocolate) and panna montata (whipped cream- but better than you can imagine). Then Andrea arrived. I got back in line with her and got another helping, but this time it was limone e fragola (lemon and strawberry). I got this combo a lot on hot days in Perugia, and this was all that small-town gelato flavor and maybe more. It was fantastic. Devin, Nikki and Andrea all tried it and subsequently got it during future visits to GROM. Lemon and strawberry just go so well together (in fact, my favorite Sonic drink is the Lemon Berry Cream Slush).

Interesting graffiti I saw between GROM and the apartment

Even more interesting graffiti

The Penn State girls left soon after we got back from GROM, so we had the apartment (and faster internet) to ourselves for the afternoon. After her classes were over for the day, Andrea came over to lead us on a walk up to the Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sunset. On our way, we passed by the beautiful Basilica di Santa Croce, where Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo and Rossini are buried.

La Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross)

Then we crossed il Ponte alle Grazie (the Bridge of Thanks) over the Arno river, just downstream from the Ponte Vecchio, so we had a wonderful view.

Il Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge)

Any good sunset viewing spot requires a little effort; we had a pretty good number of stairs to climb. But Andrea said that some people call what we did a "hike." I cannot agree with that, because it was really pleasant and really easy. Not like much of the hiking I've done in my life.

Climbing the stairs up to Piazza Michelangelo to watch the sun go down

No matter the level of difficulty (or lack thereof), the journey to Piazza Michelangelo was worth it. We arrived right as the sun began to light up the sky. It wasn't particularly crowded, either, but we did manage to bump into a fellow IES Paris student named Alex, a guy who was taking in Florence on his own for the evening before his girlfriend arrived from Rouen. We grabbed some plastic cups from the vendor nearby and passed around the bottle of chianti Andrea had brought. Sitting on steps above the city in (a reproduction of the) David's presence drinking chianti made me feel really Italian. I swear an Italian would sit on any step and drink wine all the time if he could. At least, that's what the Perugini do.

The beautiful sunset above Florence from the Piazza Michelangelo (pictures are never as good as the real thing- you should just go there yourself!)

After sunset, we walked back down the hill and crossed back over the river to go to dinner at a place that everyone called Il Gatto, but which I think is officially called Osteria del Gatto e la Volpe (The Cat and the Fox, like the ones in Pinocchio), on Via Ghibellina. Andrea had made reservations for us earlier in the day, but they weren't particularly necessary for this time of year. Our waiter was from somewhere like Kosovo (I can't really remember), but he had a nearly perfect American accent, and he was wearing a Boston Redsox hat. I thought he was part American at first. I asked him what his favorite pizza was and he said that it wasn't on the menu, but that he could probably get the kitchen to make it for me. I told him to do it, and he brought out a fabulous pizza covered in dry parma ham, arugala, mozzarella, and something else. It was exactly what I wanted, and I didn't even know it. He told us after dinner that he could have added chili peppers or something like that, which I would have gotten and I know Andrea would have wanted, but oh well. We had a great pizza. Although Il Gatto is a nice, pleasant, clean place, the prices there are almost ridiculousy cheap. They had a full size margarita pizza for 4euros, and they didn't mind people sharing. I paid a little more for mine- like 11euros- but it was worth it. I would definitely recommend this place.

My pizza, made especially for me courtesy of our waiter- sooo good!

On Thursday, we awoke to grey skies and imminent rain- we were so happy we had done the Duomo and the sunset at Piazza Michelangelo the day before. We went over to the Mercato Centrale to pick up lunch and some final souvenirs. Just outside the doors of the Mercato Centrale, Nikki found her ideal jacket at a stand in the Mercato San Lorenzo. We followed the vendor to the official store and I started chatting with him in Italian about Paris and Florence and all that. I think he was impressed with that. He proceeded to tell us that the jacket Nikki wanted was originally something outrageous, like 260euros or something, because it was "baby lamb skin" (apparently baby lamb skin is better than one year-old lamb skin?). But since Nikki was a student, he said he would lower it to 130euros. We were prepared to bargain. Nikki told the guy she had been in the same store the day before and had picked out an almost identical jacket that the guy was going to give her for 110 (which was all true), so we got the vendor to finally lower his price a little more. He wasn't too happy about it, but whatever. Nikki was :)

Then we went to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's Il Davide. The wait was about 15 minutes. Lines can be so unpredictable. One time I waited in that line for an hour and a half. If you go in the summer, make reservations. I think it's a few euros more, but just in case. After that we walked over to the Ponte Vecchio to actually walk across it and take in all the jewelry in the windows of the shops. Nikki and Devin went fairly quickly, but Andrea and I took our time and picked out our favorite piece of jewelry in every window. I loved not having to be anywhere, so I was happy to go at my own pace in the company of such a good friend.

The Ponte Vecchio during the (gray) day

We had thought about going to dinner that night at a place called Il Giostra that the Penn State girls had recommended to us. We walked by it to make reservations and look at their menu, but it was totally closed up. We had been told that it was a little pricier than Acqua al 2, so we didn't really want to go there without knowing what the menu was. Plus, this was our last meal of Spring Break, and we were all kind of low on funds, so we decided to go back to a place we knew and really really liked. I ordered the same Assagi, but they were different because the chef picks out new pastas every night. Definitely worth it.

During a break at the apartment that last full day, Devin had figured out that her flight (she booked it after Nikki and I did so it was supposed to leave a few hours before ours from Leonardo DaVinci) had been moved to the Pisa Airport. We were all really shocked at this- we had booked on AirFrance to avoid such (last minute) things. It meant that Devin had to catch a bus from Santa Maria Novella train station to get to Pisa, which is about an hour away from Florence. She made it fine, but I think this really stressed her out. I'm just really glad she checked when she did, or else she would have been toast. Nikki and my flight wasn't changed at all- we were still scheduled to leave from Leonardo DaVinci around 4pm. We found out when we got to the airport why everything was in disarray; there was a baggage handlers' strike that lasted until 4pm that day. We thought we had escaped the strikes by leaving France, but no! The Italians love to strike as well. What it meant for us was that we couldn't give our checked luggage to the people at the desk until 4pm exactly, so we had to just go sit somewhere outside of security with our bags for a couple of hours, and our flight was pushed back about half an hour. Not a big deal for us. But we sat next to a nice middle-aged couple from Birmingham (or somewhere like that), England, who were traveling with their elderly mothers. Because of their delayed flight, they had missed their connection in Zurich to get back that evening. They were going to have to either spend the night in Zurich (on the airline's bill, because European airlines don't fault customers for strikes) or pay a lot of extra money to connect through Amsterdam and get in ridiculously late. I felt sorry for them, but I loved how the man was just throwing these wonderful names of cities around like nothing. I mean, I'll connect through Atlanta or Pheonix or what have you, but those are American cities, not Zurich or Amsterdam. Crazy. Anyway, it all turned out fine, and Nikki and I got back to France safely.

Evidence of Lo Sciopero (the strike)

New experience on the plane: eating a tuna sandwich. I have never been a canned tuna fan at all. But for some reason or other, the ham sandwich didn't sound good- too dry or too hammy or something. I decided to go for the tuna with a glass of white wine, and I was very satisfied. I don't know if I'll ever be able to actually buy a can of tuna and eat it or anything (the smell overwhelms me), but at least I know I can eat it at a potluck or up at Taylor's grandparents' house. I'm growing every day here!

À bientôt, j'espère (Soon, I hope),
Ellie