I’ve finally decided something – I’m digging in. I’m going to stay in Florence for most weekends and enjoy the culture. Several people have told me I need to go to several places, but I realized today that I haven’t enjoyed Florence enough. I’ve yet to go into the Uffizi, the Museum of San Marco, the Accademia or the Duomo. I’ve lived here for almost six weeks now and I’ve yet to see what most consider the top four cultural gems of Florence. I’ve also noticed that I do worse academically after I am away for the weekend than when I’m here and studying (even if only for a short time). I had the same situation at TCU; after any retreats I helped with I usually bombed the tests on the following Mondays. So I’m going to dig in and enjoy my time here in my new city.

Know what else I’m digging in to? Food. Great food! I wrote about my first cooking class two weeks ago, but it’s only become better. We had another class this past Wednesday at the Culinary Institute. All of us left that class knowing we’d learned some treasures. First plate: Linguine al Limone. The lemon sauce melted in with the linguine was great. it was made from butter, parsley, parmesan cheese and lemon zest as well as some pine nuts. Then came the second plate, which was what I worked on: sweet peppers, tomatoes and eggplants cooked with stuffing inside of them. This stuffing had capers, anchovies, raisins, nuts, parsley and bread crumbs. You may say it sounds disgusting (that’s what I thought when I first heard it), but it didn’t disappoint. I don’t normally like half of the things on that list, but the combination brought out the best parts of all of them. After that we each got two different types of panna cotta, one with chocolate and one with berries. Panna cotta, for those who don’t know, is cream, sugar, jello all mixed together with vanilla bean.

I’m not going to keep adding adjectives to all of these descriptions because I’m not a poet. My phrase that I overuse but still applies to this is “it’s all good”.

Tonight, I did something even better than the cooking classes at the institute: private lessons at a student’s apartment. Michael, one of the institute’s student assistants, gives private lessons at his apartment on Saturdays. 10 euros and he teaches us to make all of the food and then we get to devour it. Plus, he does all of the shopping and has all of the equipment. I did the lessons with two girls from the San Francisco group also studying here and it was a blast. He takes lets us pick what we want to learn, so my request was lasagna. He didn’t teach me to make lasagna; it was so much better than any lasagna I’ve ever had. Earlier this week I wrote about the lasagna at my favorite restaurant, but this topped it … by far! We did everything in it from scratch (save for the pasta sheets for the noodles — but I know how to make those!). He taught us how to make the ragu (tomato sauce with veggies, meat and wine) and the bechamel, which is a cream sauce that takes away the need for internal cheese. You may be asking, “how can a lasagna be that good without cheese?” I guess you caught me, there are layers of parmesan cheese, but the cream sauce makes it a minor detail. We also made saltimbocca, which is chicken breasts with ham and sage in a butter and white wine sauce. Then he taught us his specialty (I’m kind of surprised he gave the secret out that willingly): molten lava cakes. These dark chocolate cakes are baked on the outside but have melted chocolate on the inside that comes pouring out when you cut into them. Plus, it’s topped with powdered sugar and is sitting on a layer of cocoa powder on the plate. I won’t put an adjective with those, since one of the girls came up with a better name: “Molten Miracles.” It’s probably not a good idea to demean miracles that much, but it was so good I’ll do it this once (and any other time I make them!). Digging into Florence – digging into my cooking. Who knew that digging could be so much fun?!?

I knew I shouldn’t have written that last entry; I just knew it. I had the fresh wind and now I have to deal with the fresh rain. What a night! After finishing our week of classes, Brett and I decided to go out for dinner. We went to my new favorite restaurant in Florence, Trattoria La Madia. Stephanie, a friend who studied here last Fall, recommended it to me and it has yet to disappoint. It’s tried but failed. I’ve been there three times now and the first time I had their Lasagna. It was phenomenal as Steph warned me. Each of the past two times I’ve gone with other friends from the TCU group and each time I’ve ordered both the Lasagna and the Pappa e Pomodoro, which is a tomato and bread soup. It’s been phenomenal each time, but each time they’ve also forgot to bring me the Lasagna. I can’t complain since the soup fills me up enough as it is; but still, the Lasagna is SO good!

