First Day O'Classes

Today was the start of the academic semester here in Florence for the students at the Palazzo Rucellai university. Fortunately, i woke up at 8am for a 9am class and was greeted with the news that our first class had been canceled due to the professors illness. So, we took the time to run some errands and pick up our stipend! The university alots us 280 euro a month, which comes out to about 70 euro a week, in cash that we can pick up at the Banca Toscana and is money that we can use for food, or whatever we please. After that, I grabed a quick lunch which consisted of mozz cheese, tomato and basil on fresh halla bread and was warm from the panini machine. We sat and ate the sandwiches along the river arno while the beautiful Tuscana sun was beating down on us. After, I had my food culture class, with a German teacher by the name of Peter. It seems as if it is going to be a truly interseting class; starting off with the origins of food, the 3 different regions of where specific foods are derived from in Italy, how wine, oil, etc. is made and why certain foods are not traditionally made to go together. We are also going to have a few in class field trips, a few of which include: going to a dairy barn, and going to a wine vinyard. After class we walked around the streets a little more and then I took a siesta...a very commone afternoon nap that is much needed for many of those living in Europe. (I can't tell if it due to the heavy food consumption or just culture but we always feel like we need one!) After that, we attended aperativo again at what has now become our local place- Bar del San Marco- and had a few tasty treats.
I know in one of the former posts I said I would be back at Dante's- and we went back tonight because the owner offered to cook me and my friends a free meal. There were 10 of us and he went all out, it was literally unbelievable. We had fresh greek salads (with some yummy feta) and bruschetta, mushrooms on bread, and bread with patte. Then we had the pasta dishes- soooo good. One was a penne alla vodka with fish; I don't like soft fish and this dish was literally one if the most amazing meal I've had. The second pasta dish was an alfredo with a smoked bacon taste. And the third was a pasta with a darker sauce and patte. We paired all of this with the house Chianti which is made to go great with the spices in the food. The 3 couse meal was great! We tried to leave even just a large tip but the owner wouldn't let us pay! Customer service is done very different here in the smaller romantic cities of Italy.
And as if that wasn't enough- I got snicker gelato after dinner...because I had to have desert and it was amazing! Not as good as the the tirimisu flavor though I must say.
A domani! (until tomorrow)
Buone notte
xoxo
- Amanda