Europe 2019 - Florence

After enjoying Amsterdam's efficiency and timeliness, we flew to Florence to experience the opposite end of the spectrum and enjoy la dolce vita (the slow life). Our hotel was super nice and had a rooftop bar! Once we arrived, we headed up there to watch the sunset and have a drink - I had Lambrusco and my mom had an Aperol spritz. Lambrusco is my favorite wine but it's so cheap here that it's actually hard to find in the US. The shipping alone makes the bottle double or triple the price. So I'll just enjoy it here. Or look for it at Total Wine.

The next day, we explored Florence. It's my first time being back to a European city, which was really fun! I remembered less than I thought I would, but that's probably a good thing. I didn't love Florence the first time I came due to a lot of external circumstances that I can't blame the city for. Luckily, my friends have had wonderful experiences and convinced me to come back! It's definitely been redeemed!

We spent most of the day shopping but also tried the supposed best gelateria (Gelateria dei Neri) and sandwich shop (All'antico Vinaio). The sandwich shop had a self-serve wine bar outside for two bucks! I'd recommend both if you're around the Duomo. We also walked around the Duomo but didn't go up to the top. They say if you're afraid of heights or claustrophobic not to make the trek up to the top of the dome, and we have one of each in our two person group. Pictures from the ground will suffice.

Later that evening, we took a cooking class! We made a four course Italian meal - vegetable flan, fresh pasta with eggplant caviale, chicken alla cacciatora, and panna cotta. We were stuffed by the end and enjoyed each dish! I can't wait to impress my new KC friends with my Italian cooking expertise haha

Mom making panna cotta

Our sweet chef and teacher Adela

Fresh pasta!

The next day, we took a day trip to Tuscany! Our first stop was a family-owned winery and cheese shop that has been in the family for 500 years! We learned about their organic vineyard and what that classification means. They use other vegetation around the grape vines to keep pests at bay since they can't use any sprays. They hand prune and pick their vineyard to get the best fruit before making the wine.  It was a small operation but the wine was spectacular! It was so good that we decided to ship some home. Then, we headed to a butcher shop for lunch. They specialize in beef butchery. They made us a family-style smorgasbord of cooked, braised, roasted, and boiled beef. Some of it was really delicious! I liked it just because it was a unique and different experience than anything I've ever done. Our last stop of the day was another family owned, organic winery that has been around for 500 years. Our guide told us that all of the surrounding wineries have to also be organic in order for them to qualify as an organic farm to avoid cross contamination. If pesticides were used in the past, the field must be organic for six years before they can sell their wine as organic so that the soil is cleansed of all the contaminants. They take their classifications very seriously! I also learned that Rose is not just red and white wine mixed together. I'm not sure why I thought that, but I did. Instead, it is made from the same grapes as red wine, but they only leave the skins in the fermentation process for a few hours before extracting just the juice. Glad I know that now!

The first winery's fermentation vats

Tuscan hillsides *heart eyes*

Wine tasting

When we got back to Florence, we went wine shopping and actually found a bottle with "Rocca" on the label! SO COOL! We finished our trip in Florence the same way we started - at our rooftop bar drinking Lambrucso and Aperol Spritzes. I loved loved loved our time in Florence but am so excited to be on our way to Venice!

Sunset with a view!

Things I'd recommend/do again -
Cooking Class: ChefFactory
Tuscany Day Trip: Grape Tours
Gelato: Gelateria dei Neri & La Carraia
Sandwich shop: All'antico Vinaio
Hotel: Plaza Hotel Lucchesi
Rooftop bar: Empireo

"Many lessons learned"

This morning, we got to relax and wake up a little later than normal AND had a decently American breakfast with eggs and bacon in addition to the many carb options they usually offer. It was a good morning. In the late morning, a few of us went window shopping (because it's Milan and you just multiply the "normal" prices by 100 here). We ended up finding the cutest little store that was basically a giant Target dollar spot! I could've redecorated my entire apartment in there and it would've been under $100, so we spent some time in there! If only I had the suitcase room to actually do that...It was fun to look around at things that were somewhat familiar with an Italian culture twist! My favorite thing was a plastic collapsible wine glass for 3 euro! I'm hoping that makes its way to the US soon!
Then we left to meet back up with the group, stopping for some fresh peaches on the way! Once we were all together, we headed to the train/metro station to visit the Bovisa Campus of Politecnico Milano, a technical university in Italy ranked #21 in the world for engineering! Our visit started with a basic presentation and some free gifts where they explained their international exchange program and what degrees they offer. All their masters degree courses are offered in English to attract a wide variety of international students. The craziest part was that their tuition, even for a graduate program, was 3500 euro per year! On a bad day, that's like $6000. My jaw actually dropped and the presenter started laughing saying, "Yes different from United States!" Maybe if I decide I need more schooling after my 5.5 years in undergrad (not likely), I'll just come over here!
Then we had a presentation from an assistant professor who worked on the Rosetta mission, where they attempted to send a piece of equipment to analyze the comet and its components. After four gravity assists (three from earth and one from mars) and ten years, the equipment made it to the comet's orbit in 2014. The next challenge was hitting a 100m target on a rotating comet from 20km away...and to make things more interesting, the comet was a completely different shape than what they expected. They ended up missing their target by a hair which caused the lander to bounce twice and settle over a "cave" type terrain. This was a problem for two reasons: there wasn't enough consistent sunlight at this point to recharge the lander's batteries and it wasn't centered over terrain, so it could not drill down to get a sample of the comet. Due to certain trade offs, the lander wasn't mobile so the mission was a bust. Since the batteries have died, they've made contact with the lander one time mid 2015, but haven't reached it since. Obviously this is the summary of what happened because the presentation was an hour long, but it was really interesting to hear from someone so invested in the project tell us about its failure. He had a wonderful attitude about it and kept saying, "There are many lessons learned from this." Because of their failed expedition, two more missions are now able to make contingency plans in case that were to happen on their expedition. That's one of the things I love about science and engineering - even in failure, there are many successes.
The third portion of the visit included a visit to the wind tunnel, which PoliMi (like our CoMo!) uses to test all sorts of specific aerodynamics - for sports wear, bridges, trains, planes, stadiums...so many things! They've even tested an airplane that takes off like a helicopter and then rotates its wings to fly like a plane! The future is here people. The wind tunnel uses scale models with equivalent strengths of materials to figure out the effects of wind speed, angles, and directions. A lot goes into making a model before the actual testing happens!
Finally, we got to talk to current graduate students at PoliMi and hear about what their studying. I talked to the electrical engineer about his work in the power industry where the systems can be reworked so that if people fail to pay their electric bills, their power can be cut off remotely instead of sending a person to physically do it. The U.S. and Italy have both done this, but many countries have not and its much more costly to pay a person for what a computer system can do now. He was very passionate about electrical engineering so he was interesting to listen to, even though I'm not sure I'm specifically interested in what he's studying.
I took a break after the visit to rest a little bit, and then went out for dinner. I wasn't super hungry so I ended up having bruschetta and limone schweppes. I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it before scarfing it down (I know, my priorities were totally messed up) but it was so good! The fresh ingredients here continue to impress me every day. Just another day in Italy! Tomorrow we're off to Florence - our last city! I can't wait to see yet another amazing city in this beautiful country!
We didn't see a whole lot of picturesque things today so there are only a few pictures.

Some cool free stuff!

A model of an Italian stadium used for wind tunnel testing

Model of a bridge yet to be actually built

"There's no reason to rush"

This morning, I woke up to a fairly traditional European breakfast of pastries, bread, and croissants with a cappuccino and some water. After my fill of carbs, we walked to the Colosseum for our tour. Our tour guide (who's name I forgot...oops) was fantastic! She told us all about the history of the Colosseum which was so fascinating!
Here are some fun facts:
- It was made entirely of travertine, a type of limestone found about 25 miles outside the city of Rome. Reconstruction is done in brick so that the original structure is apparent while they restore it.
- The shows were all free, but people sat according to their socioeconomic status. Kings and royalty at the very bottom, aristocrats at the second level, priests and priestesses at the third level, merchants and middle class citizens at the fourth level, and the poor and women at the fifth level.
- The wooden stage was covered with sand during the shows, and sand in Latin is "arena." That's how we began calling stadiums "arenas."
- Iron clamps held the many blocks of travertine together as they built the structure from 72-82 A.D. Once the Colosseum was abandoned by the sixth century, every single iron clamp was stolen, which totaled about 300 tons of iron!
-It's estimated that the Colosseum could hold about 70,000 people in its prime and could be emptied in ten minutes. Still waiting for our modern stadiums to take the hint.
- Although a few people volunteered to be gladiators, many were slaves or prisoners who had nothing to lose and basically signed an agreement with the Roman administration saying, "If I survive as a gladiator for ____ amount of time, I will get my freedom."