So, at the end of our eating at La Madia, while Brett was in the bagno, the couple next to us started talking to me. They’re from Monterey, Mexico (their names are Juan Luis and Alma) and we talked about everything. Juan Luis, it turns out, went to undergrad at MIT and now works in the oil industry and their son is working on his MBA at Rice. When Brett came back we talked for at least 20 minutes more. Luckily for us their English was better than Brett’s Spanish, so the conversation was great!

After the dinner we met some of the TCU girls at a Jazz cafe. I’d seen this cafe with some of the other girls while walking around and it’s a pretty nice place. They went for the first time last Thursday night when I was getting ready for Venice and they loved it. Tonight, however, the combo performing was also recording, so we couldn’t really talk besides when they were on break. Nevertheless, the combo was great and the five songs that I heard were definitely recording-worthy. The trumpet player was using a mellophone most of the time, so it added a lot to the atmosphere of the club.

The poetic justice of the night happened on the way back. Brett and I were striking up a conversation and just as we reached our street, a street sweeper approached. It didn’t have it’s cleaning brushes on; but, it was flying by at a fast speed (meaning it was going to park for the night since the driver was done). At 12:30 at night the streets are abandoned of traffic, so it was dreaming of being a race car. Does anyone know the problem with street sweepers driving fast in an area after heavy rain? Yeah, that’s right, Brett and I got sprayed. It wasn’t just a slight soaking — my pants, the ones that I was proud were dry this afternoon, are soaking wet. It looks like I’ll have to do laundry again this weekend. Oh well, at least the rest of the night was splendid!

I started this week in a funk. Literally. One of the nice things about going so cheap and efficiently to Venice was that I took 1.5 outfits that fit in the bottom of my backpack. They were dirty by the end of the trip and I threw them in the wash right once I got back. The Italian laundry process is similar to the states, with the exception of not having dryers (besides the laundromat). Line drying takes longer but also leaves the clothes feeling fresh. That is, it does when it’s not raining and freezing outside.

On Sunday night I had to use our internal drying rack to throw my clothes on. I’d done this before in the semester, but never with two full loads of clothes after Brett had done some of his during the weekend. Our apartment was incredibly humid because of the showers, laundry and lack of ventilation, so it was taking two or three days to get the clothes to a point where I could wear them. I don’t mind a little dampness (or I should say didn’t), but after I set the clothes in my closet I got a little surprise this morning. They reeked. I’m not sure how it happened, but I think our apartment has a mold in it. Any clothes that are even mildly damp, if they stay damp for longer than two days, will acquire the stench. I rewashed the jeans, threw them into the dryer at the laundromat down the street and then threw my other clothes that smelled back out onto the line outside our window in the sunlight. That seems to have solved most of it.

I’ve also gained some momentum with my classes. I was in pain at the beginning of the week because my test in Italian last Thursday didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and we spent all of my Art History classes on Monday looking at the works of and reviewing the life of Donatello. The class was wonderful, but I’d taken in so much that I needed a way to take a break. Italian wasn’t going great until yesterday when several things started clicking. We’re in the fifth week and still haven’t made it to anything but the present tense, but I’m at least solidifying several things I didn’t think were important before. I also have found more time to study in the past couple of days than I have for the past couple of weeks.

Want to know what’s giving me my greatest sense of a “fresh wind?” I’m staying in town for this weekend and I have some friends from England who are coming to Florence at the end of next week. This’ll be the first weekend in the past three that I’ve been in Florence. I’m SO anxious (I’m going to read a lot of fun stuff and not strictly the class material)! Now to finish writing my Classical Rhetoric assignment …

Last night I wrote an article (with the rest of the TCU students) to the Daily Skiff, our university newspaper. Hopefully they’ll publish it! Here it is:

Headline: Thinking About Abroad
We arrived in Italy five weeks ago and only one of the eight TCU students had studied Italian. We placed ourselves in a different culture with a different language and all of us had different ideas of what we were expecting. We all had prepared differently as well: one of us had been planning this semester for 2.5 years before signing up while another had only decided two weeks before the deadline. All of us, however, took the plunge and decided to try something new.

Why should someone at TCU consider studying abroad? Some answers are obvious while others are hidden gems we discovered once we arrived. The classes are relevant to the surroundings: there’s nothing like studying Art History and looking at the actual work before your eyes. The culture is ripe for exchange: with everyone (not just those over 21) allowed to drink alcohol, interactions both with other American college students and the native Italians is guaranteed. Location is everything: all of Europe is within hours via plane or train.

