Sorry for the long delays between posts. Things are really getting busy around here. I have about one week left in Italy, I've got a project due Thursday, I have to write a paper for my MBA thing by Sunday, and then I leave Monday for America and then I get to go Christmas shopping after. With the advent of the internet, I have been able to do some shopping by merely conversing with my siblings via the interwebs. I probably could pick up a few things in Italy while I'm still here...
I still have list of things I'd like to do in Florence: see the Bargello, go in the Uffizi (again), go in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, go in Palazzo Strozzi, and go in the Lauretian library (designed by Michelangelo). Today I saw the Bargello. It's the old townhall/prison and now museum. Donatello's David is here. It was erotic. That's what he was going for though. It's considered the first "nude" of the renaissance. The building itself was actually really cool. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take pictures within the museum for some reason. With this big to-do list and all my compiti (italian for homework - you guys get two italian words today!) I'm not going to be able to see Miss New Giudi, which is a bummer. I was hoping to make a trip between my final project presentation (Thursday) and Leaving from Milan (Monday morning). However, it doesn't seem like it's going to work. Friday, the class is going on a trip to visit Siena with one of our professors, Marcello Fantoni. It has nothing to do with school. He's from Siena and wants to show us around. Siena is divided into 17 neighborhoods called Contrada (pl. contrade). Each contrada has their own logo, church, museum, etc. During the Palio (the horserace that takes place twice a year) there are 10 contrade that compete against each other. He's going to give us a little personal tour of the contrada he belongs to, the church, the museum etc. We'll see the campo and the city hall (where the Palio takes place) and then we're going to go to a nice restaurant. It's in one of the bordering contrada (a rival!) but the food there is undeniably good (as he says). So I'm really excited for that. MAYBE, if I can get all my work done by Thursday, I could go to Siena Friday, go to Genova Saturday, Milan on Sunday, and then leave for the airport early Monday morning. Although, this seems like a lot of traveling with a lot of bags, and this is all under the assumption MNG has nothing better to do on weekends before Christmas than to entertain me. So... I'm leaning towards just staying in Florence Saturday, leave for Milan on Sunday, and leaving for America on Monday. Next time I'm in Europe, I'll have to make another pit-stop in Genova to see her.
Anyway, back to the real reason for my post. If tomatoes originated in the "new world" (which they did), what did Italians eat before then? Italian food as we know it, has only been evolving since the 1500's AFTER Columbus and other explorers brought tomatoes to Europe. What then, did they eat before? I know that bistecca di fiorentina is a local Florence specialty. It's a big hunk of steak. That could have predated Columbus. There are of course the seafoods, the pestos, the cream sauces that could have been hold outs from previous times, but definitely not the ubiquitous tomato sauce everybody thinks of. I want to eat authentic, Italian food, like the Medici's ate, and see what that's all about.
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