I've planning a number of exciting activities and experiences for the coming two weeks before my spring break, but for the moment let me present something a bit more nostalgic: a parting tour of the now-departed The Castle, where a number of my friends here use to live until they were untimely evicted. Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Familiar Faces
I know it's been a while since I've posted on my blog, and I'm sorry about that. The Internet's been slow and classes have been time-consuming, but I've also come down with a cold this week. An exciting tidbit from this past week is that I found a nice restaurant where I had a delicious penne ai funghi porcini (with mushrooms) dish for a mere 6 euro and there's no cover charge! I'll certainly be returning there. I also had the wonderful fortune of seeing a slew of familiar faces. A friend from a summer program 4 years ago spotted me on the street and contacted me via Facebook to find out whether I was in Florence. It's been a long time since we've spoken but we're getting together for dinner tomorrow night and we'll use this chance encounter to catch up on our lives. Another participant on that program is also here for the semester, so I may see her as well at some point. This program, Career Explorations, seems to have sent quite a few of us to Italy: Kate is studying with Syracuse, Jenna with UMiami, native Italian Alberto at the University of Milan, and Chris (a film major) and I at NYU. It's pretty cool.
Even more fascinating and coincidental, however, was completely randomly and unexpectedly running into Allison Greiner-Ferris, a Holliston native who attended high school with me, on the street last Tuesday night. She's studying in Madrid for the semester and was on some sort of break, and we happened to bump into each other on the street! I like when those kinds of things happen.
When I saw Allison, I was actually already in the midst of catching up with an old friend. Miriam Iken came to visit from Israel for her winter break, and despite some trouble getting in touch, we got together on Tuesday night. It turns out she was traveling with two other friends of mine from USY - Tova Stark (from Providence) and Ruthie Edelstein (from California). It was great to see all of them, and we went to get some gelato on Tuesday night. I'm happy to report that I have a new flavor which I love - cantaloupe! It's quite delicious. The weary Israeli travelers, who were a few more than just the three I knew, were delighted to be able to use my Internet on Tuesday night (which, on a rare occasion, was working). We met up again on Wednesday night at Ruth's, the Kosher restaurant, and took advantage of the nice 10 euro Wednesday student deal for a pasta (penne alla vodka) and dessert (that cheese and cinnamon blintz which was even more delicious the second time around!).
Other happenings from the past week: the residents of the Castle had to move out and relocate to a long-term hotel for the duration of the semester. Apparently the landlord hadn't payed his rent in years or something like that, and he was going bankrupt, so NYU had to move them. I haven't heard too much about their new digs, but I'm sure I'll be visiting soon, though it's hardly as close. I made a video tour of the Castle on Saturday night to commemorate its awesomeness and I'll post that in a couple of days if I can get Internet working fast enough to upload a two and a half minute video.
I've booked my spring break plans, which are very thrilling. I'm traveling with peer advisers Lauren, Lauren (there are two), and Amanda, as well as fellow normal student Jamie, as always all girls since the female-male ratio here is about 260-40. We're headed to Paris aboard EasyJet on Thursday, March 5th (only three weeks from tomorrow) for a weekend, then taking the Chunnel to London on Sunday or Monday. I've confirmed that I'll be staying with NYU friend Meghan Mucciarelli in London, and I'll also be celebrating my 21st birthday while I'm there. The four ladies are continuing on to Ireland on Thursday night, and I managed to find a great direct flight back to Florence on legitimate airline Meridiana. Lara's coming to visit the next morning, and after she leaves, it's only two weeks until I head to Israel for Passover! Time will fly by! In the meantime, I'll try to update some more on my adventures here, and I'm headed to the Office of Student Life to pick up an extra blanket so I can combat the unexpectedly cold nature of the indoors in this country and get better right away! As always, a few quick photos:
I snapped a quick photo with Allison when I ran into her!
Ruthie, me, Miriam, and Tova
Miriam!
Even more fascinating and coincidental, however, was completely randomly and unexpectedly running into Allison Greiner-Ferris, a Holliston native who attended high school with me, on the street last Tuesday night. She's studying in Madrid for the semester and was on some sort of break, and we happened to bump into each other on the street! I like when those kinds of things happen.
When I saw Allison, I was actually already in the midst of catching up with an old friend. Miriam Iken came to visit from Israel for her winter break, and despite some trouble getting in touch, we got together on Tuesday night. It turns out she was traveling with two other friends of mine from USY - Tova Stark (from Providence) and Ruthie Edelstein (from California). It was great to see all of them, and we went to get some gelato on Tuesday night. I'm happy to report that I have a new flavor which I love - cantaloupe! It's quite delicious. The weary Israeli travelers, who were a few more than just the three I knew, were delighted to be able to use my Internet on Tuesday night (which, on a rare occasion, was working). We met up again on Wednesday night at Ruth's, the Kosher restaurant, and took advantage of the nice 10 euro Wednesday student deal for a pasta (penne alla vodka) and dessert (that cheese and cinnamon blintz which was even more delicious the second time around!).
