Wednesday, March 2, 2011

What's for Breakfast?

Here in Florence, and most of Europe for that matter, breakfast is not a big deal. Italians will pick up a pastry and a cappuccino on the way to work or just down an espresso and call it a morning. 

At home, my parents made sure every morning before school that we had time to all sit around the kitchen table and share my dads poached eggs, bacon, and orange juice, or one of my mom's pies or tarts. Being a creature of habit, the Italian way was hard to adjust to.

I quickly became addicted to gulping down espressos and cappuccinos more out of a way to pass time in between classes than the actual need to wake up to the point that I couldn't keep my eyes open unless I had three espressos. Being tired all the time, I would barely get up in time for class and have to snag a pastry on the way to class. Now was I not only addicted to caffeine but I was demolishing large amounts of Nutella wrapped in buttery dough every morning. Not exactly healthy, and I would spend about 4 euros every morning on breakfast...a total of 28 a week.

After my parents visited they got me in the routine of buying yogurt, fruit, nuts and berries, and making my own breakfast every morning. I also started drinking tea instead of decending the slippery slope to a complete caffeine addiction. This new routine only cost me 5 euros total a week or less. I recently bought a plane ticket to Paris for 7 euros and a ticket to Malta for 12. Think of all the places you can go by just eating in!


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