A Little Gnoccho

And so, a whole month and two days after we landed back in the US I'm ready to end the Italy blog posts. I wish I could say I've thought long and hard over this post, but I haven't. Life here is more hectic than Italy and I wonder how people ever get to blog more than once a week never mind every day. How do they do it? Are they such natural writers that the words just bubble out, ready-made and beautiful? Not so much with me, I just spew and am done, but I did promise one more Italy post.

If we were given the opportunity, would we do it again? Oh hell yes!
Would we do everything the same? Oh hell no.

Favorite places, things and people of Florence

Favorite Green Space to take a Toddler in Florence
Parco de Villa Strozzi - not far from the city walls, with some nice strolling among locals and spectacular Tuscan views from the Southeast corner and cool playground equipment. This is how a park should be.

Favorite Place to View the Firenze Skyline:
Giardino Bardini - This was a favorite haunt as you know. There were days when we visited on a Sunday morning and didn't see another soul there for hours. Then the tourists would show up, recovering from last nights big meal and the breakfast pastries ready to do the tourist thing and we'd give up our fanciful dream of the garden actually being ours.

Favorite Trattoria to take Guests:
Toss up between Quattro Leoni and San Agostino. Personally, I liked the funky twist on food that San Agostino did.

Best Place to buy Produce in Oltrarno:
In the morning market of Santo Spirito. It wasn't my favorite place to buy produce, that was down the road at a Ortofruta down on San Agostino, but it had the better produce. I enjoyed the joking and the bantered down at the Ortofruta and they did have the best mint.
Favorite Date Trattoria:
D and I would probably argue over this, but seeing as I'm writing the post I get to say Cavolo Nero. Their menu changes 4 times a year with the seasons. Go in Spring.

Favorite Trattoria to take a Toddler:
Trattoria da Ginone followed by any of those in Piazza della Passera. Da Ginone has straightforward good food, Nola (the chef) and Massimo (the waiter) were fab with our toddler too. We were always met with a smile and we left with one too. The Piazza della Passera sports 3 great eating establishments and lots of character. Music often in the evenings and a small square that a toddler can run around in a little after dinner.

Favorite Gelato: Nocciola or maybe fig. Yes, definitely fig or perhaps yogurt and nutella. Pistachio? I think I need to go back and try some more.
Favorite town or city:
Sienna - I'd love to go back

Favorite place to sit with child asleep in a pram
Osteria Santo Spirito. Okay, I had a very large glass of wine in my hand and a fabulous salad in front of me. Only a few lunches were spent like this. In fact that is a regret that more weren't spent in such a manner.
Must see big attractions
Skip seeing the inside of the Duomo. As my mum says there is no sense of God or anything else other than tourism there. You can find that ethereal beauty in many of the other places around town. See David. Take the double decker bus tour if you're in for a quick visit.
Favorite Neighbourhood: San Niccolo

Oh Lord, this favorite thing could go on forever. I should stop. What would we do differently?
Living right by the Arno and Ponte Vecchio meant that we did get to go out in the evening(not often because of my work) there was loads going on and that was fabulous. I wish we had spent more time exploring Florence in the summer evenings. It was a great apartment, but the lack of any outdoor space, any easy place to open a door and let Ila out in fresh, alright high particulate matter air, was frustrating. Another time we would rent something outside the city walls, and with a least a good size patio. We'd also try and get some beat up car for the time so that we could travel a little more. There was much to see and do in Italy and we both wished we'd seen more of Tuscany, a car would have afforded us more options to do that. (Potty training didn't make lots of bus trips particularly attractive.) I think I'd actually like to have a tv. I think I would have learned more Italian that way. I also would actually study the language before. I wouldn't say I was going to work 20 hours a week. It was definitely closer to 30 hours which after a day with a toddler was tough. Although, I'd also put said toddler in some daycare next time. That was the toughest thing about this trip, Ila's isolation. But Italy. Italy was pretty damn cool.

A note. This blog is called A Little Gnocchi. It was named before I had taken any Italian classes. After about the second one I realized I had a problem. Gnocchi is plural, gnoccho singular. For the sake of agreement this really should be A Little Gnoccho. Thanks for reading along and keeping me company.

Best,
A Little Gnocchi.

Good grief! How did it happen? It is almost a month since we left Florence and I've yet to wind this blog up. Perhaps, I just don't want it to be over, although I must say it is lovely to be home among friends, family and, as of this evening, our non-human animal companions.

The last week in Italy was, as you can imagine, a mad cap caper of packing, working and trying to fit that last trip into Bardini and it seems like it was so much more than a month ago and in a very different life.

We did make it to Galileo's last home so that I could be relieved of my envy of Doug's earlier visit. The visit was everything a wacky little science geek like myself could possibly have hoped for. Piero Salinari, the head honcho over at Arcetri Observatory gave us the private tour, complete with his insights on Galileo, the church, the status of science ( as compared to philosophy) etc. We picked yet more figs from the trees. Explored both basement and upper tower drying room. Drank in as much of some of the most picturesque views of Tuscany to be had. Fabulous.

