Cultural Week

I haven't updated this blog in a while, as Stephanie P. said to me I found something better to do in my life. So I'll show you what I have done. Downtown Firenze close to the Medici chapel there is the old market. It is amazing and I went there to pay tribute to the good food. I always go there every time I visit, it is very unique. This time I also went there because I friend of mine told me that she bought some amazing dried strawberry at a stand in the upstairs of the building and so I went there to try them. It is so funny how many people I know that have been to Firenze, and everyone of them gave me some information about something that I need to try here, isn't it funny? I am the one from Firenze I should say to people what to do here :D:D:D:D

The same day I went to one of the BEST museum in the whole world, there are just few others that can compete with the Uffizi. To make the whole thing even better it was cultural week so I didn't even have to pay the ticket. I only payed the reservation in order to avoid the long line. If you are planning to visit the Uffizi gallery I strongly recommend to pay 3 euro for the reservation it is sooooooooooo worth it, specially when it is FREE.

I was able to be one of the first in the gallery. It was really cool to enter the corridors when they were almost empty.


I received some good comments abut the clouds pictures I took so I thought to try again. This is the Arnolfo's Tower. It is such a beauty!

I found out that they opened a cafe at the Uffizi and here is the picture from the balcony there over la Loggia dei Lanzi. Probably some of you have known about this for a long time. That tell you how long it has been since I have been to the Uffizi last.

Here is a close up of the Ponte Vecchio. Anotehr amazing thing we have here. It is the only bridge that was not destroyed by the Germans when they left Firenze, we need to be thankful to some one back then. The whole bridge is house of jewelry shops, with offices and stuff like that. wouldn't you love to have a shop like that?

Here is the whole bridge. I LOVE that too!!

The Uffizi gallery from one of its windows

Line at the Uffizi at 8:00 am. The museum opens at 8:30 and this is the line of people without a reservation. 3 euro well spent especially if you like to sleep in the morning.

After the Uffizi I went to the Boboli Garden. I think I talked about it before. It was the garden of the Grand Duke, not only a Duke but a grand Duke!! I really don't know what kind of plants this is but I thought it was pretty. You can see the artistic side of the auditor here :D:D:D:D

One of the terrace

Pitti Palace in the distance and one of the main fountains

Close up of Pitti Palace

Il Duomo from the garden.

Old house downtown

One of my friend is an art collector/trader. I don't really think he makes good money but I thought this piece here is funny. It made me think about my situation as a single person and it made me think about a really good song from Queen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxbFLYa0_bw

Sunday night after the tour of the art house we had BBQ. Super delicious. We don't do BBQ very often here but when we do it I think it is better then the one that I have tried on the US, like most of the food. Sorry :D:D:D

Speaking of food. This picture was taken after the dinner we had at my Aunt Patriza's house. Super good meal and lots of fun with some of my cousins. From the top left my mom, Luca, Me, second row Irene, my aunt Patrizia and Paola.

Pastry

I only have few words today!

Anzi, since I picture is worth a million words I'll just leave the pastry speak for me.

Enjoy!!

Hope for my firends

I forgot to post those two pictures and I took them specifically for two of my favorite people. First is the picture for Peter. I just want to give you hope to the hopeless artist. If this lady can afford a shop downtown Firenze making watercolors I am pretty sure that artists are not all that poor, just need to work at their art. I know that's your problem, I know you are lazy but it is time that you stop eating my food and start to work for your own. Is that the reason why you went beck home since I am not in SF? You didn't have anyone feeding you and you decided to ransack your parents pantry instead of mine! Ah! Ah! Ah!

This second picture is dedicated to Stephanie P. A fellow gelato lover that as well as me believes that traveling 5000 miles is worth it to get good gelato. This is one of her favorite shops and you know when someone from America has favorite gelato place on the other side of the world it means that:

1. She is a gelato LOVER (and you know that Italy is for LOVERS ah! ah! ah!)
2. she has been here quite a lot.

Viva il festival del gelato, the place where life get brighter and love get shared freely... or lets say for 2 euro!!

Slow day

Allora!!! So today was a slow day. I spent most of it in the house trying to get stuff done. I went to the grocery store though in the morning and I got good pastry for breakfast, and of course I spiked my pastry with Nutella! I decided to go out for a while and to take some pictures around where I live just for the heck of it.

So this is the street where I grow up. At that time there were less cars but other than that everything is still the same.

My favorite part are the platanus. I love those trees they give lots of shade and believe me you really need it if you decide to be out in July.

This is the building where my house is. You can't see it from here but you get the idea. I love the red brick building.

