Allora.

I do hate to only ever write about food because this country boasts so many splendors other than its gustative wonders. So I'll begin with a little about our day-trip to Pisa.




The weather that fine Friday was less than fine. My little weather widget had said it would be slightly rainy but warmer than any other day had been. My little weather widget lied. It was rainy and windy and cold. But we were in Pisa, so I'm not complaining. The bad weather also seemed to scare away the smart tourists, so we didn't have a single line, and if we positioned ourselves just so, we could actually take a picture with no one else in the background. The famous leaning bell tower is what most people think of when imagining Pisa, and, though it is quite nice, it is nothing to the cathedral and babtistry right next to it.


The cathedral is incredibly ornate with gold ceilings and walls covered top to bottom with oil paintings. There are some relics of saints housed there, which is a little strange to modern Protestants, but it was interesting to think of how pilgrims would have traveled to view relics similar to how we now travel to view the paintings and architecture. The pulpit in the cathedral is also quite famous, with several scenes from the life of Christ in relief sculpture all the way around it and pillars carved to represent the pagan times preceding Christianity.


The baptistry was definitely my favorite part of Pisa, though. It is the largest baptistry still standing. It isn't much to look at, but the building was designed to be like an instrument. Every half hour the security guard steps to the center and sings. The dome is shaped in such a way as to allow a ten second echo. This is just long enough to sing out three notes and harmonize with oneself. It sounds so wonderful. One person sounds like a whole choir singing. I would love to hear an actual service sung in there!



Al ora. Now I know everyone wanted to hear about the chocolate festival. Unfortunately, it was somewhat lacking in free samples, but it was beauteous to behold nonetheless. The piazza in front of Santa Croce is filled with vendors displaying the best of their artisan chocolates. One of my teachers, Andrea Bianchini, had a modest booth there with some of his award-winning chocolates. There were chocolate kebabs (an interesting concept: like a Turkish kebab-sandwich thing only made of chocolate) and chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate liquers and chocolates shaped like coffee pots and the tower of Pisa and the Duomo of Florence and birds and fish and cheese and pretty much everything else too. The hot chocolate here is a most wonderful thing. It is more liquid than hot pudding but not by much. It is similar to the drinking chocolate that starbucks has every once in awhile but much, much better. I think every stand had it's own vat of cioccolata calda tempting passers-by.

These little confections that we would call truffles or bon-bons are called pralines here and are in no way connected to the pecan variety back home.

As we were leaving the chocolate festival on Saturday, we walked through another piazza that had a market set up. After wandering around, we figured that it was a local organic farmer's market, at least, as best as we can figure it. They had cheese and honey and saffron and wine and prosciutto and breads and wine and saffron-infused honey (my favorite) and hand lotion and more wine. Then we continued to meander home and heard a drum beating out a steady rhythm. We thought it odd, so we followed the sound to the Piazza Signoria (where the original David was located) and there we found Carnavale dancers in masks dancing around in circles with whoever would join in.


Since I updated everyone last, I have changed my class schedule. I am no longer enrolled in Food, Culture and Society in Italy but am now in Pastry Shop. I am quite pleased with this change in schedule :) The instructor for Pastry Shop is Scottish and reminds me of David Tennant for those of you who know the reference. Pastry shop also happens to be on Tuesday rather than Thursday. So my weekend begins Wednesday at 2:30. Quite pleased.

There are several foods here that Katie and I have become quite enthralled with: nutella, for starters, fresh mozzarella, hazelnuts (which I never liked at home, but actual hazelnuts are far superior to anything that is merely hazelnut-flavored. Do not be fooled by the imitation!) nutella with fruits, the abundance of toblerone and ferrero chocolates, a bread called schiacciata, nutella crepes, pesto, espresso and, of course, more nutella. Here nutella is much cheaper than peanut butter. Andrea was telling the class today how he adores peanut butter, but it is so hard to find here and quite expensive once it is found.


Our favorite quick meal so far has just been to make bruschetta. It is really simple and you can do whatever you like to it. A good bread with a hard crust is rather essential. Pane Toscana is what we have here but any non-sliced-wonder-bread should work well. Our favorite is to begin with fresh mozzarella. Dice the tomatoes (with or without the seeds, whichever you prefer) and add a little olive oil and red wine vinegar and salt to the tomatoes. And have fresh basil on hand, or the other kind works too. [I don't know what temp to tell you to preheat the oven to for the simple reason that my oven here has no temperatures in Fahrenheit or Centigrade... it has 1-8 and a couple extra buttons. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do to make it work.] Bread first, with olive oil on both sides, then cheese, tomatoes and finally basil. Presto. Amazing bruschetta. Another wonderful option is simply pesto and mozzarella. (I know this is not exactly a recipe, as promised, so a real recipe will be forthcoming at some point in the next few days.)



Ciao a Tutti!