Hummus, Eggplant Parmigiana, Wine, & Pizza

Today, I had my Mediterranean Diet class where learned more about Italian diet. For example, a typical Italian diet is for breakfast: yogurt, fruit, and some sort of starch. Lunch is vegetables and pasta (lots of pasta!) and dinner is a protein and vegetables. We also studied The Traditional Healthy Mediterranean Diet Pyramid where Daily Physical Activity is at the bottom and biggest part of their food pyramid (they walk or bike everywhere!) Second biggest is bread, pasta, rice, couscous, polenta, and other whole grains and potatoes. They seriously eat it at every single meal. It is recommended that fruits, beans, legumes, nuts, vegetables, olive oil, cheese, and yogurt be consumed daily, 20-30% of their diet comes from fat. However, it is very uncommon to see an overweight Italian as they consume healthy fats. I mentioned cheese and yogurt both of which are dairy but I did not mention milk, because it is not typical in their diet. Even in the grocery stores, there is a very small milk section and it is sold in small containers. I have yet to drink any milk since being here. It is suggested that they consume fish, poultry, eggs, and sweets 2-3 times per week. At the very top of the pyramid is meat which is only to be consumed 1-2 times per month. The Daily Beverage Recommendations include 6 glasses of water and wine in moderation. After, just taking a nutrition class back in America, the Mediterranean Diet is very, very different but my body feels better than ever and I greatly enjoy eating lots and lots of pasta and pizza! For the cooking portion of the class, we made hummus and eggplant parmigiana. The food never fails to amaze me.

The afternoon was spent trying Sangiovese (The King of Tuscan Grapes) wines. Sangiovese is one of the most common Italian vines in central Italy. We tried three red wines today all of which included Sangiovese. The three types were 100% Sangiovese, Sangiovese & International Grape, and Sangiovese & Local Variety Grape. I would have to say that the Sangiovese with the local variety (Canaiolo & Colorino) was my favorite because of the fresh taste and persistent flavor.

While walking back Emily and I found an amazing supermarket where we picked up a pre-packaged pizza for dinner. The supermarket was huge and reminded me so much of home because there was actually pre-packaged chicken and a few other items that we had yet to see any of the other smaller markets. Also, the supermarket was filled with people all picking up food before heading home from work, I mean packed with people rushing around and the lines to check out were actually quite long. Although you have to bring your own bags and bag your own groceries. Oh, and our favorite part was the line at the bakery of people waiting for the fresh baguettes coming out of the oven so naturally we waited in line too and could not even wait till we got outside to have a bite of our hot and fresh baguette! We will definitely be making our way back to this supermarket again. Buona sera!

Blue Skies & Venice Carnival

We awoke at 6 am to Blue Skies and we were so excited because we were headed to the Venice Carnival in Venice. We met Fun For Florence (the tour group) at the train station which is a five minute walk from our apartment (seriously the only thing that our apartment is close to!) We finally boarded the buses after a very long wait and headed to Venice (far northeast of Florence). The bus ride was only supposed to take about 3 hours but ended up taking like 4 because of some construction. I started to doze off when Emily awoke me to check out the views. We were driving through the mountains.. The views were unbelievable and we even saw some mountains with snow, the pictures through the bus windows do not even begin to show how beautiful they actually were.

We finally arrived in Venice where we thn loaded on to a ferry boat for a 25 minute ride to Piazza San Marco- the heart of Venice and where all of the Carnival celebrations were taking place. We were very overwhelmed when we arrived into the Riva degli Schiavani port because there were thousands and thousands people swarming everywhere, snapping pictures of all the people dressed up in costumes. It was like the people in costumes were celeberties and the people taking the pictures (like us) were the paparazzi. At one point, a bunch of people dressed in costumes were sitting in a local caffe and swarms of people were surrounding the window looking in on them just to take pictures of them, like they were someone famous. I'll admit I crowded the window to take a few pictures myself but had to delete them because of the glare of the window.

