Navigating the city, the culture, and the food

We've been taking it easy the past few days as both Ian and I caught a little cold. Nothing serious, but neither of us feels well enough to "brave" the cold or the language barrier. I forgot how much colder cold weather can feel in humid climates than in good ol' dry Colorado. I've been watching the weather in Colorado and understand it has been quite cold this week. It's not snowing, or anywhere near freezing for that matter, here in Firenze, but the cold chills me right to the bone. But this is why the fashion world invented layers!



Tuesday, Ian and I played tourist (as if we don't do that everyday...). We strolled down to the beautiful Santa Maria del Fiore, more commonly referred to as the Duomo. This architectural masterpiece, built by Fillippo Brunelleschi, was completed in 1436 after nearly 170 years of construction! Wow! When we first stumbled into the Piazza del Duomo, I was overcome my the sheer magnitude and beauty of the Duomo. It truly is magnificent. The rich green and pink marble covering the entire facade of the building are unlike anything I have seen. While there were several tourists taking pictures in front of the Duomo, there was a calm, quietness evading the area, almost like a collective intake of breath as we all stood in awe. Inside the Duomo is a sight as well. The cupola, or dome, of the building is intricately painted. I stood under the dome staring up at the remarkable work of art until my neck could no longer bear the strain. I'm trying to convince Ian to attend one of the masses conducted in English every Saturday with me, but he's pretty reluctant to attend a Catholic mass as neither of us is Catholic. I just think it will be such a wonderful experience!


Instead of paying the 15 euros to climb to the top of the Duomo, we opted to pay for the cheaper (albeit shorter) climb up the cathedral's bell tower, the Campanile. After 414 very narrow steps (and remember, my feet are size 43 - not made for little steps!), we reached the top for a completely breathtaking view of Florence. Ian spent a while trying to determine the exact location of our apartment. I felt satisfied just walking around the perimeter and taking in the city from many different angles. We just don't have views like this back in the states!

We wandered around the many different side streets getting somewhat lost in the city. This is one of my favorite pastimes when I'm traveling, and a wonderful way to see unique sides of the city, away from the gimmicky tourist traps. We located a book store called the Paperback Exchange that sells books in English. They even sell used books for .50 cents and offer a buyback program! We purchased four used books as I have already finished the two I brought with me. If you haven't read Marcus Zusak's The Book Theif or Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, do! Both are magnificent reads.

Today, for about two hours, the power in our building went out. It was a very windy day, so I'm sure the wind had something to do with the power outage, but there's really no way of knowing for sure. The power is back on and all is well.

We made gnocchi for dinner tonight. It was an interesting process as everything we (or I should say Ian) make seems to turn out differently here. The dough was extremely sticky, no matter how much flour we used. It created quite a mess on the kitchen table, which is where we rolled out all the gnocchi. But the end result was delicious, and we have lots of gnocchi leftover for future meals. We're finding cooking and baking to be one of our greatest adventures in Italy. Ian is currently trying to locate yeast, baking powder, and vanilla extract so we can bake biscotti. We couldn't locate any of the items in the super market, so we'll have to try some specialty stores. The key is to go out when things are open (9/10am-1pm, and 3ishpm-who knows!). We're still trying to figure out the hours of operation for stores. I think they make up their own hours and work whenever they feel like it. That's part of Italy's allure.

We are hoping to explore more of the city in the coming weeks. We have a lot of time, so we are trying to spread out our adventures and really spend time in each area of the city. Tomorrow, we're hoping to visit a few of the markets (what we would call farmer's markets) to see what fruits, vegetables, cheeses, etc., we can find fresh. I'm taking the camera for sure as the markets are sure to be full of vibrant colors and commotion. Our tight budget has proved to be one of the most difficult challenges on this trip, so hopefully the markets can offer some relief and bang for our buck. We'll see!

Ciao for now,

Amber :)