Assorted Adventures in April

The first week of April (along with the last two weeks of March) was full of exciting little trips within and outside of Florence. The flurry of activities is probably best described in photo journal format, but I’ll insert some commentary and captions.

Immediately following Lara’s departure, I set out on a day trip with Drew and Nicole to the nearby town of San Gimignano. We took a train to the nearby town of Poggibonsi, where we waited about an hour for a bus to continue on our journey. Luckily, vicino al (right near) the train/bus station in Poggibonsi, there was a café which offers 32 different gusti (flavors) of hot chocolate. I chose the banana hot chocolate, which was quite syrupy and rather delicious and flavorful. As soon as we arrived in San Gimignano, we headed for the highest point where we could look out at the hills in the distance. At this point, my camera tragically died. Drew and Nicole did take some good pictures, and I’ve selected a few for this post, below. We spent the rather chilly afternoon walking around the small, extremely low-key town and looking out at the incredible views. We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant “off the beaten path” and had an authentic Italian experienced devoid of any English conversation ordering and consuming our pasta dishes. After walking along the city walls, Drew and I climbed up a tower. San Gimignano is a nice place to visit, but hardly a terribly exciting one, and it was an especially cold day. Regardless, we had a nice trip back, during which time I stopped once again at the 32 gusti hot chocolate place and once again ordered the banana hot chocolate. This time it was hardly as syrupy but still just as good, despite the fact that I burnt my mouth quite a bit in my excitement to drink it. The day wasn’t over once we got back to Florence. We joined forces with David, Ellie, and visiting NYU student Mitch and headed to check out House of Sizzle, a restaurant recommended by Florence for Fun along with that delicious Angels American Brunch I love so much. Feeling hungry and seeking a large amount of food, I bravely ordered the 700-gram steak (priced per 100 grams, 700 gram minimum). It was quite large, and also pretty good. Drew did help me out with 100 grams of it so that I didn’t eat my body weight in steak. That weekend day was a good instance of a packed day full of new experiences without the necessity of traveling far away and staying anywhere overnight.

32 gusti di cioccolato caldo! Gusto di banane!

A shot from a high point in San Gimignano

Another shot from a high point in San Gimignano

One more shot from a high point in San Gimignano

Talking with Drew; hills in the background

Drew and me exploring a tower!

700 grams of steak!!

The following Thursday, I took part in two first-time experiences (that I have yet to repeat) in Florence. The OSL (Office of Student Life) organized a trip to go bowling at a (or rather, the) nearby alley. I took the bus for the first, and still as of now only, time. It was a fine experience, and after taking buses in a number of countries and cities this semester, I’m not actually as against them as I originally purported to be. The main thing for me is that I tend to get very bad headaches when I’m on buses, but I think that’s mostly relegated to stop-and-go city driving. Something to note about Italian, and for that matter European buses, is that you carry a ticket which you have to validate in order to show proof of payment for the specified ride. Most people I know who take the bus to campus daily carry around unvalidated tickets and risk 50 euro fines in order to avoid paying the 1,20 euro ticket price. I haven’t had to deal with this yet, since all of my bus and train experiences thus far have been properly validated (save for a train to Pisa, but I quickly validated mid-trip once I realized). The bowling alley itself, approximately a half hour ride away, was very much like an American bowling alley, and interestingly, cheaper than usual. 5 euro covers a game and shoe rental. The game was a lot of fun, and though I started out quite poorly, I was the first to manage a strike in my lane, and managed another strike and two spares before the end of the game. I ended up coming in second place, behind Laura’s impressive streak, which included the “turkey” of three strikes in a row. Banana gelato was also sold and consumed by me at the bowling alley, and its great taste went against the rule I’ve often heard about yellow banana gelato being far inferior to the whiter mixes. All in all, it was a good experience I wouldn’t have expected to have in Italy.

Validating my ticket on the bus for the first (and only) time!

Me, Nicole, and Laura at the bowling alley

Alicia, me, and Nicole

Bowling
Due to my attempts to catch up with my blog after falling behind, the weekend at this point in the timeline was my trip to Venice. The next weekend I opted to stay in Florence for a few days before the following two weeks of intense inter-country travel (more on that in the next blog post). Drew, Nicole, and I divided each day into different day trips. Friday we went to Arezzo, a small town about an hour away from Florence. It’s famous as actor-director Roberto Benigni’s hometown and the setting for many of the scenes in Life is Beautiful, as well as bronze statues of the mythical chimera composed of body parts of three different animals. It was a calm day where we walked through the town and took lots of pictures, and had a nice and shockingly inexpensive meal (my veal was quite scrumptious). The best part of the day was our authentic Italian experience with a woman at an antique shop who spoke no English and interacted with us completely in Italian. The conversation was fully effective, and I think that’s one of my favorite things about being in Italy. It’s nice to speak the language, and it’s even better when people actually speak it back to you.

