Food!

My housemates and I sitting down to a delicious family dinner! (notice the olive oil in the center of the table!)

A lot of Italian life, or at least my life in Italy, revolves around food...

Going out for aperitivo - pre-dinner drinks with light food like bruschetta included, getting together with a bunch of friends to cook big dinners (I've somehow become something like the head chef in my apartment, which is fine by me! - even though most of the time I'm totally wingin' it), or going out to a real dinner on special occasions (like tomorrow night for my good friend, Abel's, birthday, where supposedly you can order blueberry-balsamic steak!) are a few examples.

Instead of going to a huge supermarket and buying enough for the next month, Italians go pick up a few things every few days. It's crazy because it feels like you're spending more money that way, but I think it pretty much evens out (that is, if the exchange rate wasn't so terrible...) I've learned to buy my fresh fruits and veggies from the Mercato Centrale - they're exceptionally more tasty, fresher, and cheaper than at grocery stores - and to buy my bread, meat, and cheese at regular grocery stores. However, I've bought parmesan and asiago (called parmigiano in Italian) from this really nice guy at Mercato Centrale, and, man, was that parmesan mind-blowing. Oh and by the way, I just ate an orange that I bought there the other day; it was the best orange I've ever had and was bigger than any grapefruit I've ever seen!

A lot of my hanging out with my housemates revolves around cooking together at night. Sometimes we're each making our own thing and sometimes we all contribute and make something together. I always knew that I liked to cook, but since being here I've realized that I loooooove to cook! Some of my favorite things we've made so far:

• Amazing variations of pizza - we buy the raw crust and then bake it with tons of stuff on it! Tonight Emily, Abel and I made one that had pesto, ricotta, mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, my mind-blowing parmesan sprinkled over, chicken, sauteed garlic, prosciutto (which I realized that that I love), oregano, basil, garlic powder, and crushed pepper
• Amazing variations on pasta - I haven't bought tomato sauce since I've been here and instead make my own by sauteing tomatoes and spices, etc., but we've also made homemade gnocchi and other delicious versions of penne, spaghetti, and even a carbonara the other night where you crack the egg in the bowl and let if cook in the hot pasta
• Eggplant parmesan - I first tried to buy breadcrumbs and failed, but it's no big deal because I've made it twice just by frying it in egg in the pan, served with homemade tomato sauce and mozzarella
• Artichoke with hollandaise sauce - a big achievement that I didn't ruin the sauce!
• Fried rice with broccoli, green beans, egg, and soy sauce
• Countless variations of sandwiches - often including pesto, ricotta, tomatoes, and prosciutto or salami
• Salad with chicken, tomatoes, onions, and a lemon garlic dressing
• Tiramisu! it. is. amazing. except that we've been whipping egg whites until they're stiff...with a fork...for a half hour (we don't have a egg beater nor a wisk! nor a spatula to flip anything for that matter...)

Anyway, that's all I can remember at the moment, but I'll keep you updated with my newest creations. Usually my day begins with an egg sunny side up, either a piece of bread grilled in the pan with ricotta cheese (my poor attempt to imitate the idea of a bagel...) or some cereal, and a piece of fruit. For lunch I often grab a panini in between classes or my internship (I just found this amaaaazing little place tucked in a back alley and I will dream about forever!), and then come home and cook something delicious for dinner.

Finally, while I'm on the subject of food, it is important to note that the biggest change in my diet hasn't been the abundant intake of carbs (let's face it, I did that before I got here too), or the amazingly fresh ingredients, but it has to do with one key factor in almost everything I eat here: olive oil. I wasn't that big of a fan before I came, only using it to sautee stuff in. But I am a serious convert. We don't even have butter in our house! I use olive oil in everything from frying my eggs in it, to grilling bread with it, to making all sauces, all stir fries, anything made in a pan or drizzling it over anything baked in the oven. It. is. so. good. With 6 people living here, we go through about a bottle every week. I'll never go back to butter again! Yum!

Venezia

Photos: 1. the island of Burano, 2. me, Kayla, and Sara on the bridge next to the Bridge of Sighs, 3. Carnivale at night, 4. the beautiful boat ride to Venice from the mainland, 5. flooded Piazza San Marco (a daily occurrence)

So Venice was pretty incredible. I didn't think about it that much until I got there, but as soon as I stepped off the boat I remembered how I'd been wanting to go there ever since I was little! I couldn't stop smiling, especially because it was a beeeaauuutiful weekend. Carnivale was really really fun, but I wish it hadn't been QUITE so crowded. It was festive and exciting though!