Beyond all of these benefits, our experience is wonderful because our group didn’t know each other before we came. All of us are TCU students but we weren’t a group before this. We didn’t have the inside jokes that we’ll now have forever; we didn’t have the connections. More than anything we could have done to “expand our horizons” at TCU, Florence (and truly any of the study abroad programs) offered us the chance to take adventures and try something even better than Ft. Worth had to offer. Preparation can make the experience easier, but studying abroad planning doesn’t have to be elaborate to prove successful.

It happened; within 10 days I had my second technological casualty of my semester. This was much more serious, however. When I was getting onto the train from Venice to Florence I heard a crack and crash. I looked behind me and my camera had fallen out of my bag. I thought it was secure in my bag, but it definitely wasn’t.

For those who have seen me since I got the camera a little over a year ago, it’s almost always with me. Luckily, it seems this mishap only broke my lens that I had on it. When I picked it up, I noticed the slight abrasion (can I use that word since the camera doesn’t have skin?) on the lower right hand corner. Then I heard the lens. When I got inside the train I found a bag near my seat and took the lens cover off. The glass came raining out into the bag. From what I can tell, the glass is only from a UV filter I had on the lens. I was hopeful at first that the lens was saved, but when I took it off of my camera and tried rotating it to see if the zoom still worked, it wouldn’t budge. I put one of my other lenses on my camera and then tried rotating it some more. It moved this time, but not how it was supposed to — and I heard little crunches whenever I tried.

The good side to the story (if there is one) is that this is the cheapest lens I have and it wasn’t my nice wide-angle or my great telephoto-zoom one. I’ll have to see about whether I should order another one and have it shipped here or just to wait and get one when I get back to the states. Either way, my other two lenses should get me by for a while (there’s only the 35-75mm range that I missing).

Just a warning: I was adventurous this weekend.

Trains
What’s sad is that I’d never been on a train before this weekend. I’ve been on over 100 airplane flights, but have never done trains. I’ve been missing out! Granted, Europe’s train system is much more efficient (from what I hear) than Amtrack, but still, the views are a lot better in a train than on a plane. There are trees passing by, vineyards with mist floating out of them, sunlight breaking through the clouds and illuminating that mist (that one was from my return train ride). In the plane all that I usually see is a map down below and blue sky off to the side. Riding the rails was a great first for the weekend.

Venice
Yeah, I know, this is an obvious first. When I started telling people that I was going to be in Italy for a semester I would often hear, “oh, wait until Venice.” People described it as lovers’ paradise. People described it as majestic and grand. They were right. It was all of that. Traveling to Venice alone, though, loses a lot of the splendor. Don’t get me wrong, it was great and I want to go back at least once in my life; but, after Rome and Florence, Venice loses much of its appeal besides being a great place for tourists.

Trip Alone Abroad
This was the first trip I’ve ever done solo in a different country. I’m used to flying alone and traveling alone in the US, but it has never been abroad before. Even on my flights coming over here I was with another girl from TCU. All of my other excursions since I’ve been here have been with full groups. This was just me; it had its ups and downs, but I at least know I can do it now!

Traveling Awake in Italy
Something very sad is that I’ve missed my chances for views of much of the Italian countryside. Whenever I’ve traveled in Italy so far I’ve been asleep. Even during both of my Italian flights over here I was sleeping. I redeemed myself by staying awake for the full trip for the first time this morning. The views were great and the experience I described above with the mists and the sun in the vineyards: 20 minutes west of Padua in northern Italy — serene!

Hostels (somewhat)
I’ve never been in hostels before. I still kind of haven’t. The place I stayed at this weekend was a camping village. I only paid 12.50 per night, so going there I wasn’t sure if it’d be an actual hostel or something else. It was definitely something else.

There are so many things that church camp prepared me for in life and this was one of them. I’ve camped and counseled kids in the middle of the woods. I don’t have a problem sleeping on cots and beds in tents. That was the saving grace for the weekend. I’d thought enough before going to back everything in one bag (my Burton red school bag) and had thrown in a pair of my sheets-in-a-bag before I left. When I got there they had sheets and all of that for a bed, so I put mine in between theirs and figured that it’d work. I made sure, being the camp counselor that I am, to get rid of any food I had in my bag. I have no idea what type of wildlife the mainland beside Venice, but I didn’t want to find out in the middle of the night in my tent. So for the first night I bunkered down and braved the cold weather (I think it was in the low 50s F).

