Spring has Sprung!

It has been a BEAUTIFUL day in Certaldo! 

((all of today's photo credits go to Caitlin Devlin))

chillin

Today I walked to the Coop (grocery store) during class to get some materials and groceries, of course, and it was soooo nice! The sun was shining, the cold chill was light, and the wind was scarce. I spent most of my day in the studio, unfortunately, because we had and extended jewelry class so a few visitors (Fabrizio and Francesco) could teach us a different metalworking method of chasing and repousse.

setting up for chasing and repousse

BUT before that all happened, our class had a sporadic 90's and early 2000's music marathon throwback. So we listened to a bunch of our childhood favorites and talked about awesome, cheesy, Disney movies and shows. It was easily a great morning. 
Not to mention, as we were waiting for Fabrizio and Francesco to arrive, it was such a gorgeous day that a group of us decided to sunbath right outside the studio in chairs and on the brick wall. After weeks of cold and snowy grounds, that moment of sun and relaxation was simply wonderful.

Chasing and repousse was awesome! but time consuming. I also think I may be allergic to tar...or I just focused too much on chasing...or my contacts were just killing me. Needless to say, I cried, but enjoyed it.

Fabrizio!!

This Sunday is supposed to be great weather so the plan is to have the picnic and photoshoot that us girls cancelled last weekend in the gorgeous sunshine! Can't wait! 
Tomorrow night we have another dinner with the mayor at Bar Boccaccio...always a good choice. 
Saturday we're FINALLY going to Siena (crossing my fingers) !!!


Looks like a great few days to come! 

Enjoying the Tuscan hills that I call home

Last week/this past weekend was definitely one of my favorites...strike that, it's my favorite


Last Monday was just another day (although I enameled my first pair of earrings!) But Tuesday was Valentines Day! Us girls planned to have a white chocolate/nutella fondue night with lots of fruit and looottts of nutella. 





Let's just say that we demolished that table of food in a matter of 10 minutes or less. Unfortunately, there were so many people in such a small space (people eager for food, at that) and we happened to break a bowl, a saucer, and a glass in the process. Oops.


Also, last week I was supposed to get a package in the mail from my mama, said to be delivered in the 14th. Do you think I got it on the 14th? Customs is the worst. I finally got that package today (YAY) but that was after my mom contacted FedEx. Not to mention, mailing letters in Italy is fairly expensive. Do Italians not like snail mail? I like snail mail. But I can't hate on Italians because they are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. No joke.


Anyways, last Thursday was one of the first warm days here so it was the perfect day for a walk!

I went down to Certaldo Basso for lunch and ended up exploring the town a bit. 

We heard little kids playing during recess and it was such a happy sound! I don't know if it was because Italian children sound adorable or if it was because we don't see many kids here but that was a highlight of my day. Creepy? Oh well. 

After THAT walk, I went with two other girls for a walk around the hills of Certaldo.

I hope I never get the image of those views out of my head, they were beautiful! 

That night was our last dinner at Osteria da Chichibio, which was one of the best restaurants we've been to so far. Then a group of us went to Giovanni's A Casa Tua for Caitlin's Birthday cake! Yum chocolate! Giovanni has delicious food.


Saturday a group of us we supposed to go on a walk to the same place we walked through the hills and picnic there, but it was Certaldo Alto's Carnevale so we spent all day walking up and down the main street and enjoying the festivities. 

It was like a giant kid-friendly, Mardi Gras-esque, Halloween-like party 









and there was so much silly string and confetti and shaving cream party spray things. 







It was awesome. I also confirmed my love for hazelnuts. They are spectacularly delicious.


Sunday we went to Florence for our two day stay.  Florence is definitely one of my favorite places and has become my second Italian home. I'm sure I've said that before, or at least it feels like I've said it a million times, but it's true. Unfortunately, there was some two for one Valentines Day special deal for museum tickets and all of the museums were packed so we decided to make Sunday a free day and check out museums the next day. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't heart broken about having more time to shop and explore. I finally got black leather boots to replace my ripping/worn ones at home! 


And it was the last day of the Florence chocolate festival!

Boots and chocolate. That's all I needed. 

Not to mention Florence is beautiful, as well, so what could be better?

Monday (yesterday) we woke up from our hostel in Florence, which was so cool! It was only the second hostel I've ever been in, but it'll probably be one of the best. There were so many replicas of famous paintings on the walls downstairs and upstairs where our rooms were, the walls were covered in signatures of past travelers.

Also, the breakfast they served was the best breakfast I've had since being in Italy, because Italian apparently don't care about breakfast. I had an omelet with toast, some breakfast-type cookies (or just cookies), a cappuccino, tiramisu, and some weird banana bread that i only took one bite of. I was full and satisfied until lunchtime.  Speaking of lunchtime, I finally found the wonderful Italian pizza that I was looking for! Oddly enough, it was at the place where the Jersey Shore cast worked when they were in Florence. Because of that fact I was afraid the pizza would only be OK, but it was phenomenal! mmm Mozzarella, gorgonzola, speck ham pizza. 

I'll be going back there.