Arezzo

View from Arezzo

Another view from Arezzo

The famed Chimera

Nicole and Me

Saturday our plans to go to Bologna were foiled by unpromising weather reports of heavy rain. Drew and Nicole actually stopped in Bologna on the way back from Venice the week before, only to find their visit dampened, quite literally, by inclement weather. We wasted no time in finding alternative plans, permitting several extra hours of sleep in the morning before beginning our day in Florence. Since I’ve been here the whole semester and still haven’t done some of the requisite touristy activities, I decided it might be good to visit the Accademia. Our handy Amici dei Musei (friends of museums) cards allowed us to skip the incredibly long line for the gallery and waltz right in (for free!) as if we had a reservation. We looked around at the paintings and of course stopped to see the famed David sculpture. Lara, in her visit several weeks earlier, was brave enough to sneak a few pictures, but as a straight-arrow rule-follower, I declined to do so. It was quite a sight though, and as many say, it’s much bigger than you might expect. Before and after the Accademia, we sought out cinnamon gelato, in the morning for Nicole and in the afternoon for Drew. In the evening, we dined at Amor del Vino, the fantastic restaurant in San Lorenzo that Lara and I had found a few weeks earlier. Most of the recent weekends I’ve spent traveling outside of Florence, but it’s clear that Florence does have a fair amount of activities to offer, and there are still things are have yet to do in this city.

Sunday morning, I made an enormous effort to eat at my beloved Angels American Brunch, and even managed to encourage Nicole to join me after I had already sat down. After a perfectly satisfying French toast meal, I met up with Laura and Nicole. We had planned out a two-and-a-half hour trip to Siena, coordinated with respect to hourly train times. The train part was easy, but once we got to Siena, we wandered uphill through a deserted town for a good forty-five minutes until we saw any hint of civilization. In Siena’s defense, it was Sunday, and Palm Sunday at that, and therefore most of the residents were in church when we arrived around 3pm. Once we found people, we found a lot of people. We walked through the streets and located the Duomo, where we went inside and took a look around. After that, we got gelato and made our way to the central piazza where we sat for a bit. I got my token melon and banana flavors, and decided to be adventurous and sample the albicocca (apricot) gelato. It wasn’t for me – far too strong, but Laura and Nicole liked it quite a bit. We took the “short way” back to the train station after our brief visit, and made it just in time for our train back to Florence. It was perfect for me, because I was able to go to La Ghiotta, the very inexpensive but terrific restaurant where I go every Sunday night. I’m proud to report that this past Sunday, the waiter was able to recall what I ordered before I even said a word. I’m making a mark on Italy. It’s great. Photos from Siena, the Duomo and the main piazza:






Since then, I’ve made it to two entirely different countries, but I’ll have to save that for future posts. I’m coming home in less than two weeks, so I’ll need to really get my act together and post about those in the coming week. I’m also headed to the Amalfi Coast for my last out-of-Florence weekend adventure. Several more blog posts coming, so check back frequently!

In other exciting news, I had another Florence first – I went to go see a movie! The Odeon theatre shows movies in English on some Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. I went to go see The International with Clive Owen, which was dismally terrible. The Italian movie-going experience was interesting in that my 5 euro popcorn was great, the seats were comfortable, and the intermission at an exact moment right in the middle of a scene was abrupt but not an awful idea, in my opinion. My first “Movie with Abe” in Italy was quite successful, with five attendees plus myself, including Laura Krule, Nicole Haslett, Nicole Reddick, Drew, and Blair. Laura filmed a Minute with Abe outside the theatre, but tragically realized that she filmed it vertically rather than horizontally and it won’t be easily possible to rotate (if anyone knows how, let me know!). That Minute with Abe will become a lost artifact in time – maybe you’ll be able to buy it from eBay someday! I have two movies I’d like to try to see in the coming week, and once I’m back in the United States and finished with this blog, I’ll be returning to updating my movie and TV blogs regularly. I’m sure I’ll also have a lot of movies in the U.S. to catch up on!

For the moment though, I have less than two weeks left in Italy, and I’ll try to fit a lot in while updating you on my recent travels! Now is the time if you have any restaurant recommendations, and I’ll try to make it everywhere I can!

