No More Salads

Ciao, again! This is gonna be a short post because my last two days have consisted of sleeping and laying next to the toilet. Turns out that I got food poisoning from a salad that I ate on Wednesday night and was sick as a dog yesterday. The original intent for Wednesday night was to have an American meal at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Florence. I'm usually not the biggest fan of this restaurant when I am in the states but when it is the closest that I have to food at home in Florence, I'll take it. All day on Wednesday, all of my roommates and I were so excited to go. We got there about 8:00 and unfortunately, they were not taking any more people. You can only imagine my disappointment. We ended up going to this small local place next to the Duomo. My roommate Val and I were really craving a big salad and luckily this restaurant had them. I got the tuna salad which I totally regret now. I had a picture of it but I had to delete after being so sick yesterday because the thought of it repulsed me. After our dinner out we went to our new favorite gelato place called Grom, where I got the Crema de Grom and raspberry. 

Nom from Grom

After dinner we came in and went to sleep. I will spare you of the details of the next day because I'm sure we have all been there. I will say that, first of all, I HATE being sick and, secondly, I hate it even more when away from home, especially a foreign country. The worst part was that I started getting sick early in the morning and was texting my mom, sister, and boyfriend but no one would respond because it was 1:00 in the morning for them. Bryn was so sweet and took care of me, buying me powerades and saltines. I ended up sleeping the whole day and night and waking up this morning feeling 100% better. I'm so lucky that it was literally a 24 hour sickness. 

Today in class, we had ravioli with spinach, sage, and ricotta cheese. We, again, had three wines: a sparkling and two whites. The sparkling was a Daphne Malvasia wine with 11% alcohol. It was very intense to the nose with the aromas of honey, flowers, and fruits. The taste was dry with a light body and the after taste of tropical fruits. The second wine was a 2010 Rocca Bernardo Friulano with 13% alcohol that was not very intense smell but had small traces of melon and apple. It had a high acidity and was sweet and bitter at the same time. The third wine was a 2011 Mazzei Belgvardo made from Vermentino grapes and was 13.5% alcohol. it had the scent of pear, peaches, and ginger. It had quite and alcoholic smell and taste with a good acidity but was not quite persistent. Overall the third wine was the best match because it was not too overpowering and the acidity of this wine would cut through the small amount of fat in the butter in the ravioli. 

After class, Bryn and I finally went to the gym. It's two weeks in and we are finally finding it ha! It is not the most glamorous of gyms. It has a few treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes and then a few free weights that look like they have never been cleaned. It's in a very enclosed space but it will have to do for now. Tonight we are going to try the Hard Rock again and go a bit earlier this time. Tomorrow we are going to Venice and then to the beach on Sunday.

I'm really sad that I am not home today because it is my roommate's birthday. Kakky Brown is 21! I hate that I'm missing it since she did so much for my birthday. But I hope she has an incredible time out tonight. 

Flashback from freshmen year

And again my brother text me a picture of my sweet pup. How irresistible is this face? Keep the pictures coming, Russ. 

Precious.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Friday!