Gnudi

Pleuve and I continued our culinary tour of Florence today. We started with lunch at Nerbone, a stall in the Mercato Centrale (an indoor food market reminiscent of the one at Vancouver's Granville Island). There we each sampled the panino con bollito, a sandwich with boiled beef and a spicy sauce.

Unfortunately, like with most of my meals, I forgot to take a picture of it. At least I got one of the stall from where I was sitting.

Then we walked to Santa Maria Novella, a church near Florence's train station with the same name. It was a beautiful sunny and cold day, a nice change from the grey clouds we had yesterday in Venice.

Nearby the church is the Farmacia di Santa Maria Novella, the oldest pharmacy in all of Europe. Now it is a relatively high-end shop selling soaps, tonics, perfumes and other herbal remedies. Originally these were made by Benedictine monks. I'm not sure who makes them today, but they must be making lots of money. I always see female tourists (mostly from Japan) holding a paper bag full of their goods. Pleuve found a few souvenirs and I split a 4-pack of lavender soap with her. I'll let you know if I feel holier.

We then bought a few things at Il Papiro near the Duomo. It's an Italian stationary store that originated in Florence. I first heard about it from Smeek when she bought me a souvenir at their Venice location. They have very unique cards and pens there--even quills and sealing wax--things I've never owned but always wanted to try using. But I'm sure that if I did get them I wouldn't have the heart to use them, since that's the way I am with their stationary!

At 4:00pm we went to my school to start a free Italian guided tour of Chiesa di Ognissanti (Church of All Saints). On the way, we learned about the Palazzo Strozzi and other medieval palazzi. Ognissanti is where you can find Botticelli's understated tomb along with an altar for Amerigo Vespucci's family.

After spending 2.5 hours in the cold (it was especially freezing in the church), Pleuve and I hung out at her B&B before heading out for dinner. Unfortunately lots of restaurants are closed on Monday nights so we had to have a plan B. We got a bit lost on our way to our second-choice restaurant near the Duomo so I pulled out my map, and we were shortly asked by a couple of Calabrese guys if we needed some help. I told them in Italian that we were just looking for our restaurant and a few questions and comments later (i.e. where are you from, how long are you here for, you should eat at our place or go to the restaurant Il Vecchio e il Mare one day), we realized that we were very close to our restaurant. Before we said goodbye, we exchanged numbers and they introduced us to a third friend. Then they pretended to scare us as we reached our restaurant (from another street). Italian guys are so amusing.

We ate in a small restaurant called Sasso di Dante on one side of the Duomo. Pleuve ordered a Caprese salad and risotto and I ordered their spinach and ricotta gnudi. I was full after eating 2/4 of them (I really have to stop eating bread in restaurants). For dessert, Pleuve had cheesecake and I had a warm slice of the house chocolate pear cake. I don't know why I still had to have dessert even though I couldn't finish my meal.

Today's word of the day is gnudi, a gnocchi-like pasta made with ricotta cheese. I just love the way it sounds, as if it were a cute way of saying "nude". I wouldn't mind if it was occasionally my nickname. For its sound though, not its homonym.