Well, this past week has been crazy as usual. I have been really sick with no voice, a disgusting cough and lots of congestion. Apparently, I have been welcomed to the Florentine fall, according to the locals. I am finally getting over it as I leave for Paris tomorrow, but this past weekend was definitely interesting being sick, but I will get to that in a bit.
Tuesday of last week, we had to meet at the Palazzo Vecchio for a class (pictures are on Shutterfly) which is now the town hall of Florence, and is active but it used to be a palace where the Medici’s resided. It was interesting to visit, as it is so old, but I mean, how interesting can the town hall be? I find the architecture and décor the most interesting. I am constantly in awe of the ceiling decorations in palaces, churches and even my own apartment! The thought of every detail being taken care of is something I strive for, and I love that everywhere in the home is worthy of beautiful artwork. Whenever I finally settle and purchase my own home, it is something I think I will take into consideration, because it adds so much life and color to the space. Anyways, the frescoes were also so interesting and beautiful; I try not to become numb, because I see it so much; it’s a normal thing to see 1000 year old frescoes on the walls around here. Sometimes I forget that they are even there or that they are so old and valuable. It’s a very strange feeling. We took a guided tour through Palazzo Vecchio, but I honestly couldn’t understand a lot of what our tour guide said because of his very thick accent. He basically just told us what its previous use was, etc…One thing I did find interesting, is the Palazzo Vecchio is where a lot of people get married! I think that I would definitely get married at the courts if it looked like this place. The large and vast room that is pictured is where the ceremony is held and our guide said it is a very common thing for couples to go there. I believe it was Cosimo I ( a Medici) that lived in the Palazzo Vecchio with his wife ( royalty from Naples, I believe…anyone who knows can correct me!!) and she hated the palace, so she actually ended up moving down the street to the Pitti Palace, which has the beautiful Boboli Gardens and other such things. But her rooms in Palazzo Vecchio are very interesting because they are green and very decorated. Her major complaint of Palazzo Vecchio was that there were no gardens, trees, landscape of any kind (which is still true…its in the center of a piazza(square)) so her rooms were decorated to reflect nature more than the cold stone grey walls. It was a very interesting tour and informative, plus it’s nice to know about the history of the city you live in, especially if it’s a history like Florence’s.
Wednesday, we headed to a little town in the countryside called Lucca for a traditional Tuscan cooking course. As we pull up the very steep, dirt road the bus comes to a sudden stop. We are instructed to get out and hike up the rest of the hill. It wasn’t that bad, but it seemed strange. As we get up the hill, a house comes into view straight out of movie. The typical Tuscan cottage with herb bushes surrounding the property, flowers. Beautiful wicker furniture; it was definitely picturesque. A lovely woman from Texas (haha) comes out to greet us and shows us around the property. She tells us that it’s like a bed and breakfast, but for groups. I guess there are artists that she knows that have these great followings, so she will have the artist stay with her and people come and take classes from the artist and stay for the weekend and cook and drink wine. I think it sounds like a dream vacation and I am currently trying to figure out how to be a part of that! Anyways, we cooked everything from scratch and the ingredients were either from her property or local farmers. As this was a typical Tuscan/Italian meal, it came in several courses and was consumed over several hours. Our first antipasti (or appetizer) was fried sage. I thought that I would not like this, but it was amazing. We went and picked sage off of the trees and then dipped them in beer batter (beer, flour, salt) and then dropped them in a pan with about 2-3” of oil in the bottom. It was the most interesting flavor, almost like a friend Christmas tree! I liked it because, who doesn’t like fried food, and the sage made it seem lighter and not like a typical heavy fried appetizer. The second thing was we chopped veggies to put into a salad that consisted of radishes, carrots, onion, celery and farre (I think that is what it’s called). It is almost like barley, I think she said that it was from the chestnut (somehow…) and it’s actually what the poor farmers used to eat, because wheat products were for the wealthy. It is a grain and they would grind it up to make flour for bread and pasta and they would leave it as is to use in soup and anything thing else you could think of. It was definitely a taste I had not tried before. I liked it, but it was not my favorite. The third thing we made was stuffed zucchini flower. We stuffed it with a mixture of ricotta, parmesan, salt and pepper. We stuffed spoonfuls of the mixture into the flower, wrapped it and then set it in a baking pan. We topped it all off with diced tomatoes and baked it. I really enjoyed the stuffing (who doesn’t like cheese?)but the texture of the flower was different than anything I had ever eaten and only ate the yellow flower part, not the green fuzzy part (ew.). Our next course to make was the gnocchi. If you don’t know what gnocchi is, it is the best thing about Italy! It is potato pasta. They are shaped like little dumplings and are sooooo good. They are also extremely easy to make from scratch. You just boil potatoes, peel them and mash them with a little bit of butter. Then you add a couple handfuls of flour into the potatoes and knead it through. Once the flour is in, you just roll it out into little snakes and cut off little chunks. For the sauce we had a 4 formaggio (cheese) consisting of: gorgonzola, provolone, something similar to Swiss (but not…) and of course parmesan. We made the sauce, boiled the gnocchi and then put everything into a big casserole type dish. We then sprinkled parmesan cheese on top and then baked it until it had a nice crust. Perfecto!!! For the main course (Secondi piatti) we had veal stuffed with cheese, basil leaves and asparagus. It was basically strips of veal with all of these ingredients rolled up inside. We then lightly coated them with flour and sautéed with olive oil and white wine. This course was also amazingly delicious. The vegetable was green beans (the long skinny ones) that had olive oil, garlic and cinnamon on them. It was a very warm flavor and she told us that it was actually a Sicilian recipe, but she loved it, so she wanted us to love it too! After our veal, we had tiramisu that we had prepared earlier in the evening. They brewed fresh caffe to dip our cookies in; we made the cream filling and then sprinkled it with cocoa. Again, delicious. It took us about 3-4 hours to make all of these dishes, and once the table was set we were starving, so we were ready to eat! And we definitely ate…it was probably the best meal I have had since I’ve been in Italy, and that is saying quite a lot. Our night ended with us having an espresso and boarding the bus to come back to Florence, but it was an experience I will never forget, and I will definitely pass the recipes around when I receive them!