Celebrating belated March birthdays with cake: Laura, me, Ellie, and Zandi

Weekend in Venice

My plans for the last weekend in March actually came together at the last minute. I had planned initially to go down to the Amalfi Coast, but a lack of detailed scheduling led to the decision to go to Venice instead. I traveled with Laura Krule, and we left early on Friday morning to get in as much as possible on the first day. The weather when we got there was terrific, and we dropped our bags off at the new branch of the Leonardo Hotel, where we were staying. We made a quick trip to the Jewish ghetto in order to get some food before setting out for the afternoon. In order to maximize our trip, we opted to save the museums for Sunday and explore the neighboring islands on Friday. We took the very awesome water bus to Murano, where we got to see glass being blown, which was incredibly cool. Our next stop was Burano, where all the houses are different colors. It’s quite a sight. Here a few photos to recap the exciting experience:

Laura

Me

Glass-blowing

More glass-blowing

It turned into a horse!

A second glass-blowing location

Burano

Burano again

Can you find me?

Orange!

Burano on the water
Friday evening we headed to the Jewish ghetto for services. They were very similar to the services in Florence, though the much smaller space was considerably more crowded and densely packed. Dinner was quite an experience. The local Chabad, who pray in their own space right across the ghetto from the synagogue, take over the kosher restaurant, GamGam, and offer a free Shabbat dinner for everyone and anyone who walks in. The restaurant was completely full and packed with people. Laura and I encountered a number of familiar faces and realized we were hardly the only NYU in Florence students visiting Venice that weekend. Leora was traveling with her sister Maya and her friend Tzippy, and there was an entirely different crew composed of Shayna, Jenn, Blair, and Esther. When we were being seated, I was separated from all of the NYU people because they wanted to sit males and females apart. As a result, I ended up outside sitting with all the Yeshiva boys stopping in Italy on their way home from Israel for their Passover break. It was pretty incredible sitting out on the water, especially with the energy of all the Yeshiva boys. There was so much singing and dancing around, and it was quite incredible. People actually had a hard time getting by us on the street. The food was great and eventually I meandered back inside to join with the girls, and scored some iced gelato dessert. We heard rumors that Piazza San Marco, one of the main squares in Venice, was flooded and that it was a sight worth seeing. After some encouragement and enthusiasm from certain members among our crew, we (Laura, Leora, Maya, and Tzippy) decided to head down there. It was rather cool, because they put down tables for people to walk on.

Saturday morning we got up and caught the tail end of services at the synagogue. As soon as services were over, we followed the rabbi over to the Kiddush, which was extremely lavish and entirely delicious. Laura and I ate lots of food and enjoyed all of it. The best part of the Kiddush was the rabbi leading Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals). This is a clearly respected man with a thick white beard who looks a bit like a wizard pouring all of his energy and spirituality into singing and leading the community. It was a very moving experience. Now after having eaten all of this food, we returned to GamGam for the actual lunch served by the Chabad. I managed to get a seat inside this time with all my female friends, and we met this British guy named Andrew who was finishing up three-month-long internship at the Guggenheim in Venice. We went walking with Leora, Maya, and Tzippy after lunch and ran into Andrew on the way. He showed us around and took us on a nice walk along the water. It was overcast but the weather held up for that day. After a nice, long, refreshing walk, we returned to the synagogue for afternoon services, followed once again by a lavish and more-than-filling amount of food. Once Shabbat was over, we headed back to the hotel and planned an early evening, in anticipation of daylight savings time and an early start the next day. We went to GamGam for dinner, and I had a wonderfully delicious steak.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the Doge’s Palace. We beat the lines and got in very quickly. This was the first time since my trip in January to Rome that I used my International Student Identity Card, but it got me a great discount that whole day. We opted for an audio guide (highly NOT recommended) and even got the experience of an angry Italian woman cursing at us when we requested our money back since the sound quality of the guide we had picked up only five minutes earlier was rather dismal. We walked through every room of the palace, and then proceeded to Venice’s other museum sights. At this point, it started to rain quite a bit, but we walked regardless through the streets of Venice. Our next stop was the Guggenheim of Venice, which I thought was really cool. I’ve seen a lot of paintings this semester, and this was a chance to see some more modern art which I found much more engaging. The last stop on our whirlwind tour was the Accademia, which we waited on line for half an hour to enter. For some odd reason, the cashier thought that we were entitled to free entry rather even than the EU student discount we didn’t think we’d get. The Accademia wasn’t nearly as exciting as we had hoped, and we covered the twenty-plus rooms in under an hour. On our way back to the area of the Jewish ghetto, we took a water bus and stopped at the Rialto for a quick photo. The water bus in the rain was pretty incredible, and I tried to get a few pictures to capture the experience.



