I know i have been terribly bad about my emails this trip. We have just been so busy and i have not felt as inspired as my last trip. I realize that there is so much more opportunity to be observant when you are alone all the time. Nonetheless, I do have some fun thing saved up for this email and I even have pictures!
Work in the shop has been the same. I usually walk in whenever I make it. The daily walking has been good for me. I have been eating everything I see and we have gotten on a twice a day gelato schedule. I have been trying some new great flavors all over the city. I have decided that Perche No is my new favorite gelato shop in Florence and it is not overpriced like Vivoli or Grome where they send all the tourists. I have decided that Alex and I really need to branch out. Since we are in the center everyday, we have gotten in the habit of eating at all of the same places. We went to Acqua Al'Due on Saturday night for our weekly feeding. It was packed and we waited 30 minutes past our rese. Once we sat, it took forever and you could tell that they were so slammed all night, their soul simply left the food. It was not like usual and I was so dissapointed. I am ready to go try new places instead of stick with the same ol'thing every Saturday night!
The weather has been quite warm these last few days and Monday was the hottest. This also happened to be the day the Mike and Robin Bratton came into Florence to spend the day with Alex and I. We had a blast. I picked them up at Santa Croce and walked them to the shop. They loved all the leather! Then we took them to Boraccio for lunch. Alex's friend, Gianni, owns it and it is very authentic dining. Robin and I shared a few great dishes, one of which was quite rich, so I asked Gianni if it was at all possible to put the sauce on the side, like any good Californian. He looked at me like I was NUTS! ''No. The sauce and the chicken are like a marriage. You cannot seperate them!'' I appreciated his integrity and we enjoyed the meal with the sauce! After a leisurly lunch and some vino, we headed off on our abridged tour of Florence. We really did not have much time and I had a lot of things I wanted to show them. At the start, we ran into a family that was on Mike and Robin's cruise and they ended up coming aboard our tour. It was so much fun. They were all so nice and everyone appreciated our very fast but very informational tour of the city. The wonderful thing about Florence is that is so rich in history inside and out. They were not there long enough to wait in lines to see the BIG things, but they still got to see works by Donatello, Michaelangelo, Verrochio, Ghiberti, and Vasari. There is so much outside! So, we saw the Duomo, Piazza della Republica, The Church Orsanmichele, Piazza Signoria, Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, Ponte Vecchio, the oldest paper shop in Florence dating back to the 1500s, and Piazza Michaelangelo. We walked all the way up to see the view of the city. Then we cabbed it back for them to meet their group. We did all of this in about 2 hours! It was nuts! I think they all had a fun time. Alex and I really enjoyed it and Alex was so pleased to see how nice the people from home are. I think they liked him too, but you will have to ask them!
Last night was really interesting. I went to dinner with Alex, his uncle Carlo, and three other friends. There I was with 5 guys! Carlo took us to this fabulous restaurant outside the center, which is exactly what I wanted to do. It was called Perseo, named after Perseus, slayer of Medusa. This place was all about meat and you could tell as you walked in and saw slabs of meat hanging from the ceiling. This place is especially famous for its Bistecca Fiorentino (Florentine Steak). This is a giant steak that they don't cook so much. At moSt places they serve you about a 500 gram slab o meat. At this place, they minimum size is 1000 or 1100 grams. It was giant and icky! I myself had a fillet over a bed of Arugula with lemon, olive oil, and parmigianno reggiano. It was delicious. We also had penne with a meat and Chianti sauCe. It was pretty good also. We followed dinner with dessert (which was ok). Then, we brought on the Grappa. Grappa is a distilled liquor from grapes and it is REALLY strong. It is kind of what I imagine drinking terpentine is like. I managed to get a couple down in the spirit of the night. I felt great for a while, but then I woke up at 1 am with a screaming headache. Oops! I felt like Grappa.
Tonight is the Opera. After all the hubub about the tickets for last Friday night, I walked a ll the way to the ticket office to find Alex had the wrong info. It was not on Friday night, it is tonight. We will be seeing Tosca in the Boboli Gardens and I am really excited. I listened to the most of the Opera on my walk yesterday. I downloaded it on itunes. In a minute I plan to look it up on the net so we know what is actually going on in the story. We will also be finalizing our trip to Elba today-. I think we will leave Monday. I am so excited to get away from the shop for 5 days. So good!
I hope all is well with you all. I am missing home a little, but the time is flying. It was so nice to have some friends here for a bit and Alex is really excited abut coming to visit. I would love to hear abut all your summer goings on.
Tanti bacci!
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