This blog post has definitely been a long time coming - particularly considering I have to cook my own food in Florence, however I've been holding back considering photographing my food hasn't been going all that well (if I'm being honest I'm usually to hungry to wait...). Nonetheless cooking in Florence is probably one of the most important things I've learned while being abroad here and I think it's about time I wrote about it!
There's no question 75% of what I'm cooking and eating here in Italy is pasta and salad, but Italy has taught me quite well that those don't have to be simple meals. With cooking and shopping each week I'm usually purchasing the same couple of things - lettuce, blocks of cheese (probably parmesan), various vegetables (this is what changes the most - it'll usually be something along the lines of carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, or onions), chicken or hamburgers, bread, and pasta. On top of these basics I'll try and get a lot of spices and little things to mix it up like olives and eggs. Obviously this varies a little bit from week to week but I've been shocked at how easy it is to mix it up with these kinds of basic groceries!
In terms of the specific meals I've been making - I have experimented with zucchini boats, homemade soup (which I'm very excited about), lots of sandwiches, and a ton of pasta sauces and ingredients such as chicken, tuna, cheese, broccoli, onion, and so on. I will say I was happily surprised by how much better quality and fresher a lot of the foods here are - it makes things a lot easier when it comes to cooking! With that said I was also surprised to find that I don't love the bread here considering they actually don't make it with salt - although this may be primarily a Florentine thing! It turns out this is likely because a lot of the ingredients Italians are working with are tremendously salty so it needs to be paired with something a little blander! Nonetheless it has been fun to see what actually tastes good in soup and pasta and what most certainly does not (it really is a process sometimes...).
In terms of eating out, there are a surprising number of different types of food in Florence - from Ramen restaurants to American diners to local Italian restaurants. My friends and I have definitely had fun checking out new places each time we go out - although we have to remember to bring water each time because it's surprisingly expensive!
Finally, about 4 years ago while I was blogging during my time in Spain I made a post about my walk to school (https://2016ktspainstudies.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/spain-daily-life/). Unexpectedly, a lot of my friends still remember it to this day. So with that said, I thought it might be fun to recreate it here in Florence! My walk to SACI on Via San Antonino is a lot shorter than my walk in Spain - it's about 5 minutes from my apartment - but nonetheless this is it (including the 100 flights of stairs I have to climb to get out my building)!