Other happenings from the past week: the residents of the Castle had to move out and relocate to a long-term hotel for the duration of the semester. Apparently the landlord hadn't payed his rent in years or something like that, and he was going bankrupt, so NYU had to move them. I haven't heard too much about their new digs, but I'm sure I'll be visiting soon, though it's hardly as close. I made a video tour of the Castle on Saturday night to commemorate its awesomeness and I'll post that in a couple of days if I can get Internet working fast enough to upload a two and a half minute video.
I've booked my spring break plans, which are very thrilling. I'm traveling with peer advisers Lauren, Lauren (there are two), and Amanda, as well as fellow normal student Jamie, as always all girls since the female-male ratio here is about 260-40. We're headed to Paris aboard EasyJet on Thursday, March 5th (only three weeks from tomorrow) for a weekend, then taking the Chunnel to London on Sunday or Monday. I've confirmed that I'll be staying with NYU friend Meghan Mucciarelli in London, and I'll also be celebrating my 21st birthday while I'm there. The four ladies are continuing on to Ireland on Thursday night, and I managed to find a great direct flight back to Florence on legitimate airline Meridiana. Lara's coming to visit the next morning, and after she leaves, it's only two weeks until I head to Israel for Passover! Time will fly by! In the meantime, I'll try to update some more on my adventures here, and I'm headed to the Office of Student Life to pick up an extra blanket so I can combat the unexpectedly cold nature of the indoors in this country and get better right away! As always, a few quick photos:
I snapped a quick photo with Allison when I ran into her!
Ruthie, me, Miriam, and Tova
Miriam!Monday, February 2, 2009
Weekend in Rome
This past weekend I headed to Rome, and I must say with absolute certainty that it's the definitive highlight of my trip thus far. Rome is a fascinating place and I like the city there quite a bit.
I traveled with friends Laura Krule and Alana Weber, and every piece of the trip was fantastic. We got an early start on Friday morning, meeting at 7am to walk over to the Florence train station. We successfully boarded a 7:49am train to Roma Termini. The Eurostar train was really nice and clean. The scenery along the way was dazzling as well. Despite miscalculating the direction of the train and ending up seated facing backward rather than forward, I had an entirely pleasant experience on the train.
Laura was our designated planner and guide for the weekend, and her excellent directions took us to the Metro Linea B, and we got off at the Bologna stop. The Metro trains and bus only cost 1 euro a trip, which is great and makes traveling around really easy and nice. Our Kosher hotel, Bed Breakfast & Cappuccino, was located literally moments away from the metro stop. We exited the first few times at the wrong part of the intersection, but we quickly got the hang of it and were pros by the end of the weekend. We had a wonderful room all to ourselves, with a large bed in the middle for the girls and a small bed tucked against the wall for me. There was a mini-fridge with milk and peach juice (delicious!) as well as a croissant breakfast each morning. We had our own bathroom right across the hall. It was a lovely experience, especially considering we could have ended up in some shady hostel somewhere for nearly the same price. Our triple cost only 20 euro each a night. Our accommodations, pictured below, were wonderful. My internal frame backpack was great - I carried it on my back for the walks to and from our lodging, and then zipped off the mini backpack to take around during the day!
Our first stop after depositing our luggage in our room was Pane al Pane, a quaint Kosher bakery just about five minutes away from the bed and breakfast. Laura was our official communicator, speaking Hebrew to both the people at the bed and breakfast and at the bakery. We ate some impressively-looking and slightly mild-tasting lasagna for lunch, and planned to return later to get some Shabbat snacks. We were told that we locate both synagogues easily by looking for the police car parked right outside, and it turned out that both of them were literally seconds away from the bakery. Our next stop: the Vatican.
The metro took us to the Vatican, and we arrived probably around 1pm. We had a nice, leisurely, awe-filled stroll through all the hallways and while I didn't have the chance, I believe that both Laura and Alana snuck a picture or two inside the Sistine Chapel. Here are a few of my photos:
After spending a few hours at the Vatican, we headed back to the bakery and purchased some delicious cookies with fruit and chocolate filling for consumption the following day. We returned to our hotel to change and then walked to the synagogue. The services were a lot of fun since they use the same tune for the entire Kabbalat Shabbat service, but it never quite ends and as a result just starts over every few words. It's incredibly difficult to sing along to because of the quick pace, often indistinguishable melody, and accented pronunciation of each word, but I had a great time. For dinner, we joined with a Bnei Akiva youth program with about ten high school seniors from Milan and Rome. The purpose of the weekend was to encourage them to come to study in Israel for a year before college. We simply joined them for meals and participated in a few of their programs. Introducing ourselves and naming our favorite ice cream flavor and movie, I had the option of either speaking in Italian or Hebrew and I opted to give my Italian a shot. Apparently, I did pretty well, despite some later flak from Emmanuel about my accent. I made my best effort to speak in Italian as much as I could, and some of the girls spoke back to me in English in order to practice their own command of a foreign language. Dinner was great, though I was woefully unprepared for the way it mirrored traditional Italian meals. I had some challah, some pasta, and some fish, and then was shocked to find out that the main course of meat was still on its way! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and I'm pleased to report that I got the best night of sleep I have in months, even before coming to Italy. It was infinitely quieter and warmer than Florence, and sleeping for ten hours was a glorious thing.