Ok this is for all the people that got a kick of the picture that I took in Fiesole about dog poop. This piece of art says:

From the windows in the early morning we see that this is the toilet of your small dog. Poop here as well so we can make sure that also your intestine works well. Marianna Cane. As well as the other picture probably most people that don't speak italian won't be able to fully appreciate. It's ok I still love you :D:D:D:D

This is one of my favorite flowers, I have no idea of what this is but it smell super good, it just makes me happy and think about home.

Here is a Smart car, they are super small and really fast. It is just funny to see them around, I saw one in San Francisco, last month.

This is the pride of Italian engineering :D:D:D FIAT 500 it might not look much but it is the coolest car in the world, you just need to see it in person and then you will fall in LOVE with it. I believe it is at the opposite side of the spectrum of a Ferrari. Ferraris are cool cars for the opposite reason than 500s are cool car, just different but both super cool!!!

Shopping around Town

So today was shopping day number two. We went around looking for nice pants for work. As most of the things in Italy fashion has really no rules. So I had to try on a billion pair of pants since size is really just a vague indication. The reason is that they are cut differently so same size can be different. Going to shot with my mamma is really all about getting perfection so if something doesn't really fit perfectly it's no good. In our roaming around the city we went through the station and if you spent a vacation in Italy you know that trains are the way to get around here. I missed stations because are full of interesting colorful people. People going places, moving and having lots of fun. You can see all sorts of people from the attorney going to Rome with the expensive bullet train to the weirdo beggar with tattoos and piercing. It is a world snapshot, specially in Firenze where pretty much 99% of the world is represented. It reminded me of my mission and the long hours spent in the station during transfers day, and literally days in the station during scopero. Who served in Italy know what I am talking about. Even if it's a pain in your butt thinking back even sciopero makes you smile and think that is just one of the many screw up things that makes this country so beautiful. I firmly believe that only if you really LOVE Italy you can handle it. The longer I spend in the US the more I realize how messed up is this place and how much I love it for that same reason.

For this reason I felt the need to take a picture of the station or at least to post one since I took few others.

For lunch we went right downtown in one of those streets were probably two bikes and few people walking make a crowd. We went to eat something that is really something only here you can find I am sure lots of you reading are going to be disgusted so if you are afraid just stop reading. We found this place where they make LAMPREDOTTO which is a sandwich made with cow stomach. If you have a hard time believing me I took a picture of the menu for you like St. Tomas that if you don't see won't believe.

Here is the menu.

Now that you have been disgusted I'll tell you that it actually taste pretty good. It is not my favorite thing in the whole world but if you have the guts to eat guts then you should try.

For all of you with a sweet tooth I'll add that we mad Tiramisu' (Mormon version of course) and that it was quite amazing if I can say that myself. I helped my mamma in the making. I elect myself quality control officer so I had to try a sample of the custard every now and then to ensure quality through out the process.

Down here is the finished product.

Even if I am conscious that it is really impossible to make this deliciousness in the US I am going to give the recipe:

• Mascarpone cheese around 300 grams
• 1 egg yock for each 100 grams
• and 1 table spoon of sugar for each egg.

bit the egg whites in a separate container. Then bit the egg yoke with the sugar and then add the mascarpone trying to incorporate air with you are mixing the two things. If you don't know how to do that probably this recipe is too hard for you, or blame it on me that I don't know how to explain it :D:D:D:D.

Add the egg white previously bitten, always incorporating air. Dip Lady's finger ( a kind of Cooke not really fingers) in chocolate milk. Then apply a layer of cookies and a layer of custard starting usually with the cookies. Repeats until you are out of one of the two remembering that the top layer should be custard. Grate chocolate on top, serve cold.

So now you see how cool is this blog and you can tell your friends.

Saints and...more!!!

I have been told by Jenny that I have too much time on my hands since I started this vacation blog and probably she is right. The other day I was watching TV and I heard something really interesting that I wanted to research. I hear that Aspirin the name of the drug came from the name of a Saint from Naples. So I decided to ask the mighty Google. I found out that the saint's name is Sant Asprene and that he is supposed to help believers with migraines, and as you can see the name of the drug is too close to be just casual. So there you go as usual Italian rules even in medicine Ah! Ah! Ah! if you don't believe me you can read here: http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90841

if you don't know italian, that's just your fault. Ah! Ah!

