Anything with the Word Michelangelo is Beautiful

Fact: Any class with free trips and chocolate is my favorite class.
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.

Being sick should not exist in other countries

So this blog will be very short because on Wednesday, although I had one class, Italian, at 6pm at night only, I was laying in bed from 7pm tuesday night until around 4pm wednesday night because I was very sick. The whole time I was at school this past year, I never even had a bad cough. Wednesday, however, i was sitting in bed trying to breathe air that refused to go through my lungs. I did a lot of cool stuff yesterday (thursday) though, walking over 16 miles. But I need my rest and I will update everyone on what a I did in the last twenty four hours in the morning. So for me, at this time, it's Buon Giorno!!! :D

Traveling is fun. I'd prefer warm weather though.

To sum up my day in one word? Brrrrrrrr!!! It all started this morning at 6:30am. I had another 9am class today so I was supposed to be up by 7:15, howevever, as I mentioned before, my apartment doesn't believe in heat; well, it does, but only in thirty minute intervals. I have been very nervous lately about missing my class and not hearing my alarm so I have been waking up really early and not being able to go to sleep. So this morning, I woke up around 6:30, got my computer, sat in bed, and talked to friends from home because it was only a little after midnight back at school. Then I proceded to get dressed and get ready for my only class for the day. The only bright side to this happening was that i was actually dressed and ready to go to my class, which is at the furthest location, on time. I arrived there and sat down in my room.
I was the first one there, then the teacher walked in with about 15 other students. (The pictures to the left are of one of my school buildings. This is where my class was today) Out of all my classes, this was the only one I was not looking forward to. It was Restaurant Management. Don't ask why I took it. It was mostly because I was obliged to. Later on in the class I realized that everyone else in that class had to take it because they had to; so I didn't feel all that bad in the end. I mean come on, who would seriously want to take a Restaurant Management class? For fun!?!? My teacher decided to do my class in two portions, two one-hour segments and a break inbetween mostly so he could smoke. I seriously have never seen so much of one population smoke. It's insane!! Thankfully, after sitting through that looong class, I met up with Brittany and we were going to go to Gonzo, which is the restaurant that we can use our 70 meal voutures at. We got there and it was closed still because we could only go from 12-3pm. So we decided to go to a market nearby called Mercato Sant'Ambrogio. The main difference between here and Mercato Centrale is that there are more options insdie the building and also, they sell like jewelery and older clothing. Everything there being sold is used whereas in Mercato Centrale, everything you buy is brand new. These are some pictures I took from there.


About twenty minutes later, we finished perusing the market and went back towards Gonzo to go to lunch. I could not believe how delicious this food was!!! I had a stuffed pork with some sort of glazed apple on top and it was so stoft and it was enough food to satisfy me for lunch. After, we couldn't decide if we wanted chocolate for dessert or gelato but my friend wanted gelato so we decided to walk through the Piazza e la Signoria, the long way, to get to this famous gelato shop. The Piazza e la Signoria is well known for their statues, but they are fake. Every one of the statues, such as the David, are not the originals here. They are remade for this specific Piazza. Not only that, but one of my favorite designers, Chanel was also located in the Piazza, so I knew I was in love at that moment. Below are some pictures of the "fake" statues. I don't know, but they looked pretty real to me.

After we visited that Piazza, we proceded to Via D'oche to pick up our school books. I think that was the remainder of my expenses relating to school which definitely made me happy. When we went down the street to get gelato, we found out it was closed!!! Oh boy were we unahppy because we didn't want to walk anywhere, so we decided to forget it and go tomorrow! There's always a bright side! :D We then walked all the way to Via Gallo to pick up our other school books and on the way back to our apartment my friend wanted to stop at the San Lorenzo Market so she could buy some scarves and gloves. She was afraid of bargaining so I helped her out and made a deal. After we finished at the market, we stopped at a bakery we knew was around ther eand I bought us a brownie that we could split. It tasted like fudge!!! <3 after a good 7 miles of walking we ended up back at our apartment and I started not to feel well, so i layed in bed and covered myself in my sheets, put on gloves, at hat, and socks and watched Julie & Julia in my bed. It was such a good movie. :) Then I made dinner for me and my roommate. I made string beans and candied walnuts with roasted red pepper bruschetta. It was an experiment but was soooooo good!!! We loved it. I was supposed to go to a Beer Pong Tournament tonight at a bar called the Red Garter however, since I'm sick I had to sit out this one and just watch movies in bed and get better. Hopefully this cold will be gone by tomorrow. One week of Italy already gone :( But so many more good times to go!! Buona Sera!