The first thing on our to-do list was to buy a mask and that's exactly what we did. People everywhere were wearing them and they are sold everywhere in stores and at kiosks that line the streets. The masks are worn at the Carnevale but they are worn at other times as too because it permits the wearer a sort of secret identity and the ability to interact with members of society outside of their social class. The masks diminish the class differences that exist among members of society. Sometimes they are also worn for criminal activities or romantic encounters. The type of mask we bought was a Columbine which is a half mask decorated with gold, silver, crystals, and feathers.

For the remainder of the afternoon, we strolled though Piazza San Marco, admiring thesights and architectures. We also strolled through the streets and found the Ponte di Rialto which was the first and only bridge to cross the Grande Canal until the 19th century. We crossed over the bridge and which was packed with tourists flocking into and out of the shops and markets that line the bridge. And you guessed it... we treated ourselves to Gelato! It gets better and better every time. :) The day was beautiful and I'm so glad I went. Emily and I just kept talking about how we want to come back to Venice some year and dress up ourselves and have people take pictures of us all day. Later in the evening, we boarded the boat back to the main land and headed back to Florence on the bus. An exhausting day but definitely worth it and I reccomend it to anyone traveling to Italy during Carnival season.

Recap...

So, I haven't written in a few days but let me recap on Friday and Saturday a bit and then there will be a whole new post devoted to the Venice Carnival.

Well, Friday and Saturday... it rained all day so we mostly spent out time indoors just lounging around. Although we did make it to the market on Friday and that night we attempted and successfully accomplished homemade ravioli stuffed with ricotta and spinach. I didn't think we were capable of it because we had neither a pasta roller machine, a rolling pin, or measuring cups... but we improvised our hands, a beer bottle, and a glass for all of those things and were able to enjoy a homemade meal cooked by ourselves.

I proceeded to sleep for 12 hours because I still can't seem to kick this cold out of my system. The constant cold weather and rain are not helping very much either.

On Saturday though, I awoke feeling a bit better and we decided to go to Ganzo for brunch were we had a breakfast buffet and a meal consisting of eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. The rule there is that if you put it on your plate, you must eat it, but let me tell you I was not complaining although that is the fullest I have felt since being in Florence. We walked it off that day though while walking around the city (yes, I bought more chocolate at the chocolate festival!) Emily also dragged me into Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Dolce and Gabana. Although, I will never be able to buy anything in these designer stores, it was a god experience, and I had fun looking at all the expensive items, having the door opened for me, and being watched like a hawk. Just a single hair barrette at Louis Vuitton was 190 Euro just to give you an idea of how expensive everything was. I also bought a smaller purse because my other bag was just too big to carry around. It is not a bag I would typically buy but it is leather and it goes over the shoulder which is a major safety feature and why I bought it. It is really good quality leather.

Then that night, we decided to stay in (because we had to be up at 6am this next morning for the carnival). Emily and I booked our own weekend trip to Rome (this coming weekend). We booked the hostel/train tickets ourselves... I am so ready for what this adventure will bring. We also booked Nice and French Rivera and Munich, Germany for April through Euroadventures and Fun for Florence. I know I keep talking about all this fun and trips but I really do feel like I'm on a vacation although I know the school work will start piling on very soon. Needless to say it took us 5 hours to decide what to do and when to do it, so it was not an early night and didn't make it to bed until 2am and had to be up at 6 for the Venice Carnival!

Everything Chocolate: From Therapy to Pleasure

I am writing this the morning after.

Today was the awaited day of my Chocolate class and I thought it would be favorite class and it certainly was. We spent the entire class time learning about and tasting chocolate. We tasted about 10 different kinds of chocolate all created by Andrea Biancini (our teacher and world known champion for his chocolate) He is so funny and kept bragging about all the championship and kept telling us which of his chocolates won gold medals in the world. I must have a good sense of chocolate because the two chocolates that won gold medals and were also my favorites were the 40% milk chocolate with salt (who would have thought salt in chocolate would be good) but let me tell you.. it's amazing! You get the best of both worlds (salty & sweet!) I normally don't like dark chocolate but the 85% dark chocolate bar was my second favorite. It is the best class ever, because I am obsessed with chocolate and that's all we learn about and we are even going to make our own chocolate in class! Check out the website.. http://www.andreabianchini.net/

Next was Introduction to Cultural Italy class where the teacher showed up 15 minutes late because her bicycle was stolen! :( This class consists of 15 hours of lecture and 60 hours of field trip. Four field trips are included in this class which I am very excited about and basically the purpose of the class is to learn more about the culture of Italy and to create journals and reflect on our experiences.