The one thing I didn’t plan on before going to sleep was how much heat my head would lose. Hair keeps so much of it in. I don’t have hair. I was cold. Sometime soon I’m going to need to find a great comfortable stocking cap that I can wear. The second night I put a t-shirt over my head and it worked wonderfully; actually, I think it was some of the best sleep I’ve had since arriving in Italy. The first night I’d woken up at 3:50am since I’d gone to sleep at 8:30 (there wasn’t any more light out) and my body thought it was time to start the day. The second day I was so warm that my body knew immediately when I woke up in the middle of the night where it was supposed to be. So, in all of that, I’ve kind of had a hostel experience, but then again, not really.

For the entire weekend, I made out pretty well:
Train: 53.20
Lodging: 25
Food: 26.50
Museum Fees: 19.50
Ferry Ticket: 10.50
Total: 134.70

I started today deciding not to repeat yesterday: if I couldn’t find something without looking at a map, then I’d wait until later to explore and find it. So without using a map where did I get to? The Basilica di San Marco. I’d heard it was pretty, but that doesn’t begin to describe it. When I got inside I looked up and the entire ceiling was golden mosaics. The ENTIRE thing. I decided to do a bunch of the mini-tours once I got inside and they were pretty cool too. When I explored the treasure room I used one of the audio-headsets they had. The only thought that struck me, besides how amazing some of the stone chalices were, was that most of the treasures were stolen from the Orthodox church when Constantinople was conquered in the Fourth Crusade, and yet the Venetians still get SO much money just for charging people to see them. If they’re not going to give the treasures back, which is obvious, then why don’t they do something for ecumenical relations and not keep charging people so much to see something they stole? Or better yet, donate the proceeds for a certain time period back to the churches they stole them from. I know, historically some would say it’s not stealing; but it is!

After I toured the ground floor of the Basilica, I went up top to the Loggia dei Cavalli, which has the life-sized (if not bigger) bronze sculptures of the four horses. There I also got to see over the crowds and pigeons in the Piazza and also look at the mosaics at eye-level.

Rivaling the art as the best things I saw during the day was an ingenious man walking across the Piazza San Marco. The Piazza is famous for having more pigeons than people. This man, however, had a force-field the radius of a leash around him from all of the pigeons. He would let his dog have a field-day and no matter where he walked there was this circle of pavement without the dirty birds. It was so impressive!

I spend the first half of the afternoon in the Gallerie dell’ Accademia. Since I didn’t have a tour guide showing me around, I did one of the audio headset tours. Among my favorites were the Tintaretto Room (VI) which had his huge pieces of work inside an even bigger room. Trying to imitate some of the original viewing atmospheres, some of his pieces were placed up high, which added to the effect. I also loved Bellini’s Madonna con Bambino tra le Sante Caterina e Maddalena. The shadows he painted were so deep. Inside of this room was also a couple in their late 50s kissing a lot. It was kind of sweet and funny at the same time.

For the rest of the afternoon I went to Maria della Salute, where I listened to the Organ Vespers. There were stringed instruments with the organ, I think a violin and cello, and it was so calming. All of the frustration I’d had from the weekend melted away (the inside of the church was kind of warm too) and the sounds filled my ears. There aren’t many ways I can describe it without being cliche. Maybe it was a cliche experience; it was so re-centering and peaceful though.

Before coming back to the campgrounds I found out that I was wrong about yesterday: one can get around Venice without having to walk on water or take a gondola. There was a large connecting path that went from the back side of Maria della Salute around the canal. It was a nice, sunny walk — just what I needed. The thing I’d been noticing all day and fully realized when walking that path, though, is that Venice is a city for lovers. I think I passed almost two-dozen couples in the short distance and two of them were heavily making out in the alleys. It wasn’t completely unexpected, since that’s part of what Venice is famous for, but it definitely stood out since for a time that was all I was seeing.

When I got back to the center, I had dinner on the canal, reading for my Classical Rhetoric course, and enjoyed the warm afternoon sun glow on the city. I wish I could have stayed to see the city when it’s lit at night, but that’ll have to be another time I guess.