Saturday morning we awoke shortly before 11am, and slowly made our way to the synagogue, where we found services still underway and caught the tail end of some interesting rituals with which I was completely unfamiliar. Before lunch, I went with Emmanuel to join an early Mincha afternoon service. I was asked to open the ark, which normally wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I have no idea how these keyhole Italian doors are made, and it ended up taking a little extra time, though it was hardly a problem. Lunch was very much like Friday night's dinner in that I was still not expecting further courses at every turn, but it great to eat a whole lot of food. We returned briefly to our hotel room on Saturday afternoon to play Bananagrams, and I'm very proud to say that I managed to get two Zs at the end of the game, and even though Laura won first, I put them both into the word "frazzled." We went back for a minute only to leave right away to go to the students' bed and breakfast, which was very nice. When we returned, we had already missed Havdalah but had an extremely brief ceremony ourselves. We parted ways rather abruptly from our new friends, but we hope to get their contact info from the Bnei Akiva coordinator or the Shaliach, Rafi.
After changing at our hotel, we took the 62 bus to the Jewish ghetto. We passed a number of Kosher restaurants after locating the synagogue, and saw some ruins of an arch right near the Largo Ottobre 16 1943, dedicated to the memory of the Italian Jews deported from there by the Nazis. We ate at Nonna Betta (advertised as the real Jewish ghetto's tradition), and what a terrific meal it was. We began with the highly recommended fried artichoke, which was tasty. Alana ordered penne al salmone (penne with smoked salmon), I tried the ravioli all'aranciata (ravioli with orange sauce) and Laura got the vegetable lasagna. All the dishes were great, even though mine only had four or five raviolis. The meal wasn't terribly expensive and was well worth every penny in my opinion.
It was late by this point and we had an early day of exploring ahead of us, so back to the bed and breakfast. We awoke at 8am the next morning and headed out a bit later to our first sight-seeing stop. The woman at the bed and breakfast was kind enough to let us leave our stuff there until the afternoon, which was really great. We went to the Coliseum and got a guided tour from an entertaining guide named Vito. We explored the Roman Forum and all the gardens as well. Our return to the Jewish ghetto for lunch was a wondrous decision because we went to a place called Fast Kosher, which had Kosher fast food! The Jumbo Burger with fries and pineapple juice was one of the most satisfying meals I've had here so far. It was quite filling and entirely delicious. We walked from there to the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish steps. I actually heard someone calling my name at the Trevi fountain - we ran into some of the peer advisors who were there on a weekend trip too! It was an exciting but tiring day, so we went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff, made one last trip to the bakery for some cookies to go, and then made it to the train station for a 4:30pm train back to Florence. We were back in our rooms before 6:45, though we admittedly got delayed a bit by our coincidental meeting with Joey and Eddie, Brooklyn College students studying in Florence for the semester, on the walk back. Joey is a good friend of my former roommate Hal. I'm sure we'll be seeing them again this semester. All in all, a terrific weekend! I think I'd like to go back to Rome and see some more of it, or even just experience the culture again, maybe sometime in April. Some more photos below:
The Coliseum
A view from the Roman forum
The Trevi fountain
We were all ready to leave, but Laura almost fell off a ledge!
A cool metro train car with graffiti
I traveled with friends Laura Krule and Alana Weber, and every piece of the trip was fantastic. We got an early start on Friday morning, meeting at 7am to walk over to the Florence train station. We successfully boarded a 7:49am train to Roma Termini. The Eurostar train was really nice and clean. The scenery along the way was dazzling as well. Despite miscalculating the direction of the train and ending up seated facing backward rather than forward, I had an entirely pleasant experience on the train.
Laura was our designated planner and guide for the weekend, and her excellent directions took us to the Metro Linea B, and we got off at the Bologna stop. The Metro trains and bus only cost 1 euro a trip, which is great and makes traveling around really easy and nice. Our Kosher hotel, Bed Breakfast & Cappuccino, was located literally moments away from the metro stop. We exited the first few times at the wrong part of the intersection, but we quickly got the hang of it and were pros by the end of the weekend. We had a wonderful room all to ourselves, with a large bed in the middle for the girls and a small bed tucked against the wall for me. There was a mini-fridge with milk and peach juice (delicious!) as well as a croissant breakfast each morning. We had our own bathroom right across the hall. It was a lovely experience, especially considering we could have ended up in some shady hostel somewhere for nearly the same price. Our triple cost only 20 euro each a night. Our accommodations, pictured below, were wonderful. My internal frame backpack was great - I carried it on my back for the walks to and from our lodging, and then zipped off the mini backpack to take around during the day!
Our first stop after depositing our luggage in our room was Pane al Pane, a quaint Kosher bakery just about five minutes away from the bed and breakfast. Laura was our official communicator, speaking Hebrew to both the people at the bed and breakfast and at the bakery. We ate some impressively-looking and slightly mild-tasting lasagna for lunch, and planned to return later to get some Shabbat snacks. We were told that we locate both synagogues easily by looking for the police car parked right outside, and it turned out that both of them were literally seconds away from the bakery. Our next stop: the Vatican.
