GOING WITH THE 'FLO'
Florence: February 6, 2015
TGIF or TGIV(enerdi)!
Now that we are into febbraio, with the first month of the New Year behind us, I am interested to see who here in Italy will be keeping their ‘capodanno’ resolutions. I decided that rather than limit my consumption of fun (or wine) for 2015 I was going to join my ‘local’ Italian palestra (gym) for the variety of classes, including Yoga, Stretch & Tone, Pilates, and Yogilates. Mind you by local, I mean a 60 minute plus walk or so, Not that bad by any means, but nothing like what I was used to when I lived in NYC where there was literally a New York City Sports Club on every corner, next to a Soul Cycle, a Fly Wheel, and a Barry’s Boot Camp studio and then across the street from other elite gym options- like Equinox. But anyway, I’ve committed to making the trek for the next four months as my alter ego, University of Roma student – Mallory Robinson (for the student discount obviously) to Trastevere Fitness. I mean, I didn’t LIE per say. I just happened to be wearing a University of Roma sweatshirt when signed up and didn’t correct member services (or a woman by the name of Guicey – pronounced Juicy) when she passed along the additional discount. Not to mention, I’m still wearing braces in my current passport photo that doesn’t expire until 2018.
But frankly, after meeting Guicey (who could very well be Fran Dreschers’ identical twin), I’d walk 500 miles for the chance to see her and her inventive gym attire (which actually isn’t gym attire at all). In fact, no one who works at Trastevere Fitness ever seems to be in fitness gear, let alone encouraging a very ‘fit’ lifestyle. Cigarette and coffee breaks (there’s an espresso machine next to the ladies locker room) replace water breaks and the vending machine is only ever stocked with ‘bubbly’ water, Kinder chocolate bars, and saltine crackers.
Quick SHOUT-OUT to my Imbibery London girls- Meryl & Lily- I think it’s time we teach Italy how to ‘imbibe’ other things besides wine!? These two saw a void in the UK market for fresh pressed juices and dove right in to create quite the healthy and delicious juice products.
Nevertheless, I am excited to now have access to what can only be described as an Italian social club. More chitchatting, less physical exertion! But what the palestra really reminds me of is ‘THE MAX’ from my favorite 90’s sitcom, Saved By the Bell! For those of you who do not know what I am talking about (shame on you), ‘The Max’ was Bayside High’s local food joint that served as the gang’s ultimate hangout and a place to eat, drink, dance, go on dates, and discuss troubles – and if the ‘Max’ offered Yoga classes, it would essentially be this new gym (the tacky wallpaper and early 90’s music also adds to the resemblance)! I’ve also come to the conclusion my Yoga, Stretch & Tone, Pilates, and Yogilates classes are all the same class (more of a stretch & chat if you will) with different names…taught by the same instructor, Valentina (who coincidentally looks like Jessie Spano).
And while I love a good chitchat, I’m starting to think I may be THE topic of chitchat due to what some Italians consider improper. This year’s ‘resolution’ has left with me a stink-eye or two when I leave the gym with my hair not only unclean, but also un-blow-dried (I mean I go STRAIGHT home). These careless and irresponsible lifestyle choices leave me vulnerable to the Italian affliction known as the – cervicale– basically an Italian-created disease caught by wet hair or a naked neck (outfit sans scarf in the winter). The way Italians talk about catching the ‘cervicale’ would leave most foreigners assuming it is Italian for EBOLA.
no scarf and my coat was collarless! YIKES.
My other New Year’s resolution for 2015 (being that I am in a foreign country and want to take advantage of absolutely everything) is to really step up my exploratory game. Whether that be traveling to other countries or around Italy more regularly. I need to remind myself how fortunate I am to live in a place surrounded by SO much history – this year just call me Mal-O-Polo. Having said that, I got the opportunity to tag along on a guided tour of a beautiful property (now converted into a museum), Villa Torlonia, and its secret bunkers Mussolini had built underground during World War II with my friend Anna Maria and her parents, Vito and Veronica. Anna Maria’s mother had arranged the tour months in advance (availability is limited and reservations required) for the 3 of them and AM’s auntie, but luckily for me, the auntie couldn’t join last minute and I was able to attend the Italian history lesson instead. History was always my favorite class in school and WWII one of my favorite historical subjects, but I had never taken a history lesson entirely in Italian. That’s right! The tour was given completely in Italian because everyone on the tour, except for me, was Italian (but I don’t think the guide suspected I was a foreigner – I can usually pass for Italian if I don’t open my mouth). But with Anna Maria at my side translating all the important points for me, I was able to follow along quite easily, not to mention the tour doubled as an impromptu Italian lesson for me! A fun fact about Vito – Anna Maria’s father – is that he used to work at the Italian consulate in NEW ORLEANS back when former Mayor Marc Morial reigned supreme. What are the odds? Her brother was actually born at Ochsner Hospital (like ME!) and her whole family lived in NOLA for 6 years (poor Anna Maria missed out/wasn’t born yet) before moving to other cities all over the world for work. After speaking with him for some time, it was clear which city was his favorite...
