The Coffee Pot: USA vs. Italy

 

Italians do not own coffee makers like one might find in Starbucks or in our kitchens. Instead they have espresso makers, the device pictured to the right. Instead of brewing a pot of coffee, this espresso maker will brew one or a few shots of espresso. 

To use it:

1. Screw off the top from the bottom and take the funnel type device out of the bottom. 

2. Fill the funnel device with crushed espresso beans (adjust by how strong you want your drink) 

3. Fill the bottom cup like device with as much water as you want to brew espresso.

4. Put the funnel-like device back into the bottom so that the tube is sticking into the water. 

5. Screw the top back on and place over a lit stove

6. Leave for about 5 minutes (depending on the heat of the stove) or until it begins to bubble over the top, then you know it's quite done.

Ecco espresso!

My Tuscan Adventure

Sounds perfect right? Not so fast. 

This past weekend I had my first taste of attempting to venture into the unknown Tuscan countryside with nothing but a map in hand (one of Florence, not of Tuscany...unhelpful) and a reservation at an Agurturismo with a woman who barely spoke English. First of all, you are probably wondering what an Agurturismo is. It is a bed&breakfast-type hotel, located in the country, mostly in huge, ancient farmhouses. Sounds quaint and romantic right? I thought so. My traveling companion had flown in from Paris for the weekend and I thought it would be a lovely idea to take him to this Agurturismo. After trying to fit in all the sightseeing and food-indulging of Florence in one day, we hopped on a train to the Siena train station, where I had understood that we could walk to our hotel. Determined to figure it out ourselves and not ask for directions or a cab, we wandered the streets of Siena utterly lost. Finally, we threw in the towel, sucked up our pride, and trekked back to the train station to ask a cab driver to speak to the concierge at the Agurturismo in Italian to figure out where we were going and take us there. After a long, confused but amused conversation, our cab driver handed me back my phone, took his price book out from his car and pointed to a listing that said "30 km - 55€". Shoot.

 to put the distance between Siena and Rapolono in perspective...

Well we certainly weren't walking. We piled dejectedly into the cab and headed off to Rapolono, where the Agurturismo actually was which is a province of Siena. Key word, Province. I guess there are a lot of those in Siena and other Tuscan towns, so watch out enthused travelers, you may not be headed where you think you are. 55 euros later we reached the other Augurtismo owned by the same people and followed the owner in her tiny seafoam blue car through winding dirt roads to our final destination. 

Finally. The hotel was nice and the two women who worked there were darlings. Thank god I was traveling with someone who stepped in after watching the owner and myself converse practically in sign language and asked if anyone spoke French. The rest of the weekend's events were communicated between him and one of the owners in fluent French which he later would ask me if he had understood correctly, kindly allowing me to feel like I was any sort of helpful. Of course I was useless. Though the hotel was nice and welcoming and the restaurants we went to were tasty, the surrounding area was anything but quaint. If I had been alone there I actually would have felt unsafe. It was the first time in my entire stay in Italy that I felt completely out of my element and really uncomfortable in my surroundings. I definitely would rather have stayed in a crappy, falling apart hotel in the most beautiful area. But regardless, any adventure had is a learning experience. I learned that I better start learning Italian more quickly and also learned the importance of a map. 

After being back in Florence for a week and fully recovered from the slight culture shock, I felt it was time to try my hand at a Tuscan adventure again. Yesterday, in the rain, a friend and I took the train...which was an adventure all in itself... to Lucca. A story to be continued at a later time...

Fresh Mozzarella Balls are like Fish

Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella is a staple food here in Italy much as string cheese is in the United States. Okay, maybe that was a bad example…but for us cheese lovers, it may make sense. Thanks to our over processed, over packaged food economy at home, everything is stocked with preservatives, wrapped in plastic, and sold in bulk… like string cheese. However, in Italy you can go into a market and hand pick out just one fresh buffalo mozzarella ball that could range in size from that of a softball to that of a marble. The array of fresh mozzarella is displayed in colorful ceramic bowls that are filled with water to preserve and keep mozzarella moist.

