My weekend in Florence

9/27/08

1. New blog format

2. All my friends left me, I’m sad

3. 5 euro sweater/ Just a taste of donkey

4. Behind the Glory: Adam Caniparoli, wine connoisseur (did I spell that right?)

5. Fortza Viola: Fiorentina soccer


1. What’s up, folks? I’ve decided to introduce a new “user-friendly” format for my blog. At the top there will be a paragraph-paragraph identification guide in case you’re in a hurry and you don’t want to read about all of my non-sensical blatherings (is that a word?). Also, I haven't written in awhile, so this is a really long blog. Maybe read it and take breaks in between sections.
2. So this weekend, all but one of my usual friends left to Venice and I was left to entertain myself. I found myself entertained with a lovely head cold for most of the weekend. But after sleeping for 30 hours over the last three nights, I’m feeling a lot better.
3. Yesterday was an outrageously exciting day. I met my friend Lauren in the early afternoon and we went to the market, Piazza Sant’Ambrogio to explore and buy stolen merchandise for prices so low, it should be ILLEGAL. It probably is illegal. I bought an awesome sweater for 5 euros and then bought some cheap fruit. It was then lunch time and we tried to eat at a number of places, but lost interest when there were too many people trying to eat there. We then wandered into a tiny little hole in the wall to try to buy some rolls that we could eat with fruit to have a sort of makeshift lunch. So using my superior Italian skills, I tried to order two rolls and the well-dressed man working behind the counter asked me (in Italian) what I wanted in it. Confused by this question, I sort of muttered and looked confused at him at which point he said a bunch of things in Italian, caught on that I spoke English and then started speaking in Italian. It turns out that what I took to be a bakery, was actually a large game shop. The options for the insides of our sandwiches were hare, wild boar, venison and my personal favorite option: donkey! We thought he was kidding when he said it was donkey meat. So I ordered venison and my friend, Lauren ordered hare, but the dude said, no no. “You must try taste of donkey.” Taste of donkey. So he gave her a donkey sandwich and he gave me a hare sandwich for some reason. In the process of all this, after we said we didn’t want anything to drink, he told us you can’t eat game without wine, so he gave us each a free glass of chianti. And the food was so good. It was in a sort of gravy and I suppose the closest thing I can compare it to would be brisket. But donkey and hare meat instead of beef. After that he brought us a bowl of grapes and then we paid, having no idea how much it was going to cost. It turns out that after the sandwiches we didn’t mean to order, the wine and the grapes, it was just 4 euros each. And then we were on our way.
4. After the market adventure, we went across the river to a big wine tasting festival to meet two of Lauren’s friends from the states. There were about 30 or 40 tents set up in three separate piazzas and each tent housed two wineries where you could taste their wine. The system is as follows: You pay 10 euros and they give you a little book on the wineries with room for notes on the different wine, a wine glass carrying pouch (it looks ridiculous, so I of course had mine on as much as possible) and a punch card good for twelve wine tastes. Wine tastes should more correctly be referred to as glasses of wine. My previous knowledge of wine tasting is you go and they give you a bout a mouthful of wine to swish around and then spit out. These people pour you whole glasses of wine! Sometimes they pour you a more reasonable amount, but usually, it was a lot closer to a full glass. And you’re supposed to be able to get through 12! Needless to say, I got through four and as we were ready to leave, I promptly dropped my wine glass on the ground in front of a church and a crowd of about 50 people. I picked up most of the glass and brought it to the place where I was issued a glass originally and got a new one. I figured it was time to go home then. On our way home we were greeted by a wine parade with men throwing flags in the air and wearing silly wine clothing. It was very cool. I went back to the wine tasting event today with my friends to try to finish off my other 10 glasses (I only got punched for two of the four glasses that I had the day before) of wine (ambitious, I know, but I love a challenge!). There were three of us, so they bought one more card and between the three of us, took down a good 15 or 16 glasses of wine. Then it was time to talk to the parents! I ate some breadsticks and drank some water, and then I was all set. It was a ton of fun and I got a wine glass out of it as well as a wealth of knowledge of Tuscan wine (This is, of course, not true. They sort of all taste the same to me.)
5. The final event of Saturday evening was the Fiorentina game. Un gioco di calico. A soccer game. Fiorentina is the Florence soccer club and apparently everyone in the entire city is a big fan. They were violet jerseys because the city flower of Florence is the violet. About 30 students from the school showed up and walked over together, led by our fearless leader, the director of the program. When we got there, we found some seats (there are assigned seats, but no one sits in them) and observed that the sea of purple was interrupted only briefly by four sections of the stadium that were all in a row. We learned that the away team (in our case, Genova) is given a police escort to and from the train station so they aren’t beaten up. They also are contained in their own two sections separated by large metal walls and two lines of security guards. As if that weren’t enough, the two sections on either side of them aren’t sold to either team to create a barrier between the two groups of fans. I couldn’t understand anything that either group of fans would cheer at each other, except for one cheer that our team did, which I managed to catch “Va fancola, Genova,” which means “Go [whoops] yourself, Genova.” I learned later, first hand, that when the Genovese wanted to buy concessions, they had to go to the metal wall separating the two sides and buy concessions through bars in the wall, like caged animals. There was literally no chance of fans from the two sides ever physically interacting. Of course at halftime, the two groups of fans would scream obscenities at each other and shake the metal wall separating them until the security guards broke them apart. It was very exciting. Very glad to be on the Fiorentina side of things. Incidentally, the game was also quite entertaining and Fiorentina won 1-0. We couldn’t really see how the goal was scored because we were on the end of the field, opposite that goal that was being scored on. I’m sure it was amazing. I bought a purple stocking cap and got my face painted by a very polite Southern architect major from Kentucky. I plan on coming to as many Fiorentina games as I have money for. They play at home every other week.

All in all, my weekend mostly alone in Florence turned out to be a ton of fun. I got much closer to another person and got to catch up on some sleep. Florence really is a wonderful city. Una bella citta.

AJC