Fun day in Florence

Fountain of Neptune in Boboli Gardens

Yesterday katie and I went to Florence after a great short tour in the morning (massive english-speaking group of art deans from around the world that we split up and took around at the same time). When we got to Florence we got gelato (the new flavour I tried was Mille Foglie, basically like crushed up phyllo pastry in ice cream), and then went to see the Boboli gardens and Bardini gardens... a big florence site that neither of us has been to before. We figured we probably should go. It was very pretty, but extremely exhausting in the blazing sun and after not too long we were all gardened out. 

Then we went and got cannoli and then met up with Katie's new friend Francis that she met on my birthday, and his very nice friend Greg who is doing a trip around Italy and Turkey and was in Florence just for the day & night. Francis has been working in florence for 2 years as a program director for Rutgers' study abroad program but it just got cancelled so he's out of a job and is moving back to NYC on monday so yesterday he was moving all of his stuff. The four of us walked around a bit and then i went off for about half an hour to see a museum  exhibition of art works by Picasso, Dali, and Miro which was cool (Katie and Francis had already seen it last week so thats why they didn't come). I regrouped with Greg, Katie and Francis who had gone to Francis' apartment to grab his TV and a frying pan to take to his other friend Nick's house.

After that errand was done, the 5 of us went to a bar and had some beers and then the 3 guys went off to some dinner at a friend's house and Katie and I went for INDIAN FOOOOOD. The only thing that tastes better than Indian food, is Indian food when you haven't had any for several months! Incredible. Satiated, we went down to the Arno (the river that runs through Florence) to watch some fireworks (I don't remember the occasion).

Indian fooooood!

Statue outside of Palazzo Pitti

Statue in Boboli Gardens

Statue in Boboli Gardens

Fountain behind Palazzo Pitti

Statue in Bardini Gardens

Statue in Bardini Gardens

View from Bardini Gardens

Bardini Gardens

My new gal pal in Bardini Gardens

Canine friend in Bardini Gardens

We found the Hossein Golba Lover's Fountains in Boboli Gardens! (We have the same series of fountains at Celle. These are the only contemporary permanent work in the Boboli Gardens)

Primo Giro Italiano

Chickens came out for the tour too

Oh boy... these tours are grueling! Katie and I followed Miranda yesterday for our first full-length tour (in Italiano). There were about 25 people in the group, of an older demographic. One lady was very very old, fragile, and hard of hearing, but she was such a trooper! Plus she was wearing a wool jacket in the oppressive heat of the sun! The tour lasted 5 hours and the group didn't even get a chance to see any of the indoor works. A lot of the people talked to each other, and on their cellphones, while Miranda was talking. If that happens when I do my tours I'll find it incredibly distracting... :S

We also got to meet Carolina, a super sweet girl who goes to University in Florence. She's going to be the intern here in September, so she was here learning the ropes with us.

After the tour, we got to go for lunch with Signor Gori and his guests, the superintendent of the Ministry of Culture for the province of Bologna and her friends/colleagues. We went to a nearby restaurant, and again, Italy's chefs wowed me with their ability to make vegetables delicious (copious amounts of olive oil seems to be key).

When lunch was finally over at 4:30, we returned to the Villa and asked Elena to take us out for groceries, since we already went through the cheese, prosciutto, beef, tomato sauce and much of the vino we bought before. I got a 5 litre jug of white wine for 5 Euros. It looks like an economy-sized canola oil...

Otherwise everything here is good, besides ridiculous ongoing water issues. Yesterday after the tour we returned to the apartment to find a veritable fiume (river) in the new apartment (to clarify, our current apartment is in an old building, which is the same place s where the new apartment is going... they share the top floor. I believe it used to be the stables a long long time ago, like pre-1800s). We were kind of bummed because we were afraid that having a piscina (pool) in the construction site would set back construction, but over lunch, Elena and Liliana completely dried the place out and things should progress as planned. Then, at night, we still didn't have any hot water, so we traipsed up to the main house to shower there. We're told that our current electricity and hot water problems have to do with some sort of limit, and that the hydro companies have been contacted to increase the limit, so hopefully that should take effect on Monday. Oh yeah, and this morning, we have no water whatsoever...

ANYWAYS! Water... it's not like it's that important, right?

In a couple hours we're going into Pistoia to see the sites (and not much else since things will be closed on Sunday). Apparently it's a really cute city, but not that big... about the size of St. Catharines. I'll post some pics of the city after we've been, but until then, a few final thoughts...

For this blog, there are some required posts. One of them is "things that I take for granted". I've already got some things on the list, so I'll share that now... In no particular order:

Hot water

Electricity

Microwaves

À più tardi!

Panini I made with prosciutto and pecorino pepperoncino, squished flat on the frying pan

My dessert at the restaurant... meringue, whipped cream, chocolate

Katie's dessert at the restaurant... anise cookies, whipped cream, berries

Mio vino economico