Okay, more about chocolate... Did I mention there is a Chocolate Festival in Florence this weekend... it was absolutely amazing... the whole festival is ALL ABOUT CHOCOLATE. Emily and I decided to get strawberries dipped in chocolate along with a few other treats. We were trying to control ourselves but I'm sure we'll be going back again before the end of the weekend. You can check out my Facebook pictures to see all of the chocolate.

Even though I was wearing boots (not the smartest choice) we decided to cross the river and visit the Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a slight hike but you get to see an amazing panoramic view of Florence, unfortunately the pictures do not do the view the justice it deserves. There is also another fake David's Michelangelo statue up there but in bronze. I will definitely be going back there again a few more times.. hopefully for a sunrise and a sunset.

For dinner, we decided to just grab a quick bite to eat at Ganzo but there was a special event going on and luckily we got there when we did because we were able to make a reservation. It was a four course meal for only three vouchers. My favorite course was the homemade ravioli stuffed with rabbit.

Oh, and a few more things I have been meaning to mention is that I almost get run over every day. I swear that when a car sees you, they just speed up and try to hit you. Also, when walking on the sidewalk.. some of the vans and trucks get really close to you and I have almost been taken out by their mirrors. The buses also take very wide turns and when standing on a street corner, I almost get blown over every time. It is quite scary! Ciao for now.

Troubles

The picture is where my class was today. You would never know it was a school. Everything just blends together.

I walked to class with my umbrella today! Anddd... marketing class was a bit overwhelming today. He just talked for like two and half hours about so so so many different things. First he talked about his history, then we all had to introduce ourselves to the class when I suddenly realized I was placed into the wrong marketing class for my major but oh, well... maybe I'll learn something more if the marketing class is not directly related to hospitality. We had to then pick partners for our final project (which is worth 30% of our grade) and he kept telling us to pick "good" partners but really, how are you supposed to know if someone is "good" if you just met them. I ended up partnering with the girl next to me who is from Suffolk University in Boston and we have to create a marketing plan for something, a product/ a place/ really anything. Any suggestions on what we should market? He then continued to lecture us on traveling, trying to speak Italian, and integrating ourselves more with the Italians and to hang out less with the Americans.

Second trouble of the day is that it is impossible to watch American television in the United States. I know, I know.. I should not want to watch American tv while spending a semester in Italy but I want to keep up on some of my shows and it's nice to relax to the television before falling asleep and it reminds me of home. All the televisions here are in Italian obviously, although there is one movie theatre here that shows movies in English but only a couple nights a week and are shown much later than when they were released in America.

Third trouble of the day is that I really wish I knew more Italian. It is so difficult to communicate what you want/ need. I want to be able to speak with them and have them respect me. It is also difficult to judge how much English a person actually knows. Like today at the market, when the cashier said Four Euro, we were all confused because we were expecting him to say Quattro Euro. Then the restaurant that we went to for dinner, the tables were really close together and we were seated next to two Italian girls probably a bit older than us and Emily understood some of what they said, but basically they made a rude comment because we are American. I really want to try and fit in and feel less like a tourist but I feel like the way I am feeling right now, I feel like that may be impossible. I'm hoping things will get better soon.

