We may be a little crazy...

After 6 quick weeks, my Italian class has come to an end. I don't know how much I learnt, but I certainly made some good friends... They are almost as crazy as me!!!

  

So now that school is finished, and somehow everything has once again fallen into place after 2 and a half months of trying, I start my stage at Hotel Brunelleschi on Monday!! 3 months of fulltime, unpaid work to learn some Italian cookery- mainly sweets (like tiramisu and gelato.... need I say more!)

Beachy beach

Since I have been in Italy I have SEEN the beach, but I haven't actually had a day AT the beach. Saturday was finally my day. After working until 3am Friday night. waking up at 8am to go to the beach was hard, BUT my willpower came through and I managed to get out of bed! (Proud or what!) After picking up the car and driving to Giorgio Patisserie (necessary stop for coffee and pastries- the best in Florence I will have you know) we were finally on our way to Viareggio by 10am.

In Italy, the method of beaching is quite different to what we're used to back in Australia... At Viareggio there is only one section of free beach, the rest (and more popular option) is that you rent and a piece of beach, umbrella and chairs for the day and that's where you base yourself. And despite being at the beach, swimming is very much a secondary activity for most (and the colour of the water at viareggio confirms why for me) whereas tanning and looking beautiful in your new swimwear is a must.
 

A beautiful, relaxing day on the beach, equipped with large amounts of seafood pasta and sun, but this style of going to the beach makes me feel like I'm in a kind of well manicured umbrella farm, and makes for a rather expensive day! None the less, it was a great day and I'm already looking forward to this weekends prospective beach trip...

Bianca's new colours

So through the chaos of school, work and of course socialising I completely forgot to show off Bianca! I posted a while ago that I was painting my bike and I have indeed finished her (a good month ago… oops, sorry!)

She is still silver but now has white wheel guards and chain cover and is decorated with the badge of Florence- a red giglio (also known as Fleur-de-lis or Florentine Lily) and the name of my new blog “Gelati Days” (which is another reason I haven’t rushed to post Biancas new colours, the blog wasn’t ready! Or maybe I just wasn’t ready to show you! Either way... I cant say it will be all that interesting for you at home considering it is a site aimed at helping foreigners here in Florence, but if you are finding work really that boring…!)
 

Permesso to stay

Just a quick update to let you know that FINALLY, after 4 trips to the Questura and around 10 hours of waiting in queues, I have my permesso di soggiorno (in other words, I have a permit to live in Florence until the end of February!) Hooray! Unfortunately I'm still getting the run around from all different offices who know nothing about working with my visa. Some say it's not possible to work at all (which would be strange considering it's a WORKING holiday visa...) some say only part time work is possible and others simply don't know. When I finally do know however, I should be able to start working (for free as a stagiare for now) at a really nice hotel here in Florence, working in their patisserie section. Until then, I'm off to work at the pub.

Cooking lessons with Nonna.

Lorenzo's Mum and Nonna fit perfectly into the Italian "Mamma" stereotype. They fuss over you, feed you til you pop and of course, are the best cooks you know.
Lucky for me I've somehow managed to weasle my way into the family and have started getting pasta lessons from Nonna. Last night we made Tagliatelli.

When I arrived they were already waiting to start, I was handed a cutle little white apron (which I found out later was Nonna's mothers and is "proprio antico") and we set to work. She showed me how to mix and knead the dough and how to know when it's ready. To rest and roll the dough and to make sure it's a little dry before cutting. Then to cut, cook and of course eat the finshed pasta.

I thought I'd made pasta before, but I have to admit this was really special and was by far the best pasta I've ever made. Thanks Nonna!

Baking again...

I was out for a drink on Saturday night when a friend of the cousin of Lorenzo asked me to make a cake for his birthday on the following Monday...
Sure I said, what sort of cake and how big?
Well I work at a summer camp in Chiantishire, so something that kids will like, something fluffy and chocolaty... There are around 80 kids, so fairly big...
This Monday?
Yeah, this Monday.
Errrrr... ok....

So Sunday was spent in Lorenzo's mothers kitchen (because I don't have an oven!), with 70 Euro worth of cake making ingredients (including 3.5kg of chocolate) baking my little heart out. Monday morning I was back in the kitchen finishing everything off and at 11am we were off to Chianti Country Club to face the kids. Apart from the fact one of these 6 year old children pointed out that the cookie on top looked like a nipple (only in Italy!!), the cakes were a success and we got to spend the rest of the day beside the pool at the country club.

After the pool we made our way back to Florence just in time to go (back into Chiantishire) for a wine tasting dinner... Followed by dancing into the wee hours with a view over the whole of Florence. I know, hard life! (Paid for it the next day though, when I had to start school at 8.30am!)

I have to admit it felt good to be back in the kitchen creating some sugary goodness! The oven is being fixed at home as I type, so maybe I will be doing it again soon!

Water Polo

So I was walking through Piazza della Signoria the other day when those trumpets started playing again... after the usual procession of traditionally clad, trumpet playing, flag waving men walking through the streets I was surprised to see a group of young blond men, in Australia's traditional green, gold and Havianas, scuffing their feet and chatting amongst themselves while following the trumpets into the Piazza. They were followed by Canada, China, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and USA, the other countries to be competing in the FINA World League Water Polo Championships.

 　
More by luck than any planning, I went to see the match between Serbia and Italia and. never having had anything to do with the game before, I actually found it really interesting. It was a really close game but unfortunately Italy lost by 1 point...