Santa Croce and weekend

Another wonderful week in Firenze! On Thursday, Carolyn and Kimmie and I had our first night on the town after a lovely dinner of 5 Euro pasta this time at Trattoria Anita. Our appetizer was this amazing molten bowl of pecorino and proscuitto with truffle sauce that we slathered on bread. So good!

We went to an English pub (of all places). It was crammed with American girls (mostly students ranging in age from 18 to 21 probably) and smarmy Italian guys trying to make time with the tourists. We did see a couple of American guys who ordered budweiser - totally lame. It was incredibly crowed but in Europe you can drink openly in the streets so we headed outside to finish our drinks in the piazza. A few Italians tried in vain to talk to Carolyn and Kimmie in broken English. They are 18, so needless to say they are new to the bar scene and I look like their chaperone or something. Later a guy slapped me on the butt. I was definitely ready to go.

We headed back towards Santa Croce (my neighborhood) which is heavily populated by bars and clubs and found another pub that was much more low key and populated by locals. It was another English pub (go figure - there are tons here) and I had a Pimm's. Yeah! Overall, the night wasn't a total bust but I am just getting my feet wet here so I'm a little apprehensive and feeling out the nightlife. Carolyn and Kimmie slept over because their place is about a 25 minute walk and I didn't want them walking home by themselves at 2 in the morning. Momma Alexis strikes again.


The next day, Friday, I worked for most of the day then off to dinner with the girls. I headed home after that for me time and ended up cleaning my house for 3 hours. I rearranged some more and ended up finding some things left by the previous tennant tucked away in drawers that will definitely come in handy, like extra soap and lightbulbs. I also found a little set of speakers that I can hook up to my ipod so I can use it like a stereo. Yeah! By the way, the $300 bucks I spent on my Ipod has turned out to be the best money I've ever spent. I use it constantly and have downloaded apps for skype and free texting so I can keep in touch with every one back home. Not to mention the hours I spend listening to the 12 G's of music I put on it before I left. It's practically paying for itself.

On Saturday I got up early and headed out to look around town for a while. I ended up in the leather store at the end of my street and fell in love with a purse and bought it. It was pricey but well worth it. I love it and will probably carry it everyday. I got a sandwich and sat down to eat it in piazza Santa Croce and ended up having a conversation with a really nice American retiree visiting from Ohio with his wife on a tour. He was very excited because he had just found a cafe that served American style coffee and we talked while his wife was looking for jewelry. It was really nice to have a conversation with a fellow American because when I'm by myself I usually don't speak to anyone for hours.

I finished my sandwich and decided to head into Santa Croce Basilica to finally have a look around. It is one of the most beautiful churches in all of Italy and contains the tombs and mortal remains of Galileo, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli to just name a few. It also has a small museum and leather factory. I walked around for a couple of hours. It was so beautiful. One of the small chapels inside the church held the relics of Umiliana, a first female franciscan monk in Firenze. I took a picture of the sign for all of you and because I am nerd. It was totally creepy but also amazing -- the relics not the sign.

This is one of the large works housed in the museum at the back of the basilica. Unfortunately, I don't remember who it's by but I sat and stared at it for a while because it was unbelievably beautiful and the colors were so vibrant. Favorite painting so far.

I left the church, took a nap and tried to cook myself dinner which turned out to be a total fiasco and failure. I finally figured out how to work the gas range but kept accidentally snuffing out the flame by having the window open or turning the heat too low. I made boring spaghetti which cost twice as much and tasted half as good as any pasta I can find at any trattoria in Firenze. I think I may just snuff grocery shopping all together. It turns out to be so much more expensive and troublesome. Anyway, I ended up eating gelato and pizza like I do almost everyday. And it was excellent. Oh and I found my favorite pizza place finally. Gusta Pizza! It's about a 25 minute walk away but so worth it. Wood fired oven pizza, bubbly and crunchy. So good!

On Sunday, after yet another failed attempt to get to Ikea (I NEED a mattress topper and more pillows -- I wake up every morning in pain and I almost never sleep through the night) Carolyn and I headed for the leather market around Mercado Centrale. Later, had amazing chicken Cacciatore and tuscan white beans at Za Za's which I have heard is kind of famous. Definitely going back there! Then high-tailed it to work after which I headed home to eat the rest of my cacciatore and to bed early.

And here I am today. I tried to return some foam padding I bought for my bed that didn't work out for about the 50th time today but the store is never open when the posted hours says it will be. That is something that is sooooo common here. Stores open and close as they please which is aggravating. Really though, I like the pace of life here where nothing is really THAT big of a deal that you can't put it off until later. I think everyone can benefit from a little less stress and Italy is teaching me that.

This weekend I am heading to Pienza, Montepulciano and Sant'Antimo with the students and then hopefully to Munich on Saturday for the kickoff of Oktoberfest if we can get train tickets. Yeah!!!

Sorry the order of the pictures is totally messed up. They are impossible to wrangle.