All posts tagged: shopping

Food, Friends and Firenze

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Whoever led the re-design of the Mercato Centrale Firenze is just a genius. Seriously. I have yet to see visual projects like this one in Italy. Perhaps I am thinking like Food Communication Masters student! Gasp! Last weekend, I headed down to Firenze on the sleek and speedy Freciarossa train to see the female members of the Laub clan, friends from California who happened to converge in my current country of residence for a week and invited me down for the weekend. Robin knows what’s going on, so obviously her pre-trip research (and multi-page printed itinerary) led us to some good spots. On Saturday morning, we took a 40 minute walk to a bakery called Pasticceria Giorgio. Now, I must say, I love walking probably more than the next person and my Supergas were ready for duty, but we were mostly in residential neighborhoods during the jaunt which made me a little but unsure of the final destination. Let me tell you, this place was the real deal. No Trip Advisor stickers, no English spoken (this …

Roaming the Non-Tourist Version of Rome

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A vegan chocolate store in Rome? You said what? Ok. I know I’ve dropped the ball big time here. It’s been almost a month since I posted anything. Yikes. Scusa. But the thing is, I have just been zooming around. Mostly meeting people from the triennale (undergraduate program) and then traveling with the dynamic duo of Urmila and Vibe. I haven’t really been in a place mentally to sit down in this particular chair in my apartment to put together my experiences, photos and ramblings in one spot. I hesitate to say, “I have been busy” because I know that would push the friends who already are sending me love/hate vibes from their skyscraper office jobs while I am in class learning what theobroma cacao is more towards the hate side. But really. I have been pushing myself almost every single day to just get out there and to go against my more introverted nature a bit. I’ve had a drink with the director of my Masters program, hosted dinner parties, eaten empanadas around an open fire at a street food night, …

Italy is Eataly

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“Eating is an agricultural act.” Quite the appropriate catchphrase for my year here. Yesterday morning (let’s be real, it was almost noon…) I awoke after quite a raucous night out on the town and felt like having a Saturday adventure. So I set off on my newly purchased and restored bicycle to the nearby Eataly in Monticello d’Alba to purchase some goodies for family and friends back home. If you’re new to the game, Eataly is a cleverly named high end/artisanal food hall full of Italian products such as wine, cheese, pasta, bread, chocolate… Back in the States (don’t I sound so ex-pat-y when I say that?) there is one in NYC with a Nutella bar which just sounds crazy. The trip there was a bit iffy given that I was mostly biking on roads with no bike lane and I have no bike/car/human spatial consciousness. But I managed to avoid getting hit by a car in the name of edible Christmas gift shopping. When I finally arrived after about 12 km on the road and a few check-ins with Google Maps, I …