The metro took us to the Vatican, and we arrived probably around 1pm. We had a nice, leisurely, awe-filled stroll through all the hallways and while I didn't have the chance, I believe that both Laura and Alana snuck a picture or two inside the Sistine Chapel. Here are a few of my photos:
After spending a few hours at the Vatican, we headed back to the bakery and purchased some delicious cookies with fruit and chocolate filling for consumption the following day. We returned to our hotel to change and then walked to the synagogue. The services were a lot of fun since they use the same tune for the entire Kabbalat Shabbat service, but it never quite ends and as a result just starts over every few words. It's incredibly difficult to sing along to because of the quick pace, often indistinguishable melody, and accented pronunciation of each word, but I had a great time. For dinner, we joined with a Bnei Akiva youth program with about ten high school seniors from Milan and Rome. The purpose of the weekend was to encourage them to come to study in Israel for a year before college. We simply joined them for meals and participated in a few of their programs. Introducing ourselves and naming our favorite ice cream flavor and movie, I had the option of either speaking in Italian or Hebrew and I opted to give my Italian a shot. Apparently, I did pretty well, despite some later flak from Emmanuel about my accent. I made my best effort to speak in Italian as much as I could, and some of the girls spoke back to me in English in order to practice their own command of a foreign language. Dinner was great, though I was woefully unprepared for the way it mirrored traditional Italian meals. I had some challah, some pasta, and some fish, and then was shocked to find out that the main course of meat was still on its way! After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and I'm pleased to report that I got the best night of sleep I have in months, even before coming to Italy. It was infinitely quieter and warmer than Florence, and sleeping for ten hours was a glorious thing.
Saturday morning we awoke shortly before 11am, and slowly made our way to the synagogue, where we found services still underway and caught the tail end of some interesting rituals with which I was completely unfamiliar. Before lunch, I went with Emmanuel to join an early Mincha afternoon service. I was asked to open the ark, which normally wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I have no idea how these keyhole Italian doors are made, and it ended up taking a little extra time, though it was hardly a problem. Lunch was very much like Friday night's dinner in that I was still not expecting further courses at every turn, but it great to eat a whole lot of food. We returned briefly to our hotel room on Saturday afternoon to play Bananagrams, and I'm very proud to say that I managed to get two Zs at the end of the game, and even though Laura won first, I put them both into the word "frazzled." We went back for a minute only to leave right away to go to the students' bed and breakfast, which was very nice. When we returned, we had already missed Havdalah but had an extremely brief ceremony ourselves. We parted ways rather abruptly from our new friends, but we hope to get their contact info from the Bnei Akiva coordinator or the Shaliach, Rafi.
After changing at our hotel, we took the 62 bus to the Jewish ghetto. We passed a number of Kosher restaurants after locating the synagogue, and saw some ruins of an arch right near the Largo Ottobre 16 1943, dedicated to the memory of the Italian Jews deported from there by the Nazis. We ate at Nonna Betta (advertised as the real Jewish ghetto's tradition), and what a terrific meal it was. We began with the highly recommended fried artichoke, which was tasty. Alana ordered penne al salmone (penne with smoked salmon), I tried the ravioli all'aranciata (ravioli with orange sauce) and Laura got the vegetable lasagna. All the dishes were great, even though mine only had four or five raviolis. The meal wasn't terribly expensive and was well worth every penny in my opinion.
It was late by this point and we had an early day of exploring ahead of us, so back to the bed and breakfast. We awoke at 8am the next morning and headed out a bit later to our first sight-seeing stop. The woman at the bed and breakfast was kind enough to let us leave our stuff there until the afternoon, which was really great. We went to the Coliseum and got a guided tour from an entertaining guide named Vito. We explored the Roman Forum and all the gardens as well. Our return to the Jewish ghetto for lunch was a wondrous decision because we went to a place called Fast Kosher, which had Kosher fast food! The Jumbo Burger with fries and pineapple juice was one of the most satisfying meals I've had here so far. It was quite filling and entirely delicious. We walked from there to the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish steps. I actually heard someone calling my name at the Trevi fountain - we ran into some of the peer advisors who were there on a weekend trip too! It was an exciting but tiring day, so we went back to the hotel to pick up our stuff, made one last trip to the bakery for some cookies to go, and then made it to the train station for a 4:30pm train back to Florence. We were back in our rooms before 6:45, though we admittedly got delayed a bit by our coincidental meeting with Joey and Eddie, Brooklyn College students studying in Florence for the semester, on the walk back. Joey is a good friend of my former roommate Hal. I'm sure we'll be seeing them again this semester. All in all, a terrific weekend! I think I'd like to go back to Rome and see some more of it, or even just experience the culture again, maybe sometime in April. Some more photos below:
The Coliseum
A view from the Roman forum
The Trevi fountain
We were all ready to leave, but Laura almost fell off a ledge!
A cool metro train car with graffiti
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Pictures from Second Weekend
These pictures accompany my post from earlier today. I'll try to post as many pictures as I can, but these alone took me an hour and a half to upload. Enjoy!
The restaurant Acqua al Due
Antipasto maccheroni alla vodka at Acqua al Due
Blueberry steak!
