Firenze, what a city!!

So, another week in Italy down...but dont think I am wishing them away, definitely not...infact if anything I wish they werent disappearing SO fast!! But it is always the way...

Well it is definitely cold in Siena now and I am SO thankful for my new coat!! You may even be able to spot it in the following photos...I have been told by a friend from home, who will remain nameless but might be mentioned later in this entry, that it is "very italian"!! haha...I guess you can judge for yourself. But I am definitely curently living by the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do!"...very appropriate I think!!

School continues to be challenging but I am definitely still learning and managing to take new information and vocabulary on board which I think is one of the biggest things for learning a new language AND being able to use it. The second most important thing in my opinion is having the courage to speak or at least try to speak, get it wrong and learn from your mistakes...I am happy to say that my spoken italian has improved out of sight and every day I am able to explain more about myself and my life in Australia to my host Mum, who is always in for a chat no matter what time of the day it is.

Luciana (host mum), continues to cook amazing and different food every night...I dont think I have had one exact repeat!! We have had soup as 'primo piatto' (first dish) many nights and also different kinds of risotto, and often for 'secondo piatto' we have some type of thinly sliced meat in a sauce with a side of veggies of some description.

So all of this good food, and having already done it in Sicily, inspired me to do some Tuscan cooking classes here in Siena. This was fairly easy to organise cos the school runs them.
So Tuesday and Thursday night I had 4 hours of cooking class which included preparing 4 courses and then eating it all with some nice wine with the other members of the class, each night.

Tuesday night there was 4 of us...Stefano (a Swiss banker...came good with the amazing wines), an Irish couple (for whom I had to translate at times cos the chef spoke italian and a few words of english) and I. Then on Thursday, there were too many of us and there wasnt really enough to do; Stefano (again), an Australian mother and daughter (from near Morton Bay...crazy Queenslanders!! haha), a family of four Americans from Boston (need I say more...) and I. Oh, and we had different chefs each night which was interesting...

Tuesdays menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Sformatini di melanzane (mini eggplant and roasted capsicum fritattas)

Primo Piatto: Ravioli di spinaci con burro e salvia (hand-made spinach and ricotta ravioli with butter and sage sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo con limone (Chicken with a lemon sauce...much better than Lemon Chicken as we know it)

Dolce: Panna cotta con frutto di bosco (Baked vanilla cream with berries of the forest)

And Thursday...

A saying springs to mind... "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

The menu consisted of...

Antipasto: Crostini di fagioli (Bruschetta with cannelli beans and red onion)

Primo Piatto: Strattecini con funghi e pormodoro (hand-made pasta with a mixed mushroom, tomato and chilli sauce)

Secondo Piatto: Pollo in crostata con sformatini di finocchio (baked chicken in a crust with a side of a mini fennel fritatta)

Dolce: TIRAMISU!! (not as good as Mum's though!! haha)


Needless to say, I rolled myself home both nights!! My stomach has definitely expanded!! haha

My other big excitment for the week was having Alex come and visit me!!

She flew into Pisa from London (for those who dont know...where she is living at the moment), and we met in Firenze (or Florence as we call it...am a bit confused at the moment why we have to have a different name for it in english when the italians have a perfectly good name for it already...same goes for all the places in Italy?!?). Alex arrived early Saturday afternoon in Firenze and we stayed there two nights together.

I had booked a hostel for the both of us and this turned out to be one of the best parts of the weekend...it is definitely true that your accomodation choice can make or break a city for you, it can determine whether your like the city and shape your lasting impression of it...

So the hostel was nice and small and we obviously stayed the two nights...it was VERY centrally located too (only about 10 minute walk to The Ufizzi Gallery). But the best bit was that breakfast AND dinner was included. So both nights all who were staying in the hostel crowded into the little kitchen and sat down to share some wine and a basic meal that was prepared by the owner...

After Alex arrived early afternoon Saturday we went and had a classica Italian long weekend lunch at a restaurant and caught up and everything and then spent the evening wandering the streets of Florence and exploring before returning to the hostel to drink wine and eat with everyone else...As Im sure you can imagine, this turned into a night of too much wine!! haha

Sunday we did more exploring; more little streets and markets, the Duomo (cathedral), the marathon that was on throughout the city and finally The Ufizzi Art Gallery. We were obviously exhausted after The Ufizzi and felt that cheese and wine was a good idea!!

Oh and Alex found a bunching balloon lying around from the marathon and ended up holding onto it and playing with it until they took it off her at The Ufizzi cos she wasnt allowed to take it in.

And on Sunday, we stopped for pizza for lunch...Alex's aim for her 2 and half days in Italy was to consume as much good italian food as possible...I think we were fairly successful!!

Monday we did more wandering and exploring...oh, and of course had the classic italian breakfast of a cappucino and a pastry both mornings...walked up to Piazza Michelangelo where there is a great view over the city and hit the market for Alex to do a little shopping, before grabbing our bags and heading for a nice lunch spot...In fact we liked the one from Saturday SO MUCH that we went back!!

We then raced to the station for Alex to get a train in order to get back to Pisa in time for her flight back to London town...

Bye Alex!!!

It was a whirlwind weekend but SO GOOD to see Alex, a familiar face and be able to speak english solidly for three days....and not only english but Australian english!! haha...I speak english with some others at school sometimes when we dont have the words in italian but none of them are native english speakers...

So I wagged one day of school for the week...and let me tell you, I struggled big time to get back into the italian on Tuesday!!

Ci vediamo,
Jo xox

PS - Havent got around to taking photos of my new house...will do so for next blog.