Category Archives: Summer

St. John the Baptist.
 
What a guy. Am I right?

I don’t think I need to get into it (I mean J to the B was baptizing people, living in the woods, eating berries and bark, and wearing his camel skin cloak way before hipsters were doing it.) Check out his full saintly story here.
 
For our purposes, we are really interested in the relationship between St. John the Baptist and Florence. Saint John is Florence’s patron saint. This essentially means he protects Florence and acts as a middleman between the citizens of Florence and God. Truth be told, he is the patron saint of several other locations, including Turin, Genoa and Malta, and even some groups like the Knights Hospitaller. (Yeah. He’s a pretty popular guy, so have some respect).
 
So why did the Florentines choose him? Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: feast day, festival, Florence, holiday, Italian history, Italian traditions, Italy, patron saint

Although Italy boasts some of the best HOT coffee the world has to offer, they have yet to tackle the world of ICED coffee. The summers in Italy, especially Florence, can be brutally hot so you would imagine the idea of adding ice to coffee would have hit home here, but it has not.

Now, there is a perfectly good explanation for this. First, Italians really don’t put ice in anything, let alone coffee. Coffee for them should be super strong and not diluted in any way. They also, as I mentioned in a previous post on coffee, do not tend to drink lattes or cappuccinos as often as Americans do and these are really the coffee drinks that lend themselves best to being iced. The vast majority of Italian coffee breaks are spent drinking espresso shots that would be quite silly on ice. Finally, ice and other very cold drinks are, in general, not thought of “healthy” in Italy. This is especially true of ice-cold milk.

I am not saying that Italians are wrong. Think how often your dentist tells you not to chew on ice. In a similar vein, Italians see ice and iced drinks as shocking to your system and an unhealthy habit. That being said, when it is 90 degrees out and you need to be caffeinated, it is really hard to turn to a steaming hot cup of coffee. Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: Coffee, Florence, Florence study abroad, Italy

This subject is very close to my heart as I spent many years and hundreds of euro honing my gelato taste buds, testing flavor after flavor until I knew, without a doubt, the best that Florence had to offer. I present here my findings (along with some helpful tips to keep in mind for first time travelers).

**TIPS**
Gelato (the national snack of Italy) is sold not by size (as in scoops) but by monetary value: one euro, two euro and up. The particular establishment decides how much that equates to in your cup or cone. I never get more than 2 euros unless it has been a really really bad day.
AVOID gelato places that are
a) near big tourist traps or
b) do not have their prices/sizes shown. I have had students pay as much as 10 euro for what should be 2 or 3 euro because they didn’t look for a clearly displayed price list.

THE WINNERS: Continue Reading…

Technorati Tags: Best of Florence, eating, Florence, food, Italy tips, tips