Best panino Italiano in the World!

These pictures are from two days ago when I had the ultimate day of gluttony! I had class for three hours at the academia, took the bus up to campus, had class, walked for an hour down to Florence, ate so much, had more class, took the bus back up to campus for the art show and then walked home! I was exhausted, but enough of that...food time. I had THE BEST sandwiches of my life at this tiny place called Semel, located in the least touristy part of Florence. It was recommended by my Italian teacher as the best panini in Florence, but I think he undersold it! The first panino I got had wild boar with polenta and olives. It was so simple, but amazingly delicious. Then Caroline and I split two more panini. The first had duck breast and orange and the second was herring with pecorino cheese. I wanted to savor each bite, but I ate it all so fast! Their popular panino has donkey, but they were out of it by the time I got there...guess I'll have to go back!

Then we went to Il Pizzaiolo and split a pizza four ways since my teacher also recommended it. THEN...immediately after that we met up with my teacher and the rest of our Italian class to get gelato at a place called Dario's. I would never be able to find it again, it's such a tiny bar (not even a gelateria) in the middle of no where. Dario, who we met, makes all the gelato himself using his own ingredients and an old-school process that still involves eggs! It was like eating a piece of cake it was so thick! I'm still recovering from all that amazing food in such a short time.

You can take the girl out of America, but you can't take America out of the girl

Salad with shrimp, avocado, ham and tomatoes 

I'm lucky enough to be visited by my mom this week! Having people from home in my life makes all the difference. Last night I met her at her hotel and we went to dinner in Piazza della Repubblica. I had a salad and mussels and mom had a salad and pasta bolognese. The mussels I got were amazing, but so garlicky! Usually Tuscan bread is usually underwhelming, but they toasted it with olive oil and salt which was great to soak up all the sauce. We both got Nastro Azzurro beers to wash it all down with.

Today in my art class we spent the morning in San Marco, drawing along with the likes of Fra Angelico. I've learned about the Annunciation (pictured above) so many times, that I decided I HAD to draw it. Of course drawing an amazing work of art that took seven years to make in two hours is impossible, but I still enjoyed analyzing every detail! It's not easy!