Which brings me to my point. In the last two days our tiny fridge has begun to get a little stinky and today I found the culprit: Fresh Mozzarella. The anonymous roommate’s mozzarella’s expiration date is not for another two weeks but the problem was that you could barley find the mozzarella in the cloudy water. I have been keeping my mozzarella in tupperware and change the water in every time I use the mozz. Don’t worry anonymous roommate, I changed the water in yours for you. So the moral of the story is, if you want to keep your fresh mozzarella fresh, treat it like a fish and change its water every day every few days.

Carnevale

As I mentioned in my previous post, Carnevale takes place annually in Venice beginning forty days before Easter and ending the day before Easter which is called Shrove Tuesday or  Mardi Gras. Carnival originally began as a celebration and means of expression throughout the social classes,  as wearing masks and the traditional elaborate costumes hid any form of identity.  Though the celebration was forgotten for a period in history, during the 1970s the Italian government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice and used the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of their efforts. Today, about 30,000 visitors come to Venice each day for the festivities that go on for weeks in February and March making the city a chaotic splendor of elaborate costumes and tourists from all over the world.

As I learned from the Carnevale-themed chocolate festival in Piazza Santa Croce, festivities are not limited to the watery canals of Venice. Carnevale celebrations spread throughout Italy and to other European countries. In Florence, the city gives out bags of confetti to all the children and it's the children's job to go about the city throwing tiny handfuls of confetti wherever they see fit, so essentially everywhere.

 

Walking down the street on the way to class, the sidewalk is randomly littered with firework-like splashes of colorful confetti . One can picture a child trouncing down the street, hand in hand with a parent, and stopping every whenever they feel the urge to toss a handful into the air and spin around laughing as it drifts to the ground. Street cleaners sweep most of it away in the early hours of the morning but evidence of the children's Carnevale celebrations tuck themselves away into crevices and gutters, reminding passersby of the Carnevale celebration weeks after Easter has passed.

Chocolate Festival

Need I say more? This is the 6th year that Florence has held its annual Chocolate Festival in Piazza Santa Croce in the weeks leading up to Carnevale which is held in Venice beginning the two weeks before Ash Wednesday and goes until Shrove Tuesday (better known as Mardi Gras). The chocolate festival began on February 4th and although the website says it ends on the 7th, I took this chocolate fountain picture today, the 9th. Maybe it will go on forever…wishful thinking.

At the Festival, dozens of chocolateers are gathered under the circus-like white tents in the Piazza selling their sweets. You can ask for an “assagio”, or a taste of a chocolate before you buy it…or just continue asking for assagios at every station. My favorite were these chocolate fountains where you could pick a type of skewer (banana, strawberry, grape, or a marshmellowy-looking Italian candy) to be drowned in white, milk, or dark chocolate. I picked a dark chocolate drenched strawberry skewer and munched away in bliss as I wandered the Piazza.

A pleasant surprise appeared to my over-sweetened taste buds when I came across a focaccia station serving up freshly baked rosemary and olive oil, mozzarella and tomato, and pesto and pecorino focaccias. What a great idea! After all the chocolate assagios a savory, warm, cheesy, pesto focaccia was exactly what I needed. Needless to say, it was phenomenal.

The memory of this focaccia melting in my mouth reminds me of a discovery I have made about what most people consider pizza crust in the United States. All the best pizza and foccacia I have had here is soft and doughy, never crisp or thin like they serve in the states. But although I’ve always been a supporter of crispy, bubbly crust, the soft doughy Italian way may change my perspective forever.

“Throughout my time in Florence, I’ve danced to the top 40 hits from the USA, eaten an egg-white omelet at a diner, and met three times as many Americans as Italians…but the permeating scent of Nutella and the miniature size of everything from the streets right down to the staples remind me that I am in fact in Europe”

                                   -Julianne Graul

in response to a Travel Writing class assignment about surprising elements of studying in Florence

Go Faux.