Ellie, Drew, me, and David at Acqua al Due
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Puccini was honored last year for his 150th birthday
A church in Lucca
A nice shot of Lucca
Composer Luigi Boccherini sitting still in Lucca
Me, Laura, Mara, Nirali, Nicole, and Laura in Lucca
Second Week in Florence
My Internet access is dwindling by the minute, and I may have to begin blogging from the on-campus computers in the future in order to provide more frequent updates for my devoted readers. I have had a number of interesting experiences this week, so here are the highlights.
On Saturday night, I finally made it to highly recommended restaurant Acqua al Due. I made a reservation for 7:30pm and was accompanied by roommate David and new friends Ellie and Drew. The aura was very pleasant, and the walls had tons of plates with writing and drawings on them. Luckily, our waitress spoke very good English, though she was not able to comprehend “nutmeg,” which Ellie is allergic to and has yet to research the Italian word for in order to avoid unfortunate aftereffects. Drew, in his quest to master the language, spoke Italian with a flawless accent to the waitress the whole meal. He apologized to her at the end of the meal for not being fluent and she laughed at him, noting that he’s very proficient, especially compared to his tablemates. The menu was all in Italian, but it wasn’t too complicated. I ordered as an antipasto the maccheroni alla vodka. It wasn’t terribly big, but it was extremely hot and delicious. The moment we finished, the main course arrived. I very boldly ordered the bistecca al mirtillo (blueberry steak). I feared for the worst when I saw that my peculiar dish was not lightly cooked in but instead smothered with a monstrous flood of blueberry sauce. Upon tasting it, I discovered it was actually rather delicious and not quite as scarily exotic as I had initially thought it might be. Drew was delighted with his balsamic steak, and Ellie enjoyed the blueberry steak best out of her three steak selections that came with her sampler (blueberry, balsamic, and another one with rosemary). Non-meateaters will appreciate David’s meal, which was the pasta sampler. Five courses of four to seven pieces of pasta cooked in different vegetarian sauces, such as broccoli and cream, were served to him while the rest of us were eating our meals. It seemed small to me, but apparently it was more than filling. The bill was a tad expensive, to be sure, but it was an exciting experience and I’ll be happy to go back there perhaps once a month during my time here.
On Sunday, I went on the NYU-run trip to Lucca, a nearby city. We were given an hour and a half tour upon our arrival, and I was interested to learn that the small city once had 99 churches. I took several photos which you’ll find in the accompanying photos post. This was the first really sunny day we’ve had thus far, and everyone was constantly taking pictures of the blue sky, though of course we did photograph the sites as well. We went into two churches, though our tour bled into noontime and therefore mass was going on and we did not enter. The churches we did go into were rather nice. We had the opportunity to walk on top of the city walls and oversee the pleasant-looking, calm city. After our tour, we proceeded to find a restaurant, and Emily swiftly located a nice place call Osteria del Neni. The menu was available in English as well as Italian, which was fortunate, though I did attempt to compare the two to improve my knowledge of the language. I chose the spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and aromatic herbs, which turned out to be a bit small but certainly delicious. Emily put some olive oil on her copper underplate and it was quickly yanked out from under her and replaced sternly by the waitress with a side plate. I’ll be careful not to learn from her example and not make this mistake in the future. After the meal, we explored the city a bit and ended up in a nice piazza. We got some gelato and I found both the banana and tiramisu flavors to be excellent. We departed late in the afternoon, and upon our return headed straight to a chocolate festival which was intensely crowded. I sampled only some hot chocolate and some chocolate liqueur, both of which were fairly tasty. The evening was finished off with a nice dinner at Piazza D’Azeglio with Laura Krule.
My Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are booked up with classes until the evening. On Monday night, I once again ate dinner at the Ricasoli NYU apartment, and discovered a new talent that I will use as often as possible in the future: I’m an excellent pizza-cutter. It sounds simple, but I do a great job of it. I imagine that this weekly dinner will become a staple, and all of the residents are very nice and it’s actually quite close to Borgo Pinti. On Tuesday afternoon, I discovered that my immigration class has now dwindled to only five people, which should make for some interesting discussions. The following day, I attended the first Wednesday Mensday in Borgo Pinti, where chef Zach cooked everyone hamburgers. It was definitely a very manly event, and I may frequent it on occasion in the future. This afternoon I made a trip to the most supermarket-like supermarket I’ve seen so far here, and stocked up on some food.
I’m headed to Rome early tomorrow morning with Laura Krule and Alana for the weekend, and I’ll tell all about that next week. I’ve also booked a flight to Israel for Passover, so if you’ll be in Israel between April 8th and 13th, please let me know! Next weekend I presume I’ll start really exploring Florence and see all the sights I’m supposed to see while I’m here! Pictures from last weekend coming in the next post tonight, and then more adventures next week!
