N and R are enjoying springtime

I've been afraid to say it for fear of jinxing us, but it's finally spring! There have been a few rainy days, but other than that the weather in florence has been incredible. We have started making it a regular part of our day to go to the Boboli gardens (giant Medici garden on a hill overlooking the city center) and sit. This became much more relaxing after I convinced a reluctant R that parks are best enjoyed by lounging in the grass. Now we take a blanket, and R reads and writes in her journal. I alternate between napping and trying to draw sketches for things to paint. Today there were alot of school groups at the gardens and while i was napping R watched some teenage drama where this boy and girl were arguing and eventually she got so worked up she took her shoe off and threw it at him. This is what we look like in spring:

N wouldn't quit his day job (if he had one)....

I finally did some painting, and quickly decided that I paint not because I'm good at it, or even that I am expecting to eventually be good at it, but instead because it's fun and relaxing. The other night I painted my first tuscan countryside. While I nailed the cypress tree, I cant say anything else really panned out. I did this over a beer while listening to music, which made for a very relaxing evening. If, however, I dont get better at this painting stuff soon, I might just buy some things off of the street guys and say i made it. For now, though, my tuscan countryside looks like this:

N and R took a day trip...

Yesterday we hopped on a train and took the hour long trip to Lucca, a small medievil tuscan town to the west, before eventually making it to Pisa where we stayed the night. Oddly enough I took almost no pictures, even of the leaning tower....which I guess is ok since everyone knows what it looks like. Lucca, though, was great...we really enjoyed it. Lucca is alot like the counterpart to florence, where you still have typical old tuscan buildings and tiny winding alleyways, but unlike florence it felt like a completely intact community, unaffected by tourism the way florence is. It was a very relaxing afternoon of window shopping and sitting in picturesque piazzas taking in some sun. The city is surrounded by giant medieval walls, and these walls are so wide that the top of the walls are lush with green grass and pedestrian walkways which crowded with people out for their pre-dinner stroll. It was really nice to walk along these massive walls looking out over the countryside on one side of the wall, and the towers rising above the city on the other.

Then we went to Pisa....and I'm not sure what more i can say about that....we saw the tower and i ate some good seafood. I thought it unfortunate that Pisa's baptistry and duomo, which are actually really nice, are completely overlooked by visitors who are only interested in the tower. The people of pisa seemed to be quite different than lucca and florence or siena....I'm going to guess that pisa is like tuscany's new jersey.

N has been a little under the weather...

There is a great afternoon tradition here in Florence, of going out on a nice day, sitting at an outdoor cafe and sipping negronis (vermouth+gin+campari+blood orange). While you sip your drink they will ferry out different snacks to you to enjoy with your drink. R and I went to the cafe of a famous italian fashion desginer (Roberto Cavalli-whom from now on I would boycott if i could afford anything he makes) and enjoyed negronis and various finger foods. It is a pretty upscale place with very fashionable clientele....so I was very surprised a short time later to realize that I had gotten food poisoning from designer ham sandwiches! That was a couple days ago, and after a little discomfort, alot of bananas and soup, and gatorade, I am finally back in good health. The gatorade made not have been necessary, but since here all oranges are blood oranges, I couldnt resist the opportunity to try blood orange gatorade, which looked like this:

Like I said, it was an uncomfortable couple days but I am fine now, feeling much better. Do not worry (moms). I'm not sure how after eating at some pretty suspicious places in college and after, I only get food poisoning when I go to an italian designer's florentine cafe.

Anyways, since I'm back in good health and have regained a hardy appetite (the worst part for sure of food poisoning, not wanting to eat in a country known for its food), R and I are going to make a short trip to Lucca and Pisa this weekend.

N drank this....

Recall from the Simpsons that Homer Simpson's favorite drink is Duff, the imaginary beer served at Moe's and everywhere else around Springfield? It turns out that the Simpsons are so popular here in italy (i think because the show makes fun of the US so much), that there actually is a Duff beer! It looks just like in the cartoon. I couldnt resist the opportunity to try it (sucker), and bought a bottle the other day. It tastes alot like Stella Artois. After some homework I learned this beer was originally made in belgium, but is now made in Mexico. Duff looked like this:

N and R enjoy another day, another dinner...

After several days of eating out for dinner (mostly pizza...which was very good), I went to market this morning and found these tiny eggplants that were no bigger than my pinky. Intruiged, I bought some and decided to resume cooking dinner at home. First we had papa al pomodoro, the tomato and bread soup i've mentioend before...R's favorite. It is made by: saute garlic and onion in olive oil, add peeled and mushed up tomatoes, rosemary, sage, and simmer. Eventually, add cubes of day old bread and basil.

Papa al pomodoro looked like this:

The next course, pasta, was fresh tagliatelli tossed with sautted eggplant and zucchini in olive oil and pepper and parmesan. I guess this dish would be called Zuchhini Melazanine Tagliatelli (ZMT). ZMT looked like this:

Grated parmesano reggiano has been a pretty important ingredient in our food. The hunk of parmaggiano reggiano we bought is so big it nearly dwarfs our cheese grater:

Third course, meat, was a truffle sausage i picked up at market cooked in white wine with olives tomatoes and onion. While i continue to make really great tasting sausage dishes, they keep looking....not that appetizing. Unfortunately, the delicious sausage dish looked like this:

Finally, fourth course was cantucci and vin santo. Cantucci is a regional variation on biscotti, made with almonds and a little softer than biscotti. Vin santo is a tuscan desert wine that is made from dried grapes aged/fermented in chestnut barrels. This typical tuscan desert involves dunking the cantucci in the vin santo. Cantucci and vinsanto looked like this:

N and R are celebrating Unification

This week italy celebrated it's 150th anniversairy, and unlike Carnevale, Florence decided it is not too cool to enjoy some festivities. On the first evening, the town was all lit up in the colors of the italian flag, red green and white. People crowded the streets and bars and restaurants drinking wine from plastic cups. It was kind of like an american holiday without any of the debauchery...public drinking, but not drunkenness, live music but classical, dancing, but ballet....

Also the Uffizi Gallery (the art museum) reopenned at midnight with free admissions.

The town looked like this:

Pallazo Vecchio (town hall and former home of the Medeci Family):

Piazza della Reupblica:

Loggia della Signoria:

Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge):

Via Calzaiuoli: