I Tatti festivities

The second half of this week was packed with events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of I Tatti. Wednesday night we had dinner--complete with pre-dinner drinks and antipasti, a four-course meal, and post-dinner coffee and treats--at the Castello di Vincigliata at the end of the road and at the top of the hill where I Tatti is located. This was quite a formal and fancy affair, probably the nicest I have ever been to (rumor was that it was 90 euro, or $130, a head). The dramatic, beautiful setting and the luxurious dinner was very much like a pricey wedding reception, without music and the chicken dance, unfortunately.

There are supposedly records of the castle dating back about a thousand years, but it went to ruins and had been reconstructed so much that today it is basically a 19th-century reproduction. Still, not too shabby!

Located at the top of the hill, the castle had a very impressive view! It had been storming for the past three days, but fortuitously the storm cleared about 2 hours before the dinner.Being seated between two Italians, I was too embarrassed to take photos of the rest of my meal, but I couldn't resist creating a memento of the creamy, chocolaty, caramelly, dessert! You know a dish is fancy when the name is really, really long

The 15 fellows being presented with their studies in the new loggiato

The following day was packed with speeches culminating in the inauguration of the new loggiato at I Tatti. This is basically a state-of-the-art building containing the 15 studies for the fellows. The celebration finished with yet another elegant and overwhelming 'garden party'. Usually I Tatti is self-sufficient and has the resources to pull together large, beautiful events with its own staff, but it was catered, so you know it was to be good and expensive. I wish I had taken photos of the aperativi--they were by far the most exquisite I have ever seen.

Beyond being the 50th anniversary of I Tatti, I imagine these were also important fund raising events, so while the donors were wooed, we got to ride the coattails to excellent food and a beautiful (though somewhat stuffy) atmosphere.

Debbie Loeb Brice preparing to cut the ribbon to the Deborah Loeb Brice Loggiato Checking out the new studies. (Seth's is the one on the lower left.)The 'Garden Party'

One of the many, many tables of food, each different. Oh my.

I couldn't believe it, they had actually hired a 'famous' marching band from northern Tuscany to hang out and eat with us

School's out

Despite the grand events at I Tatti this week, they did not obscure the final days of my Italian course. I really enjoyed taking these classes--they provided an outlet to other non-Italians also trying to integrate in a different country (sometimes I wondered if my aunts and uncles from Vietnam felt like I felt taking these classes when they were trying to get settled in the US), as well as a valuable, solid structure to the day. However, it was a bit of a challenge to get up daily at 5:30am for the past 5 months, though with the sun and the traffic being so problematic, we will continue to try to stick to our usual early routine. Both classes in which I participated (medio and medio-avanzato) ended up being all-female--a couple guys started in each but about half-way through disappeared. This made for a fairly relaxed and friendly atmosphere, and we were very lucky to have wonderful instructors for both courses (I heard other teachers were not nearly so good). Also, I befriended the two Vietnamese nuns who were in the previous course with me, and I think I will miss them the most. On the last day of class they wrote and sang a song for the instructor, making it an especially sentimental day for all of us.

Yesterday was the opening of an art exhibition by one of the students in the class. After meeting with Claudia for gelato, I bumped into a couple girls from class also on their way to the exhibition. It was nice to spend the afternoon with everyone, outside the classroom, and it was equally fantastic to see some creative artwork by one of our fellow students. I hope I can keep in touch with a few of these girls, and I will need to practice my Italian so that I can continue to communicate with them!

Gule and pregnant Chargre (both from Turkey, I am sure I spelled their names incorrectly), Kuniko, Hiroaki (the husband of Tubasa), Tubasa, and me at the opening of Tubasa and Hiroaki's joint art exhibition. No, that is not wall paper behind us.

The exhibition was inside a hotel that displays works by local artists, at least I think that is what they normally do.

Guests, round one

This post is a bit late since I have been waiting for a few pictures from our visitors. I will have to keep waiting a little while longer, so I will need to make do with the pictures I have so far ;o)

Despite the horrible weather (in the low 90s, without AC, and a bit humid) and the accident, I think (or at least I hope) Seth's parents had a good visit. We familiarized ourselves with the city taxies and managed to get Linda out to the Accademia and then to the Uffizi and the Piazza della Signoria, so I suppose not all was lost.

Upon the arrival of Seth's parents, we had lunch at Trattoria da Rocco (Sant'Ambrogio Market), moments before... the accident.

The next day, Rich got hyped up to try Lampredotto. Oh, and the reaction shot. Not so hot.

While Rich and Linda were here my cousin Eileen and Aunt Dee arrived from California. Eileen had just completed her masters degree and she and her mother came out to Italy for a full month. Their itinerary included a few days in Florence, then a week-long cruise followed by two weeks on the road driving around up north, then back to Florence. They were able to pack in quite a few sites while they were here, and we all still managed to eat dinner at home together, my family and Seth's.

Rich, Aunt Dee, Linda, and Eileen

Our first dinner together we had a certain Italian friend, Claudia, come over and show us how to make Spaghetti Carbonara. Being home-bound and not having many opportunities to meet the locals and eat food made by Italians, it was really nice Linda could meet Claudia. Claudia was a great representative for her country :o)

As a side note, some notions I had formed in my head about Italians during this past year were solidified that evening. These include 1) Italians are VERY particular about their food and there is pretty much only one right way to do anything. Being extremely traditional and proud of regional cuisine, recipes have very little wiggle-room. 2) Italians are exceedingly generous, witty, and warm-hearted if you can break the initial ice. This ice is quite a bit thicker when dealing with Florentines. Luckily for us Claudia is from Umbria. 3) In terms of food, ALWAYS drench your entire plate in olive oil. If it is not saturated in oil, you did not add enough. Also, there is a myth that one should add a spoon of salt to boiling pasta water. It is not a spoon of salt, it is more like 1/4c or 1/3c of salt. Seriously, it should taste like sea water. I have seen two other Italians make pasta and they all pretty much empty the box of salt into the water. Of course, it is very important that the salt is large rock salt, not fine-ground. There is no explanation why this is important. Also, NEVER rinse pasta after draining!

The second night we were all together Seth and I ditched our families, though we had good reason (we did feel bad, by the way). Seth's mentors from UNC, Dr. Haar and Dr. Nadas, whom we had met with during our first visit to Florence two years ago, were back in town and wanted to get together for dinner. We met them at a really nice restaurant downtown and were able to catch up with them for a bit.

Us with Dr. Nadas and Dr. Haar. Not a very good picture, which is why I am getting a new camera when I return to the US.

When Seth and I returned to the apartment it looked as if our families were keeping each other company and were passing around photos over pizza and a bottle of wine. Very cute!

After a week-long visit, Seth's parents left early Friday morning. We were worried that Linda wouldn't be allowed on the plane with a full-leg cast (their regulations require one's legs to be bent at a 90 degree angle under the seat), but somehow she managed it. Of course they had more problems with delays and lost luggage getting home, so hopefully this trip wasn't so horrible that they never want to leave Geneva, NY again!

A few hours later, Eileen and Aunt Dee hopped on the train to Venice to catch their cruise. I hope they had a nice introduction to Florence, and we look forward to seeing them again soon!

Seth and I had the rest of the afternoon to recover, grocery shop, and spot-clean the apartment in preparation for Danielle's visit. She is one of my closest friends since middle school and we did everything in band together (we both played clarinet and would always room together during the trips). I last saw her a year and a half ago in Denver, and of course she hasn't changed one bit.

Coming to Italy for business, Danielle stayed with us over the weekend before heading to a small town near Parma to visit a solar power plant. Her goal for Florence included walking the town, shopping, and lots of gelato eating, and I think we covered these bases quite well.

Danielle with our snack from the Saturday market: strawberries, apples, Pugliese bread (salted, what a treat!), and pecorino cheese. Mmmm!

Luckily for our visitors, this was also the week of the Gelato Festival.

Sunday morning, after climbing the Piazzale Michelangelo, we stopped by the monthly antiques fair around the corner at the Piazza dei Ciompi

Coffee and chocolatey things at one of my favorite pasticcerieThe gelato festival continued all the way to the Palazzo Pitti

Dinner with the anarchists on the steps of Saint'Ambrogio

Shaky start

Seth's folks have finally come out to visit us in Florence! This is their first time out of the country so it was very exciting for them to get a taste of Italy. They arrived Friday, which was a day late because their original flight was canceled. They made it over to our apartment nonetheless, and dropped their bags and grabbed a quick lunch with us at the Trattoria Da Rocco inside Sant'Ambrogio market. This was about as far as we got, because as soon as we left to go see David Seth's poor mom slipped off the very uneven sidewalk and landed hard on her knees. She could barely move and was in a lot of pain so we shuffled over to the hospital that was luckily only two blocks away. We checked her into the ER and waited about 6 hours before she was helped. Though it wasn't exacly David, waiting in the hospital was at least an interesting lesson on Italian culture.

Poor Linda had broken her right kneecap and was placed in a very heavy full-leg cast. Of course the hospital didn't loan crutches--in fact, they didn't even have any in supply to sell--so we had to buy a set from a medical supply store downtown the next day after a consultation with an orthopedic doctor. Though at times dealing with the hospital seemed haphazard (in the typical Italian sense), we do have to hand it to them--after a CAT scan (she hit her head hard), two x-rays, the cast, and doctor visit, they were only billed 300euro (about $420), and the crutches were only 40 euro. This all probably would have cost thousands in the US.

Upon getting home we didn't think Linda would be able to make it up the three flights of very narrow stairs to our apartment, but she did, but she hasn't been able to leave since then. Seth went with his dad to Rome yesterday for two nights since we couldn't cancel the B&B they had booked (the Domus Livia -- this was an issue in itself that involved them lying to us about their inability to cancel or change the booking despite the emergency and over 40 hours notice), and I have been hanging out with Linda. At least I don't have school today so I can spend time at home with her and prepare for Aunt Dee and Eileen's arrival tonight. It is funny Seth's parents and my aunt and cousin's visit will overlap by several days, but we are just happy that everyone could come out. Poor Linda, though--I hope we can think of a way to get her out to see a few sights, at least the Duomo!