Let the Classes Begin

So yesterday began my first day of classes at Apicius Hospitality School. My first class of the semester was at 9am and was called Italian Pastry and Cakes. I could have not been more excited about this class because I knew that I got to bake for two and a half hours straight. Of course, with my luck, I missed my alarm at woke up at 8:28am and had to run to class, luckily making it there on time. Once I got there, I realized I still had to pay for a locker and for my lab fess for both of my cooking classes. That was an unfortunate event to my wallet lets just say. After I got dressed into my whole uniform and walked into class, everyone was waiting to start. There were 7 kids in my class including me and my professor. The room that we worked in was so small, it was like my bedroom. My professor has studied pastry for a while now and he also told us that he worked with Chef Gordon Ramsey from Hell's Kitchen for a year and a half. He is also from Ireland I believe. I didn't think we were going to do much since it was our first day of school but we got right into baking and the first thing we made was Pasta Frolla or Pastry Dough. Then, we took that finished product and made it into a Torta di Mandorle con base di Pasta Frolla which is Almond Cake with Pastry Dough base. We were supposed to put lemon in it but ended up not doing that. I'm not exactly sure why but only a select few of us actually like the cake. I thought it was good but the lemon would have made it taste so much better. The second cake we made out of the pastry dough was Torta di Mandorle Amare which is a Cake of Bitter Almonds. We flavored that one with orange zest but when teh cake batter was complete, it was sooo thick and the professor was laughing because he didnt' get why it didn't come out correct but for fun we stuck it in the oven to see what it would do. When time was up, we took it out of the oven and to our surprise it rose in the oven and cooked fully. We tasted it and the cake was delicous which made us all realize that you don't 'know if something is going to work until you try and if it doesn't you figure out what's wrong and try again. On the way back from class, i stopped at the Mercato Centrale again to pick up cheese and vegetables to cook. Once I got back, I was exhausted from being up so early and standing during class to walking home. I had Intermediate Italian at 6pm in a different, farther location so I had to make sure I was out of my apartment by around 5:30 the latest. So for the remainder of the day I sat in my bed, wrote my blog and talked to some friends from home. All I wanted to do the whole time was sleep but I knew if I tried, I would probably miss my class and that was just somethign that I couldn't risk. Around 5:17 I left my apartment and headed towards the Duomo where my Italian class is. I didnt' want to be late so I started to do more of a jog towards my building. I arrived there thirty minutes early and I couldn't even sit in the room because another class was going on. I love my Italian teacher. Not as much as my college professor but he's really fun. He puts on music during class to ease the tension. The first activity we did was we had to turn and face someone next to us and talk to them in Italian so he could see how much knowledge we actually had. I met a girl named Kerri who was doing her second semester here in Italy. She was really nice and told me all about the Italian class since she took beginner the semester before. For the rest of the class, we learned about the past tense and I left already knowing such more more than I came into the class with. Don't you just love that feeling? On the way back to my apartment after class, I knew that my roommate and I love the tiramisu from a place right by our apartment so I decided to pick up a piece for us to split for dessert, she looved that I had it when I got back. Since a couple of days ago, I bought a kilo of sausage (which i did not know was two and a half pounds at the time), I knew I had to cook it. So me and my friend cooked two sausages, ground it up, and put it into a tomato sauce that we seasoned and then made heart-shaped pasta and poured it over. It was surprisingly delicious!!! I loved the flavor of that sausage, even though I had it the last two nights. After that was done, we sat around and just talked for a while and then we decided to have that tiramisu because it was just calling our names. Knowing that all the pastries are baked fresh daily just makes the eating part of the dessert that much better. Everytime we have tiramisu, we split it down the middle but I think we're both starting to realize that we both want our own pieces next time. For the remainder of the night, I talked to a bunch of people on Skype and wrote a lot of emails to my friends who I miss dearly and then got ready to go to bed until my friend Skyped me but unfortunately the time difference stopped me from talking. That's one thing about Florence that is terrible on my part, is that I can't talk to a lot of people because the time difference prevents that from happening. But even with that negative aspect, I am still in love with Firenze. <3