We left at 6am from Florence on a bus with our entire program (all super grumpy) and arrived in Venice at around 11, only to go straight into a 2 hour walking tour. I'm really glad we went because it was so nice to just follow the guide and take everything in. For lunch I had delicious fritto misto (fried seafood - Venice known for it) and a glass of chardonnay from a little stand in a piazza and sat outside and ate with everyone...so nice. We hung out by the Grand Canal and then made our way back to the boat to go the hotel. After a nice little rest, everyone got all dressed up in our masks that we had bought that day to go back to Venice for the Carnivale festivities! It was a total zoo so two of my housemates, Sara and Kayla, and I decided to split off from the huge group and explore/sit down for dinner. It was super relaxing and delicious - it was such a cute, classic Italian restaurant! After we literally just wandered around the city for hours people watching and exploring. Since I've loved 'A Little Romance' forever and it was what made me want to go see Venice in the first place when I was younger, we went to see it! We stood on the bridge next to it (you can't walk on the Bridge of Sighs), and I thought that that bridge was it! It was a magical moment because right as we got there, Kayla realized it was 11:11 and 11 is my lucky number!!! I was just sooo happy. Even thought it turned out to be the one next to us, I don't think it takes anything away from that experience. It was wonderful. Then, after wandering the tiny streets looking for the train station for over an hour, we ran to hop on the last train back to our hotel! I was so exhausted when we got back and just crashed.

The next day we went to visit the islands of Murano, famous for glass-making, and Burano. We saw a glass-making demo in Murano, which was totally amazing, and then headed for Burano. It was so cute! Every building was a different color and we had a lot of fun walking around and looking at the handmade glass. Later, we had free time back in Venice and my good friend, Emily, and her roommate, Sonya, and I just wandered and found a cute little place for pizza for lunch - easily the best pizza I've had thus far. Yum! Then wandered around back to the boat, where we made our way to the bus and then back to Florence.

It was such a lovely weekend, but I feel like I really need to go back and see Venice again without so many people there. I hope I can make it back there, maybe not this semester, but at some point. It was truly magical.

Venice was magical.

Mi chiami Hannah. Sono di Boston. Ho venti ani.

This picture is me at the Mediterranean Sea!!! We went to this huge festival called Carnivale in a beach town an hour and a half away. I don't know WHAT I was expecting, but it was not what I got. It was like a huge political-satire parade, mixed with really weird Halloween costumes and tons of silly string, confetti, and loud music, all taking place in a location I can only liken to the Jersey Shore. That whole situation coupled with the fact that I had no cultural context for anything going on, especially the meaning of the huge 50 foot tall, mechanized, moving floats made for a very strange and overwhelming day. But still fun.

This week the weather was kind of gross, so I mostly just went to class, but I did get to explore some more. I feel like I'm getting a much better handle on the layout of the city and can actually find my way around.

Last night all my housemates and I cooked the most amazing dinner and had a really nice time. We made a chicken tomato sauce, spinach gnocchi, garlic bread with mozzarella, a salad, and I made an artichoke with Hollandaise sauce! And I didn't ruin it either! And obviously, lots of wine was drunk. It was really great to be all together - we all get along so well, we totally lucked out.

After going to my favorite bar, a few friends and I found the secret midnight bakery! Success! They don't sell food after like 10, save for kebab places open late. So pastries are like gold after a night out. It was awesome.

Tomorrow I'm going to Venice with my program for the weekend! For another Carnivale! But I think this one's going to be way classier and more fun. I can't wait - I've wanted to go to Venice since I was little and saw 'A Little Romance.'

12 Days.

So sorry for not posting sooner, but the unreliable nature of my internet in my apartment combined with the fact that I actually have a busy social life here makes more not much time on my computer. But I have so much to tell!

Currently, it's 8:30 am and I'm sitting at our tiny kitchen table eating a banana with nutella and drinking tea for breakfast (and no, Dad, I didn't stay up all night last night!). I had to get up early this morning to get some paperwork stuff done for my internship...I have to leave to do that soon. But I'll get to that in a minute.

First, an update on my life here!

