Venezia :)

Last weekend, we paid Venice a little visit.  Initially, we went to Venice because one of my roommates Tory's uncle set up so graciously a dinner for us there.  Little did we know, we'd all fall in love with a city. Venice is completely on water, and even though I knew that, I didn't realize there really were no cars!  It's completely run by either walking or taking water buses or water taxis.  We stayed at Hotel American and it was beautiful!  Here's the view from our room, casual.

We then ate dinner at Linea Dombra, VERY big thanks to Uncle Vito.  He has us all set up.  I literally felt as if I were royalty.  They watched our every move, never let our wine go past half full, and even told us how to eat to get the most flavor out of our dishes.  They initially gave us menus, then immediately took them away and put together something completely on their own.  Each course got better and better.  I am so glad they took the menu's away because we would have never ordered the things that we ate that night.  Our first course was this type of tuna mousse which in theory sounds repulsive but it was to die for.  Our next course was all raw fish, literally all. raw. fish. 

Our next course was a fettuccine with crab which I never wanted to end.  Next was the main dish, it was grilled vegetables, with creamy potatoes and the catch of the day; sea bass.  Describing this food is not possible because it was just that good.  I'm drooling right now actually.  Lastly, was the dessert.  The dessert.  It tasted like HEAVEN.  If you know me, you know I am not typically a dessert girl, carbs all day for me, but this dessert melted in my mouth.  It was a fluffy vanilla mousse with strawberries on it.  Once again, I am drooling.  This meal was easily the best meal I've ever eaten and it lasted about 5 hours; a 5 hours well spent.  5 hours seems like a long time but it's typical in Italian cuisine.

The next day, we spent walking around Venice and really taking it all in.  Usually we are constantly on the go, but while we were here we just chilled out and did whatever was relaxing to us.  Between the four of us, we bought out the entire city (sorry Dad) but the Venetian glass jewelry was too good to pass up.  We also took a gondola ride that day.  If you do one thing in Italy, make sure it's taking a gondola ride in Venice.  Our driver took us on the small canal so that it was quieter and just more fun.  He told us that in Venice, you have to go to gondola school for 2 years, one of which is just to learn how to stand!  His gondola is comparative to our cars in price and everything.  During our little tour, we saw where the Italian job was filmed, one of my favorite movies! Also, the gondola we were in was the one Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp filmed in The Tourist.

Something is seriously up with my pictures, I can't post the gondola ones! :(

Cooking Class!

Okay sorry mom that I haven't blogged in a while, it's crazy on this side of the Atlantic!  Last Friday could have been one of the best experiences in my life thus far.  For my food class, we went on a field trip to the Tuscan hills to cook a home cooked meal.  If you know me at all, you know that I can't cook if my life depended on it.  We took a tour of the winery and saw exactly how wine is made.  From there we went to a family's house that runs a non-profit cooking class just simply to educate people about the proper way to handle food.  They were the nicest people and had the cutest baby ever who I plotted to steal more than once... woops. So my class of 20 all huddled around this one table as they told us what we were going to cook.  They told us it was going to be a crustini course, 2 different pasta dishes, a meat dish, and tiramisu.  We were going to split up and all take on different parts of the meal and come together and eat it as a little family at the end.  Each group was assigned to do something different.  My group went to what we called "the reject room" because we were picked last like the un-athletic kids in gym class.

We were paired with this women named Bernadetta who spoke very little English.  One of my friend Brittany has been taking Italian classes here and so with the help of her, we were trying to learn the language by communicating with her!  It was cool to get out of the American-ized Florence where there really is very little language barrier to try to be challenged a little bit.  Our group was in charge of the crustini.  We had to dice up all sorts of things like tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, parsley, etc.  Definitely not the most exciting thing we could have been in charge of, but we had a great time doing it.

Meanwhile, members of our class were making fresh pasta completely from scratch.  They made ravioli's stuffed with spinach and cheese which was a really cool process.

They also made homemade gnocchi!! I thought that was incredible because of all it entails with the potato and pasta involved.  Us in the reject room got stuck with the easy stuff but it's okay it was probably for the best.  Here's some pictures of the finished products-

All in all, this was a GREAT experience, I had the best day ever.  And don't worry, I got all of the recipes!!!

When In Roma!

So I have been so busy this week with midterms (I kind of forgot that I came here to go to school, woops) and haven't really had time to catch up on my blogging.  However, last weekend, we went to Rome!  I've been saying the phrase "when in rome" all trip so it finally became appropriate which might have been my favorite part.  After a 45€ train ride sitting next to people who were clearly annoyed with my taste in music and how loud my iPod was, a crazy stressful hostile situation, and escaping people in the ghetto, we FINALLY made it to our destination, DJ Tiesto concert!! For everyone who doesn't know who this is, he's only one of the best house music DJ's in the world.  To be able to go to his concert, in Rome nonetheless was incredible.

One of the craziest scenes I've ever seen.  We did a 180 degree flip the next day and did the touristy Rome things.  Kristin and I were the ones to wake up early and we met up with Robert Bucci at the Coliseum, such a casual meeting place right?

Little did we know, you are NOT supposed to take pictures with the gladiators because they will chase you until you pay them for "their work"..

woops. 
Robert then proceeded to take us on a walking tour of Rome in the 100 degree heat, with our Vatican ready clothes on and heavy backpacks but it was so worth it.  He is the most knowledgable person I've ever met.  I would upload the pictures of the places he pointed out to us but I literally have no idea what they are called.  I'm finally getting my Florentine history knowledge down (90 on the midterm!) you can't just throw Rome in there like that, I'll leave that for his blog.  After a nice meal overlooking the Pantheon and a very questionable bus ride that we never paid for, and a line for MILES, Kristin and I parted with Rob and went to our favorite place The Vatican.  This was after we found it fascinating that we were in two countries at once, Vatican City and Italy.

The Bucci's take on The Vatican.


I can't exactly describe The Vatican.  It was honestly the BEST place I've ever been.  We had a very stressful few days and the second we walked through the doors it was like none of it ever happened.  I felt so at ease and so happy, I don't even really know why.  Kristin and I sat there for what felt like hours and just prayed and thought.  When we finally left, we had some separation anxiety and left beaming from ear to ear. I guess it's something you just have to experience for yourself, it's almost surreal.

Teena and I on the bridge over the Tiberius River!
Unfortunately, we were not staying the night so we had to take a cab back before I could meet up with Rob again.  Lucky for me he came to Florence on Sunday! We went to the best dinner ever (pictures to come).  It really was the best seeing Robert.  He clicked with my friends so well, he's so personable, hilarious, and so unbelievably smart.  Made me proud to be a Bucci :) even when he made fun of me for attempting to speak Italian...


Normally here I would add a picture of Rob and I but my pictures are having a tough time uploading so that's why there isn't many in this post.  Hopefully I can figure this out soon.


Until next time... 


PS. My roommates were in the NY Post yesterday June 8 and all over almost every gossip website, with the cast of the Jersey Shore, it's amazing the lies the media will make up.