The tour began in Piazza Mincio, a posh part of the Parioli neighborhood, where our guide highlighted a number of architectural and design characteristics I hope to use on my dream home one day. Specifically on the large, imposing front doors of the grandiose homes – the doorknobs in the shape of lions! The Lion shaped knobs are known to expel bad spirits or energy from one’s home (the first home ‘security’ system if you will). My favorite part of the tour, apart from the beautiful architecture, was the less aesthetically pleasing bunkers Mussolini built below Villa Torlonia to protect his sorry self from the awesome Allies. These bunkers can only fit fifteen people at a time, but two people from our guided group chose not to enter due to claustrophobia issues leaving more oxygen for the rest of us! Clearly not the best tour to sign up for if you suffer from claustrophobia, but you live and learn. The first bunker Musso built was converted from a massive wine cellar on the Torlonia property. One of his many poor choices if you ask me. After the bunker was finished it was discovered it actually could not protect him from bombs falling from the sky (surprise!), but rather would cave in on impact! So he built the second one, this time with more know-how. Fortunately he was arrested in 1943 before it could be put to use. The bunker is a reminder of how dictators – so cavalier in discarding the skins of others – are often obsessively attentive about saving their own.
After I parted ways with the Loguercio famiglia, I went home to bake a surprise cake for our close friend, Simona (until recently a masculine Simone but currently undergoing intensive hormone treatment) whos works at our favorite bar Pimms Good. I used an Italian boxed-cake mix recipe that unlike its American equivalent, Betty Crocker, required no water or cooking oil, just straight eggs, butter and milk. I added a little bit (okay, A LOT) of my own flair to the batter mix, about 10 different kinds of rainbow shaped sprinkles to give it a funfetti feel – something I have seriously missed while abroad. For the icing, I used my mom’s homemade cream cheese frosting recipe and then obviously doused the cake in more rainbow sprinkles as a final touch. I was actually quite impressed with my baking abilities and the outcome of the birthday dessert due to the fact that our oven has a mind of its own. I also technically had to ‘eye-ball’ all of the measurements (we had no measuring cups). At midnight Ellie and I surprised Simona with the funfetti cake and it literally brought her to tears! And she assured me NOT because of how the cake tasted, but because we were the most thoughtful Americans she knew. Unfortunately, the cake was not necessarily such a hit with the Italian patrons at Pimms as I thought it would be. Apparently, the ‘sponge’ part was buona, but overall the cake was just a little too sweet for the American-sized portions I was passing out to everyone…
And speaking of treats, this past weekend was a real treat as I got to travel to Firenze with my gal pals Kelly (the Aussie), Zoe (the Brit), and Ellie (THE Ellie). The four of us traveled really well together, important when you have to share bunk beds at the most posh of European hostels – Hostel Plus or Plus Florence. But in all seriousness, for those of you travelling on a budget, you do get a good amount of cluck for your buck at this hostel chain (there are a few scattered throughout Europe). Clean sleeping accommodation, linens and towels, free WiFi, a business center, a gym, a laundry room, a few vending machines and wait for it – an INDOOR pool – for just under 20 euros. All of us met at the Tiburtina train station extra early to ensure we could squeeze in a coffee and last minute logistics before hopping on the Italo train for Florence. Not surprisingly, because our group was on time, the train was an hour and a half in ritardo…But when the train finally did arrive, us ragazze were ready to start our Tuscan adventure in no time!