That day was pretty rainy, windy, sleety, and cold, so we all decided to head back to Certaldo a few hours early and just relax. Luckily, next Monday our enameling class is taking another trip to Florence to see a metalsmithing shop or a museum or something to do with metals...I can't remember exactly what. But I'm all for class field trips! 


On another happy note: It's supposed to get up to 60 degrees by this Friday!


YAY!

I'm practically an Italian now

Buona Sera!

Sorry to those of you who have been waiting for this blog post…I've gotten some complaints. I've either been busy or lazy since then…usually a little of both. 

Now for an overview of the past week!

Let's see…two weekends ago, on the 4th and 5th, we started our classes. Wow, that seems so long ago. Anyways, enameling and art history classes started for me and both were awesome. I think we all just needed to get started on something productive after months of vacationing and then constantly moving in Rome. Getting settled in in Certaldo was amazing. 

experiencing "fried bread" at A Casa Tua with our favorite restaurant owner, Giovanni 

I can't remember what this was called, but it was beautiful and spicy

This past week and a half has seemed like such a long time and I definitely feel like a semi-local now.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The first weekend in Certaldo was hardly a weekend because we had classes everyday and then the weather was still too bad on Monday so we were unable to go to Florence that day, therefore, classes continued. I do have to say, though, that I love my classes. First of all, I have almost al studio classes, so I'm working on awesome metal projects half my days and then while class is going on we have the freedom to listen to music, go grab a cappuccino/espresso/coffee, and snack when we necessary. 

I can't get enough cappuccinos or espressos

obviously.

I seriously cannot complain about this arrangement. Plus, my apartment is right above the studio, so I have an extremely short trip if i happen to need anything. PLUS (again) I can walk outside and view the beautiful Tuscan landscapes!  I can definitely live with this arrangement. 

So last week we continued with classes until thursday, the 9th, when we went to FLORENCE! Finally.

It was wonderful!!  Linda basically gave us a brief overview of how to navigate through the important places and how to get back to Certaldo via train. After that, we shopped! I didn't take many pictures because we're going back as an overnight trip this weekend and touring the whole city with a guide, so there will be plenty of photo ops then. After we split into small groups for lunch and shopping, I went with some Marissa, her friend Fabrizio that we met up with, and some others to have a delicious lunch. We almost went to Fabrizio's uncle's silversmithing factory, but we decided to postpone that trip until a later day. Lunch was great, but the artisan chocolate shop that we went to after lunch was FANTASTIC! 

All homemade chocolate and gelato with sooooo many flavors. I was a happy camper. The rest of the day and night were pretty fantastic as well.  I've said this a few times to people before, but I think that Florence will be my second Italian home. 

I need to backtrack for a second because I forgot to mention that last Tuesday, the 7th, me and a few other students we given the opportunity to appear as students on an italian cooking show that debuted Cucina Giuseppina (an Italian cooking school in Certaldo Alto).

The show was called Ti ci porto io (I'll take you there) and it was hosted by famous Italian chef, Gianfranco Vissani and his cohost, Michela Rocco. It was a really strange experience but extremely awesome at the same time because…we were on an Italian cooking show! I found one of the episodes on youtube (not our episode, but an earlier one) so I need to post that…it's hilariously strange. I think it's supposed to be funny so I don't feel bad laughing at it. 

here's a video of one of their shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIuDtHWhG8g

I'll have to watch out for our episode online!

Group photo with Giuseppina's sons, Simone and Luca

Ok, back to Thursday, after our Florence day. It was Taylor Lawless's birthday! So we had a nice celebrated after dinner with NUTELLA PIZZA!!! And attempted to sing Happy Birthday in Italian…it was interesting. But fun! 

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

We were supposed to go to Siena on Saturday BUT of course, the weather was too bad so we had to postpone that travel day.  I love the snow and winter weather as much as the next person, but when it interferes with my plans, we've got problems. It was extremely windy and chilly on Saturday anyways, though, so it's a good thing we didn't go. INSTEAD, we got to sleep in (thank goodness) and then had a potluck in the studio that night where each apartment made their own dish or dessert to share.

It was alllll amazingly delicious

Then we watched another Medici movie. I don't think I've mentioned Medici movies, but they're movies in a documentary series about the history of the Medici family.  They're so dramatic that they're hilarious, so it's always a good laugh. Not to mention, we get art history credit for watching them. Not too shabby. 

SUNDAY, yesterday, eight students were able to take a cooking class at Cucina Giuseppina!! We also took it was two other girls who were from Canada but who had been living in Ireland for the past five years. Dream life? Cooking class was the coolest thing ever!!  

We arrived at 10:30am, ate "a typical Tuscan breakfast," so says Giuseppina, of bread, preserves (apple, orange, onion, and pepper), chianti, sausage meat, and cheese. Basically what we consider finger foods in America. After everyone got there, Giuseppina told us the menu for the day: zuppa di cipolla(onion soup), ravioli burro e salvia (butter and sage ravioli), filetto di maiale (pork tenderloin filet), and tiramisu (tiramisu). We started off with the tiramisu because it needed to be refrigerated for a few hours. Next, we made an onion soup for the antipasto that ended up being more like a topping for some bread.  Giuseppina said that we could add broth to make it more of a soup if we wanted to.  

with famous Certaldo onions

After that delicious dish, we started making the pasta!!! Homemade pasta is really not that hard to make. It's all a 1 to 1 ratio between flour and eggs and you have to take into account the number of people eating…I have it all written down if anyone has any questions. 

