Parents Weekend, 3/9-3/13

Unfortunately this week did not start off the greatest as I still was sick with some stomach bug, but fortunately, I was able to ward it off by consuming liter after liter of orange juice and chicken noodle soup and made it to my culinary class feeling rejuvenated. It was aggravating enough that I had taken on this illness, but I was most frightened by the thought of still being sick and not being able to take part in the consumption of the next divine meal in my culinary class. For this week’s creation, we made by far my favorite meal to date, a Ravioli di pere e pecorino. Essentially, a homemade ravioli filled with pecorino and ricotta cheese with a little salt and nutmeg, then the sauce consisted of pears, thyme, shallots, rosemary, and honey, then we drizzled a little balsamic vinegar over the top to make the sweetest, most fantastic pasta I can ever recall consuming. It was also incredibly pleasant that the dessert we made was also incredibly tasty and accompanied the pasta perfectly. It was a Crema di yogurt e mirtilli, which consisted of a honey, yogurt, and blueberry mixture, mixed with gelatin and vodka to make a type of custard, then fresh cream and crumbled biscuits to top it off made an incredible light, relaxing, and sweet concoction.

Perhaps one of my more eventful weekends to date, this was a weekend compacted with seeing all there is to see in Firenze. Here and there I’ve ventured off to see the tourist sites in the city I’ve spent the past two months living in, but up until now I still had yet to see the major sites, such as the David, Uffizzi, etc. It worked out perfectly for me actually because this was the weekend that, if the title didn’t give it away already, my parents chose to travel across the ole’ pond and spend some time in the homeland. They arrived that Wednesday, but not until around 11:30pm, so I met up with them and we went to one of the cafés in Piazza Republica for some snacks and wine. The night came to a relatively early close as they were wiped out from traveling and we had a long day of museums and attractions to see.

That Thursday I woke up fairly early to save a spot in line at the Uffizi while my parents slept in a bit. As it was not quite tourist season but almost on the verge of being so, I had absolutely no idea how early I should arrive as during the peak months they say lines can be over 3hrs long. Thus, I gave about 45minutes just to be safe to stand in line around 8:45, but turns out by the time they got there at 9:30, I had gotten to the front of the line twice and was working on my third time. Not only did my iPod die halfway through the wait in line, but it was absolutely frigid out and to top it off, I have a Florence Museum pass I had bought that gets me into basically every museum in the city and allows me to skip the line, so essentially there was no reason for me to have waited. I also found out from a girl in my culinary class that with that pass, they typically let you bring your family past the line if you show them your card. Furthermore, for anyone who goes in March to tour the Uffizi, its unnecessary to set aside more then 30min of waiting time (as long as you get there before 10 as the line started to expand quite rapidly around that time). Anyways, the Uffizi was worthwhile, its not nearly as impressive as the Louvre, but it is Italy’s largest museum and the name itself I guess makes it quite appealing. There are some really impressive pieces of artwork and artists there, Giotto, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Da Vinci just to name a few, but for the most part, there are just room after room of Madonna and Child and different renditions of it. Also, it is not nearly as big as the Louvre, basically only one long floor encompasses the artwork, and it only took us a little over an hour to tour. But again, it is worth the trip and there are a number of incredible pieces of work. On a side note, the audioguide was terrible; it goes over about 2 pieces of artwork per room, and a completely unnecessary and foolish purchase. Fortunately it had warmed up quite a bit after leaving the Uffizi which made the walk across the river to Gusta Panini enjoyable. The best panini I have ever had so far in Firenze is at this place, opposed to most cafés, they make the sandwich fresh and right in front of you and there are numerous combinations you can choose from. My mother and I both went with the classic turkey, pesto, tomato and mozzarella panini, while my dad got a prosciutto and rucola panini.

