YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT HAPPENED TO US THIS WEEKEND!

Epic sounding I know. I shall explain shortly. Just hang tight, all you need know is that you don’t have to worry.

Cody and I are finally falling into a good rhythm and we’re greatly enjoying our time here. Having very long but few class days causes the weeks to go by quickly. 3 weeks until midterm! We’re still enjoying our classes as they get more and more involved. We’re learning lots that we’re excited to bring home and share with you. We may try to take some pictures of some of the artsy work we’re doing so you can see what we’re working on. Unfortunately, many of the informative pictures I’ve been taking lately are all on my film camera for b/w photography. I should start taking my digital along with me as well.

Wednesday we went on a City Walk tour around the Duomo area (pictured here). We are now experts and prepared to be your tour guides. haha. Well, we’ll try our best. It was funny because we didn’t plan to go with our friends this week but they were there anyway. That was a nice surprise. We learned a lot about Christian symbolism in architecture, some about Dante Alighieri, and some about how the city has undergone several changes from medieval times to the way it looks today. These tours are always led by a small, emphatic woman named Martina. She is so fun and funny and makes things very interesting. I wish I could convey how adorable she is as she speaks to us with wild gestures, wide eyes, and leaning so far forward - in interest you feel like she may topple over. You might see her in the picture from last weeks city walk. We decided we really enjoy these tours, not only because they’re fun and informative, but also because apparently they always end in free gelato! Happy life.

We had a fun and relaxing weekend. We tried lots of new things! We enjoyed another evening walk in the city Thursday night. We decided this is a much better time to be around some of the busier places because the tourist atmosphere is much less chaotic. It’s fun to mosey around on the Ponte Vecchio (pictured), where live music plays and people stand around and listen or dance in the street. The city is well lit and relaxed and it’s just so pretty. We tend to end up in the Duomo square where some restaurants and dessert shops are still open. We decided to try canole, a sort of cream cheese/nougat with candied fruit wrapped up in a chocolate-coated waffle cone – like shell. We split one and it was delicious. Scudieri is our favorite place to go for dessert. :D

Friday we were ready for another shopping day. This time we planned to meet the girls to show each other some different handy places we’ve found. They came to our apartment and we took them to our 1 euro gelato place. They were surprised how good it was for so cheap. We weren’t lying! We so wish gelato was one of the things we could bring home to share with you. Cody and I learned that our gelatoria is owned by a group of women and is known to have some unconventional flavors. This info was in one of Cody’s textbooks. Good find, us. ;) Anyway, then we moved on to the Vivi market, which is the little international grocery we found last weekend. BUT! of course we forgot to factor Florence naptime into our day and it was closed when we arrived. No problem, it was going to be open within the hour so we walked a block further and did some small souvenir shopping through the merchant/vendor carts that line the streets by the central market. We had a good time, tried a little haggling, then reunited at the Vivi. We marveled at all the yummy cake mixes and frostings on the shelf … but alas I have no oven, nor the budget for these expensive imports. However we splurged on some peanut butter, oatmeal, marshmallows (to make the awesome cafeteria, cereal dessert – roommate :D ) and the best part! = Maple syrup. Because we learned that there really is no substitute for maple syrup. Nothing goes quite as well with French toast. But, the cheapest kind was the largest bottle for some reason. The five of us stood there staring at the price tag and nearly drooling; we both wanted so me but felt it a waste because we didn’t need THAT much. So…. we bought 1 and split it in half along with the price, filling an empty sauce jar at the girls’ apartment. Hence will be known as: The Great Syrup Exchange. Good deal.

After that we walked around in the Piazza de Republica (pictured here). There is currently a sort of artisans’ fair set up; selling hand-mades like rugs, ceramics, mosaics, etc. We spent a while looking through a particularly good water-color artist’s work. She was amazing and fun to talk to, though she thought her English was really bad. We assured her it wasn’t. Then wehiked across the city near Brie, Megan, and Carmel’s place to do our weekly grocery shopping at Coop – this continues to be the best deal around, despite the hike. Then we got a tour of the girls’ place which was fun because we haven’t see it yet. They got their apartment on their own to ensure they’d be able to live together. So their place is slightly outside of the historic center, and it’s really nice. We’re envious of their oven… and freezer (ours is not working properly but alas it is pretty much only a dorm fridge) Brie so kindly supplied me with some cold meds and vitamins and I’m starting to feel much better!

