Beviamo!

It's probably the most drinking I'll do in Italy, and it wasn't even that much compared to everyone else I was with. To be fair, I was in the company of 4 guys: an American, a German, and two Italians from Alto-Adige (a German-speaking region in northern Italy).

We started off the evening festivities by going for aperitivo at Kitsch 2, a popular "American" bar with a huge spread of appetizers and fun music. My favourites were the marinated grilled eggplant and the thin slices of roast beef with rucola and parmesan cheese. I drank a sangria and the boys had doubles/triples of Long Island iced tea.

It was around 9:00pm when we left so we headed to Lochness (I wonder who suggested it?) for my last taste(s) of my favourite cocktail. Luckily my favourite bartender Francesco was there, and we sat at the bar and marvelled at his art of mixology while we had some drinks. He really is an artist--there was one point when everyone around the bar was just staring at him as he made mojitos. He takes his time making the drinks and puts a lot of care into temperature, flavour, and presentation. I hope he stays there forever because I am definitely going to go back to find him the next time I go to Florence!

Then it was time for the infamous Long Island iced tea pitchers at Shot Café. I felt sorry for the guys because the bar was packed with men (G guessed that they were Swedes), but eventually when we asked a girl to take a photo of us, our group included her and her other American girlfriends who were on the tail-end of their three weeks of classes in Florence. They did not speak any Italian so for the rest of my evening I had to speak English. They were very nice girls and it was amusing to hear one of the guys from Alto-Adige hit on them in his broken English.

Five (?) pitchers later, the guys wanted to dance, so the girls led us to the Red Garter, an American bar that Nicky and I visited 3 years ago with our Contiki group. I didn't feel like drinking anymore or dancing and stayed for about 30 minutes (I think it was around 2:00am) before leaving.

During my walk home alone, I was hit with a sudden downpour of melancholy. Maybe it was the realization that I was leaving Florence, or maybe (and more likely) it was the fact that these kinds of evenings have never been and will never be my "thing". I don't have anything against people drinking, as long as it isn't binge-drinking; and I don't have anything against dancing either. It's just that I would rather spend my time doing other things--the bar and club scenes are not for me. And it's funny, I came to Florence hoping for change, thinking that there was something wrong with me in never having taken to clubbing and such; thinking that this was an experience I had missed out on and that I was boring. And maybe I am boring to some people, but I am learning more and more to be true to myself, and, the harder lessons to tackle: to accept myself for who I am and to not care as much about what others think.

Maybe it was also that I was with a bunch of guys that I didn't know very well. If my girlfriends from back home were here and we did the same things, I would have enjoyed myself much more (e.g. Sicily and Greece with the travelling sisters!). I MISS MY FRIENDS!

Today's word of the day is bere, "to drink". The first person plural imperative form is beviamo, "let's drink!"

PS. Rose petals do not taste good. I was curious so I ate one that was in my first cocktail at Lochness and luckily I had some more of the drink left over to wash out the bitter taste from my mouth.