Our tour lasted about three hours, and our tour guide consistently reminded us, "there's no reason to rush" as we approached steep stairs or were wandering around trying to find the next thing to look at. That seems to be a theme here. People walk slowly on sidewalks, they're somewhat slow to serve you, and you'll never get a check at a restaurant without asking. They're living the Slow Life (it's a thing if you want to look it up) and they are perfectly happy doing it! I'm not totally used to it yet, but I love the idea. I'm hoping I can still be a little productive when I get back home, though.

Not only was the tour interesting, the Colosseum was grand and beautiful and well-designed. I would've loved to talk to one of the architects who designed the Colosseum  - who builds something entirely in limestone that meets every arena's needs for 500 years the first time?! A team I want to meet, that's who. I could've stayed there for an entire day, but unfortunately the tour ended and lunch was calling.

We ended up at a small Italian restaurant on a street corner, as they all are, and sat down for some much needed food. I ended up having my first Italian margherita pizza with a lemon soda! The crust was much thinner than I was expecting but still slightly fluffy and light. The cheese was amazingly fresh but the one basil leaf surprised me. In typical obnoxious American fashion, I ripped my single basil leaf to try to sprinkle each piece with a bit. Maybe Italians just eat the basil leaf in one bite? I still haven't figured that out yet.

After lunch, Allie and I broke off from the group to find a straightener and curling iron. It's HOT here so my natural hair lasts a solid twenty minutes before getting frizzy. If you don't know, the voltage here is twice the voltage of American outlets, so American straightener plates basically "melt" off the straightener. It's pretty crazy. On our way back to the hotel, we obviously stopped for gelato and I relived my glory days with some Stracciatella! It's basically hard shell chocolate chip with vanilla gelato and when it's done right, it's the best ice cream type dessert I've ever had! This one was perfect.

Then we had a very chill afternoon. Still coming off of jet lag, naps were much needed. Then, it was off to our group dinner! We started off with lasagna (like as an appetizer. A giant piece of lasagna was our appetizer). Then came an interesting pork/prosciutto dish which was alright...I think I'll stick with the pasta. Finally, we had a dessert. I'm pretty sure it was custard with a type of berry jelly on top, but a more accurate description we came up with was "cheese jello" or "gelatinous ricotta." It wasn't the worst thing I've ever had, but again, I'm going to stick with the classic gelato.

To end the night, almost the entire group went to an ice bar! It was literally a bar entirely made of ice. The walls and rooms, every shelf and seat, the bar and everything in between was made of ice! Even the drinks were served in ice cone cups. We had to wear these coat poncho things to keep warm, which unfortunately didn't cover my feet in sandals...don't judge me, it's hot here! I was so excited to be cold for just a little while. I got the Cristal Gold - limoncello and sprite and it was pretty good! On our way home, we stopped for gelato again! Because you can never have too much gelato, and I only have nine more days to eat my fill!

Outside the Colosseum

Me casually standing inside the Colosseum

The rooms underneath what would've been the stage. For gladiators and animals - think of it like our backstage.

Margherita pizza with a single basil leaf

Stracciatella! My fave

Giant piece of lasagna appetizer

Cheese jello

Wearing the ice bar coat poncho

Stracciatella and Nutella gelato

Life as a Wannabe Travel Blogger

Hello friends!
I'm back after (almost) a year to post about a few things I find interesting - details about the wonderful country of Italia! Actually, I'm assuming it's wonderful because I don't get there until tomorrow! But that's where architecture, wine, and carbs meet a beautiful romance language, so I don't know what could be wrong with that combination. For the next two weeks, I'll be posting every day about what I've been doing in Italy including but not limited to seeing beautiful architectural phenomenons, drinking cappuccinos until it's acceptable to drink wine, eating as many carbs as possible, and some inevitable Italian faux pas the loud, obnoxious American (me) will commit.

I'm technically blogging for my class credit (think of this as a two week field trip to Italy) but I also dream of being a travel blogger as I'm falling asleep after studying electromagnetic fields and embedded computing all day...oh I dream...anyway, for two weeks I get to be that travel blogger as 13 engineering students and I visit five major cities in Italy! We'll be going to Rome, Modena, Venice, Milan, and Florence in that order. I won't tell you the rest of my itinerary to keep the surprise alive but I can tell you it's going to be AWESOME!
On that note, I'll see you in Italy! Ciao!