While I was researching I came across something even better than Saint Aspreno. I found out that there's someone that is selling a spot in Heaven for $24.99 if you are interested it is just a simple click away:
http://www.144000saints.com/?gclid=CNmNv83vgowCFRROQwodonq0zA

Let me know if you buy a piece of haven lol

Low Key

Today has been a low key day, lost of rest and not too stress. I went around running errands in the morning and I went to get an hair cut. It was really funny because I went to the place close to my house that they opened probably last year. My mom goes always there so they kind of know her. While I was talking there she call them to tell them that I was getting there and to reserve a spot. You need to know that Italian mothers are very protective, so then I got there the guy was kind of surprised and told me: I thought you were younger. I can only imagine what she must have said to him. I really don't think to be normal to have a mother calling the barber telling them you are coming when you are thirty. What can I do? I am here just 20 days every year and a half so I just need to let her do what she want :D:D:D:D. I guess the guys at the barber shop think I am a retard :D:D:D. Probably my mom told him something like: my kid is coming :D:D so the guys was waiting a 10 year old. :D:D

In the afternoon I went to the hospital with la mamma since she had to do some exams. It took forever in the hospital but then since I have been a really good son we went to get gelato. I don't know if you realized but I am dong pretty well with my one gelato a day. Today I got Nocciola and Fior di latte e Nutella. Divine!!! Suggestion: if you need to judge a gelato place just try basic flavours like chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut (nocciola) if those taste the way they are supposed to then you can be pretty sure that they know what they are doing. Anyway do you see that cone? probably 2 bucks, mhhhhhhh money well spent!!!

After the gelato we went to the COOP. It is the best grocery store in the whole world. I say that just because I grow up with their stuff I bet everybody has its favorite. Anyway I took a picture of the delli section, it almost gave me man tears! Have you ever see so many Prosciuttos and other stuff all together? If you don't feel warm and fuzzy inside that means you never had good stuff in your life and I feel sorry for you :D:D:D:D. On our way to the cashier I saw Almut favorite chocolate Ritter sport (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritter_Sport) , so if you want to woo her just send her that chocolate specially the one with wafer on one side and chocolate on the other. While we were waiting in line we saw a very funny thing. In Italy when you buy fruits and vegetable, you weigh them and you select the kind on the electronic scale and the scale prints you the amount. This leave lots of room for dishonesty but normal and decent people (the majority) do not cheat while weighing. I guess some people have the habit to make "mistakes" :D:D:D so this guy from the store checked if this person have been dishonest and of course the buyer was found lacking of integrity and of weighing capability so to speack. The grocery store guys kept saying out loud: I don't want to see you here anymore, and the other guys payed like anything was happening. It was too funny counting that the store is huge like Albersons or Safeway and tons of people were looking. After grocery shopping we went to eat at my uncle and aunt house. Too funny! I love them. We eat so much I still have my belly fool after several hours. We got some really good pastry I didn't posted the picture this time since Peter told me that he had a hard time sleeping for couple of nights thinking about the one that I poster the first day.

My Menhood and other things

Today I really had to put to test my manhood and step up to the challenge. I went to buy some clothes today and my dad showed me a pink shirt and wanted me to buy it since it is in style now. I always thought that I was not ready for a pink shirt but I decided that I am man enough to own one now!!! Also it is not really too pink, but I thought that it would be a good way to start.

And I decided that buying a light blue sweater would help with the pink shirt so this is my second item. I also got another shirt a NO IRON shirt, I am pretty excited about that. As a last item I got a pair of nice pants. I am excited because those are made for the summer so I am not going to roast in those like the one that I have in SF. Oh thank goodness!!
But this day it hasn't been all about shopping. I had to go to the American consulate here in Firenze to get my VISA stamped. It has been a really fun experience. First I could not bring cell phones nor backpacks and all sorts of other things, then I had to get an appointment and with that I went to the consulate. They made me wait outside for a while then when I got in after I turned in all my stuff I had to wait more ( guess that is normal). Then after waiting for a long time I realized that they were calling for the interviews but they were doing it not very loudly and so I got skipped. When I realized that I went closer to the office place and while I was there two Portoricans got denied. That made me a bit nervous. When I finally got to talk with the clerk he said something like: finally you decided to show up! That made me laugh since there were s many people in that small room that nobody could hear anything. Anyway the guy asked me why I wanted a VISA. I told him that I have a job, then he asked me why I went to BYU I said: None of you business :D:D:D:D no just kidding! and then he said that I was approved! YeaH!! After that I went to celebrate and I bought gelato at the really cool place called FESTIVAL DEL GELATO. I is one of my favorite, not because they have the best gelato ever but because they have tons of different flavors. It is awesome! I got Rocher and Bacio Bianco, since Steph P. asked me to get those. So if you have any suggestion just let me know I'll be more then happy to eat as much gelato as I can!!