Next: Top things to see, eat and drink when in Florence. I promise it won't be a month.

In Tavolo

When I tell people that I have taken cooking classes in Florence I'm sure a pasta making class is what they imagine. I've taken half a dozen cooking classes, only one fits the bill. The rest have been Indian and Thai classes with The Spice Lab in the basement of the American church. The class that fits the bill, pasta making at In Tavola.

Unlike the Spice Lab classes, In Tavola's class was made up entirely of tourists, seventeen people, Australians, Brits, Americans, and some, I think, from Latin American. The instructor, an Italian and his Japanese sous-chef efficiently moved us through making a several different pastas:

a flour based sea shell type, labor intensive but yummy, called conchiglie covered with sugo al pomodoro, basilico e aglio

a couple of egg pasta based dishes:
Ravioli di Ricotta e Melanzane with Ragu' Toscano,
Tortelli di Patate with a simple sage and butter sauce

and for dessert, panna cotta.

It was a fabulous exercise in Tuscan cooking, simple flavors, good produce to create great food. The amount of dough required to make so much pasta was miniscule. Those little flour & egg delivery packets for cheese and veg were really impressive. To top it off, at the end we sat down with our classmates to consume the products of our labor. A bottle of wine, some fabulous conversation with Maggie and Elizabeth, our cooking classmates, a perfect ending.

What did I actually learn? Ball up parsley to chop it up. How to core tomatoes and cut onions, although I may have forgotten how to do that and that those who support healthcare reform come from all walks of life and from many different groups. Thanks Elizabeth.

Retribution

Now when an individual with a medical history like me gets consistent chest pains it is not so unreasonable to be just a tad bit worried. Okay, I totally leaped to the worse case scenario. After figuring out what I'd need to do in the middle of this holiday period (Getting into a GP that speaks English to explain I'd like a 12 lead and blood work done would be difficult right now and explaining in Italian near impossible)other than going immediately to the ER* (did I mention how I hate hospitals?) I called a few of the medical professionals I deal with in the US. Now, with a history like mine they're always going to say go to the hospital, but I explained, this doesn't feel bad, or like the other times, just a little discomfort relatively frequently. My pulse feels as normal as it ever gets and I don't feel nauseous like when I'm having lots of PVCs.

Hmmmm, could it be heartburn? Have you tried a little mylanta?

Ummm no.


So I did and I charted when I had discomfort and it is almost entirely after eating. The Maalox doesn't seem to be an immediate relief, but it certainly seems to help.
The question is why? So I look up trigger foods ... for heartburn: Tomatoes, wine, cheese/fatty foods (aka gelato), garlic, chocolate: check, check, check, check, check. Lets just call this a little retribution for 6 months of indulgence.

*My friend W says she finds the ER here miles better than back in the US

Shoe Love

It is our last week here. I admit I had grand plans for this weeks of blog posts, grand plans that didn't accommodate for packing, fabulous family visits, last minute must go do things, and of course the first week of school back in AZ and a rather steady stream of emails and virtual meetings. Needless to say the blog posts haven't happened. More disappointing is not having caught up this week with the two women and their children who Ila and I have made friends with. I'm hopeful that we will before we leave. I'm also hopeful that if I keep these short I'll get the last little bits of experience down.


Image shamelessly borrowed from the Salvatore Ferragamo Shoe Museum We did pop into the Salvatore Ferragamo Shoe Museum, that our friend B recommended, with my Aunt and Uncle (Happy Anniversary to them). The very sharply dressed man at the front desk looked decidedly non-plussed at our attire and the wild two and half year old tugging at my arm. Despite his frosty welcome, we thoroughly enjoyed the shoe love. From bizarre to exsquite this museum is a very polished and appealing display to lovers of shoes and even for those of us not so into heels etc. Ila actually had a glorious time picking out the shoes she liked and the colors. I'd definitely recommend a visit. For five euros it is worth a stop.

Galileo's Figs

We've had a spectacular day today. A trip to Boboli exploring areas we hadn't investigated before. Yes, there are still areas we haven't been in. A cooking class at In Tavola (I'll tell you more once I've digested it a little...) and tonight we're off to Cavolo Nero while my mum babysits Ila for a dinner not spent chasing a 2.5 year old.

My head is still buzzing from the half bottle of wine or so that I consumed at the cooking class. I'm not up to writing about the cooking class, which certainly is worth writing about, but I did want to share our geeky, celebrity connection, something that makes me absolutely tingle with excitement.

A couple of days ago, Doug had the opportunity to go on a private tour of Galileo's last home, the one he was held in house arrest at for the last years of his life. At the end of the tour, he was offered figs from the garden. Now, I'm pretty sure that life span of a fig tree is not 400 years, but still the idea that these figs have been nurtured and grown on the same ground as the father of modern science stood on, that they might be the descendents of figs that once were appreciated by Galileo...wow!