Unfortunately, the weather in Florence was pretty grim and gloomy, so after grabbing lunch, we headed to the Duomo and a few other smaller churches and cathedrals to pray for better weather. Saturday, the 31st of January, was also the LAST day of the after Christmas sales – sales we won’t see again until August, thus the gloomy weather gave us the perfect excuse to get 'stuck' Zara. That evening Zoe and I left Kelly and Ellie, to ‘suss out’ (Australian for ‘to figure out’ or to ‘sort out’) dinner plans. Our first choice for dinner, Buca dell’ Orafo, came highly recommended for dinner by another foodie friend of mine. But of course, when restaurants come highly recommended that usually means reservations in advance. Nevertheless, Kelly and Ellie delivered when they found us a delicious restaurant for a classic Florentine meal of meat and pasta (with vegetarian options for Zoe): Ristorante Zaza. Florence is a much smaller city than Rome, thus we were able to walk everywhere – avoiding public transport – from our hostel (another ‘plus’). But because Florence is a smaller city, it made the study abroad, under 21 population much more evident. Every English speaker we came across was studying abroad through his or her respective universities and also coincidentally from the great state of Connecticut… When trying to ‘suss out’ our post dinner plans before falling into massive meat comas, the waitress recommended the nightclub Flo’ Lounge. Needless to say, the club had a real young ‘flo’ to it, which only encouraged us to take the slightly creepy, white-mask party favors being passed out by the promoters to mask our maturity.
We decided after a few dances and drinks offered to us by a group of Boston College students to grab a nightcap at The Old Stove Irish Pub. Ellie made best friends with one of the owners and volunteered her services to pass out hundreds of their student discount cards all over Roma. Currently these cards are scattered all over our apartment, but I’m confident Ellie will get them into the right hands in no time for her new friend.
Sunday morning the hostel even provided us with a complimentary wake-up call in the form of the cleaning ladies barging into our room promptly at 9 am to announce it was time to check out – immediately. A minor detail I overlooked when booking Florence Plus for the group was the particularly early checkout time. But it really did end up being a blessing in disguise as it got our butts out of bed to begin the day of FREE entrance museum hopping! It was quite a pleasant surprise when we were reminded on our way to the Uffizi Gallery’s ticket office that on the first Sunday of every month all the museums entrance fees are GRATIS!
While the museums were a little more crowded due to the free entry, we managed to push our way to the front for all the must-see paintings and sculptures at the Uffizi, such as Botticelli’s, Birth of Venus, before hopping over the Medieval Ponte Vecchio and to the Palazzo Pitti. We even managed to visit the Giardino di Boboli before finally breaking for lunch. A highlight of this trip was the family-run restaurant we stopped in for ‘dunch’ – Osteria all’Antico Vinaio – that sells only two things: 1) wine (self-service) 2) panini. What else could you possibly need?
I asked the kind, toothless man behind the counter his favorite sandwich on the menu, specifically with wild boar’s meat, a Florentine delicacy that Kelly insisted we try. Even if you aren’t a fan of wild boar, the artichoke spread, arugula, pecorino cheese and warm Tuscan bread the sandwich consisted of made it absolutely delicious. Kelly even got a few free refills of the recommended red wine to accompany our panini from our friend across the counter. Before catching our evening train out of Firenze (to make it back in time for the Super Bowl), the four of us made one last stop at the city’s Eataly outpost to pick up snacks (sweet pistachio spread, savory black olive pate, crostinis) and a farewell bottle of prosecco for the train ride home to toast the end of a lovely weekend.
until next time Firenze...
Unlike the other non-Americans, when our train arrived in Rome, Ellie and I darted to Pimm’s Good to catch some team from New (NOT) Orleans play one of the many bird teams in the NFL for the National Championship. Given the time difference, Sunday night football became Monday morning football, and after (what I later learned was) the worst call in Super Bowl history – I finally was able to tuck into bed with my teenage dreams (Katy Perry halftime reference there).
Although it looks like I will be molto ocupata (very busy) over the next few months, I do have a lot to look forward to!
Tomorrow, thanks to Anna Maria’s organizing, a large group of us will be attending the first game for Italia of the Six Nations Championship rugby tournament! The six nations that compete in the tournament include England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy (considered the underdog). Tomorrow will be my first rugby game ever, Ireland versus Italy, even though the sport actually runs in my family! My father, Sam, was once the captain of his college rugby team before playing on the Bolivian National Rugby team while living in La Paz (true story). Ellie and I also have Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras (party to plan), and New Orleans visitors all before the end of the month! Come March, I fear I will have little time to blog as I recently signed on to home-school a ten year old from Los Angeles whose mother will be filming a movie here in Roma. But if Rome (and its people) have taught me anything, it’s how to HUSTLE. And luckily the boy will be covering Mythology and Ancient History while in Rome, so I can save paper by using the city itself as a textbook!
I’ve already planned a day where the two of us will be attending ‘Gladiator School’ – completely serious.
Wishing everyone a buon fine settimana!
Mal