On Saturday night, I finally made it to highly recommended restaurant Acqua al Due. I made a reservation for 7:30pm and was accompanied by roommate David and new friends Ellie and Drew. The aura was very pleasant, and the walls had tons of plates with writing and drawings on them. Luckily, our waitress spoke very good English, though she was not able to comprehend “nutmeg,” which Ellie is allergic to and has yet to research the Italian word for in order to avoid unfortunate aftereffects. Drew, in his quest to master the language, spoke Italian with a flawless accent to the waitress the whole meal. He apologized to her at the end of the meal for not being fluent and she laughed at him, noting that he’s very proficient, especially compared to his tablemates. The menu was all in Italian, but it wasn’t too complicated. I ordered as an antipasto the maccheroni alla vodka. It wasn’t terribly big, but it was extremely hot and delicious. The moment we finished, the main course arrived. I very boldly ordered the bistecca al mirtillo (blueberry steak). I feared for the worst when I saw that my peculiar dish was not lightly cooked in but instead smothered with a monstrous flood of blueberry sauce. Upon tasting it, I discovered it was actually rather delicious and not quite as scarily exotic as I had initially thought it might be. Drew was delighted with his balsamic steak, and Ellie enjoyed the blueberry steak best out of her three steak selections that came with her sampler (blueberry, balsamic, and another one with rosemary). Non-meateaters will appreciate David’s meal, which was the pasta sampler. Five courses of four to seven pieces of pasta cooked in different vegetarian sauces, such as broccoli and cream, were served to him while the rest of us were eating our meals. It seemed small to me, but apparently it was more than filling. The bill was a tad expensive, to be sure, but it was an exciting experience and I’ll be happy to go back there perhaps once a month during my time here.
On Sunday, I went on the NYU-run trip to Lucca, a nearby city. We were given an hour and a half tour upon our arrival, and I was interested to learn that the small city once had 99 churches. I took several photos which you’ll find in the accompanying photos post. This was the first really sunny day we’ve had thus far, and everyone was constantly taking pictures of the blue sky, though of course we did photograph the sites as well. We went into two churches, though our tour bled into noontime and therefore mass was going on and we did not enter. The churches we did go into were rather nice. We had the opportunity to walk on top of the city walls and oversee the pleasant-looking, calm city. After our tour, we proceeded to find a restaurant, and Emily swiftly located a nice place call Osteria del Neni. The menu was available in English as well as Italian, which was fortunate, though I did attempt to compare the two to improve my knowledge of the language. I chose the spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and aromatic herbs, which turned out to be a bit small but certainly delicious. Emily put some olive oil on her copper underplate and it was quickly yanked out from under her and replaced sternly by the waitress with a side plate. I’ll be careful not to learn from her example and not make this mistake in the future. After the meal, we explored the city a bit and ended up in a nice piazza. We got some gelato and I found both the banana and tiramisu flavors to be excellent. We departed late in the afternoon, and upon our return headed straight to a chocolate festival which was intensely crowded. I sampled only some hot chocolate and some chocolate liqueur, both of which were fairly tasty. The evening was finished off with a nice dinner at Piazza D’Azeglio with Laura Krule.
My Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are booked up with classes until the evening. On Monday night, I once again ate dinner at the Ricasoli NYU apartment, and discovered a new talent that I will use as often as possible in the future: I’m an excellent pizza-cutter. It sounds simple, but I do a great job of it. I imagine that this weekly dinner will become a staple, and all of the residents are very nice and it’s actually quite close to Borgo Pinti. On Tuesday afternoon, I discovered that my immigration class has now dwindled to only five people, which should make for some interesting discussions. The following day, I attended the first Wednesday Mensday in Borgo Pinti, where chef Zach cooked everyone hamburgers. It was definitely a very manly event, and I may frequent it on occasion in the future. This afternoon I made a trip to the most supermarket-like supermarket I’ve seen so far here, and stocked up on some food.
I’m headed to Rome early tomorrow morning with Laura Krule and Alana for the weekend, and I’ll tell all about that next week. I’ve also booked a flight to Israel for Passover, so if you’ll be in Israel between April 8th and 13th, please let me know! Next weekend I presume I’ll start really exploring Florence and see all the sights I’m supposed to see while I’m here! Pictures from last weekend coming in the next post tonight, and then more adventures next week!
Friday, January 23, 2009
First Week of Classes
It’s been a busy week, and my plans to blog throughout were foiled by time constraints, need for sleep, and devastatingly unreliable Internet. Regardless, it’s been a good couple of days, taken up mostly by the start of classes. I’m enrolled in four classes, running from Monday to Thursday every week. First up was Media and Society: TV & Democracy in Italy, which counts as a non-departmental journalism elective for me, looking at the way that public television is influenced by the various political figures in Italy. The first session left me uncertain, but the second proved to be thoroughly interesting and I believe it’s a class I’ll enjoy very much. I actually have a presentation for this Monday, since we were all assigned two readings throughout the semester to present on, and I of course volunteered to go as early as possible (my second chapter is at the end of February). The one very unfortunate thing about this class is that it begins at 9am every Monday morning. This week, we had the class on Friday as well to make for an Italian national holiday in April. That’s a lot of getting up at 7:30am. Regardless, it’s a good class and I think I’ll like it.
