The Adventure of Finding the Secret Bakery

The secret bakery is supposedly this bakery that is up early in the morning making its baked goods for the following day. You are “allowed” to visit it from one in the morning until about four in the morning but only if you can find it.   If you can smell your way to this impossible to find bakery you then proceed to knock on the door and hope they will answer.  Once your entire group is very quiet they will open the door and maybe take your order chocolate, crème or pizza.

So we set out on our way to find this mysterious secret bakery.  Now it took a while but I have to say I was getting pretty nervous when we were walking through a construction zone only to turn into a dead end with only a foggy glass door.  So we went up to the door and knocked….no answer.  So we quieted down so it was completely silent and knocked again.  The door cracked open and a man’s head barely poked out of the door, we quietly put in our order and he closed the door.

 A little while later he opened the door again with warm soft pastries for us.  I paid him my one euro and thanked him as I grabbed my chocolate croissant.  I don’t know if it was the fact that it was late at night or that we were all thrilled we had found the secret bakery but my croissant was delicious. 

I have a feeling the secret bakery will be visited a lot more during my time spent in Florence. But I think I’ll try the pizza next time…

Walking through Florence

Nothing very special to report, but thought I would share some of the photos from our day of wondering the city…

The Duomo

It doesn't look like much but we enjoyed lunch from Forno

 

 The Santa Croce Palazzia

It's across the street from our apartment!

The Borghese Palace

Tonight was our welcome dinner from SAI (this is the program I’m going through to be here).  Walking to the dinner I was expecting it to be in a boring reception hall, the “norm” but I was completely wrong!  To get to the dinner/reception area I walked up a red carpet that was being draped in marbled archways.  Going up the stairs we met our coordinators Camilla and Alessandra.  They led us to where dinner was being held, my jaw dropped as I saw gold walls, lavish moldings, artwork on the ceilings and incredible chandeliers. 

We soon found out that we were in the Borghese Palace.  It used to be owned by a very wealthy family but is now used for events.  Our dinner was taking place in the room where the formal balls or dances would be held.

Not only was the venue beautiful but the food was amazing!  It was my first taste of true Italian food.  We were served creamy asparagus risotto and a cheesy penne marinara.  Eating it was one of those experiences where everyone at the table would close their eyes with every bit as if trying to enjoy it more.  Just yum.  At our table filled with new friends and faces we all raised our champagne glasses and made a toast to Italy!

Ciao!

The First Day was a Challenging One

So I made it, I’m here in the wonderful Florence Italy.  Who knew that my first day would be filled with so many challenges though…

The first challenge was getting my luggage up to my fourth floor apartment while using skinny steep stairs.  It took two trips and by the end my face was flushed and I had to catch my breath from laughing at myself struggling with my bags.  After struggling with the bizarre Italian keys I got into my apartment, it is very small but cozy.  It has the typical Italian ammenities as well, such as the bidet and green wooden shutters!

The staircase…my apartment is by the skylight!

 

Me and Taylor’s bedroom

The view from our window…you can see the wine shop that’s across the street from us!

The second challenge.  Who knew I’d be spending part of my first night knelt on the ground looking through the glass door of our elevator trying to talk to the landlord.  Fumbling through my Italian dictionary I figured out that, “mechanic here in five minutes!”   45 minutes later an old grumpy Italian man came and ten minutes later he got us out of the elevator, did I mention five of us were in the cramped wooden and old elevator (I got to know those girls pretty quickly.  But anyway, the grumpy mechanic wouldn’t let us go until he could scold us in Italian (which none of us actually understood so we just nodded and kept apologizing).

The final challenge and the ending of my first night in Florence, to get our heat to work!  Yes our heat was broken.  First when I attempted to take a shower the hot water disappeared almost immediately, so I was forced to was my hair in the kitchen sink with ice cold water.  Then none of us could figure out how to fix the heat so our apartment was the same temperature as outside (I'm guessing about 30 degrees).  Without a number for our landlord and anyone else, we were all forced to pile on the layers and sleep in a tight ball in order to stay warm all night.   My “pajamas” included plaid PJ bottoms, sweatpants, two pairs of socks, a t-shirt, sweatshirt, scarf, hat, mittens and then I topped it off with my north face fleece laying over me.  Needless to say I was nice and warm while sleeping.

But I am still excited to be here and can’t wait to see the city in the daylight!

Ciao Minnesota, Bonjourno Italy!

It only took a few days and numerous hours to accopmlish.  As I sat on one of my suitcases trying to zip it, next to me is Ashley sprawled out on top of my other suitcase struggling to close it.  I am "only" bringing two suitcases and a backpack.  Oh and of course my stuffed animal Gus the Moose.

Tomorrow I'll be heading off to Florence, Italy which I still don't believe is actually happening.  But my first challenge once I get there...carrying all of my luggage along cobblestone streets and up to my fourth floor apartment (which has no elevator), maybe I can find a nice sexy Italian man to help?