Since I didn't have my camera today because I couldn't bring it in to the consulate then I had to get more gelato, and also because I consider my self an overachiever so two gelati in one day is surely better then just one. This place I went it is absolutely awesome. I got Chocolate (dark) and Fior di Latte (kind of milk gelato not to be confused with vanilla that is a different thing) It was really good I was soooooooooo happy!


From there we went to visit my Uncle and had a great time with my cusins. For some reason I found this picture in my camera so here it is my cousin LUCA. He owns a vespa and a big motorcile DUCATI MONSTER one of the most beautiful bike around. Love it! so if you girls want to know him just let me know :D:D:D:D
Ok so now it got really late between posting this and talking with many friends it is 1 am, time to go to bed. Tomorrow is another day, I need to cut my hair, run, some more shopping, and of course some more GELATO!!!!!!

Trip to Fiesole and Impruneta

So after running around all morning to get ready for the VISA interview tomorrow we met with the Euro Girls to get ready to go to Impruneta and Fiesole. We had lunch at my house.

Kathie and Liby

Lunch: Capocollo, Salamino tartufato Robiola and Galbanino. These are among the things that I really miss from Italy. I could eat "salumi" all day long the taste so good!!!

After lunch we decided to go to Fiesole. It is a place really close to Firenze. It is the oldest place around. Romans where there since it was up on the hill. Now it is the place where rich people live. The big church in the old Piazza it is dedicated to San Romolo and it has over the main entrance a terracotta by Givanni della Robbia.

From the main piazza there is a small alleyway that goes up to a vista point called San Francesco where you can see Florence it is a really good place for kissing and as to prove me right, there was a couple smooching up there.

On the way up there we found this leather shop with some really cool handbags. I thought of my hometeachees. Hey girls if only I have more money!! Maybe next time when I am rich! I also found out that there is a new out lest one hour north of Firenze and they sell famous brand like Armani, Versace, Valentino at a discount. I hope I'll be able to see it is really a good place to shop.

Once we got to the top at the San Francesco vista we took some pictures of the valley of Firenze. Too bad the sun was really bright and high in the sky I need to go back there close to the end of the day when the sun is going down, maybe I should bring a girl with me. Ah! Ah! too bad all my loves are in the US. Ah! Ah! Ah!

So this is a fun sing. I guess if you don't know Italian you won't really understand why it is funny so I guess just Steph P. and couple of other people are going to smile at this. Sorry! Italian 101 for all the one that are interested will start at my house when I comeback, maybe just for the girls that are interested, you know big classes are very confusing and not too productive. Ah! Ah!

This still Fiesole from the San Francesco vista point.

La mamma and zia (aunt) Lucilla, I love my aunt she is so fun!

This is part of the amphitheater in Fiesole. It it happens that you are there really don't pay the 10 bucks to see it is a waist of money. Just walk 1 minute too the right of the entrance and you can see the same thing for free. If you are really interested in Roman's ruins just go to Rome!

The group looking at the ruins for free. And as Peter would say the Italian spirit of free-rideness is getting back to me stronger and stronger. I am getting back my Italian way of thinking, Peter by the end you'll be so proud of my!

After Fiesole we went to Impruneta in the middle of Chianti. We went to visit this pottery place and they let us in the shop were they create the vases, here is how they do it. First of all they get clay from the quarry and they bring it to the Mill. Then according to what they need to do they mix it with water. After they create the vase or statue or whatever they want, usually with a mold, then they let it dry. This process it takes usually 20 to 30 days. After which they put the piece in the kiln to cook it. The cool thing is that the clay from Impruneta is called black clay because it is supposed to be darker then all the others but when it cooks then get its charatteristic red or orange color.

This is the semi finished product, after few hours of rest it will be freed from the mold and it will be added the top decoration. The artist was there making it but I decided to no display him since he was shirtless and I wanted to keep the blog G rated...at least for now. Ah! Ah!

This is one of the coolest dogs ever. His name is Camillo and he was just laying around the shop enjoying the sun and just waiting that one of the visitors would pet him.

The outside of the shop with all the art pieces in display. We found that some of the big vases were ready to be shipped in Germany and Kwait.

After Kathie bought her souvenir then we were all really happy to go back to the city center to get some gelato! Of course what would you aspect. Anyway this is the main church in Impruneta, San Mary something...something, she performed a miracle here and healed everybody from the plague!

And just as you thought we got gelato. This time I got crema and bacio. Stephanie P. asked me specifically to get bacio since is one of her favorite flavours and so I did. Today she also told me another of her favorite flavour and the place where she likes it the most. Festival del gelato in via del corso, I like that place and it was definitely one of the gelaterie that I was going to visit. Tough life :D:D:D

Now the whole group for one last picture before the departure.