The Florentine Twist

Contrary to what you may be thinking the title to this post does not have to do with the resurgence of an old dance craze but rather to experiences I'm having that, while similar to things at home, have some sort of twist that make them unequivocally unique.

1. Riding a bike. Most of you know that I do this quite regularly when I'm at home. I am missing my bike quite a bit, especially when I'm looking at my running shoes and engaging in that "I know I should but I really don't wanna..." debate in my head. So I was quite excited to learn that there was a day-long bike tour of Chianti offered, this is right up my alley.
   
   We met our guides at one of the bridges along the Arno and drove about 40 minutes outside the city into the hills of the Chianti region, which are southwest of Florence. What made this unlike any bike ride I've done before comes down to 3 things:
   –It started with a tour of a winery that is housed in a 1,000 year old castle.
   –It included a 3 course lunch about halfway through, complete with some local wine.
   –It ended with the hardest climb I've ever done on a bike (ranging from 10-17% grade for those of you who can appreciate that kind of thing). Oh, and this was on a mountain bike. Thank GOD for Rowan, one of our guides, who personally coached me up this thing and even gave me a couple of pushes once we crested the final climb. [Yes, he was cute. Yes, he had an accent: Scottish. And Yes, he was about 29 at best.] But I was totally psyched to get on a bike and wish I had the money to do this once a week or so. Oh, well.
   
   
2. Going to the movies. Went to see the latest Travolta movie earlier, "The Taking of Pelham 123." It was pretty good but that's not the interesting part of this experience. It was generally similar to seeing movies in the States except it was in a really cool, old theater. I walked into the theater carrying my popcorn and a bottle of Beck's, so that was also pretty cool. But the curious part came when the movie stopped halfway through and the word "intermezzo" appeared on the screen. Lights came up and there we sat for 5-10 minutes. I have never experienced an intermission at a movie theater before. An Italian woman used the opportunity to come ask me what the word "bribe" meant so I guess the break served a purpose.
   
   
3. Making coffee. It's pretty well known that Italians drink a lot of coffee, but what I didn't realize is that almost all of it is in the form of espresso. There are not a lot of "American coffee makers" around and even if you happen to have one, good luck finding the proper grind of coffee. I have been using a French press to make coffee but for this, too, you need to use a coarse grind of coffee. "No problem," I thought to myself as I went to the grocery store during my first week.
   
   Problem it was, as all the coffee in my neighborhood store was fine espresso grind meant for those Moka coffee makers. I asked my landlord about it and she told me to look for "American" coffee and implied that this should be simple enough but still, no dice. The stores here don't have those big plastic bins of coffee that you can conveniently grind yourself. I was facing a shelf full of either espresso grind or Nescafe and I'm just not going to do that. I finally found it at the larger store that is over a mile away, I think I will need to stockpile it next time I go. Fortunately it's pretty good.
   
   
4. Walking around the city. As I've described in an earlier post I do a fair amount of walking around here. Couple of recent noteworthy events around that:
   –Beware of crazy people on bikes. I almost got flattened by a nun the other day, her habit flying in her wake (yep, it was the Flying Nun).
   –People try to sell you things. I had a guy offer me an economy pack of little tissue packets the other day as I was walking down the street. [How did he know that I've been fighting a stuffy and/or runny nose since I got here? Eerie...]
   –This city is beautiful at night. It is incredibly well-lit but somehow the streets look so much prettier by lamplight, and looking up the river at the Ponte Vecchio when it's all lit up is really amazing.
   

Update on my pretzel addiction: I know you've all been concerned, so you'll be happy to learn that I found pretzel "sticklettas" the other day, also at the big grocery store. They're fine and feed the craving but are not nearly as good as what I inhale at home. At least the withdrawal symptoms have subsided somewhat.

Until next time.