1. I overslept.
2. I ate breakfast very quickly. (caffe latte, apple con yogurt al frutti di bosco).
3. My host mom drove Dalia and me to our bus stop.
4. Since we arrived early, I walked across the street to L'Angolo del Caffe`. This shop has an amazing array of products after my own heart, including one million different varieties of chocolate, several types of cookies including cantucci (these Tuscan cookies are similar in shape to what Americans call biscotti, that is: crunchy and designed for dipping. Cantucci are meant for dipping in vinsanto [sweet dessert wine], not coffee, Italians assure you, although they go well with coffee too. I'd even eat them dry, but Italians won't. You can get them in all kinds of different gusti, usually almond but also chocolate, pistacchio, and cherry.) Last night, Babbo and I walked in to buy 2 chocolate bars (one dark, one dark with black licorish/ liquirizia ) and he introduced me to the family that owns this shop. Babbo is a vecchio cliente and told me that I will be treated well when I go there. He suggested a project in which eventually, I will taste every single chocolate in the shop and decide on the best one. One per day. So this morning I bought 2 Fiats. Cioccolate fondente ripiena di crema di Fiat! In the shape of a Fiat. Crema di Fiat, is, SURPRISE! fluffly chocolate-hazelnut cream. Nocciole are omnipresent in Italian dolci. Dalia and I ate our Fiats during the break between classes today. I'm not sure if any of the other chocolates can top this one, but I'm willing to find out. The signore also gave me a freebie... perhaps it will be tomorrow's choice.
5. After school, Dalia and I bought some panforte, which we have ogled in shop windows for one month and decided to finally sample today. We bought it in a bar at Piazza San Marco. Like many other Italians, the shopkeeper complimented us on our Italian. Come mai parlate Italiano cosi bene? Siete veramente bravissime! They're always very happy to hear Italian spoken by foreigners, and to converse with us in Italian. People who work in the service business in Florence (hotels, bars, shops) probably spend most of their time speaking English. They're always interested to find out why we speak Italian, and what we're doing here. It's been fun to chat with random Italians.
6. I updated my blog, which needs updating! See assorted pictures below, in chronological order, with brief captions.
Il Tramonto del Sole, maybe one month ago:
in the midst of our uphill trek from bus-stop to home.
Italians don't understand why Americans don't eat rabbit. I've eaten it here and enjoyed it. Still I was a bit taken aback when I saw these adorable bunnies on jars of rabbit-flavored baby food.
This is at the wine festival nei Chianti. I bought a class and could sample as many different types of Chianti as I wanted.
More pictures of this spectacular event in an upcoming post.
1 commento:
That shop u wrote about sounds amazing! And you ate rabbit meat... I don't know what to say. It probably was nice but it is hard to co-relate cute furry animals to food that we can eat.
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