Since my last post, a lot has happened. It has been a week and a day since classes started, and I love all of them so far. My Italian class now has only 2 students in total (awesome!); in my photography class, we started learning the basics of the camera, most of which I knew already from previous classes I have taken, but it was a good refresher; in my human figure drawing class, we started with drawing bottles, today, the skull; in my architecture in Italy class, I found out that we get to take trips to Rome and Venice; and finally, in my history of food and wine class, we took a walking tour of the Central Market. 

Last week, my roommate Caitlin went to the Central Market and picked up some fresh food for our first apartment dinner. We made steaks with onions, zucchini, potatoes and carrots, and a salad, which cost a total of 14 euro, plus around 6 euro for some wine. It was delicioso!

Friday: When most of my roommates went to Chianti with the school (my trip is this Friday), Emily and I met up with some other girls to go to the Galleria dell’Accademia. We walked around the museum and enjoyed everything, but were mainly there to see the David. It was amazing, and beyond words. I plan to go back a few more times, especially since I have a museum card that we all paid 20 euro for, from the school, that let’s us in to pretty much all of the museums here.

Saturday: We woke up early, met some other friends, and were on the way to Pisa! The train ride was only about an hour and we were all so excited about going to Pisa, none of us even discussed what the plan was once we got off of the train. Luckily, there was a map, so we explored the city, saw the tower and cathedral, ate some pizza and headed back home to Firenze. 

And now, la trippa. Like I said, with my history of food and wine class, we did a walking tour of the Central Market and the shops in the neighborhood around our school, where our professor explained what the speciality of each booth or store in the neighborhood is. We came upon a street vendor near the Central Market, who gave us a bowl full of white-ish peices of meat covered in a red sauce. I think everyone in the group tried it, and it actually wasn’t too bad! The tripe itself didn’t have much flavor, but the sauce that covered it was delicious. Our professor told us that we had to finish the little bowl, so pretty much everyone went in for seconds. I don’t think that I would order tripe at a restaurant for a meal, but at least I can say that I have tried a typical Tucsan street food! And the market is wonderful, but I already knew that. Everything is fresh and you can get a lot of food for pretty cheap…everything from meat (including horse meat), fruits and vegetables, to olive oil, bread, and cheese. And then there is the San Lorenzo Market, which is right outside the Central Market, where there are vendors selling leather (jackets, backpacks, purses) and scarves. I’m going to have to make a trip back there in soon.

I have to leave for class, so I will end this post now, but in my next post, I will talk about my impressions of Italy so far and what I like most (that’s for you mom). Ciao!