Stomaching It

There is nothing like walking the streets of Florence with a gelato in one hand and new shoes in the other. Not even the rain can bring me down.

Dark Chocolate + William Pear from Vestri.

Vestri's dark chocolate goes beyond just 'gelato'...it's like another dessert within itself, it's so good. 

I haven't posted in a while because, well, there hasn't been much to post about! I had two finals on Monday which I think went pretty well overall, I was pretty well-prepared and knew what to expect. To be honest, my semester here is about so much more than studying, I'm not too stressed. Don't get me wrong, I studied and read and took my classes seriously, but in the grand scheme of things, my classes were only an iota of my time here. SO MUCH has happened these past few months! It is sad that it's the end, but I am ready to start reflecting on it I think. It's a lot to take in, for sure.

Monday night I had a date (gasp!) and we went to Pepo, a place right by the market that was on the to-go-to list but we never made it.We've done pretty well getting through it, though!

I ordered:

Tagliatelle vegeteriane - just pasta and veggies. Keepin' it simple - hard to go wrong with that!

It was yummmmy (although it could have used a little parmesan). The pasta was perfectly al dente - mushy pasta is one of my biggest pet peeves. The veggies held up their texture as well. A little oily but overall very tasty!

Tuesday was a bit of a rough day. I spent most of the night swatting at the mosquito buzzing in my ear, but unfortunately my efforts did not keep the nasty little thing from eating me alive. I must have at least 8 bites in various places right now. Ick. I came home from Italian and went back to bed. Got up to eat something...and went back to sleep again. Whoops! I think I must have needed it though; my throat had been a little sore for a few days and I needed a little more rest to fight it off. I spent the remainder of the day staring out the window at the torrential monsoon-like downpour outside and telling myself to start packing...and then doing crossword puzzles instead. Just one of those days, I suppose. 

3 of us went to the farewell aperitivo API held for us at a nearby restaurant/bar. I wasn't expecting much, but...ouch. It was just sad. It really wasn't aperitivo - we had to pay for drinks if we wanted an alcoholic one. Diet Coke is not what you drink at aperitivo!!! The food was some over-oily pizza, which actually didn't totally suck, but it only came out every 10 minutes or so and the 50 students that were there jumped on them like hawks when they came out. There was a rice-veggie salad type thing that had what I swear was chopped up hot dog. Seriously, I understand cooking for a large group is hard...but it's not that hard. Fail.

Came back and attempted to study for Italian...aka, listened to Michael Buble and caught up on blogs & email. The final really wasn't bad, and I was right to not be concerned about it, we had basically done everything on the final at some point in class before. I only wish we had had more listening assignments; that's really my weakest point. Just don't have a big enough vocabulary yet. I'm going to keep working on it, though; it's such a pretty language and I'd love to be fully fluent!

After coming home and passing out - had another bad night sleep-wise - I woke up and got to the day's activity: shopping. I don't do much shopping at home (aside from food, of course), so I like to take advantage of having a city full of great shops while I can. Especially since the prices are usually so good - I can get birthdays and Christmas covered in a snap!

For lunch, Alaina and I had plans. Scary plans. What could be scary about lunch in Italy, you ask? One word: stomach. Cow stomach, to be precise. It's crazy popular in Florence; their "fast food" comes in the form of lampredotto, a sandwich of boiled stomach (not tripe - that's the 3rd stomach; lampredotto contains the cow's 4th stomach...you hungry yet?) and served with a green, herby sauce on a roll.

Looks totally and completely innocent, no?

Ok, here's my opinion: taste-wise, it was actually pretty good. Very much like roast beef, but the difference is really hard to explain. The texture, on the other hand...hmm. Slimy. Slimy, slick, and not at all pleasant. We both took two bites before giving up. We just couldn't stomach the stomach!

I was in desperate need of something to take the slimy-meat memory out of my mouth - and it just so happened that we were right by Casa del Vino! Considering I hadn't gone this week (Monday is my usual sandwich day but I had my last Sergio's date planned for then), it was perfect. I got the very first sandwich I ever tried, waaaaay back in February:

Anchovies in a parsley-olive oil-garlic mix with fresh pecorino. And the reason why I fell in love with this place came rushing back. It was gone too fast, but I enjoyed every last bite.

Packing is an overwhelming act. I think I'll go pour myself a glass of wine.

~Namaste~