A White Christmas

Yesterday we were given an early Christmas gift of a good dumping of snow, maybe 7 or 8 inches. The city looks beautiful! It started off really nice and fluffy but with today being so sunny of course now it is just getting really icy. Hopefully it won't be too treacherous running tomorrow!

The market is still in full swing a couple hours into the snow

The Christmas market in Santa Croce

Our street
Sant' Ambrogio
Vespas

Running this morning...

A stranded mini electric bus and a pizza delivery scooterOh my goodness! Emerging from the snowy wilderness was Babbo Natale!
Piazzale Michelangelo
How much snow do you think this is?
Seth's boyfriend, looking cold

A new article and other academic transitions

This morning I received the PDF for my new paper, "Does Clutch Variability Differ Between Populations Of Cuckoo Hosts In Relation To The Rate Of Parasitism?" (This is a long title, I know, but I have seen longer). It is already available online but will be published in the February issue of the journal Animal Behaviour. This article is based on the research we conducted at various museums across Australia--in short, we looked at the color of egg shells of various cuckoo hosts to see if parasitism (cuckoos laying their eggs in their nests) affected clutch variation (egg color). Let me know if you want the PDF!

Back here in Italy, I can't believe that this is the final week of my online courses. The text books (and to a certain extent the discussion boards) for the classes were really interesting, and it will feel a little lonely when they are over. In the meantime, I have been trying to figure out what the heck to do next semester. I'm still not totally sure, but today I signed up for Italian language classes offered by the University of Florence. It will be 2.5 hours of Italian, Monday through Friday, for about 10 weeks--120 hours in total! I hope this will get me out chatting to people. There are also optional 1.5 hour lectures in the afternoon on different aspects of Italian culture (literature, art history, music history, Etruscan history, food, etc). The only bad thing is that classes will be in the morning, which means I will be getting up no later than 6am every day to go running... someone save me.

Next task: figure out the details on applying to the nutrition program at Framingham State University for fall 2011.

Fettunta

Yesterday was I Tatti's annual Fettunta. Fettunta, which I didn't learn until later, is toasted Tuscan bread rubbed with garlic, covered in olive oil, and sprinkled with salted herbs, but at I Tatti it is the day they taste their new olive oil... and serve fettunta. Held outside at their farm, it was actually just an excuse to have a BBQ and douse everything in oil, including the meat. Besides toast, they also served beans, delicious ribollita, and a whole host of Tuscan grilled goodies, mostly pig related: porchetta, pork ribs, pancetta, salsiccia (sausage), and chicken. A meaty good time was enjoyed by all.

The star of the show: the porchetta (just like a good southern pig picking!)

Grilling the salted meats

Seth was amazed by the giant garlic floating in the pot of cannellini beans

Ribollita, one of my favorite dishes. A stew of bread, beans, tomatoes, savoy cabbage, and carrots. Must be covered in olive oil, of course. Also typical of the Tuscans, as the photo shows, is bountiful wine and not a drop of water for drinking!

Pisa

The rain is finally making way for a chilly and gloriously sunny Winter. In honor of this, Seth and I picked up where we left off last week and rode the train past Empoli to Pisa. With a population of about 100,000 people, the city is not very large--however, the nearly 700 year old university is home to 60,000 students. So, it is a very youthful city, and at this time of year not very touristy, either. Thank god.

There were lots of these little Christmas stalls set up around the city center

The Field of Miracles, a nice big lawn which includes the beautiful cathedral, the largest baptistry in Italy, and...

...the bell tower

These are my touristy pictures of the tower. At a 5 degree angle (15ft off center) it really does lean... a lot.

The micro machine baptistry also leans but it is harder to seePicnic lunch outside the light-as-air 'Pisan Romaneseque' duomo

Some little stars starting to turn on

Oh my goodness... the most delicious (and biggest!) gelato in a long time

Pisa, like Florence, is on the Arno River. This is not the Ponte Vecchio!

Dark winter nights

As the solstice approaches and the rain continues (it has rained nearly every day for over a month now) the nights have been especially long and dark. Florence is actually at a higher latitude than Boston, so it does get quite dark... But between rain drops we have been trying to take in some evening walks through the city to enjoy the sparse yet elegant Christmas decorations.

The jolly cantucci maker Chocolate window shopping :o)

The glass carvers, next door to the carpenter by our apartment. This is also a very fascinating shop.
Christmas Market in Santa CroceLast week in Santa Croce was the Florence Marathon. Rain+mid 30s+wind = worse maraton conditions ever
The church down the road from I Tatti

Empoli

Yesterday we went to the town of Empoli, about 30min by train to the west, for lunch and bill paying at our landlady's home. It was a cute town with lots of young people--actually, it just looked like there were a lot of kids because they were all getting out of school for the day and were filling the streets. We were surprised to learn that there is indeed school every Saturday!

The Piazza of Lions

Empoli might be small, but it has way more Christmas trees than Florence!

It was lots of fun to be with a family for a day--Nicla had her two kids and a friend from Ethiopia over, so it was quite a nice lunch. She served a primo (ravioli), secondo (meatballs and mashed potatoes), salad, dolci (meringue cake), and cafe. It was such a treat to join a nice family for a great meal.

Thomas and Nicole

Our landlady, Nicla, with her kids and Seth

We were hoping to take advantage of the rare rain-free afternoon and take the train to nearby Pisa, but it got too late and we decided to head back to Florence. At least it was such a nice day we were able to linger around downtown Florence and enjoy the lights and cool, crisp weather on our walk home from the train station.