Chocolate Class in the morning (which I am very excited for) and then Cultural Italy class and then it's the weekend already! I really hope it doesn't rain all weekend. Oh, did I mention there is a chocolate festival this weekend too! :)

Ohhh, Tuesdays

I am writing this on Wednesday morning (I didn't have time to write last night). On Tuesdays I do not have any classes so I'll probably use this day to catch up on sleep/ do homework/ sight see. Since I'm not exhausted or have much homework yet, I leisurely woke up and got ready and then met Emily after her class. We walked around the Saint Lorenzo market which is on the opposite side of the city from our apartment. The market is similar to Mercato Centrale (the market we normally go to on our side of the city). We then went to lunch at Ganzo which is a non-profit organization restaurant that is only open to Apicius (Hospitality School) and FUA (Florence University of the Arts) students. Through Endicott, we received 70 vouchers to use at the restaurant, it's kind of like a dining hall but not really because all the food is made to order, you order off the menu and the menu varies from lunch to dinner and then changes weekly. I had the lasagna which was really good and even better that we didn't have to pull out money to pay for it. Lunch is one voucher and dinner is two vouchers and they even serve brunch on Saturday mornings. We then walked and took lots of pictures and different piazzas throughtout the city. After that we went on the search for a gelato place that someone recommended to us because they make the gelato fresh everyday. Although, when we got there, we found out they were closed because they had just re-done the floors or something. Therefore, we never got gelato. :( It is really hard to get used to the opening/ closing schedules of all the different businesses because they all very different. Some close and some do not and others close on random days of the week, it is very different from the U.S. where all stores/ banks follow about the same schedule. We then proceeded to the other market on our side of the city where I bought a scarf and new gloves (because, yes... it is still freezing here) Everyone is getting sick because it's so cold all the time, I went back to the apartment and took a mini-nap with my jacket on. :( For dinner, we made green beans with caramelized walnuts and bruchetta which is supposed to be toasted bread with cheese and tomatoes but we made ours with toasted bread, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and fried onions (Emily's invention!) Then after dinner, a few of my roommates and I went out to Red Garter which is a club filled with mostly by American students on Tuesday nights because they host beer pong tournaments where the winners get prizes such as trips. I didn't play because the sign-up was full when we got there. Overall though, it was a really fun night! But now it's time for marketing class.

First Day of Class

This is the Gnocchi before we cooked it.
And this is after...

Today was the first day of classes at Apicius. My first class was at noon time, where I attended The Mediterranean Diet: A Guide to Healthy Living which is part lecture based on nutrition and part based on cooking. My teach is a head Italian chef with his first language as Italian and his second language as English so at times throughout the class, I became very confused but was able to piece most of what he was saying together. After the lecture, we cooked Gnocchi con salsa di peperoni which is like pasta with tomato sauce. The Gnocchi is made from mashed up potatoes, flour, parmesan cheese, and egg yolk. We kneaded it all together and then rolled it like into the shape of snake and then cut it into one inch diamond shapes. We then made the sauce by frying shallots, chives, capers, and red peppers. It was very tasty. I feel like I say that about everything here but everything here really is good and food is a big part of the Italian culture. All of the classes are 2 1/2 hours long so my next class was at 3 which was Tuscany and Its Wines. the course is designed to show you the outstanding richness of Tuscan wine typologies focusing particularly on the most important winegrowing areas in Tuscany. Again, the teacher was Italian with a second langauge of English so I was confused quite a bit throughout the duration of the class time. After 2 hours of lecture about how wines are made, how to read wine labels, and how to taste wine, we proceeded to taste 1 white wine, 1 rose wine, and 1 red wine. I would have to say that the white wine was my favorite because the other two were kind of dry. I am excited for this class because I have never had wine before but wine is everywhere in Italy and I feel that I will be able to embrace the culture that much more by understanding and learning about Tuscan wines. After class, I went to this MailBox store where I had to order my textbooks. A lot cheaper here than in the U.S. but it's not an actual textbook, it's like a photocopy of a textbook and spiralbounded. I arrived home around 6 and waited for Emily to get out of class, we then made pasta (heart-shaped pasta) with a tomato and sausage meat sauce and for dessert, Emily picked up another piece of Tiramisu at the store down the street :) Tomorrow, I don't have any classes so who knows where I'll end up!