We quickly swung by Santa Trinita Gelato in order for my parents to take part in one of the best aspects about Firenze, the pistachio and nutella gelatos. Our next stop was passing through Piazza Republica, Piazza Strozzi (a very renaissance style piazza), Piazza Signoria (the one with all the statues and the town hall/clock tower), and we also stopped by the Firenze Boar where if you rub his nose, and place a coin in his mouth and it falls down the drain, you’ll have good luck (both mine an my dad’s fell through, my mom on the other hand was not so lucky). By this point it was obvious exhaustion was starting to settle in to these tourists, but they persevered to the next stop on my itinerary: a long trek up the hill to Piazza Michelangelo where they were able to enjoy the best view in all of Florence. As we were already up there, and as my mother loves visiting every church within a five mile radius, we made a pit stop by San Minato before heading back down. Perched atop the highest peak in Firenze, San Minato’s beauty and elegance overlooks the entire city. If you’re willing to make the climb, the church is incredibly lovely as it is a perfect example of Romanesque architecture with hints of Gothic. As it took over 150yrs to build a church in that day, the building of this church was constructed during the end of the Romanesque period and the beginning of the outside, as can be seen when you compare the top half and the bottom half of the façade. In order to catch our breath and cool off, we swung by my favorite wine bar at the foot of the hill where we a fine bottle of Sicilian white and some delicious thin/crispy wafer/chips of sorts baked in olive oil and salt.

The Wine Bar

The site seeing for the day concluded with this act of relaxation, and we set off for the hotel to change and go to dinner. Having been in Florence for a couple months, I knew of several phenomenal restaurants and knew that if I tried anywhere new you would find nothing less then perfection in the meals. But having said that, I knew I wanted the best of the best while my parents were here, mostly due in part to the fact I knew that the best of the best would be slightly more costly then what I’m used to, and I could actually get more then a primi piatti for dinner. So that week after my culinary class, I pulled out a pen and a sheet of paper and asked my teacher for the best and her favorite restaurants in all of Firenze. I figured that she of all people would know where the best local eats are, so I had no hesitations with calling in reservations for her three recommendations.

That night I took them to Il Latini, a casual, family run, incredibly friendly (the owner came over and talked to us for a few minutes towards the conclusion of dinner), and the most typical Tuscan meal/atmosphere you could ask for. One of the best aspects of this meal was that we never even saw a menu, we just went with the waiter’s recommendation which was definitely the path to take when at a restaurant such as this. For the appetizer we had fresh bread, salami/proscioutto platter, and a chicken liver pate. For the primi piatti I got a boars meat type pasta and both my parents got raviolis. For dinner my mother and I had roastbeef and my dad had beans and sausages. Then to top off the meal, the waiter brought over a complimentary dessert wine with bruschetta to dip in. There is no need to dive into details about each dish as they were all incredible and tasted so fresh and full of liveliness and flavor. But especially the roastbeef, I have never had such a spectacular cut of roastbeef in my life, definitely worth a visit to this restaurant as it was by far the best taste of Tuscan Cuisine I have had. 

The roastbeef

The conclusion of this day brought the arrival of our travels through the countryside of Tuscany. Another advantage to having my parents visit is that I would not have been able to rent a car and travel through Tuscany if it wasn’t for them, so quite grateful for that. The first stop on our trek was to a vineyard in Chianti for a wine tour in the town of Greti. Misfortunes arose when our GPS landed us literally right in the middle of some vineyard on a one-lane dirt road on a sloped hill. It was quite obvious that the GPS had led us astray as it was telling us the vineyard was only 50meters ahead and slightly to the right, but there was nothing but farmland and a couple workers here and there. We eventually decided that we had enough fun off-roading in our Ford Focus, so after making a 7point “k-turn,” barely making it up a fairly steep incline, ruthlessly scraping the bottom of the car on the uneven ground, and managing to not roll the car down the hill, we stopped at a nearby house to ask for directions. Apparently we were not the first tourists to run into this dilemma as the lady who answered the door chuckled and criticized the GPS, and was able to give us the real address and directions to the vineyard we were in search for. About 15minutes away from where we were, the real vineyard was very lovely, probably more so during the latter spring months, but nonetheless it was very quiet and we were able to take part in the small lunch they provided. As our detour cost us about 45min, we ended up missing the wine tour, but I’ve heard wine tours are relatively all the same so no skin off our back. The lunch consisted of the typical Tuscan salami, prosciutto, cheese, and beef platter and they served about five different types. The wine was very delectable but the highlight was the balsamic vinegar they gave you to try on one of the cheeses. I have never tasted such deliciousness from balsamic in my life, it tasted like pure gold and accompanied the cheese perfectly. Another enjoyable aspect of the meal was that the only other people taking part in the lunch tasting were two married couples from California but living in New Haven as the husbands were getting their masters from Yale and they were on break traveling across Europe via car. They were quite lively and full of interesting stories, which only made this meal even more enjoyable. After purchasing a bottle of balsamic and a couple bottles of wine, we set off for the Tuscan hilltop town: Volterra.

