Italia 2011: Friends in Italy... Part One

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So my two friends arrived this weekend... Tamara on Saturday from Toronto, and Stacey on Sunday from Miami... and we're having a blast! It's one thing to be in Italy enjoying myself and meeting new people, but its something else entirely getting to share it with people from home...

On Saturday night after Tamara arrived at the Rome airport, we had dinner and drinks near the pantheon. It was "happy hour", which meant that cocktails went from being "ridiculously expensive" to "moderately expensive". Later on that night, we attempted to find one of Rome's infamous Pub Crawls. Wandering aimlessly around the city center, a girl suddenly came up to us and said "you look like you're looking for the pub crawl!". Wild... so we joined the group of Brits and Canadians (a bunch from Brampton... small world!) and had a great time.

I went to the airport early the next morning to meet Stacey who is in Europe for the first time ever! I'm honored to be her first-time tour guide. Once we got back and checked into our hotel with Tamara, we went out for a rigorous day of Roman sight-seeing, including the colosseum, the pantheon, the trevi fountain, and the spanish steps. By evening we were aching and exhausted, and quite happy to go to dinner at the restaurant I'd read good reviews of and made reservations at. The restaurant was called the Taverna dei Fori Imperiali. It ended up being fantastic (Stacey's gnocchi with black truffle and veal ragu being the hit of the night) and the restaurant had pictures on the walls of celebrities who had eaten there, like Al Pacino and Woody Allen. After dinner we stopped by a great wine shop near the Trevi Fountain, where the friendly staff forced samples on us... truffle spread, cheese, olive oil, liqueurs, wine... we ended up buying a bottle of white to enjoy by the Trevi Fountain.

Yesterday morning We caught the train from Rome to Florence, and then tried to find our hotel. I get a little disoriented in the area north of the station, so I had to stop and ask to make sure we were headed in the right direction. I stopped at one little shop where the man responded to my question "which way is Via Guido Monaco?" (asked politely in Italian) with an abrupt "beh?" multiple times. I finally gave up with him and ran to a hotel nearby to ask, while Stacey and Tamara waiting by the abrupt man's shop. Apparently he came outside to tell them that he wouldn't help me because I "wasn't nice". I didn't realize my direction requests were rude...

We found the hotel, and it's really fantastic, especially considering the great price we got our room for. Once we settled in, we set out for some lunch. I planned on taking the girls to the truffled sandwich place I discovered last month, only to discover that it's CLOSED for the holidays! It closed three days ago! Devastating. So we ended up grabbing a bite on the scenic rooftop terrace of the Rinascente. Then we wandered around, through the leather market by the Porcellino, where Stacey bought a fabulous leather bag. I'm tempted to get my own, in a different colour... it's about time I had a grown-up bag to carry my laptop and stuff in. I have a few days to mull it over though. Then we wandered over ponte vecchio, and then headed to Vivoli, my gelato place, which was... CLOSED FOR HOLIDAYS AS OF YESTERDAY! COULD MY LIFE GET ANY WORSE? Ok I'm being dramatic. But still. So upsetting. I feel like I let the girls down. Today I'm going to find another good gelato place that I went to before...

Then we made our way back to the hotel, via the station where we did a bit of shopping. Stopped by the Conad supermarket and picked up some 1 euro cartons of wine. For dinner we went to a restaurant on the other side of the Arno that I'd read good reviews of, called Quattro Leoni. Despite cranky service (they wouldn't bring us olive oil for our bread if we didn't pay, and they brought Stacey's main at the same time as our appetizers) the food was really good! Tamara and Stacey were big fans of my pappa al pomodoro (traditional Tuscan tomato and bread stew). After dinner, we stopped by a trendy-looking little gelateria nearby where Stacey had great mint gelato made with fresh mint. Then we took our cartons of 1 euro wine to the bridge and enjoyed the view and the company for a few hours.

Today at noon, an old friend from elementary/highschool, Heather, and her friend from university, Jenelle, arrive in Florence as a part of their current eurotrip. Should be fun!