Ciaowdy from your Spring 2022 Italy Fish!

Travel

Today was a long day filled with travel, and we spent over 10 hours flying. We left Houston International Airport at 16:25 CST for Frankfurt Airport. After a 9 hour flight spent doing homework, watching movies, and chatting, we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany where the local time was 08:30 CEST.  During a three hour layover we ate chocolate croissants and explored the duty free shops before the last leg of our journey. In our second flight we flew over the mountain range and the Italian countryside into Florence, Italy. After getting our luggage, we met our tour guide and headed to the Hotel Annabella before going on our walking tour. 

Tour

Our guide Giovanni led us on a walking tour of Florence during the afternoon (during which we each held radios to hear his voice at a distance). We first stopped at the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella, where Giovanni explained the cultural significance of Catholicism in Italy. He pointed out the artistic proportions used in the architecture. As we continued touring Florence, Giovanni directed us through many more churches. He described the original meaning behind graffiti, a form of art involving scratching the image into the wall present in many of the churches. He also described the sandstone material used to craft many of the Italian structures. Eventually, we crossed the Arno River over the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Giovanni explained how Hitler had destroyed many Florence bridges during World War 2, leaving only one original bridge. Our final destination was the Duomo. Although we didn’t enter, the exterior proved extremely impressive on its own. The green and white, paired with its massive size, made the Duomo a spectacular finish. Giovanni provided an excellent tour; we learned a lot while sharing many laughs.

Dinner

For dinner, we ate at a local restaurant near the hotel called Matto Matto. Since we were such a large group, we had our own room on the side of the restaurant and sat split across three different tables. The meal itself was a three-course meal, and everyone received the same food. The first course consisted of a creamy sausage and artichoke risotto. Florence is a city known for its risottos, and this restaurant certainly did not disappoint. The course was served on a plate and contained large grains of rice with bits of sausage, artichoke, onion, and other vegetables together in a cream. Despite being the appetizer, this risotto was very filling. Next, we received a pollo alla cacciatora with roasted potatoes. This course consisted of roasted bone-in chicken with a side of potatoes. The chicken had a sauce on it, and the potatoes were very soft. It was very tasty! The last course was a slice of freshly baked chocolate cake covered with powdered sugar. It was warm, and it was not too sweet, despite being a dessert that is typically very rich. It superbly balanced sweetness. This dinner was our first, both here in Italy and all together as a program. All-in-all, it was a fun social experience where we could all wind down and enjoy the cultural food of the city we were in. 

Buena noche!

– Alexander Mandanis, Ana Gou, John Lehan, Ines Abrahamsson