• My living situation is great! I live with 5 girls and we're all really different, but have been getting along amazingly. We hang out a lot, but don't HAVE to be hanging out all the time either. I feel like we've been living together longer than just a week because we're all close and mesh together so well. We share a lot of mutual friends so various combinations of us go out together a lot, but we can also just chill in our kitchen together eating special k when we get home (a frequent occurrence). The other super awesome and ridiculously convenient thing is that we've become good friends with the apartment below us, a group of equally as individually different, but totally great guys. I usually start and end my nights there...they have a much bigger and more hanging-out-condusive apartment, meaning there's always people there. Last night they all cooked this huge delicious dinner for everyone! The only issue that stems from getting along great and having their apartment in the same building is that we have a tendency to get to talking and accidentally stay up all night! Oh well. Here's a family picture of us girls!
• Besides my lovely housemates and the guys, it's been wonderful to have a bunch of different groups of friends to hang out with too! I've been spending a lot of time with my friend, Emily. She goes to Skidmore too and is best friends with one of my best friends, but we didn't know each other well before this semester. Most nights we end up either going out together to meet other people, or just naturally meeting up because of our mutual friends. We've been hanging out with a few awesome people from Skidmore and their housemates too. I also have been seeing my friend, Amanda, a lot, who I met in the airport waiting for our luggage. She's wonderful.
• I finished my first week of classes yesterday (no class on Fridays, hooray!). My Italian class seems fast-paced, but I think it will be good. My professor basically just speaks to us in Italian and it's pretty conversational-based, which I like. It's a 4-credit class for people who already know a romance language - unless it's a intensive class, the other beginner ones are only 3-credits. I want to learn Italian so badly, and I think I'm going to have to learn really quickly, but I'll get back to that in a minute. My Intermediate Painting class scared the crap out of me at first; I got to class and was thrown into a placement test to make sure we were good enough to be in that level. We had to paint the full figure in only 45 minutes! I haven't really been drawing or painting since first semester sophomore year, so I was terrified. It definitely was not my best work, but I passed! My professor is an American who's been living and teaching art in Italy for 30 years. She has a pretty strong personality, but I'm pretty sure she's going to be a good professor. She even had bags made up at the art store with all the supplies in them for each of us so we wouldn't have to hunt around and figure it out in Italian. It was great, except that I had to drop 200 euro for it all. Ugh. The art classes are all 5 hours once a week, which a weird change from my 3 hours twice a week at Skidmore. I have both art classes in the same day, though, which makes for a loooooong and exhausting Tuesday for me. I have class almost straight through from 9am to 8:30pm (they're each 2.5 hours with a 30 min break and then another 2.5 hours). Anyway, so I was all stressed about getting to my Fashion Photography class on time and then I spilled gesso IN MY HAIR (don't even ask me how that's possible) right at the end of class! I was so frazzled by the time I made it to photo and then we had another placement test in that class too. I think it's going to be SOOOOOO COOOOOOOL! Not only is my professor totally fly (I think he might be half Asian, half Italian?), it's going to be a really advanced course and is both darkroom and digital! So glad I brought the Nikon. I don't even want to think about the money I'm going to have to spend for that class, though....I think I might need a 100mm lens for my Canon - a good, useful investment, but expensive. We'll see....Finally I had my last class yesterday: International Art Business. I was nervous for it to be really boring, but it was awesome! My professor is this really cool lady who definitely knows her stuff and was really engaging the class. We were talking about art pricing and behavioral economics yesterday (fascinating) and the whole class was using about Damien Hirst and Duchamp as examples without having to explain who everyone was and it was awesome. Plus we're going to visit all these auction houses and private museums...so interesting.
• The last thing is my internship! I got placed at the Palazzo Vecchio, which is totally insane. I'm going to be guiding tours there for English-speaking visitors, meaning I'm going to have to learn everything and everything about 16th century Italian art, Vasari (who painting tons of it), and the Medici family. It's 12 hours a week and 1 weekend per month, which is kind of a lot with my class schedule, but I think it's going to be the craziest and coolest learning experience ever. The scary thing is that apparently the person I'm working for there does not like to speak English.......the reason I'm going to have to pick up Italian ASAP! This morning I have to go get all this registration and paperwork done so that I'm all set to work here. My first meeting at the Palazzo is on Monday! I'm excited and terrified.

Okay, I feel like that's a pretty sufficient update on my life right now! Other than these things, I've just been cooking a lot and walking a lot. The weather's been pretty cold and rainy for too much exploring, but just walking to my classes around the city and doing errands have been doing that for me some. I can't wait for it to get just a tad warmer and much more pleasant to walk around all day.

Also, sorry about the lack of pictures, but it's been taking too long to upload. I'll dedicate a post to just photos soon, but you can also check out my facebook in the meantime.

Ciao!