Laura

The tables they put down in San Marco, minus the flooding




Back in the Jewish ghetto, we went to one of the two bakeries, where Laura stopped to get some pizza. The owner of the bakery was impressed when I spoke to him in Italian, and he directed us to the kosher gelato that had long eluded Laura. We found the gelato place and Laura was beyond excited. She was fully satisfied with her long-desired ice cream. We had some time before our train and I was happy to discover that I could go back to GamGam for another steak, which was equally excellent to the steak of the night before. My dining experience there was conducted completely in Italian, which was a lot of fun. That was our last activity in Venice, and we made our way quickly afterwards to the train station. I really enjoyed Venice, and I think that it is certainly one of my favorite places in Italy, alongside Rome and Cinque Terre. The city-on-water notion is quite unique, and on top of that, it’s also a beautiful city.

Lara's Adventures in Florence

Note: This entry includes additional reporting from Lara, in bold.

A few short weeks ago, Lara came to visit! She arrived on a Friday morning and our afternoon was spent taking a pleasant, explorative stroll through Florence. Friday evening we went to the synagogue for services and to Chabad for dinner. It was all very nice and exciting, but the fun really got started on Saturday morning. We got up to head to Cinque Terre, five lovely towns on the coast of Italy. When our train went through a tunnel right before we arrived, Lara and I both gasped in amazement when we saw the view. Photographs don’t quite do it justice, but here are two attempts at capturing its beauty:




There are trails in between each of the towns where you can hike for five or six hours. The path in between the second and third towns is currently closed due to a landslide, but there is a train that operates in between all of the towns. We decided it would be nice to take a relaxed approach to the day, and therefore to get in as much as we could without rushing to finish it all. Our first stop was in the town of Riomaggiore, where we walked through the pleasant and serenely peaceful town. We sat down for a wonderful lunch and ordered the unpronounceable but scrumptious local raisin wine, the sciachetrà, which I recommend highly (and I’m not a wine lover at all). After purchasing some strawberries and grapes for a potential picnic, we began walking on the trail to the second town, Vernazza, which was supposed to take about 25 minutes. The path is literally right on the coast, and it’s so wonderfully pleasant and amazing. We actually stopped about two minutes in to go down on the rocks towards the water and just lie down for an hour or so. It was completely and entirely relaxing. Our picnic occurred at this point, which was perfect. Once we started up again, we got a little further along and stopped at the rest area to get an ice cream sandwich (Lara) and an almond cake (me). After we finished our little snack, we made it to the second town, which we explored until the train for the third town came. Lara had her first gelato in Italy, and I found some good gelato. The third town was fairly abandoned, but this is really the most stress-free place on earth. We purchased some raisin wine to bring back to Florence. For any who are in or ever plan to visit Italy, make sure you stop at Cinque Terre. It’s simply incredible.





Sunday morning we got up and went to Angels American Brunch, the fantastic place which Lara found online a month or two ago. My friends from Italian class, Drew and Caitlin, were both there waiting for us even though we hadn’t made official plans – they were just ready for a weekly standing brunch appointment at noon. My main course of French toast was accompanied by the massive buffet of muffins, yogurt, fruit salad, and milk. Quite delicious! We spent the afternoon apart while I was catching up on work, but reunited for another meal. For dinner, we went to Caffe Italiano, the excellent pizza place my roommate Dan introduced me too. We arrived five minutes before it opened for the evening, which was really cool since there was already a line outside the door. The moment it opened, everyone rushed in and we just sat down at a table. The waiter hadn’t yet arrived, so the pizza chef took our order before sitting down to start making pizzas. It was a very fun, truly Italian experience. We also ordered completely in Italian, since the chef does not in fact speak English. Another terrific restaurant that I highly recommend for those visiting Florence.

As Abe caught up on work, I had a fabulous afternoon exploring the streets of Florence. Not only was the entire area poetically luminous, but the people were also of the ‘classic Italian’ variety. Everyone walked around, exchanging excessive hugs and kisses and engaging in wild hand gestures. I spoke to and befriended many individuals in the street, including an Italian merchant in Piazza San Lorenzo named Stefano who, after a long conversation and a friendly hug, sold me a leather jacket for a mere 5 euros!

The next few days I was in class, so the bulk of our activities together took place in the evening. Monday afternoon, we went for a pleasant stroll over the Ponte Vecchio, getting slightly lost purposely and ending up ultimately at Acqua al Due, yet another superb restaurant in Florence. We began with some red wine and first courses of pasta, farfalle ai funghi porcini (bow tie pasta with mushrooms) for Lara and maccheroni alla vodka for me. Our main courses were the signature steak dishes, blueberry and balsamic. Somehow, we even managed room for dessert. This was my second time at Acqua al Due and I do hope to go back at least once more before I depart this country.