My second class, which is held four times a week at noon, is Intensive Intermediate Italian. I’ve already taken both elementary Italian courses, and thus I qualify for the six-credit intermediate option in Florence, where a language class is required. I’m very pleased with the course, and have already become friendly with several of my classmates. The professor, Caterina Sani, is very energetic and fun. Yesterday, she had us leave the classroom and come back in as if we were dining in groups at a restaurant. I ate with Kate, Katia, and Andrea (actually Drew, but he goes by Andrea for easier comprehension by the Italian natives). I ordered the risotto ai funghi (rice with mushrooms) since it seemed a safe vegetarian option unlike the penne alla carbonara and the pappardelle al cinghiale. Caterina brought us a beer instead of the vino bianco, and then at the end of the meal handed us a check for an outrageous 183 euro. I swiftly cried out “molti errori!” and she said that the amount of quarantatre e cinquanta euro (43,50) would be fine. These kinds of exercises will be quite enjoyable, I’m sure.
My third class is History of Immigration in Europe and the US from WWII to the Present. A mouthful, I know. It was pitched by the professor during orientation last week and it sounded interesting to me. It’s officially my first class taken as a completely irrelevant, not-for-any-sort-of-requirement elective. I think I have some interest in the subject, and it will certainly be a learning opportunity. The cool part of it is that there’s an immigration conference being planned in conjunction with Syracuse University and a whole bunch of seriously knowledgeable authorities in March, and that’s something I’ll take part in as part of the course. My fourth class is of course Italian Cinema, which looks to be great. We started off watching “L’Ultimo Baccio,” which was remade in the United States as the dismal Zach Braff film “The Last Kiss.” The professor, Tina Fallani, was a sound editor on “Dead Poets Society” and “The Godfather: Part III” and the first thing she said to us was that she didn’t believe in semiotics. That’s a very good thing, since our class will focus more on film history and culture. There are plenty of well-known directors on our film list, including Fellini and Bertolucci. I’m sure it will be an altogether pleasant and educational experience for me. The one weird thing is that our Monday night screening time appears to be something we do completely on our own, as in head to the front desk and check out the movie and pop it in the DVD player. It doesn’t sound too hard; it’s just a bit unlike previous classes I’ve had. Things are of course different here though.
I’ve started eating on a regular basis here, which is good. Mondays through Thursdays, I’ll be dining on campus for lunch and probably for dinner as well. Lunch is priced by the amount and type of food you get, usually from 2,50 to 5,00 euro. Dinner is all-you-can-eat, set at 6,50 upon entry into the dining hall. They do have some good food, but my selection is often limited due to the high ham content in all of the choices. On the plus side, I’m unintentionally eating more vegetables since that’s always a safe thing! I’m walking to and from class everyday, which is a 2-3 mile walk each way, uphill on the way there, so I’m getting lots of exercise. The weather is pretty good, but it’s sort of cold now and thus freezing in my room at night. The noise is unbelievably loud and I’m pretty sure that even when I’m deep in sleep and dreaming I can still hear the cars outside.
In addition to classes, I’ve done a few things this week. On Monday, I went to go get my books at the Paperback Exchange store, and encountered two students from my Italian class nearby. We finally located the elusive Grom (pronounced ‘groam’ according to my roommate Dan) and both Kate and Katia got some gelato. I’ll be returning there at some point when I’m really craving it. Tuesday was inauguration day, as I’m sure you all know, and we gathered together in a packed room at Villa La Pietra’s Villa Sassetti building to watch Obama getting sworn in. It was fun and reminded me just how many college students are liberals. Wednesday roommate David and I went to another NYU apartment for dinner, and some lovely girls cooked us a ridiculous amount of pasta. With help from my new friend Ellie, I consumed approximately three lavish portions of spaghetti. Thursday evening, we had a roommate dinner where Dan took us to what he claims is the best pizza in all of Tuscany. I think I believe him. The unexcitedly-named Caffe Italiano did have a scrumptious pizza margherita with soft crust (!), and of course the company was good. After dinner, we went for gelato, and despite my desire to hold off on getting gelato for a while, I purchased a small cup for only 1,50 of dark chocolate and chocolate mousse. The flavors aren’t my favorite, but the consistency was delectable and I’ll be sure to return to Gelateria dei Neri. Dan sure knows his stuff. We parted ways when Dan and David stayed out afterwards, and I got hopelessly lost on the way home. Fortunately, I happened to spot the Duomo and made my way home without the usage of a map since I’m now officially an expert on how to get home from the Duomo. Not terribly useful for navigating the rest of Florence, but at least I can do that.
The week concluded with some excitement this Friday evening when we had a dinner with most of the guys in Borgo Pinti, my apartment building. Zach cooked a huge, delicious-smelling meal for all fourteen of us, and it was nice to get to know all the people who live on our floor. I hastily began doing dishes after dinner to avoid the usual disgustingness that amasses in a kitchen used exclusively by fourteen males. We’re planning on doing more of these in the future, and that should be lots of fun. Check out the photo from tonight below! I’ll try to post more regularly in the coming weeks. Coming up: a fancy dinner Saturday night and a day trip to Lucca on Sunday! Please leave any activity recommendations in the comments section. I’m here for a few months, but I always appreciate suggestions!
