Fiorentina 1, Genoa 0

On Saturday night, Pallavi and I went to a Fiorentina (Florence's home team) soccer match vs. Genoa.....awesome!! The 40,000+ fans that packed the stadium were festive the entire game, singing, chanting, and of course, yelling at the officials. It's a shame we didn't understand what they were yelling.....it sounded quite colorful. Two other things we found quite interesting were that the Genoa fans were all in one CAGED section separate from the Fiorentina fans, and that the locals displayed their team spirit by wearing team scarves......only the Americans in the crowd (myself included) were wearing team jerseys. So it was quite easy to spot the Americans.

Here is a picture of the two of us in the Stadium, as well as a video clip that I took immediately after Fiorentina scored the only goal of the night -- not the best camerawork, but hopefully you'll get the idea.

San Diego meets Santa Croce

We had another terrific time with friends this past weekend, as our San Diego-based friends, Matt and Katie, swung through Florence as part of their one-week trip to Italy. It was a short, but eventful, visit -- complete with sightseeing, shopping (Katie bought an authentic Florentine leather jacket), eating, and even the US Presidential debate live at 3am Florence time. Here is a picture of the four of us in Florence's Duomo, which we realized is quite barren compared to Siena's Duomo. We now know that all Duomos are not created equal!

Life Imitating Art...

Who can pass up the opportunity to mimic a sculpture, especially when photography is prohibited? Neither can we. Here are some interpretations that we captured this past weekend. I know, you can't even tell which are the statues and which are the humans....it's uncanny!

Weekend With the 'Swissies'

Great times this past weekend with three friends - Arielle, Kelly, and Jeff - who made the trip down to Florence from Lausanne, Switzerland. We really packed in a lot in 3-ish days -- sightseeing in Florence, a daytrip to Siena, another daytrip through the Tuscan countryside, dinner at a beautiful castle-cum-hotel at which Jeff & Kelly stayed earlier this year, lots of gelato, and deep conversations about the flatness of our lawns and the number of bidets needed in our next homes. Thanks for visiting, Team Switzerland!!

You can't out-Beethoven Beethoven...

....but we believe we've found a better version of our cousin, Tushar, right here in Florence. Those of you who know him can judge for yourself.

Under The Tuscan Sun

On Tuesday, we ventured out into the Tuscan countryside for a lovely day trip. Our first stop was an American World War II cemetary, which was quite fascinating. Then, we continued on to San Gimignano (we've been calling it San Jimmy John's), which is a really cool medieval town nestled into the hills. The town is known for its medieval skyscrapers (shown in one of the photos). The other pictures show us with a picturesque Tuscan backdrop and a San Gimignano sidewalk with signs for 'pizza', 'sports', and 'tortura' (which means 'torture')....you really can get it all in San Gimignano!

Mi chiamo Amol. Io sono Americano.

We began taking Italian lessons with a private tutor the other day. The first lesson focused on the very basic basics. Here is a picture of our tutor (Lucia) 'having a conversation' with Pallavi with the Duomo in the background. We will meet with her 1-2 times per week and within a couple weeks, Pallavi and I look forward to being able to confidently ask locals how many siblings they have, while telling them what we ate for breakfast that morning.

Road Trip!

Yesterday we rented a car and headed northwest of the city for a day trip. We hit three towns - Prato, Lucca, and Pisa. As for Prato, let's just say that we've been there now...so you don't need to go. It did, however, have a famous biscotti place.....I'm learning that Pallavi is more into the cookies than she is into the gelato.....interesting. Lucca was terrific -- a small walled-in city that was the birthplace of Puccini. And Pisa....well, it's worth a good photo opp, and we had a good Indian dinner (the name of the restaurant was 'India'....clever). Even though we had both been to Pisa previously, I was eager to go again and get our picture at the Tower.....after all, when else would we be able to say, 'We're only 15 minutes away from Pisa....we might as well go get a picture, right?' Pallavi humored me.

The pictures show Pallavi along the city wall in Lucca, an outdoor classical concert in Lucca (the conductor was Indian - strong!), our fairly sad attempt at the obligatory crush/be crushed picture in Pisa, the Leaning TOWEL of Pisa (nice), and Pallavi in front of the Indian restaurant in Pisa.

il dolce far niente

I can't think of any place where people are more into ice cream. Wherever we go, there are hoards of people eating out of little cups with little spoons. There are 3 gelaterias on every street, at least. We usually just pick one per street. Amol has been sticking to cioccolato while I've had mostly nocciola (hazelnut) and nocciolato (hazelnut and chocolate -- basically, cold Nutella.) Sometimes I have stracciatella (cookies and cream, i think) -- but that's just because I like to say "stracciatella.") We've heard from a few sources that the best gelateria in Florence is this place called Vivoli. Vivoli is -- fortunately or unfortunately -- right outside our apartment.

I've decided I could never live in Europe because of all the smoking.

I'm happy that I've learned some key food words: vegetariana, decaffeinato, and pane integral (whole wheat bread). Raka, the Rick Steve's phrase book is a life-saver!

Today I learned that Amol loves raisins.

This American couple we met here (Matt & Sam from Milwaukee) said it was impossible to cross the street here because of all the scooters. Amol and i agreed: if they went to India, they would surely die.

There's this phrase here: il dolce far niente. the sweetness of doing nothing.

Prego!

One of our missions here is to figure out all the different uses of the word 'prego'. We know it means 'you're welcome', but it's also used in a lot of other contexts -- ready, ok, come in, ???. If anybody has any insights, we're all ears. Also, I hypothesize that the tourists-to-locals ratio in Florence is higher than in any other city perhaps in the world. It's just a hypothesis....but I think I'm onto something.

Here are a few pictures that capture our daily routine, which consists of lots of walking, hanging out in cafes, perhaps checking out a museum, and Pallavi beating me in Scrabble (she is, after all, a word person).

Firenze -- Settling In...

It's been a terrific first few days here in Florence. Pallavi hooked us up with a phenomenal apartment, in the heart of the Santa Croce area, which is one of the livelier areas of the city. Above is a picture of Pallavi in front of our apartment entrance.

Since we're here for a month, we've been pacing ourselves in terms of sightseeing. Above are a few of the sights we've taken in so far (to be honest, the city is small enough that it's hard NOT to see a bunch of sights just in the course of walking around aimlessly) -- church of Santa Croce (one block from our apartment), view of the Ponte Vecchio area at night, Pallavi on the Ponte Vecchio bridge in the evening, and Mr. David himself.....this picture is the result of us being told that no photos are allowed and me trying to cover David's private parts with a Terrible Towel.

Benvenuti a Firenze!

Our first night in Florence....Pallavi's first gelato. This is going to be a good month.

Marrakesh - the medinas were funky...but not cold

Four terrific days in Morocco with good friends, old and new. We went into the Atlas Mountains, we shopped in the medina, we tried to take pictures of the locals (usually unsuccessfully, but Pallavi was able to capture this image of a local village girl), I went to a casino (upon celebrating a big win for the table, our group was politely told to keep it down), Pallavi participated in a bellydancing lesson, we visited a Koranic school, and we spent quality time with our friends. We even had a Scotch Thursday, Marrakesh-style. All in all, it Morocked!

8 Hours In Jolly Old England

On our way to Morocco, we had an 8-hour layover in London....so we tried to make the most of it. We were able to have low tea (as opposed to high tea), eat lunch on Brick Lane (a street filled with Bangladeshi restaurants and stores), and take in a few sites. Here is a picture of me busting out my Terrible Towel in support of the 'Other Big Ben'