Angels is Food from Heaven

Because I had spent so much time walking around last week and particpating in all of that orientation work, my roommate and I decided to take it easy yesterday and spend a day inside relaxing. We think we may be jet lagged slightly still because we are always so tired. But yesterday morning, we decided to meet our friend from another school we met a few nights back for breakfast. One person we met recommended Angels because every sunday morning from 12-3, they have an all American Brunch starting at 10 Euros. I didn't think it was possible to get anything close to an American breakfast in Italy but boy I was wrong. This place was UNBELIEVABLE. I got french toast with fresh fruit and this chocolate muffin from the breakfast bar. Everything was made fresh, nothing was store bought and it tasted delicous. :D I paid a lot for it but the meal was totally worth it. If you want an amazing American meal cause you miss home, go to Angels. You won't regret it. For the rest of the day, I stayed in and read and looked at some books and papers I recieved from the school. Around 6pm, I cooked again the same meal as the night before: Sausage, peppers, and onions. I don't know why, but it tastes soooo good and my roommates are very jealous of my culinary capabilities. I don't blame them. :) For dessert though, my friend and I were craving gelato, like ALWAYS! So we went online and looked for a gelato place that was cheaper than 8 Euros. (I think we've learned out lesson). There was a place called Festivale del Gelato. There were a plethora amount of flavors but they were closing and the times were wrong on a website so I grabbed whatever they had left which was almost like a puff pastry filled with chocolate, made into a gelato. It was alright, but i loved the 8 euro one more unfortunately. :( (The 8 Euro gelato is the one in my picture) After we returned back, I got ready for my first day of school which was today, but I will talk about all of my classes once my day is over. Salve!

It's Raining.......it must be rainy season

Well it's 3am here right now which means if you are in the United States you are reading this at 9pm. So in your case, if you are in the U.S....then Today, was my last day of orientation. This was probably one of the dumbest days of orientation I have ever witnessed. I had to wake up around 8:15am, with all my extra sleeping was 9am, and had to arrive and Tintori, a street in Florence by 10. On the walk over it started raining, so I got to use my new umbrella and was very satisfied. :) See, I don't mind rain usually but in Florence, here's the issue: Rainy season is in January, February, and some of March. I'm here from the end of January until the end of May. That's a lot of rain taking up my time here. I disapprove. Knowing that the weather today was going to be awful, me and my roommate decide that after our orientation, we would go to Mercato Centrale and pick up more groceries. We got there around 11:30 and went to a tent in the back to look at all of the produce and proceded to go inside the main building. I decided that I wanted to cook something other than pasta and salad, and as a college student, I can't afford to go out every single night. We bought a lot, and I spoke more Italian and I was very proud because I feel like I'm getting a little better at it, but not much. I really need to study. After buying, sausage, bread, cheese, nuts, and produce, we left the market and headed back to our apartment. Almost back, we saw that there was a small flea market of some sort right by our apartment which was awesome! There was a booth with all of these breads there and my favorite one was there so I decided to buy more bread and split it with my friend for lunch. When we got back we both took at 3 hour nap and then I made a fresh dinner. While my roommates had salad a pasta (surprise!) I cooked sausage, peppers, and onions and it was DELICOUS! I was very proud of myself and my roommates were jealous. I was supposed to go to bed after that but I met a kid at one of the bars that is here for school too and I decided to go to his apartment to hang out and it was a lot of fun. I ended up there for about three hours. Night well spent. Now I'm extremely tired and heading to an All American Brunch tomorrow which i heard is amazing at a restaurant called Angels. I'm very excited for this and to get some french toast!! Another great night in Firenze!

