I am here in Florence! Actually, the house I live in is a bit outside of the city, in a town called Antella. The past few days have been slow and lovely: unpacking, resting, seeing Antella and Florence (only by car so far), and getting to know my host parents, their granddaughter, and their grey cat, Candy.
Today Dalia and I took three walks (passeggiate). The first was short, a 30-minute circle around the neighborhood where we live. The second, a bit longer: we walked down the long hill into the town center of Antella to see an open-air market. And then, after lunch, we thought we had room for one more. We left around 5pm and walked on and on through the gorgeous hills and narrow streets that fell out before us. Finally, we arrived at what we thought was the end of the map our host mom had drawn for us. We continued, thinking that the route would circle around, but eventually we asked a kind passerby: man, wife, and dog, how we could return to Antella from here. He was somewhat shocked. "Antella? No, no!" He said. "Should we turn around and go back?" I asked in Italian, pointing the direction from which we'd come. "No," he said again emphatically, incredulous. Apparently we'd already arrived at the next town, Grassino. He told us to take the bus, pointing in the direction of Grassino. "Walking, walking. Walking." We continued in the same direction, ever onward to Grassino. It occurred to me that Dalia and I certainly know more Italian than this man knew of English-- it would have been much easier for us to communicate if he had simply spoken Italian. A bit ironic! In any case, we arrived at Grassino in a few moments and called our host family from il mio telefonino, which worked, grazie Dio! He kindly drove to pick us up and showed us where we'd gone wrong (quite early in the walk, it turned out.)
I saw some beautiful views on the final walk, but I haven't uploaded those pictures to my computer yet, so they will appear in my very next post.
Finalmente: Il Cibo
I am so excited about the food... So I will record the meals that I can remember so far. My host mother, is of course a fabulous cook who prepares multi-course meals for lunch and dinner. Today, at lunch we ate coniglio (rabbit) and magnificent farfalle pasta.
Yesterday, dinner was a beautiful risotto followed by broccoli with tomatoes and fried mozzarella and ham sandwiches (they have a special Italian name that I forgot.)
On my first day here, we had a delicious lunch of tomatoes with a bit of mozzarella and basil, followed by roasted chicken and arugula salad. For dinner, una torta (eggs cooked with linguini), a type of fried meat (I'm embarrassed to admit, I was too tired and too unable to understand Italian at that point to ask what it actually was), and something else I've forgotten too. Darn. I'll add it in when I remember. There was an intriguing Tuscan grape dessert (difficult to describe...)
After each meal we eat fresh fruit, some of it picked from the garden of fruit trees: fresh red and white figs and apples, along with nectarines and yellow plums (susine) and darker plums (prugni.)
Not to mention breakfast: the most delicious yogurt, with cereal and toast with my host babbo's marmalata (di arancie-- oranges and di susine.)
Allora. I see that the moon has risen, as I sit here in front of my window, and we have not yet eaten dinner. It will probably happen soon. So I must leave. Below are a few of my photos from the first two passeggiate today.
Ciao, a presto!
The view from the window in my room
Today Dalia and I took three walks (passeggiate). The first was short, a 30-minute circle around the neighborhood where we live. The second, a bit longer: we walked down the long hill into the town center of Antella to see an open-air market. And then, after lunch, we thought we had room for one more. We left around 5pm and walked on and on through the gorgeous hills and narrow streets that fell out before us. Finally, we arrived at what we thought was the end of the map our host mom had drawn for us. We continued, thinking that the route would circle around, but eventually we asked a kind passerby: man, wife, and dog, how we could return to Antella from here. He was somewhat shocked. "Antella? No, no!" He said. "Should we turn around and go back?" I asked in Italian, pointing the direction from which we'd come. "No," he said again emphatically, incredulous. Apparently we'd already arrived at the next town, Grassino. He told us to take the bus, pointing in the direction of Grassino. "Walking, walking. Walking." We continued in the same direction, ever onward to Grassino. It occurred to me that Dalia and I certainly know more Italian than this man knew of English-- it would have been much easier for us to communicate if he had simply spoken Italian. A bit ironic! In any case, we arrived at Grassino in a few moments and called our host family from il mio telefonino, which worked, grazie Dio! He kindly drove to pick us up and showed us where we'd gone wrong (quite early in the walk, it turned out.)
I saw some beautiful views on the final walk, but I haven't uploaded those pictures to my computer yet, so they will appear in my very next post.
Finalmente: Il Cibo
I am so excited about the food... So I will record the meals that I can remember so far. My host mother, is of course a fabulous cook who prepares multi-course meals for lunch and dinner. Today, at lunch we ate coniglio (rabbit) and magnificent farfalle pasta.
Yesterday, dinner was a beautiful risotto followed by broccoli with tomatoes and fried mozzarella and ham sandwiches (they have a special Italian name that I forgot.)
On my first day here, we had a delicious lunch of tomatoes with a bit of mozzarella and basil, followed by roasted chicken and arugula salad. For dinner, una torta (eggs cooked with linguini), a type of fried meat (I'm embarrassed to admit, I was too tired and too unable to understand Italian at that point to ask what it actually was), and something else I've forgotten too. Darn. I'll add it in when I remember. There was an intriguing Tuscan grape dessert (difficult to describe...)
After each meal we eat fresh fruit, some of it picked from the garden of fruit trees: fresh red and white figs and apples, along with nectarines and yellow plums (susine) and darker plums (prugni.)
Not to mention breakfast: the most delicious yogurt, with cereal and toast with my host babbo's marmalata (di arancie-- oranges and di susine.)
Allora. I see that the moon has risen, as I sit here in front of my window, and we have not yet eaten dinner. It will probably happen soon. So I must leave. Below are a few of my photos from the first two passeggiate today.
Ciao, a presto!
The view from the window in my room
Another view from my window
Just a hole in the wall.
La Dalia:
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