Wine tasting and fantastic Tuscan cuisine

Nowadays known as the residence of the vampire government, the Volterra, in the popular Twilight saga by Stephanie Meyers, but more commonly known amongst Italians as an incredibly old, Etruscan city perched atop one of the many hills in the region of Tuscany. It’s not as well known or visited as it’s neighbor hill town of San Gimignano, but as I already visited that town I wanted a new pace of scenery. The highlights of this trip included the Roman ruins, the duomo, baptistery, clock tower, and the panoramic views of the Tuscan landscape. There wasn’t that much activity going on as it was still early on in the season, but the lack of tourists made the culture feel more vibrant. All in all, the town was quite lovely and very beautiful, but if I had to pick one over the other, San Gimignano probably wins. Not by much at all, and perhaps because I did spend quite a bit more time there, but the towers are very awesome, but then again, they don’t have a wicked clock tower like Volterra does. Only about an hour away from Chianti, it fit well with our itinerary as we were planning on going to Pisa after this and looping back to Firenze. Unfortunately, my dad missed the exit to Pisa, and our offroading adventure set us back an hour, so my parents were unable to see the leaning tower and so we meandered back to Firenze. The tower is worth seeing, but then again, it is only a tower and not quite as amazing as its all hyped up to be. It was also very pleasant to have some extra time to relax back in Florence before dinner and I was able to finally show my parents my apartment.

Dinner was exceptional once again as we tried Il Fagioli, located near Santa Croce, and has what my cooking teacher claims as the best Fiorentine Steak in all of Florence. Of course this was the only Fiorentine Steak I have ever had so I have nothing to compare it to, but I’ll take her word for it as it was absolutely mouthwatering. Essentially, a Fiorentine Steak is a rare t-bone steak that even though its rare is not chewy but extremely succulent. The overall atmosphere was not as amazing as the night before, but I wasn’t anticipating that as this place appeared to cater more to the locals then the tourists who swung by. The food nonetheless exceeded my expectations as in addition to the Fiorentine Steak we had a bean soup and chicken soup for the primi piatti that were both very delicious. Following dinner I brought my folks to the gelateria Grom for another sample of one of the best gelatos in all of Firenze and the world.

The following day my phone turned off in the middle of the night, thus my alarm as well, so I was able to sleep in an hour an a half later while my parents frantically tried to get in touch with me. Eventually they found me asleep in my room and after quickly grabbing an espresso, we were off to the Accademia to see the legendary Statue of David. The David is in fact very impressive up close, but I was quite disappointed that we were not allowed to take photographs even without a flash. There really was nothing else noteworthy in the Accademia, so we strolled around the David and left for the Duomo to tour the inside. As I mentioned in my post about climbing the Duomo, it is quite rigorous so I had no intentions of climbing it again and my parents showed no interest either, so instead we toured the inside of the Duomo. It’s quite interesting how impressive the façade is, as the inside is for the most part empty and not as elegant. Of course, the reason it’s empty is because all the relics are stored in the Duomo museum across the street, which was our next stop on our quest to see as much of Florence as possible within two days. The Duomo museum was worth the visit as there were a number of famous pieces of artwork, but I still think it would be better to have left them in their original place. Following that museum, we went into the Baptistery where even though I had visited a few weeks prior, this time I had my camera. The Baptistery is essentially the opposite of the Duomo, basic/simple façade but absolutely breathtaking inside; definitely worth the visit, even worth two visits.

