Fiorentina vs. Juventus and a day in Lucca

Ciao everyone,

Last night was fun, but quick. Around 4, we all met at Kevin and Jeff's humble abode and got a delicious late lunch from Alessandro (the guy who owns this fabulous restaurant under the boys' apartment). Then, we hopped on a bus with our oversized Stella Artois and headed to the game. It was mayhem there. We had made sure to come prepared with snacks, even though we weren't sure that we would be able to bring them into the game. I had a jumbo pack of cookies in my purse when we arrived at the entrance. A very large security guard asked me to open my purse and pointed out the fact that I had cookies in it. Somehow, I managed to come up with an elaborate, and believable, lie that I was sick with diabetes and needed occasional sugar boosts. He totally bought it and let me through! ONLY IN ITALY WOULD THIS WORK.

Anyway, the entire stadium was packed with purple Fiorentina fans and we found a huge empty space of seats right in the front, near the glass. I guess everyone likes to stand up higher to get the best view. The game was really fun to watch and the fans were incredibly rowdy. The personnel is actually required to leave a section of seats completely open on both sides of the opposing team's area, so that no one kills each other. Juventus (from Trentino) is the best in the league I believe, so we lost. I thought that Fiorentina didn't try hard enough. They looked much slower than Juventus, but I guess they are the professionals, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. Either way, the game was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we were exhausted and just went to Kikuya for a drink. Then, we went home and I made it to bed by 11:30! Amazing.

Today, we all met Elia at the train station to take a trip to Lucca. Of course Elia, being his Italian self, showed up late and we missed the train and had to wait an hour for the next one. So, we arrived in Lucca around 1:45 and searched for a restaurant that would feed us. Mind you, most restaurant kitchens close between 2 and 6, so we had a really hard time finding a place that would take 10 of us. We did manage to find a nice place after 20 minutes, and spent two hours eating in there. We all shared fried mozzarella, pecorino with honey and fig jam, assorted crostini, and smoked meats. Then, I had a farro soup, which was delicious. For dessert, Grace and I had Vin Santo and Cantucci, and everyone else had cheesecake. It was a very nice lunch. We got out around 4:30, which was already incredibly late. But, Elia still had plans to show us all the churches, so we followed him around for a while. At 5:30, we were ready to go home but had missed the train by 2 minutes. So, we went to a fancy cafe and had some tea and cookies, all paid for by Holy Cross. We took the 6:30 train home and Maria Pia had tons of homemade pizza waiting for us. Sooo delicious. I ate too much today.

On a good note, I spent all of 50 cents for a postcard. Everything else was paid for by Holy Cross. (Well sort of, considering the fact that our parents are the ones who give Holy Cross all the money).

Anyway, I'm exhausted and I have a terrible week ahead of me.

Buona notte!

A taste of Holland

I think I may have already mentioned that we have a new Dutch friend, named Elmer. On Thursday night, me, Kevin, Maggie R and Andrea went out for a few drinks at Cafe Bigallo. I texted Elmer to invite him because he's always texting us non-stop, asking what are plans are. He never answered, but then showed up randomly and I never think before I greet him. I always say "HEY ELMER! WHAT'S UP!?" He answers: "I'm fine, how are you?" It makes me chuckle every time.

We all had a great time talking to him. It was really interesting to notice all our cultural differences, as he nonchalantly talked about sleeping with girls and smoking weed. At one point, he was giving us his opinion on American girls. He said that from what he had heard, they were pretty much sluts. He found that they are pretty, but often overdone with makeup and under-dressed for the weather. Most of this is true for Elmer to see, especially considering the small selection of American girls that were in Cafe Bigallo and fitting the profile perfectly. At one point, we were talking about that fact that American girls don't wear enough clothes, and Andrea and I were trying to explain to him that not every girl was that way. It figures that his opinions were sealed when a slightly-heavy girl walked in, pulling one of those just-covering-the-butt dresses down as she walked. Elmer felt the need to say "There's the perfect example of what I'm saying. That girl has elephant legs." We DIED laughing. Sorry to whoever that girl is out there in Florence. I don't think Elmer realizes how insulting he can be, because he's new to the American culture. He understands the language, but doesn't really know what needs to be censored, and what's ok. That's the funniest part.

At some point, we got into talking about how his Dad owns some Paul and Shark stores and discovered that every article of clothing he was wearing was at least 200+ euro. But, he assured us that he didn't have to pay for these things and that he would never be crazy enough to do that. 500 euro jeans!!!??? Oh wow. Of course he drives an Audi A4, but says that he doesn't want it anymore because he feels like he sticks out and doesn't think that he's old and mature enough to drive such an expensive car. Haha, this kid is veryy interesting. Anyway, he's really hoping for some friends, so we welcomed him to hang out with us whenever he wants. I think he's coming to the soccer game with us tonight, but I haven't heard from him since he was on his way to buy the tickets. We'll see what happens.

I am so excited to go to my first European soccer/football game!!! It's Fiorentina vs. Juventus. It's supposed to be a wild one. We bought our purple Fiorentina scarves yesterday, and we're ready to go. To give you an idea of just how rowdy it gets, they don't sell alcohol in the stadium. The crowd is crazy enough when it's sober. Uh oh :)

Updates after the game.

FORZA VIOLA!