Being known for its abundance of high quality gold and leather, Florence is a destination for students looking for fine souvenirs of their time in Europe. Young women come to Florence wanting to buy a leather coat and young men can find quality belts and shoes. Already in possession of a leather coat, which I bought as a 'congratulations on getting a job' present for myself last summer, I came to Florence in search of a fur vest.

Fur is everywhere. It seems as though every woman is in possession of a fur coat and the older the woman is the longer the fur gets until the frailest little old Italian ladies seem to be drowning in a sea of fur. The shop windows are packed with fur and leather coats and the San Lorenzo market is teeming with racks of them.

But it was not even a week until my dreams of owning a Florence-made fur vest were shattered by the unbelievable yet widely agreed upon rumor: puppy fur. Yes that's right, rumor has it that the majority of the fur in Florence is imported from China where the fur is taken from puppies who have been bred for the sole purpose of becoming a fur coat. Unfortunately, this is not just gossip. A teacher warned my friend's class of this the first day, I asked my native Florentine photography assistant and she confirmed the rumor, and another friend unknowingly bought a fur hat, heard this rumor, took it to an expert and the expert confirmed: puppy fur.

So please, do the puppies of the world a favor, and go faux.

Or unless you have Cruella De Vil aspirations, at least don't buy the fur in Florence.

Like my friend, Calli Nicoletti, photographed by Alev Takıl, who studied in Florence last semester.

Art Bar

This is my first of many restaurant and bar reviews. If I wind up going somewhere I don’t like I am not going to bash it here, instead I’m going to glorify the deliciousness that I do find, starting with the maker if this elaborate thirst quencher...

Formally known as “Antico Caffe del Moro”, Art Bar is located on Via del Moro, 4. Firenze.

It won’t take you long to figure out how this small, cozy bar got its name, the cocktails are works of art. The glasses are adorned with fresh fruit that tastes as sweet as it looks even though it must be out of season. The Mojitos and the Daiquiries are the bar’s specialty. If you like Mojito’s, Art Bar’s are packed with mint leaves and they offer them in flavors that vary daily like mixed berry. The flavor additions are no crummy syrup but pounds of fresh berries piled so high in the glass that they give you a miniature spoon to eat them with. The Daiquiries are offered in banana, strawberry, and strawberry banana. Try them all. 

Friends tried the pina colada which was also reported to be fantastic. Beware of the Mixed Fruit Cocktail if your day has left you needing a little liquid relaxation, it is served without alcohol unless specified otherwise. On the plus side, this fruity concoction would be a great alternative for a visiting younger sibling. You must be patient while waiting for your drink because there is usually only one bartender creating these works of art. But fear not, the bar serves an unlimited amount of perfectly salted and buttered popcorn and whole peanuts that you have to crack open yourself as aperitivos (free appetizers/snacks that come with the purchase of one drink). Drinks are 9 euro every day except for Monday and Wednesday when their happy hour offers drinks for 6 euro, a bargain price for the tropical paradise you receive in your glass. Make friends with the bartender, a friendly, middle-aged gentleman who speaks good english, and he may offer you a free drink if you can guess the answer to one of his pop questions. He asked my friend, Alex, and me what the capital of Wisconsin was and being geographically challenged I had no idea. Alex got it right (answer is Madison) and got a free drink, that lucky girl.

“There is no foreign land; it is only the traveler that is foreign”

                                                                                    - Robert Louis Stevenson

Benvenuti a Firenze!

This picture was taken from Piazzale Michelangelo, a slight climb up the south east hills of Florence. Though the stone stairs can be treacherous, the view is well worth the sore legs. Don't forget to turn around every so often as you make your way up the stairs as the city-scape of Florence emerges over the treeline.

              looking up from the bottom of the stairs... It's really not as bad as it looks I promise.