Yesterday was a very interesting day. A lot of things were done, some good, some bad, some inbetween, but that's the result of being spontaneous right? My day started off with my chocolate class at 9am with the infamous chocolatier Andrea Bichilini. He has won many world wide competitions of chocolate. Not surprising, the whole class was made up of all girls. It started off with him telling us about him and his background in chocolate while giving out the syllabus. After the introduction, he made us watch a movie on cocoa and where in comes from. I learned that the cocoa bean takes two and a half years to fully grow. (There must be a lot of cocoa beens out there now with the amount of chocolate people eat today.)We then learned the percentages that you see on those bags, you know, the 75%, 50% Cacao. That means that if it's 75%, then 25% is sugar. So 100%, trust me I've had it, it tastes like chalk or cardboard, whichever you prefer. Then it was tasting time! He brought chocolate from his own store and then broke it up into pieces and let each of us try. The first thing we had to do was guess the percentage, which none of us ever got right except one time when my friends snuck up to the front and looked at the packaging. But I think he caught her. Then, the second thing we had to do was guess the ingredients in it. I can usually taste many spices or anything else in a dish but this time, I couldn't figure out one. One of the bars had salt (surprisingly, that was my favorite), one had cinnamon, one had pineapple and oranges, another had anise, cardammom, and nutmeg, and one was a combination of dark, milk and white chocolate. Every single one of them was delicious. After leaving that class completely satisfied with out lesson for the day, I ran all the way across Florence to my other class, Cultural Studies of Florence (It's a mandatory class, trust me, i wouldn't take it if I didn't have to) While sitting in what I have considered the girliest room in florence, our professor walked in and told us that the class will only be an hour and fifteen minutes instead of 2 and a half hours. That pretty much made my day being only 12:00pm. The only part about this class that I like is that we get to go on four free trips all around Italy. I'm really excited about every single one, although it does take up most of my weekends, not letting me plan trips to other locations.
Fact: Chocolate Fairs should take place 24/7, year round.
Right after my class, i went to the Chocolate Fair that was taking place under a large white tent in Santa Croce.
There must have been over twenty different stands with companies from all over Italy with different types of chocolate. Chocolate pizzas, chocolate molds, chococlate rum, chocolate with fruit, fudge, truffles, and chocolate tools? I'm not lying! the list keeps continuing. Even my teacher's store was there! I didn't buy anything mostly because I want to go to the store and buy it from him personally. But I did end up buying chocolate covered strawberries which were amazing and chocolate truffles and chocolate filled with this weird strawbeery thing; those were okay. 
But this was definitely a point where I knew I loved Italy. Fact: Anything with the word Michelangelo is beautiful.
So according to a woman in charge of our program, there is a large percentage of students that live in Florence, but during their whole time here, they never even crossed the Arno River. Well, me and my roommate don't want to be a part of that percentage. We heard about the Piazzale Michelangiolo which is up on a hill that overlooks the whole city of Florenc,e and we knew that this was something that was not to be missed.
Tip: Wear COMFORTABLE shoes when going to the Piazzale Michelangiolo: Yes, you can where boots and flip flops everywhere and they will probably wear out. However, going to this Piazzale is up a very steep hill and you're not always walking on pavement so where sneakers. I did, and couldn't have beeen more happy about it. Not even halfway up there and the view was already beautiful. By the time you go up there, it doesn't take very long, you have a panomramic view of the whole city. The busy streets, the vineyards, the Duomo is crystal clear. It's a site that you would regret not seeing. There are even shops up there as well, which is where I bought my poncho and scarf :). If you can't walk up that high, there is a way to drive and just walk onto the patio that overlooks the city. I think, that if I didn't see this view, I would not feel the same way about Florence. Michelangelo himself produced many beautiful pieces of art, and staring off the Piazza Michelangelo was just as beautiful, if not, more.
Fact: Know where you're going before you actually go. May cause serious case of misdirection.
After leaving the Piazzale, we decided to look for this Winebar that we wanted to go to and talk to the owners because we heard they are really nice guys that are willing ot help us with anything and it's a fun place to if you want a nice glass of wine. We both knew it was on that side of the river that we were on because we ended up passing it the first day we were in Italy but didn't go into it. So what we tried to do was follow our footsteps and find this Winebar and go in before heading back to our apartment. However, we did not have any address or really any idea where we were going. So we ended up walking around and not finding this place for over an hour and I hadn't eaten since about 8:30am, keep in mind this was around 4pm now. So after a while I didn't feel well so I ended up having to go back to the apartment and just wait for dinner. But I did get to take some good pictures on the way back :)
Tip: If you are offered a four course meal for free......TAKE IT!
Ganzo, located on Via Macci, is the place, like I have said, where the school provides food, using your meal voutures. Me and my roommate ended up going there thinking it was just a normal dinner but when we arrived we found out that it was a special dinner that cost us three meal voutures, when a usual dinner is 2. We got a free glass of red wine, and bread to start, then:
Apertivo: 3 types of bruschetta. (Brew-sket-ta, Thank you professor Cruz)
1st course: Rabbit Ravioli in a butter sauce, and the raviolis were fresh, made from scratch.
2nd Course: Braised beef, sliced very very thin with a sauce that had brocoli rabe in with with whipped potatoes. I can't explain the sauce very well but it was very different.
Dessert: Boneta, which we didn't know what it was but it was like a flan with rasberry, chocolate, and some other type of sauce and it was delicious.
Fact: Even after eating a four-course meal, you're not full, you're satisfied because of all the walking you do.
When you're in Florence, you don't drive, you either walk or bike. But being a student, you most likely walk, and you walk EVERYWHERE. But what better way to see the sites than walking right? Up until dinner we walked 13 miles. In ONE day! Usually I walk around 7 miles a day at the least. So when you hear you will lose weight in Florence, people are not lying! I learned that at the bottom of their food pyramid, it's Physical Activity. It's such a huge component of the Italians lifestyle, they want to be in shape, and enjoy food at the same time. And from what I've seen, they definitely do that well.
Fact: There are such places as tourist bars and clubs
Last night, I went to a bar called Twice. I didn't leave my apartment until around 11:45pm. Keep in mind, that's when Italians start going out. Usually midnight, so we were a little early. When we got there, I noticed that they weren't letting in locals but were letting all of the students from America in. Then we got in and asked how much a drink is. We learned that shots are 4 Euro and drinks 8. We knew that was expensive but we didnt' want to do nothing in that bar. So we had a couple of drinks casually and spent so much money. What we realized though, was that all of their drinks are watered down. You have to be careful! On that street, Via dei Benci, there are at least 5 clubs within two blocks and it's filled with Americans. The club owners know that most kids are willing to pay as long as they get drunk so if they water down the drinks, we will order more. Luckily, my friend and I realized that and we decided to go home and just go to bed after knowing we were scammed that night. There are definitely places to go to have a good time, and not get drunk (keep in mind that Italians don't get drunk cause it's inappropriate and I completely agree). So find those bars and meet the locals and socialize, don't stay with Americans because then it's going against the whole point of going abroad.
Yesterday was definitely filled with ups and downs, good times and bad, but now I learned facts about Italy and can't wait for more days ahead.
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