The David

For lunch we went to Gusta Panini’s brother restaurant, Gusta Pizza; a very much beloved pizza restaurant for study abroad students as the place is absolutely packed all hours of the day with college students. Even though this is a college joint for the most part, it is by far the best pizza I have ever consumed, every bite is so delicious. We each got our own pizza and shared it amongst ourselves; they included a Caprese (bufala cheese with tomatoes), Gusta (rucola and pecorino cheese), and a Cabrese (had spicy salami on it). Not only are the pizzas delicious but they are also incredibly filling, so with every ounce of energy we had left, we got up to tour the remaining sites on our list. I brought them by Pitti Palace (the largest palace in Firenze and used to be home to the Medici family), my mother bought a water-color painting depicting a Tuscan house in the countryside from a local artist, walked over the Ponte Vecchio where we saw a number of crew boats rowing past, had to swing by a ceramic store so my mother could pick up an olive oil holder and a platter, and then to the neighborhood of San Lorenzo. Here I brought them into the San Lorenzo food market where they had the delight of experiencing the wonders of this market, fresh food vendors everywhere you turn at very inexpensive costs. We bought a loaf of bread and some prosciutto and cheese to take back with us, and then we ventured off to San Lorenzo Church. A sight I feel most pass by without taking notice of, this church is very elegant on the inside, numerous chapels spread throughout, and just the artwork, ceilings, and altar were all just fantastic, making this one of my favorite churches I have stepped foot into along my travels. We then spent some time walking around the San Lorenzo street vendors that line the streets by the dozens and of course souvenirs, scarves, and leather were purchased as we browsed the various vendors. As dinner was fast approaching, we finally pulled ourselves away from the endless vendors and refrained from any more purchases. Aside from it being great my parents were able to come and visit and spend time with me, another huge advantage was that I was able to give them my suitcase filled with the majority of my clothes. Over the first few weeks of being in Firenze, I came to the realization that I would be spending 3weeks backpacking across Germany following the conclusion of my term, which would be absolutely excruciating if I had to lug a giant suitcase around with me. So I kept a weeks worth of clothing that could fit in my backpack, and sent my suitcase off with my folks, which also was a huge benefit to them as it gave them something to stash all the Italian goods in: wine, balsamic, souvenirs, prosciutto (well they ended up making a last minute decision to leave this behind), etc.

For dinner we ate at one of the best restaurants of my life, and by far the best seafood restaurant I have ever eaten at: Fuor d’Acqua. I had very limited knowledge about these restaurants when making reservations as my culinary teacher merely told me a few adjectives to describe them, but the sequence of restaurants couldn’t have been better, saving the best and most elegant for last is always a plus. Starting with the incredibly soft and fantastic bread, the meal was off to a very promising start. For an appetizer we had a raw seafood platter that was very interesting as aside from sushi, I’ve never had raw seafood, but very good nonetheless as it was actually one of the highlights of the meal. My parents got a cooked seafood over a salad for an appetizer that was also very scrumptious. For the primi piatti, we had the best pasta I think I have ever indulged upon. It was one of the best cooked pasta noodles I’ve had, with a type of crawfish sauce and the crawfish, even though you had to eat with your hands, were some of the best tasting meat I have had. By that point we were ready for the check, but of course this is Italy, so we had another course to enjoy. For the secondi piatti, we had a type of fish, again marvelous, cooked over a bed of rock salt with the head still left on. Even though we were so full, the fish was relatively light and it was hard to justify leaving any remains behind.
All three meals were incredibly memorable, but one of the greatest things about all three aside from the taste, was how each meal exemplified the Italian culture. From the numerous courses to simply relying on the waiter’s recommendations for what we should eat all contributed to a great experience and aided in my attempt to provide a purely Italian filled weekend for my folks. And that was my main motive for this weekend, was to not only see the Fiorentine sights, but to try and throw them deep into the culture and lifestyle of a typical Italian. Obviously taking the Italian’s stance of being relaxed and laid back was not on the agenda as we had a lot to see, but seeing all of Florence, a trip through Tuscany, indulging upon incredible meals and wine, going to winebars, and visiting all the local hotspots all combined into a very enjoyable weekend.