We made ravioli, fettuccine, and a bit of gnocchi with the dough scraps.  Each had a slightly different sauce and each was amazing.   

Probably even more amazing because we were all so proud to have just made our own pasta

Fettuccine and gnocchi

After pasta we watched Giuseppina and Simone (her son) make pork tenderloin and a bean and sausage soup. 

We didn't help much with that dish so it was made much faster than all the others. Both were delicious, of course. All of us agreed that we didn't want our piece of pork to end! We tried to savor ever juicy bite. After the meat dish, we ate our tiramisu which was creamy and the best tiramisu I've ever had. So yummy.

We finished the day with a caffe (espresso), relaxing (i.e. digestion), and group photos. 

We ended up walking home at about 4pm, so it was a 6hr feast of amazingness. 

pages of messily written recipes

If THAT wasn't enough, Sunday night was when Emily and I planned to have our gnocchi mac 'n cheese dinner with Marissa and Chris (and Paige and Caitlyn…and then Charlotte and Sarah).  I was still extremely full from our lunch feast, but that gnocchi was delicious.  Marissa also brought over pears to eat with goat cheese and honey. YUMMMMMMMM. 

I basically just ate my life away yesterday.  No regrets, though.

Ok. Finally caught up. 

Today in enameling we made earrings as a filler project since Linda had a meeting in Florence, but I will definitely be making more earrings as side projects, it was really fun, although I wanted to throw one of the kilns because it was not firing my piece in a timely manner. It's ok. Practice for patience :)

BIG NEWS! During the past couple of days, me and a group of people have been planning our Spring break trip….to SICILY! Plans are almost final, we're still looking at which villa will be the best price for the most people and in close proximity to the beach. Can't wait!!! 

Florence overnight trip this weekend! Lots to see!

Wow. That was a lot…I'll try to be more regular about these posts. We'll see how that goes. 

Ciao!

Snow, shopping, and greetings!

A few days ago we went to Certaldo Basso (a short walk down the hillside) to go grocery shopping, which was originally on the schedule, but we ended up having to go as early as possible because the town was freaking out about the snow (much like people on the east coast freak out about hurricane warnings and race to Walmart).  

The walk down was actually pleasant, and we got our first view of the hillside and snow-covered rooftops. As we got into the town I noticed a bit of rushed panic, and it seemed like there were a lot more cars driving around than usually would have been, but we eventually got to the Coop to experience our first Italian grocery shopping event.  

At the Coop, the produce crates were nearly empty of all their fruits and veggies, people were lining the aisles, and we were all trying to scramble and get the things we needed to eat and drink in case we were stuck in the apartments for a few days.  It was actually really fun, in my opinion.  

We have this arrangement in our apartment where Emily and I will make the food and Charlotte and Sarah will wash the dishes, so Emily and I were excited to go to the store and stock our kitchen! We all zoomed through the store and got everything we needed, it was pure organized chaos and we were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. 

Later that day we went up to the Boccaccio museum tower next door and some an even more amazing view of snow-covered Certaldo! I'm really starting to wonder what this place will look like when the snow is melted because it's simply gorgeous right now.

YESTERDAY, we were able to sleep in, thank goodness.  We had a recycling presentation that afternoon because Certaldo has a new five-bin recycling system that started just this week! Lucky us.  They have to recycle EVERYTHING! I mean, it'll be more beneficial, but apparently if you put the something in the wrong bin then you'll be fined. I was afraid to throw things away at first. I still kind of make a pile of things before I actually put them away in their respective bins.  


Last night we had a welcome ceremony with the mayor and a small banquet afterwards with some locals.  We learned a few Italian words and phrases and actually stood up and spoke to the mayor in front of everyone... it was pretty hilarious hearing everyone's broken Italian because we're all still clueless and only 4 or 5 people in the whole town speak good english. So last night I met Clara, a woman who helps run Bar Boccaccio (an amazing place that feeds us lunches, dinners, and fancy cappuccinos with pictures on them) and she was telling us that her dad owns the Certaldo soccer team and could get us tickets to a game if we'd like.  Apparently they're nothing special, but it'd still be really cool to go to a game!

Anyways, because of the snow, we weren't able to go to Florence today but instead started some of our classes.  Fun substitute, right? It actually was nice to get something started because it really felt like I'd been on vacation for 2 months.  Art history was interesting and we've already got a few assignments to get started on.  Tomorrow we're starting enameling, Yay! and then Sunday we have Monday's classes and Monday we're finally going to Florence!!! This snow has jumbled everything up, but I still love it.

Hopefully everything goes smooth sailing this weekend and next week because I can't wait to go to Sienna next weekend!


Right now it's a solid 28° F in Certaldo right now...hello fuzzy socks and thick blanket.


Buona Notte!