When we arrived back at the apartment, we were greeted by a note on the door with exciting news: "Wireless internet on your laptop will be available starting next week." OMG. I had resigned myself to only using the internet between the hours of 9am and 9pm Mon-Fri as my class schedule and desire to be out of doors would permit, but this was a wonderful surprise! Internet in our apartment will make everything soooooo much easier! I will have more time to blog and do pictures as well as talk to family & friends at home at my convenience rather than on such a constrained schedule! SUCH good news!
We got ready and decided to go to a restaurant across the Arno that Andrea (on-dray-uh: he's a guy lol), who we met at the Lion's Fountain, had suggested to us, as he works there and his friend is the chef. So, we ventured out and did a little exploring along the Arno and Ponte Vecchio as we made our way to the restaurant. We got some amazing pictures on the river- it took me awhile to get the camera settings right, but I ended up getting some really beautiful shots!
Dinner at the Borgo Antico was fantastic! The restaurant was adorable- the menus were handwritten (by Andrea as he told us) and had hand sketched drawings on the cover. Andrea did not remember us at once, but soon realized where we had met before. The restaurant didn't actually open for another 20 minutes, but he let us in early and brought us a sample of the dessert he had made for the evening (a sort of thin pudding-ish dip with sweet crackers) and 4 small glasses of wine while we waited. (Let it just be said, that this was the first glass of wine I've had in Italy that I actually liked!) A little later, he brought us an appetizer: a bowl made of pressed parmesan cheese drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar filled with fresh artichokes: it was DELICIOUS! Honestly, at home I would have never tried artichokes, but I'm trying really hard to not be picky here, so I tried them and they were great (a little salty, but great!) "My gifts to you!" Andrea kept saying. Let it just be said that Andrea is possibly the only genuinely nice Italian guy we have met while we've been here.
Andrea came back to take our order, and right in the middle his priest walked in, so he had to leave for a moment to say hello. Apparently everyone eats late in Italy because the four of us and the priest were the only ones in the restaurant until around 9:00 or so. (then the restaurant was packed!)....pay attention to the priest, because he'll reenter the story later on. :)
Dinner arrived after a while. We all got pizza (this was the first time I had pizza here, so I was excited! They were HUGE! I managed to eat about 2/3 of my mushroom and proscuitto pizza before I had to call it quits. It was delicious, but I don't think I would have been able to move had I finished it off! I have no idea how my roommates finished theirs!
We ordered two different desserts: Marla and I split a panacotta, which was a pudding-ish dessert covered in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with cocoa, Shannon and Julia split a chocolate torte- delicious chocolate cake, that was still warm when Andrea brought it out! YUM!
Andrea brought us another gift: a small "slow drink" as he called it, which turned out to be a shot-glass sized glass of the strongest lemon liquor on earth. We all took a tiny sip, and that was game over (for me at least!). Somehow Marla finished hers, but she's a trooper. :)
We had a great time at the restaurant, not only enjoying the delicious food, but also the lifestyle. We sat at the restaurant eating, talking, and laughing for over three hours! And everyone else seemed to be the same way, just enjoying the evening of good food and company.
Ok, so now for the priest: before we left the restaurant, the priest noticed that Julia was wearing a Boston Red Sox t-shirt. Who would have guessed that in Andrea's restaurant, we would run into probably the only Yankees fan in all of Italy. Turns out, the priest was originally from New York, and thus, a Yankee fan. And let it be said, that for a priest, this guy talked smack about Boston and the Sox like he was just an average New Yorker! "Boston is a trashy city, and the Sox are trash as well!", "I will pray for you, Julia, that you may convert to follow a more worthy team!" "God is a Yankee fan: I'm a priest, and father knows best, right?!" SOOOOOO funny! Julia was really irritated that she couldn't talk back, "I mean, he's a priest; it's really not fair!".
After we recovered from laughing so hard at the altercation between Julia and the priest, we said goodbye to Andrea (during which he apologized repeatedly for his priest's teasing) and made plans to meet up with him soon. We made our way home, with plans of going out somewhere, but we were so full, we stayed in and watched bad TV and went to bed early.
Ciao!
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