Firenze. Part Due

Keeping this blog is a lot harder than I had anticipated because I'm so busy here. But I left off on thursday afternoon. After I had failed looking for that bank, i made my way back to my apartment. When I got back I noticed that all of my roommates were taking a nap. I didn't blame them; it was a tiring day. I knew that I had a lot of emails to write and some little things to do so I sat in my freezing kitchen, like the rest of the apartment, and got as much email writing done as possible. Speaking of freezing though, I found out that if it's winter outside than it's winter inside, which pretty much means, heat does not exist and dont' even bother trying to find any. So as I'm writing this blog, I'm wearing two sweatshirts. During my lonely writing session the long day started to get to me as I began to fall asleep. That's when I decided to take a nap with the rest of my roommates. We all had to attend another meeting at 6:30 on a street off from the Duomo, so I set my alarm and went straight to bed. When me and my roommate's alarm went off, we could not even move a muscle and get out of bed, so for the next ten minutes we sat in bed groaning and moaning until time made us get up. at aroudn 6pm, me and all my roommates left to head towards that meeting. They had no idea how to get there, luckily I looked at a map earlier and knew exactly the location so I led the way. On the way over we saw so many gelato shops and decided to have that for dinner because it looked so delicious but we would pick it up after the meeting. Around 7:30pm, the meeting was over and all of us headed over to the gelatteria to get our gelatos. I got chocolate chip and tiramisu. It was the single most delicious dessert I've ever had! I got it in a cup, but you have the option of getting the gelato in a waffle and if you get a cup, they stick a piece of waffle in your cup and it was so sweet and so soft, it was like taking a bite out of heaven. ITALY TIP: Gelato's cost around 2 or 3 Euro. NOT 8 Euro, which we didn't know until after we bought it. Oh well....it was still delicous. :) On the way back to our apartment, I stopped at a bank where withdrawal of money did not also take out a fee. I was soo lucky to find this bank because the atm charges a lot of money to take out any amount. Yesterday, we had orientation once again and we had to fill out all this paperwork to send off to show that we are staying in the country for a specific amount of months. Before I continue, let me say that yesterday, I had on a pedometer to see how much me and my friend would walk. Anyway, I had forgotten to make a photocopy of the single smallest stamp on a piece of paper so I had to run 3 blocks to a store, pay 10 euro cents and run back to return all my paperwork before the office closed. When that was over, me and Brittany went to la Piazza Santa Croce and took a bunch of pictures and then started to head over to the Fun for Florence Office. On the way, we passed this cute little cafe and we saw panini's in the window of a store called Caffe Verdi, so we decided to stop and get some lunch. We both got a ricotta, spinach, and proscuitto panini. Most amazing thing ever! The owner's were so cute; an elderly man and woman, I'm not sure if they were a couple though. After we finished, we continued on to the Fun for Florence office and paid for our ticket to go to Venice next week for the huge Carnivale they have every year. The man that was helping us also works at a club that we happened to be going to that night and he said he would give us free coat check and we both thought that was very sweet of him. The last item on my list for that day was to rent a hairdryer. Yes, rent a hairdryer. Strangely enough, this store was the single coolest store I had been to so far. The lights in there that this man sold were outrageous and very funky, very my style. We bought a hairdryer which he told us would could sell back when we were done so we were estatic about that. Around 3:45, we arrived back at our apartment and just hung out until our walking tour for school. We were shown all of the buildings where we could have classes. Honestly, I found it very boring and pointless, but it was time something to do and added more miles to my pedometer. The amount of miles I walked that day with my friend? 10.5! Miles! It was ridiculous. but by the end of the night...it was like around 14 miles. I can't feel my feet at all right now. By the time that was finished, at 6:30, everyone had to get ready to go to Space Discoteca, the biggest dance club in Firenze for a orientation party from 7:30-9:30. We recieved free drinks (which were horrible), food, and music. Earlier I mentioned club twentyone which was throwing a huge party for the beginning of the semester, but you couldn't get there until around 12am at the earliest. It wasn't too far away so my friend and I walked there but it got very very crowded and clostrophobic. I think every single student from any school was there last night. It was crazy so I left pretty early. Twentyone would definitely be more fun without hundreds of people on top of each other. But that's just my opinion. It's only five days into it and I've done so much and will continue to write more on my adventures in Firenze! :D