We had a charter bus to ourselves which was nice for the amount of space, bad when we whipped around corners and then even worse for the poor driver when trying to navigate the tiny streets of Florence. We ended up having to stop a couple blocks from our hotel because the bus couldn't even make it to our hotel. The only problem with this was that a lot of people had been living off bread and bananas due to the plague of stomach flu and were so weak that carrying all their luggage was a very difficult task. :( But the end point was worth it! Our hotel here is amazing as well. We all got suites, meaning we have a couch/seating area, a bedroom area and a small kitchenette! I'm in the girls' triple and we got very lucky because our view overlooks the Arno River. From our window we can see the top of the Micheal Angelo gardens and we are a stones (literally, I could probably hit it with a good wind-up) away from the Ponte Vecchio. This is an extremely famous bridge and a point of pride for Florence because it was the only ancient bridge to survive Hilter's bombing of the city. It's loaded with jewelry shops and more sparkling diamonds than the Moulin Rouge. The ambiance of the whole thing is quite impressive.
The first day here we all walked to the square with the fake statue of David (Palazzo Uguccioni) and went to a restaurant with a sign which said "Pizza or Lasagna + drink = 10 Eruo) that was enough for us so we all went in and were greeted by fluent English and crappy food. haha! We should have known that a restaurant in a tourist square would have microwave style uniformity and small portions. I was so excited to be here and having read on every gluten free blog that all you need to do is tell a waiter that "lo sono celiaco" (I am a celiac) and you would be whisked away into a gluten free paradise.... *ahhh Sigh* NOT. I told our waiter, that I needed gluten free food, "senza glutine" and asked if the gnocchi had flour. He assured me is was "potato!"
Me: "Only potato?"
Him: "Only potato!"
Me: "No flour, nothing else? You're sure?"
Him: "Si! Solo Potato!"
Me: "Okay, I'll have the gnocchi, but without cheese"
Him: "Okay, va bene!"
... He was wrong. I knew he was, I took two pills and I could tell half way through my plate that something was wrong. I got a headache, felt a little weird while in the restaurant but then! I was okay! Walking through the streets, I did alright, I even (knowing I had already ingested gluten and 2 pills) had a small lick of a friend's Cookies and Cream Gelato. (Mmmmm delicious). But I paid for it the next morning. Those pills do their job well for those first symptoms but they did almost nothing for my 2nd day fatigue and head ache. I even tried taking another pill that morning, but to no avail, the gluten was already flying through my veins and slowing down my thoughts. WHHHYY CRUEL WORLD? WHY!? We had our tutorials that morning, which I struggled through, trying to keep my thoughts on track of the topic (Beauty's transformation through time: Biologically driven or is it purely "advertising" and a meme?). I managed well enough but I was fairly uncomfortable the entire time. All I needed, I decided, was some food and fresh air! Luckily, there was a group walking to the Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore). Florence's famous giant cathedral with the world's largest brick dome ever built which took a little under 200 years to construct, starting in 1296 and finished with the dome in 1436.You can climb to the top and look out over the city, but I didn't feel well enough to do that. A group went up and a group of us went out wondering and found "Dante's Birthplace" which according to Dr. Brint "is a load of crap" and a couple markets. I also found some delightfully delicious saltine-style gluten free crackers!
Now, I don't want to get so wrapped up in that waiter's mistake to completely de-face everyone who has said that Italy is a gluten free paradise, because, well, it really is pretty easy here (I may be so bold as to say I liked it better than France, almost upon arrival?) and I found that out when I tested the "any farmacia with a green cross has gluten free food" theory. I found it pretty darn accurate. The first morning I went in search of the elusive Gluten free chocolate croissant. I went into the first farmacia to find an entire section of gluten free pastas, flours, briscottis, and cookies, but nothing that I could really justify as "breakfast." So I "gratzie-d" the worker, and went on my merry way. The second one... had nothing. The third! (These stores are numerous and often right down the street from each other, I walked maybe a few blocks to find them all). The third store's pharmacist greeted me in italian (Caio! buongiorno!) and then in english when I mumbled my "buongiorno" and butchered it. I asked if he had food "senza glutine" and he nodded and pointed to a few items on the shelf, one being a pack of 4 rolls. I bought them and some glucose tabs (I couldn't find them ANYWHERE in France) and went back to the hotel a happy camper. (Though I still haven't found the croissant, I went back and bought more of the rolls.)
Yesterday we went to the Ufizi Museum, which is one of the oldest museums in the Western world, and analyzed "beauty" through medieaval and renaissance icon works. It was really cool being surrounded by all that history and passion for the icon (aka, Jesus), but after around 8 rooms of it and an hour and a half, we all had a mad case of the "museum glaze" where everything looks the same, you're grumpy and your feet hurt. We congregated outside the exit and talked about the succession of beauty in relation to the Madonna and Child, naked adonis, naked venus and Jesus themes. Very cool. After that we all were on our own.
Molly, Katie, Nicole and I went out in search of a restaurant that Rick Steves (a travel book writer) suggested. We couldn't find it amoung the thousands of stands at the leather market so we just ducked inside a little restaurant where the guy at the door told me they'd make me anything I wanted for my celiac needs and I ended up finding out (after a good round about conversation about flour in a sauce) that they had gluten free pasta. (This place is getting better and better!) I had spicy tomato sauce and GLUTEN FREE PASTA~! delicious.
Last night's dinner deserves its own post so I'll wait for that so that I may do it justice. Now I need to take a shower and head out on the town before it starts to rain!
Caio bella!
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