1/31/09

I haven't updated in a while, but a lot happened this past week. Last weekend Kathleen and I went to the chocolate festival at Santa Croce. It was very bad weather so we decided to experiment with the bus system. We live pretty far from the center of Florence (40 min walk) but the bus takes us there in like 10 min. We got 20 bus passes from the Tabacci store (kind of like a grocery store in the states). Once we got on the bus, we noticed that everyone else who stepped onto the bus wasn't paying. The driver didn't even look twice. Apparently no one checks if you actually pay for the bus or not. However, sometimes undercover cops would ride on the buses randomly and ask people to show their ticket. If you're caught without one, or if you haven't used yours, you get a big fine. So we decided we'll maybe pay every third time we ride the bus.
THe chocolate fair was incredible. THere were many many booths with the finest chocolate. They had all kinds of chocolate sculptures, funny chocolate animals,and even chocolate penises! They also had a bunch of chocolate in the shape of kalbasa. They had free samples of a lot of the chocolate and it was delicious!! I tried this really thick rich chocolate liquor and it was fabulous. After going over to every single booth, we met up with our friend Elena and went into Santa Croce. Santa Croce is a beautiful gothic church with the tomb of Michelangelo and a bunch of frescos by Giotto. Oh on our way to the chocolate fair Kathleen and I found a Russian restaurant called Marina!! It had Borsht, pelmeshki, salyanka, and a bunch of other Russian food. We wanted to go back there and have lunch but when we passed by it on the way back it was closed. It's so weird how most places in Florence and Italy in general close for lunch for like 3 hrs in the middle of the day. Even most restaurants close from like 1-3pm...just when you want to have lunch!

That weekend Kathleen, Katelin, and I also went to the Accademia to see Michelangelo's David! I was surprised that the museum was so tiny. It only had like three rooms and the focus was Michelangelo's pieces of course. No words can describe looking at David and no picture does any justice to the sculpture. It's just absolutely incredible...especially all the little details in his hands and legs. We must have looked at David for at least forty-five min. It was so hard to take our eyes off him. Kathleen and I decided that we're definitely coming back to Accademia to sketch him.

Also that weekend my roommates and I went out to a discoteque with a bunch of people from our school. We went to this place called Twice and it was unfortunately packed with tourists and a bunch of Americans. The drinks were extremely expensive too. We had a great time but Elena, Jenah and I decided that we'd much rather go to more authentic Italian hangouts and try to make some Italian friends rather than hang out with a bunch of Americans.