The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, but Friday we traded Italy for Amsterdam! It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, I had pictured something completely different, but as we pulled in to the downtown area, the sky was blue, the sun was shining and our surroundings were astounding. The architecture was so remarkable, as the very old was juxtaposed against the very new and modern. The canals were busy with private boats, tours and marine life. People were out walking around enjoying the city, everyone was on a bike. The trams go through the middle of town (literally…) it was like a different world. Holland is a place I could live as well! The people were so friendly, the food was unique and very good and there was an endless amount of things to do. As soon as we got there we had to figure out how to speak Dutch… and I thought Italian was hard to pronounce…HA!! We eventually found our hostel, which was pretty nice. It had a very cozy bar/lounge in the basement and everyone was very friendly. It was called the Flying Pig, and I felt a little bit of a connection to Cincinnati again, seeing all the flying pig décor. We stayed in 12 person room, which was a lot like going to camp and sleeping on the bunk beds. We dropped our bags and started to explore the city. We hit up several souvenir shops, coffee shops and boutiques. We also made our way to the Van Gogh Museum, which was really cool. It was exciting to see artwork that I have studied for years in person and right in front of me! After the museum, we were starving and ate at the first place we came across…Pizza Hut. It turned out to be very good and it was nice to have comfort-ish food. The other girls decided they were too tired to do anything else, but Tracy and I figured we can sleep when we die, so we wanted to take advantage of the fact that we were in Amsterdam. We went out and had a few Heinekens at a nice outdoor bar and chatted a bit. It was nice to wind down with a good friend and a good beer in such an amazing place. After a while, we decide it was time to turn in, so we could get up bright and early the next day.
Saturday morning we woke up, enjoyed our free breakfast at the hostel and made our way to the Anne Frank house. It was the actual house where they were hiding and it had been renovated to what it was at the time. However, when the Frank family was discovered they were removed, and all of their belongings (furniture, clothes, etc) were also removed. Because of this fact, and the fact that the father, Otto, was the sole survivor of the family, the house was never refurnished. He wished it to be a source of inspiration and education and that it is. Anne’s diary had been given to Otto’s secretary so that it would not be lost when they were taken, Anne had wanted to be a journalist and there are no words to describe the feelings one gets when entering into her world by either reading her journal or visiting this museum. It was a very meaningful and sorrowful morning, as it is such a sad event in history to even think about, let alone come face to face with some of its victims, especially when some of those victims are children. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures in this museum, so I cannot share my experiences visually, but take my word, it was moving.
After Anne Frank’s House, we took a canal cruise. It was really nice and after the morning, I think we all needed something mindless and happy. It was really crowded and the boats are sunken into the water, so it’s really hard to see out, but it was still cool nonetheless. After the tour we had lunch at a place called the Soupkitchen. SO GOOD! It wasn’t an actual soup kitchen, it was just called that, but it was inexpensive and all of the ingredients were organic and locally grown. I decided to step out of the box a little and order the Sweet Potato soup with sour cream and coriander. It was probably the best decision I have made in a while! It was like a warm, cozy blanket. I have been craving it ever since. After the best lunch ever, we went to the Rijks Museum. I’m not sure any of you are familiar with Dutch painters, but I love them. The color palette is usually pretty dark and subdued, but they are beautiful still lives or portraiture, or pretty much anything else! I just really like the style, so this was of particular interest to me. When I say Dutch painters, I am referring to Vermeer, van Dyck, etc… Google them, let me know what you think. Anyways, apparently the entire museum was undergoing renovations, so about 1/10 of the building was open, but that’s ok. I still got to see a pretty good mixture of artists.
After the museum, we decided to venture to the Red Light District. I, personally, was disappointed, because everyone makes such a big deal about it, but we actually only saw maybe 3 girls in the windows, but it was only about 6 pm, so maybe that’s why. After strolling around the Red Light District, we decided that we were again starving so we headed over to Pancake Corner because we had heard it was really good. Seeing as how I don’t really like breakfast food ever, I knew I had to find something else to eat. I kept hearing that we should eat Indonesian food, and there was some on the menu, so that is what I ordered. It was delicious!! It was a chicken and rice substance, maybe a peanut sauce…I am not really sure, but it was good. So, I recommend it if you are ever in Amsterdam. After dinner we decided we would go back to the hostel for a bit and then go back out, but we all actually ended up falling asleep and not getting back up until the next morning. I was kinda annoyed with myself, because like I have said before I can sleep when I am dead. How many times am I going to be in Amsterdam?
Sunday was a travel day and when we finally got back to Florence it was cold and rainy, which it has been a lot lately for some reason. I went to bed quite early Sunday night, seeing as how I had just traveled with a really bad cold and felt like a pile of crap.
The last couple days have been pretty uneventful, except getting ready for Paris! We leave tomorrow night around 8 pm and I am ecstatic!!! I have been waiting for this trip for my entire life. But, I will tell more about that tomorrow, for now I have to get my beauty rest!
Ciao for now.
~k
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