Saturday we went to the open-air market and visited a tripe stand! Yes tripe. What is tripe, I wonder…. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone? Well…. it’s cow stomach. yum. Apparently it’s a big deal. So we shared a sandwich…. with some super spicy sauce which was possibly a mistake… but otherwise it was really quite delicious! We recommend trying it! Then we did our fruit and veggies shopping. We even managed to get some chicken to try to make some from-scratch chicken parm this week. Woohoo! Talk about from-scratch… that night we spent a relaxing evening working on our supper. We decided to try some recipes we learned in our classes – with some modifications. I made some homemade pasta and we filled it with a spinach, ricotta, parmesian filling. Then Cody made some gnuddi. Which means naked (ravioli). So pretty much you take that filling, dip it in egg and role it in flour, then boil it. Through some butter/sage sauce on it = delicious.

It’s become our Sunday morning tradition to make brunch. The rest of the day we do homework and relax. This week the girls told us they read in the paper about an Evangelical church that holds their service in English, Sundays at 6:30pm. So we decided to check it out. It was pretty close to school and wewere instantly excited when we walked in as the two singers in front were singing familiar worship songs. It was very refreshing, but apparently not a typical week. The two people leading worship were visitors, theirguest singer was a visitor, and the worship leader gave the message. As the service went on though it sounded like their services are pretty different from week to week according to who’s available to lead certain things. The singers introduced themselves as from some ministry in Florence, and kept alluding to people from Nashville, and the guest singer, Mark was going to sing, Mark Schultz this and that. And we were all kinda thinking to ourselves,“Hey wait, ‘Mark Schultz’ as in famous Christian singer Mark Schultz? On-the-radio Mark Schultz? nah, must be some guy with the same name.” When this Mark Schultz character finally gets up to sing, we’re still not sure b/c none of us know what “The Mark Schultz” looks like. Then he starts singing, “I Am” and then “Back in His Arms Again” and we’relooking at each other and absolutely freaking out. MARK SCHULTZ WAS TOTALLY AT THIS TINY LITTLE CHURCH SERVICE IN FLROENCE ITLAY AND WE WERE THERE FOR IT. ahhhh!!!!!! Then he led us in a verse of “It is Well with my Soul” and lastly sang “Remember Me.” It was sooo good, but I never noticed he had such a twang. He made this really funny joke about how he grew up in the 80’s so his voice sometimes reverts to sounding like Stix in “Come Sail Away” all bright and pinched. haha. So cool, I’m still completely dumbfounded over the whole thing. We sort of gathered that he must be living here for a while because he mentioned that he only lived a couple of blocks away and he was introduced as “a newresident to Florence.” It was quite the service of music: first the praise songs, then Mark Schultz, then the worship leader/preacher for the night felt led to lead us in several verses during his message. Wow. There were several college students there for the first time and we met a few of them afterward over popcorn, potato chips and Ringo. Generally we thought it was a great place to be; much more comfortable than the Catholic service of last week. We’re not sure yet if we’ll be regulars but it sounds like we’ll keep checking it out over the next few weeks.

Looking forward to another week a Firenze. Be sure to check out our photo album link, cuz we posted several more pictures!

Boun Giornata! (Have a good day!)

Much Love,

ciao ciao.

Culture Clues:

I’m afraid we may have exhausted many of these in our last blog. I keep thinking of things and then realize I already spoke about them. I might have to read through our posts and think again.

* There are sort of “quiet hours” in our apartment. We’re not supposed to by noisy after 11:00 PM. This is common courtesy throughout the city. But, this of course, doesn’t seem to apply outside. There are two restaurants on our apartment streets and they are incredibly loud outside our windows on the weekends until past midnight! psh. I feel bad for the people who live near more tourist areas.

* Midnight is also apparently a good time for the noisy street cleaning vehicles and garbage trucks to roam around and get work done. Yeah city living!

*Mesticheria not to be confused with Macelleria. These are both shops. The first is one where you can find cleaning supplies, various home and hygiene goods. The latter is basically the butcher. Fun fact for ya.