uffitzi and a great lunch!

today my friend caitlin and i FEASTED at lunch. we really don’t eat out much because even though we do live in italy, we are still college kids… therefore we are on a strict budget. on our way home from our class (in piazza strozzi) we passed by a yummy looking restaurant called casa del vin santo. caitlin got a margherita pizza and i got spaghetti al pomodoro e basilico. the waiter was walking by with a bowl of soup and so i had to order that too! a minestrone, much much much better than the kind from the supermarket.

following the lunch, i had a scare that i lost my credit card. we bolted back to my apartment and of course it was right in one of my purses.

we went to the uffitzi after my card scare, and i probably am going to go back everyday. it was amazing!!!

missing home :(

monday night was the first time i’ve been sick in a long time. i had a fever, chills, sore throat, cough: basically i really, really missed having my mom around to comfort me. luckily, by the time i woke up tuesday i had sweat out my fever. i had two classes but they didn’t start until 1:30 so i was able to sleep in. the next two days were slow and uneventful. all i wanted was some of my dad’s magical homemade chicken soup. here at the grocery store they don’t have a huge selection of soups- very limited. i picked up a minestrone but it really just did not compare. i’ve been loading up on sleep, tea, and cough drops.

i am feeling better as each day passes! definitely looking forward to feeling good for the weekend. my friends and i are planning to explore florence further. we want to get up to the boboli gardens and piazzale michelangelo on friday. the following weekend we are going to milan for fashion week and then the weekend after that we are going on a school trip to cinque terre.

i am starting to feeling homesick, more so than ever before, but i know that i am very lucky to have this opportunity. i am even more lucky to have such a great family at home and i am looking forward to seeing everyone at christmas time.

xo

-m

sunday night we went to festa della rificolona (paper lantern festival). my roommate’s mom had told us about it and we decided that we definitely wanted to go. we weren’t really sure what to expect. would we light lanterns? would this be a parade of some sort? we decided to find out.

   

we walked over to the piazza santissima annuziata where the event takes place and realized we may have been a bit early. there were scattered clumps of couples and families strolling around and vendors were beginning to set up stands with candies and treats. we went a few blocks down to get gelato and by the time we were back there was a crowd. kids were running around holding paper lanterns that they had decorated differently. we saw so many cute ones! angry birds, a lantern fish, olaf from frozen, and even the duomo.

   

the ceremony began about an hour after we arrived. it was all in italian but it was very apparent that this was a big event. following the speeches we followed the line of authorities (not sure if we were allowed to do this… oops) into the church in the piazza. here there was a prayer, we had front row view (also not sure if we had permission to do this).

  

we got cotton candy, or zucchero filato in italian from a very kind italian woman. seeing all these families unite for a special evening made us all kind of homesick. so on our way home, we stopped at the mcdonalds down the block and indulged in an unhealthy, yet very american treat.

micol & luca come to FLO!

This weekend Luca and Micol (my dad’s brother and sister) came to Florence. It was so great to see Micol because she lives in London so I don’t see her super often. You can’t really tell in the photos because of the shirt- but she is have a baby!!! I am so excited. It was also really nice to see her boyfriend Adam who I have only met once before. Luca is here in Italy often for work, but lives near me at home so seeing him naturally made me miss home.

I met him Friday afternoon with my friend Caitlin and he took us to his hotel, Eden Rock with his lawyer that was traveling with him. It was beautiful, just ten minutes outside of downtown FLO. The four of us had a tasty dinner there- prosciutto, salami, and cheeses to start, then salad, roasted potatoes and steak, and then various desserts to finish. It hit the spot.

Then Saturday night, we went to a restaurant called Omero (also just outside of downtown). Joining Luca, his lawyer, Micol, Adam, and myself, was our family friend Alberto. I had a penne pomodoro that was ALMOST as good as my dad’s at home.

It was great to see some family. I am excited for my dad and Nonno to come visit me at the end of the month. I will try to post videos and photos tomorrow from tonight’s Festa della Rificolona!!!

Going to bed! XO

       

trip to conad

conad is the market i have come to like the most. the prices are fair and the produce is fresh. i go usually every two to three days to get fruit and veggies– it varies daily what they have. last time i was there they had the BEST white peaches and nectarines. unfortunately today they didn’t have any. today i got some pears, I’m excited to try them. for breakfast, i usually have a piece of fruit and an egg. i have my meal plan through my school monday-thursday that’s pretty good. i usually get a salad of some sort. dinners for me change depending upon the night. for this week i am planning to make a soup, some green beans and chicken, and some pesto and gluten free gnocchi. i also always make sure to have a few chocolate bars laying around (my favorite is a lindt dark chocolate mint bar), so each time i go to the grocery store i take a different one to test out.

this picture above is of the green beans i got today and this photo to the right is my friend addison, who went to conad with me today.

the clubhouse

on fridays, we don’t have classes. so this morning we finally got to sleep in! my friends and i went out for a late lunch to a restaurant that is quickly becoming one of our favorites, called the clubhouse. it has a perfect menu filled with yummy pastas and pizzas, but also burgers and fries. the best part is it has gluten free pizza crust!!!! the first time we tried the clubhouse, we ordered it in to our apartment. we had gotten two margherita pizzas (one gluten and one gluten free). i was convinced they mixed up the orders because the gluten free pizza tasted too good. the first photo is my friend carly eating her first italian cheeseburger and the bottom photo is my margherita pizza before i finished the whole thing… oops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

apartment tour

my bed, lulu and sophie love it!

bedroom

hallway with me and lex’s desk

bookshelf

living room

“drier”

kitchen table

desk

kitchen / tiny washing machine

view from bedroom window

my street

view from kitchen window

first post!!!

two weeks in to my move to italy- i am finally writing my first post. i am excited to announce that i am beginning to settle in! i will try to briefly recall my last two weeks in this post… following today’s blog, i will try (key word TRY) to post daily.

last family photo 😦

i said bye to my family on august 21. i flew from JFK to rome that night and arrived in florence shortly after. we rushed to the baggage claim and anxiously awaited our belongings, joking about how horrific it would be if we lost our luggage. 15 minutes passed by… then 30… yup… i lost my luggage. luckily, i had packed all i needed for my five-day orientation in tuscania (a small town/three hour bus ride from florence). the six of us “luggage-less” travelers finally made it to the bus and joined the other forty some kids and off we went to orientation.

om palace hotel

our journey to tuscania and the night of arrival was a complete blur. we arrived around ten pm and split up into three different hotels, where we immediately went to bed. i stayed at a place called OM Palace.

it was so clean and peaceful! i’ve attached a photo. we had a few days of group work where we were able to meet everyone in the program and bond as a group.

here i began my friendship with my roommate alexa, love her so much!!!!

lex and i!

we had a few italian classes and a cooking class through orientation. we made a yummy asparagus pancetta pasta with homemade linguine (the teacher prepared me gluten free pasta, don’t worry mom!) the night before we left we went to this amazing pizza place called Da Pulcinella (the picture is on my travel instagram markingmymap, i ate about 3/4 of it- also gluten free mom).

i am excited to share my experiences here through this blog. like i said, i will be trying to post often, so stay tuned!

xo micaela