Each morning, I would take a stroll to the river and sit in the middle of Ponte Vecchio for 15 minutes before starting my day. My activities varied. One day brought art galleries and walking tours. Another brought lunches with family friends. My favorite ‘solo afternoon moment’ was most probably listening to a classical guitarist in the vicinity of the Ufizzi play songs that my mom plays at home on the piano.

Tuesday night we went to Chabad for the student dinner, where a number of other visiting NYU students on spring break joined us. The later evening was spent with some non-food activities, beginning with some relaxing at the NYU dorm Ricasoli and ending with Bebop, a Florentine club with a Beatles cover band. Wednesday night, we went on the search for Trattoria da Benvenuto, a restaurant my parents ate at when they were in Florence 23 years ago and where they say they had the best meat of their lives. We located it by chance on our walk (we were of course looking for it, but we just happened to come upon it, which was convenient). We ordered the veal steak and the veal chop, and both were quite good. The place was small but had a very nice aura. After dinner, we went looking for gelato, and on our travels ended up near the Palazzo Vecchio, where there was a singer performing Simon and Garfunkel songs. Once we found gelato, we sat down on a bench in Piazza Reppublica and just enjoyed the scenery and energy. Our last stop that night was The Jazz Club, which is exactly what its name suggests. It’s located only two blocks from my apartment and several fellow residents perform there regularly. Yet another fun experience.

Thursday, Lara came up to NYU’s campus and explored the gardens. After a lunch where Lara encountered the many people she knew from home and met here, we walked down Via Bolognese back towards the center of Florence. We came across a lovely park where we spent some of the afternoon until rain threatened to pour down on us. We thought we’d be adventurous that evening and try to locate the intersection of Inferno and Purgatory, two streets in Florence, where we had heard there was a really good restaurant. There were two options once we arrived, one of which had Mediterranean food, so we opted for the other. It was a truly Italian experience, which wasn’t quite as exciting as perhaps we had expected. We decided on some veal entrée, but were told that we could only order what was being made that day. We chose the roast veal, which was immediately served to us. It consisted of five relatively flavorless thin slices of veal which clearly were not great. We finished quickly because there was barely any food. We left soon after, and the disappointing, over-priced experience was made not as bad due since they forgot to charge us for the wine. In order to save the night, we wandered back a different way and returned to Piazza Reppublica and that singer near the Palazzo Vecchio. Once we made it back to San Lorenzo, where Lara was staying, we went out for a second dinner. I had heard a lot about Zaza, which is right near the Mercato Centrale. The ravioli Lara got and my tagliatelle ai funghi porcini were pretty good, but I don’t think it’s the best restaurant in that square (I’ll get to that in a moment). Overall, it was a successful night and the second dinner also consisted of some pretty terrific dessert.

Near the Ponte Vecchio

At Bebop

NYU’s campus in at La Pietra is truly magnificent. Not only is there a grand villa, but they have their own olive groves and a landscaped sculpture garden! While Abe was in class, I was given a lovely tour by Laura Krule. I can’t imagine how any of the students there manage to get work done amidst such beauty.

For Lara’s last day in Florence, we had originally planned to go to the Boboli gardens for a nice picnic. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t hold up. Regardless, we went to the Mercato Centrale and found the elusive second floor where the fruits and vegetables are sold. We bought some rock-hard bread, cheese, tomatoes, kiwis, and dried fruit, including apricots, strawberries, mango, and three different types of raisins. Since the weather wasn’t what we had hoped, we used Lara’s hotel room as a base for our picnic. I got my first real taste of the San Lorenzo market as Lara purchased souvenirs for friends from home. Hotel Giada is in a perfect location, so close to the San Lorenzo market and the Mercato Centrale. Check it out if you’re coming to Florence! Lara’s trip was concluded with our return to Amor del Vino, the restaurant in the Mercato Centrale where he had dined previously following our return from Cinque Terre. On Saturday night, we ate outside in the tent area, and Friday night we ate inside in the very nice indoor room. Both were equally lovely. Lara tried two ravioli dishes, both of which were great, and I had a delicious penne al salmone and my token favorite, tagliatelle ai funchi porcini (each time, respectively). It was a perfect ending to a wonderful week. It was the most wonderful trip I could have hoped for.


A lot has happened since Lara’s visit, and I still have a few more weeks in Italy, so keep an eye on this blog for some much-delayed updates!