November 16, 2006
I’ve been so homesick for Florence these past few years. This city will forever retain it’s magical aura. It doesn’t matter how many tourists there are crowded around the Duomo or that the city is bursting at the seams with Americans who are ”studying” here so that they can shop for Gucci, Pucci and Prada, because there’s nothing like living in the present amongst countless treasures of the past. Nothing.
Jake has been kind enough to let me drag him through my memories while I speak in a mixture of Italian and English, showing him priceless sculptures, paintings, Renaissance architecture, Roman ruins and gastronomic delights. Florence is a city that must be tasted as well as seen.
I was worried that my Italian verbal skills, which have remained almost entirely dormant for the past three years, wouldn’t make any sense to native speakers, but somehow I’ve been able to carry on real conversations solo in Italiano. I really need to take another class or find someone to practice with at home…che bella lingua!
I know these streets. It’s been 3 years, but I still remember the alleyways and tiny residential roads. My fruit vendor is still selling blood oranges on Via di Bardi, the minuscule shop that sells those physically addictive “pizette” near my first apartment is still there (yes, the ones with carciofi taste exactly the same), and crossing the street is still synonymous with staring death in the face.
November 13, 2006
Yes, we’ve been ranting a lot in our recent blog entries, but this is sort of an on-line diary so shouldn’t we be allowed to write how we really feel? (That’s a rhetorical question). But we’ve been getting a lot of e-mails (ok, only from you, mom) asking about some positive experiences from Spain and Portugal, so here they are in a nutshell:
1) The Alhmabra. I already told all ya’ll that I want to move in.
2) Patatas Bravas (the best tapa ever invented)!!!
3) Beer is cheaper than water.
4) We went to an underground (literally – the stage was minuscule and was housed under a bar/club and looked like a cross between a wine cellar and a bomb shelter) flamenco show. It was intimate and spectacular. Jake even said that he had a “near religious experience.”
5) Lisbon is beautiful and hilly and reminds us of San Francisco (well, a little)…
* There’s other good stuff, I promise, but now Jake is getting whatever nasty bug I had in Granada and I have to go tuck him into bed. 
November 13, 2006
1) The street cars are NOT €0.70. It’s €1.20 per person per ride.
2) La Cafe is NOT open on Sundays and it is NOT “upbeat” and “minimalist.” You will be refused service at the door if the waiter takes an immediate (and probably unfounded) dislike to you. Who wants to patronize a place like that anyways?
3) The castle is NOT free. However, the view from there is spectacular and definitely worth €2.50. Don’t touch the cats.
4) I don’t have a fourth yet, but I’m sure I will.