My second class, which is held four times a week at noon, is Intensive Intermediate Italian. I’ve already taken both elementary Italian courses, and thus I qualify for the six-credit intermediate option in Florence, where a language class is required. I’m very pleased with the course, and have already become friendly with several of my classmates. The professor, Caterina Sani, is very energetic and fun. Yesterday, she had us leave the classroom and come back in as if we were dining in groups at a restaurant. I ate with Kate, Katia, and Andrea (actually Drew, but he goes by Andrea for easier comprehension by the Italian natives). I ordered the risotto ai funghi (rice with mushrooms) since it seemed a safe vegetarian option unlike the penne alla carbonara and the pappardelle al cinghiale. Caterina brought us a beer instead of the vino bianco, and then at the end of the meal handed us a check for an outrageous 183 euro. I swiftly cried out “molti errori!” and she said that the amount of quarantatre e cinquanta euro (43,50) would be fine. These kinds of exercises will be quite enjoyable, I’m sure.
My third class is History of Immigration in Europe and the US from WWII to the Present. A mouthful, I know. It was pitched by the professor during orientation last week and it sounded interesting to me. It’s officially my first class taken as a completely irrelevant, not-for-any-sort-of-requirement elective. I think I have some interest in the subject, and it will certainly be a learning opportunity. The cool part of it is that there’s an immigration conference being planned in conjunction with Syracuse University and a whole bunch of seriously knowledgeable authorities in March, and that’s something I’ll take part in as part of the course. My fourth class is of course Italian Cinema, which looks to be great. We started off watching “L’Ultimo Baccio,” which was remade in the United States as the dismal Zach Braff film “The Last Kiss.” The professor, Tina Fallani, was a sound editor on “Dead Poets Society” and “The Godfather: Part III” and the first thing she said to us was that she didn’t believe in semiotics. That’s a very good thing, since our class will focus more on film history and culture. There are plenty of well-known directors on our film list, including Fellini and Bertolucci. I’m sure it will be an altogether pleasant and educational experience for me. The one weird thing is that our Monday night screening time appears to be something we do completely on our own, as in head to the front desk and check out the movie and pop it in the DVD player. It doesn’t sound too hard; it’s just a bit unlike previous classes I’ve had. Things are of course different here though.
I’ve started eating on a regular basis here, which is good. Mondays through Thursdays, I’ll be dining on campus for lunch and probably for dinner as well. Lunch is priced by the amount and type of food you get, usually from 2,50 to 5,00 euro. Dinner is all-you-can-eat, set at 6,50 upon entry into the dining hall. They do have some good food, but my selection is often limited due to the high ham content in all of the choices. On the plus side, I’m unintentionally eating more vegetables since that’s always a safe thing! I’m walking to and from class everyday, which is a 2-3 mile walk each way, uphill on the way there, so I’m getting lots of exercise. The weather is pretty good, but it’s sort of cold now and thus freezing in my room at night. The noise is unbelievably loud and I’m pretty sure that even when I’m deep in sleep and dreaming I can still hear the cars outside.
In addition to classes, I’ve done a few things this week. On Monday, I went to go get my books at the Paperback Exchange store, and encountered two students from my Italian class nearby. We finally located the elusive Grom (pronounced ‘groam’ according to my roommate Dan) and both Kate and Katia got some gelato. I’ll be returning there at some point when I’m really craving it. Tuesday was inauguration day, as I’m sure you all know, and we gathered together in a packed room at Villa La Pietra’s Villa Sassetti building to watch Obama getting sworn in. It was fun and reminded me just how many college students are liberals. Wednesday roommate David and I went to another NYU apartment for dinner, and some lovely girls cooked us a ridiculous amount of pasta. With help from my new friend Ellie, I consumed approximately three lavish portions of spaghetti. Thursday evening, we had a roommate dinner where Dan took us to what he claims is the best pizza in all of Tuscany. I think I believe him. The unexcitedly-named Caffe Italiano did have a scrumptious pizza margherita with soft crust (!), and of course the company was good. After dinner, we went for gelato, and despite my desire to hold off on getting gelato for a while, I purchased a small cup for only 1,50 of dark chocolate and chocolate mousse. The flavors aren’t my favorite, but the consistency was delectable and I’ll be sure to return to Gelateria dei Neri. Dan sure knows his stuff. We parted ways when Dan and David stayed out afterwards, and I got hopelessly lost on the way home. Fortunately, I happened to spot the Duomo and made my way home without the usage of a map since I’m now officially an expert on how to get home from the Duomo. Not terribly useful for navigating the rest of Florence, but at least I can do that.
The week concluded with some excitement this Friday evening when we had a dinner with most of the guys in Borgo Pinti, my apartment building. Zach cooked a huge, delicious-smelling meal for all fourteen of us, and it was nice to get to know all the people who live on our floor. I hastily began doing dishes after dinner to avoid the usual disgustingness that amasses in a kitchen used exclusively by fourteen males. We’re planning on doing more of these in the future, and that should be lots of fun. Check out the photo from tonight below! I’ll try to post more regularly in the coming weeks. Coming up: a fancy dinner Saturday night and a day trip to Lucca on Sunday! Please leave any activity recommendations in the comments section. I’m here for a few months, but I always appreciate suggestions!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Busy Time, Slow Internet
Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you know that this week has been a bit hectic with the start of classes and every night when I return home to my apartment, the Internet isn't terribly reliable. I'll begin updating again soon! Stay tuned!
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