Italia 2011: party

Spaghetti All'Ubriaca

Well it literally feels like I arrived a week ago, yet here I am, three months later, with just 4 days left of my internship! Katie left this morning, so I get to finish out the job on my own. I have a tour this evening (provided it doesn't thunderstorm) and one on Saturday morning, after which I will head to Prato and spend the night at Miranda's, before catching the train on Sunday for my next adventure! 18 more days of excitement lie beyond my job, so I'll be sure to post about my continued Italian adventures.

Besides attempting to pack (ugggghhhhhh), not much is going on this week, except for the big excitement of "the party" tomorrow night. Signor Gori's daughter Patrizia is turning 60 and there's going to be a big bash here with about 80 friends and family. It will be a catered affair with dancing under the stars (provided, again, that it doesn't thunderstorm... If it does, the dancing will take place inside one of the rooms filled with fantastic art). It will also be one last chance for me to get super dressed up, which should be fun.

This past week has been pretty relaxed too. Been flexing my culinary muscles... one day I made Spaghetti all'Ubriaca (Drunkard's Spaghetti... see picture above) which is cooked in red wine and then tossed in butter, olive oil, garlic, and some basil and parsley. I also made 5-cheese pasta. I technically had the ingredients for 8-cheese pasta, but I figured that was a bit excessive.

Last Friday, Katie and I were invited out by Riccardo, the guy who does all the tech/computer/fixing-the-internet stuff around here. We went for drinks and dancing to a place called Torre del Lago which is very close to Pisa. It was a lot of fun, and a really neat place... definitely the gayest neighbourhood I've ever been to in Europe.

Last night after I gave a brief tour to a French mayor, I headed down to meet Katie in Florence for one last evening out. I rediscovered my love of shopping in the station (the train station in Florence has an underground shopping center that is AWESOME... got a great skirt and pair of pants for 15 euros altogether). Then after a great dinner at our favourite restaurant, we headed to the summer festival at the Fortezza (the fortress) which I used to frequent, well, frequently, when I was in Florence a few years ago. It was as fun as I remembered, with tons of vendors selling cool things from around the world (I got some great 5-euro pashminas). We had some cannoli and ricotta cake, and then sat down for a bit to enjoy some beers and shisha. There was also a concert going on that was pretty good.

A dopo :)

PS. On Sunday I read a great book:

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an utterly captivating and fascinating quick read!

View all my reviews

Shisha at the Fortezza

At Torre del Lago

Monday night was the Fourth of July, and I got to be an honorary American for the night. Katie and I headed down to Pisa in the afternoon after work, met up with our new friends, got some incredible pizza, and then headed to the American army base beach for swimming and dancing. It was a LOT of fun, and a really weird cultural experience... like a little slice of the states in Pisa, Italy. I kept talking to people in Italian and they'd respond with a "huh?". Like the guy who was trying to take a chair from our table, and I told him "Oh mi dispiace, usiamo tutti questi" and he said "huh?" and I said "oh, whoops, i mean... all ah y'alls chairs are taken". Then they proceeded to make fun of my "Canadian accent" and mimic me. Apparently to American people, we sound British?

Unfortunately it was raining so they had to cancel the fireworks... but they made up for it by providing a lifetime supply of glowsticks.

Here are some pictures from the last few days. Enjoy! In the meantime, I'm headed back to Florence tonight for some more Pizza O'Vesuvio :)