Venice Trip, March 4-6

This title is slightly misleading as I actually did not end up going to Venice. My housemate Jon Cooke and I were all ready to head off that Sunday, had our bags all packed, all showered and woke up at the crack of dawn (well 9:00, but still felt extremely early for us). After leaving the house we started sprinting for the station, only a block away, in order to catch the 9:30 train to Venice, but when we got to the ticket counter, we were taken aback by the fact that all the tickets for that day to Venice had been sold out. Apparently we did not make the correlation that when the Carnivale is in town, a lot of people from all over Italy want to go see it, especially on a weekend. So after that devastating blow, we stood and looked around aimlessly for a couple minutes trying to come up with any alternative solutions to making it to Venice. There weren’t any. We then picked up our chins, and walked over to a café near the Duomo, called Astor, where we indulged upon a fine American breakfast for the price of 7euro. It was quite refreshing to get a little taste of America once again, and for the price of 7euro where we got eggs, sausages, pancakes, bacon, toast, and your choice of a fine coffee. Unfortunately an iced coffee for whatever reason was not included in that price, so I got an iced espresso assuming it would be equivalent. Well it wasn’t quite the same, so I was quite surprised when they brought Jon’s steeping hot cup of American coffee and then my drink which was essentially a very pretty, and girly coffee martini. Very tasty, but not the most masculine of acts; probably the reason the group of girls at the table next to us were giggling quite ruthlessly. Following breakfast we were walking back and we ran into a couple of Jon’s friends from Marist (studying in London for the semester) who were visiting for the week. In an effort to redeem ourselves from our misfortunes with the Venice fiasco, we accompanied them to climb the Duomo. The climbing of the Duomo is definitely a worthwhile feat, but it is not for the lighthearted, or well those who easily become closterphobic, easily dizzy, or have trouble walking up 463 steep steps. It’s interesting how the outside of the Duomo is very architecturally impressive, while whoever designed the inside must have been the apprentice to the town baker. It is one of the most ridiculous, unorganized, and just silly passage ways I have ever climbed. You go around and around this spiral staircase for an eternity, and then you start zig-zagging throughout the inner workings up around the cupola. There is no way that this would pass any sort of fire inspection in the U.S. Nonetheless, it took a little over an hour to climb (I’d assume it’d be twice that long during the summer/tourist months which would be unbearable with the heat), and the view was amazing and definitely worth it.

What it looked like essentially

Essentially, that was my week, well the only eventful part of my week since that Friday I came down with some type of bug and didn’t get rid of it till that Tuesday. Although part of me felt disappointed I didn’t get to go on another adventure through Italy or Europe, it was quite relaxing and satisfying that I finally got to spend another weekend just enjoying myself in Firenze. On a side note, we did have a delicious meal in my culinary class where we made, three different types of dishes opposed to our normal two. For the first we created a Focaccine ai porri, where some of the primary ingredients included sweet gorgonzola cheese, shallots and leeks; all put together was absolutely marvelous. The following meal was titled Cialdine con mortadella e mele, which was a sort of very crispy, thin pistachio cookie with a slice of a fried green apple and a slice of fresh salami placed on top. This was perhaps one of my favorite dishes I have had, it was such an interesting and enjoyable taste, as the pistachio cookie, salami and green apple all yielded varying tastes but came together to produce such an amazing, delectable flavor. Lastly, what would an Italian meal without some pasta. The Triangoli di pasta fillo al pollo actually resembled more of an Asian type meal, as you stir fry the chicken, pepper, onion together, and then take fillo dough sheets and wrap the stir fry mixture in it to make triangles and place in the oven for about ten minutes. Needless to say, again this meal was absolutely fantastic.

Didn't take this picture, but felt like this blog needed some more pizazz to it

That Thursday night when my housemate’s friends from London were here so the three of them and my entire house had a very enjoyable meal at Il Gato el Volpe, a very typical Tuscan, family style restaurant that cost only 15euro per person. With that price, you got unlimited house wine and water, and your typical Italian courses, a platter of salami, prosciutto, cheese, then a platter of chicken liver pates, then fresh mozzarella and tomatoes, and then you move onto the two or three different types of delicious pastas. Before we even got to the pastas though we were full beyond belief, but persevered and finished the meal with our heads held high.