I'm embarrassed to admit that my envy of Doug's tour was significant, but easily addressed as on Tuesday, Ila and I get to go too! Until then...

Bonbons and the rest...

Oh, yes this is the life. I spend all day lounging sipping a fine Chianti while Italian gods feed me bonbons and waft me with large palm fronds. Yeah, not so much.

Life here has tumbled into this less than ideal routine the past few weeks or months as the semester gears up and various work related problems arise that were unexpected. I'm not quite sure how to rectify it or if it can be rectified. Suggestions gladly accepted.

A quick run down of our routine:
We wake at 6-7am with the girl

9am Get out of the house for a few hours while it isn't so cloyingly uncomfortable. This is when the good stuff happens. Today we got to go play with Z and C and introduce them to the Park at Villa Strozzi. Yesterday, it was Mercado Centrale for some present buying.

Return for She, Who Must be Obeyed's siesta around noon until about 2 or 2:30pm (during which I work) although today I worked in the morning, while Doug worked with Ila.

Then packing/cleaning/doing laundry in a semi cooled apartment while trying to keep Ila entertained.

Around 4 or 5pm we brave the heat and humidity to find boxes or buy groceries (remember this is without a car). Did I mention the high yesterday was 102 degrees F, it is already up to 100 degrees today and average humidity for August is 66%?

We eat dinner, I go back to work and Doug gets Ila off to sleep. It seems I am rarely off work and in bed before 1am, and even more rarely getting to sleep before 2am. I'm not getting a hell of a lot of sleep.

Those few hours in the morning, those are what I look forward to each day. A chance to explore this great city, although I do it alongside throngs of hot, sticky tourists. Oh wait, I guess I'm a hot sticky tourist.

For our last week I feel I need a goal each day, something that makes me feel like I've experienced something that I wouldn't in the US. But what to do?

A few days ago, as we explored a warren of streets West of Santa Croce we stumbled upon the gelatari that is listed everywhere as the must go to, Vivoli. It is rather an unassuming place, with no outward display of its renown. I hadn't bothered to find it before, quite happy with our local gelatari, plus I assumed it would be heaving with tourists and very expensive. It was effectively empty, the prices more reasonable than those at Grom, the other big name gelatari, so what the heck! By the time I'd decided to go try their take on a couple of my favorites (noccolia and pistacchio) Ila had fallen asleep, so she didn't get any. My intentions were honorable, there are two spoons there!


I just couldn't wake her...it would have been cruel, plus I would have had to share!


I took the smallest little cup out into the piazza ....a sweet, quiet little piazza that might become my favorite, and took my sweet time over some of the creamiest, most scrumptious gelato ever! Their name and position as number one is well deserved. While I savored my little indulgence I decided that perhaps the goal/challenge/experience that could be done easily and would bring me great pleasure...to try a new gelato flavor every day. It doesn't have to be from Vivoli, but somewhere with gelato made specifically for that gelatari. I take my duties very seriously.


She gets her own Frutta di Bosco and Pesche

Yesterday from Vivoli: 1/2 a scoop of Fichi (Fig) and 1/2 a scoop of Riso (Rice)
It supplemented for breakfast. I know, rice gelato. It seems like a very bizarre choice, but imagine the richest, creamiest rice pudding and you can begin to conceive of its delightful flavor. The fig was my favorite though, little seeds along a refreshing fruity flavor. I am convinced that our yard in Tucson is not complete without an Italian Honey Fig Tree. And of course have fantasies of harvesting and making fabulous fig preserves that would be eaten along with a slice of apple and some Parmigiano-Reggiano. Oh God, I think that might be heaven especially if topped off with some homemade fig gelato. Think of all the fiber. It has to be good for you, right? Our rainwater harvesting efforts maybe able to provide for the initial water investment. Maybe while I'm waiting for a first fruit I could explore the use of Mission Figs, I'm reliably informed they do exceedingly well in our climate, certainly the ones on campus that are now gone were very yummy. I digress...

Today we stopped by another gelateria in the San Frediano neighbourhood on our way back from the park at Villa Strozzi and Gelateria Damiani did not disappoint. The choices were spectacular. I had a little taste of pompelmo rosa (pink grapefruit) which even tempted my anti grapefruit taste-buds, but settled on 1/2 a scoop of Pinola (pine nut) and 1/2 a scoop of Boreo (?) which was a rich chocolate and cherry. I'll be honest, despite my chocolate addiction I'm not keen on chocolate ice-cream and while this was rich and creamy, I preferred the pinola.

Not sure about tomorrow, but for now there is a short period of the day where I feel like I'm sipping Chianti, being fanned by Italian gods, and being fed the sweetest fruits of human creation. Let's just call it Gelato Time and hope it gets me through the next week.