Hidden gems

This week we have been getting a closer look at yet more interesting little things around the city. Sunday we went to Claudia's apartment for lunch--she is my (one) friend from Conversation Exchange and she invited us over because her housemate had shown her how to make ragu' toscano (Tuscan-style meat sauce). Her housemate's boyfriend's brother, conveniently, works in a trattoria and provided a huge plate of homemade egg pasta (tagliatelle) to cover in the sauce. I would love to learn how to make this sauce, but I don't think I would be willing to spend three hours to make it. The same goes for the fresh pasta.

On the way out we took advantage of Claudia's apartment being in a different part of town and walked down Via il Prato, the road where they store the Brindellone. This is the cart they explode every year for Easter and they keep it in this massive yet shockingly narrow compartment. Even though we just saw the door, that was almost enough for me. It was like sneaking a peak at a celebrity's home.

I'm so content to be so close to the Brindellone! What is almost more impressive is its door (yup, that tall and skinny brown thing!).

We next visited the Basilica di Santa Trinita to have a look at the Cappella Sassetti, frescoed by Ghirlandaio around 1485.

This morning (I had the day off from school) we met with Giovanni, an art historian fellow at I Tatti who lives a couple blocks away. He took Seth and me to see the Chiostro dello Scalzo, a beautiful cloister elegantly frescoed in gray tones by Andrea del Sarto (1508-1526).

Who would have thought something so striking would be hidden within the walls of this modest little facade?

As a bonus Giovanni drove us just out of town to see Andrea del Sarto's Cenacolo (Last Supper) at San Salvi. Maybe not as elegant as the Scalzo, but just as impressive. The nice thing about all these frescoes is that they are rarely removed from their wall and you have to visit them on-site. This makes it hard for museums to plunder them and more fun to track down individually. With just over a month left in Florence, we still have many more to see!

Flights home

I can't believe how quickly this year has flown! I have been having to think about finally leaving Florence and this afternoon I sealed the deal by booking flights back to the US. I will check out of here on June 30th and head straight to Denver, just in time for my cousin, Christina's, wedding. Seth will remain in Florence for a couple weeks so that he can have all the mosquitoes and all the tourists to himself, haha. I am just starting to feel comfortable here and I really wish I could stay longer (two years in one place seems to be the trend lately), but I suppose I will have to go back to reality at some point.

Now that the flights are taken care of I can start thinking about other things, like how to get Lorenzo back into the US, how to reduce our resident mosquito population before we have visitors these next couple weeks, how to bring back all our crap to the US, and figure out which classes to register for this Fall semester at Framingham. But for now I can really put my mind to pondering why on earth there was a huge piece of soaked Baccala (salt cod) in the middle of the residential road this morning during our run...

Another kind of market

I just wanted to mention that I really like the food sold in Italian grocery stores. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE the fresh produce markets like Saint Ambrogio, but the packaged products here are miles simpler and less processed than 98% of everything found in American grocery stores. The past several years I had almost completely avoided buying ANYTHING processed (i.e., products bagged, boxed, or frozen) from the grocery stores in the US. Our weekly groceries included milk, fresh produce, basic unsweetened cereal (like grape nuts and oats), dry grains and beans, canned vegetables, etc. Admittedly, we would often buy flavored yogurt and pasta sauce and occasionally ice cream, but that is pretty much it. I would willingly eat processed food if it were organic (or at least not full of ingredients I can't recognize), but those sorts of things are way out of our budget so we would keep things cheap and simple and cook from whole ingredients.

Italy, however, has spoiled me! You can pick up almost anything and it would use real sugar (high fructose corn syrup is almost exclusively an American thing), usually use real fat like butter or (natural) oil (although I have seen a couple productsthat use fully hydrogenated crap), have simple ingredients, and not be loaded in unnecessary salts and laundry lists of preservatives. As a result I have to be very careful when buying something to make sure I use it up asap, before it is taken over by mold. Though annoying, at least it reminds me that the food is NOT loaded with fake chemicals. Admittedly, this is not true of everything (coloring agents, some preservatives, and other strange ingredients do exist), but like I said, it still beats 98% of what you find in the US!

For example, we even let ourselves have frozen pizza every couple weeks, which I haven't eaten since I was in high school. If any country makes excellent frozen pizza, leave it to the Italians!

The ingredients: flour, water, tomato, mozzarella (milk, salt, rennet, milk enzymes), iodized salt, vegetable oil, extra-virgin olive oil, yeast, modified starch, basil, oregano. Also, this is kinda off-subject, but I really appreciate how this cream, chocolate, and whiskey colomba (dove cake) actually resembles the photo on the box.

After eating all these little snacks, I will seriously have to go on a diet when I get back to the US! Or at least go back to soaking beans...