It's time to do me!: Florentine Steak!

March 2, 2011

This morning in Italian me, Marissa, and Danielle started making plans with the comm. girls and Chris to go to dinner tonight to get the infamous Florentine Steak, which is this massive steak that sometimes is shared between two people. Chris’s roommate Harris went to this one restaurant where he got a Florentine Steak dinner for 15 euro and it included potatoes and a glass of free wine which is a knockout price because usually Florentine Steak dinners are 30 or 40 euro. I was running back and forth between my Italian class where all of us girls were to the Italian II class where Chris was to figure things out, but eventually the plans were set to meet at 6:15 in San Lorenzo. The anticipation has already started!

In the time I had between Italian and European Issues I cracked down and started studying for Roman Achievement and I was starting to feel fairly confident…I think I know this more than what I thought. In European Issues Danielle had her presentation on the Prime Minister of Spain, and she did a lovely job despite how unprepared she felt last night. After class we knew we had just a short time before we had to meet for dinner…woohoo! This meant that we had enough time to stop into Foot Locker and check out these shoes that I have officially fallen in love with. They are leather converse that are high-tops that have an inner layer of the high-top that is wool fur with a leather layer that can cover the fur or fold down to reveal the fur. Either way, they are ADORABLE! I have eyed these shoes up earlier, but didn’t want to try them on because I knew that would be my breaking point, but of course Danielle and Lauren convinced me to try them on. And what would you know…they’re perfect, AND they only sell them here in Europe! One problem: the price tag. Shoes in Italy are extremely important and everywhere which makes sense because I have walked holes into both pairs of my boots and I have gone through three different shoe insoles since I have been here. We walk NON STOP. So, I am starting to think I wouldn’t mind paying a little more money for shoes if they are going to last longer, but who knows…they might get destroyed just as easily and then I’ll be upset that I spent so much money to trash my shoes within a couple months. What a dilemma!

Anyways, before we knew it we were back at home and our apartment buzzer went off…Chris was here, which meant it was dinner time! Went to San Lorenzo and met up with the comm. girls and made our way over to the restaurant called La Galleria. All of us were welcomed with free flutes of sparkling wine…we like this place already! Everybody but Kate and Tessa ordered the Bistecca alla Fiorentina…we were ready for this! It was nice chatting and waiting for meals, and all of a sudden out comes these three types of bruschetta for all of us who ordered the steak…another free surprise! I was really nervous to eat the two that didn’t look the typical tomato bruschetta, because one was topped with what looked like caviar and one had gross green paste on the top, but I actually really liked all of them (whatever they were)! Once our dishes were taken away we waited for a while longer when I saw these huge plates being brought our way…the steak has arrived! I honestly don’t think I have seen such a big steak in my life, but I couldn’t be happier…it has been two months since I have had steak! I immediately started to cut into my steak which was pretty pink on the inside, but we were told ahead of time that they like their steaks a tad more rare than we do in America. But the pink (and in some parts super red) didn’t stop me, it was delicious! As we were all in bliss (Tessa and Kate too because their dishes ended up being amazing as well) we were brought pitchers of the house white wine, compliments of the owner Tony who came over to our table and “cheers!”-ed with us. Thanks Tony! I ate practically my entire steak, minus a couple pieces that I thought might still be mooing because the center of my steak was a lot thicker than the outer edges, but still I was filled to the brim with greatness! Definitely, definitely a place we are going to have to hit up again before we leave, or maybe once a month!

As we were leaving all of the girls said they wanted gelato or waffles with Nutella to top things off right. We told them about our favorite place by our house that has the peanut butter ice cream and everyone was down with that, especially since the restaurant was super close to our house anyways. When we got to our favorite man’s store there were quite a few girls already in there, and once all of us got inside I think the guy was probably quite overwhelmed with girls. As people were choosing which gelato flavors they wanted someone discovered that they had crepes! How have we gone here so many times and not known they had crepes!? We found out that he had peanut butter that you could put on your crepe and immediately I was sold! Marissa, Isabelle, Tessa, and I all got a crepe with peanut butter, Nutella, and bananas…a.k.a. heaven! Maybe we shouldn’t have discovered that our favorite gelato shop that we go to like 4 times a week has crepes, because now we might be there every night of the week!

Isabelle asked if there was a little place nearby that she could buy a couple things for breakfast in the morning, so I took her about 10 stores down to this little grocery store called Punto, but when her and I went back to the gelato shop to meet back up with everyone we realized they had all dispersed..where did they go? I brought her back to our apartment to find out that my roommates were back home, but her roommates had headed back home. She had no clue how to get back home, so I walked her to the Duomo so she could have a landmark to walk from, and when I arrived back home Marissa was more than happy to see me because she was afraid I would get stolen walking back home from the Duomo because I forgot my phone so I wouldn’t be able to call for help. I just giggled at her because I would never do anything that I thought would put myself in harm, but thanked her for her concerns.

It was starting to get late, but it was still study time…our Roman Achievement was bright and early in the morning! Chris was still at our house, so him, Danielle, Lauren, and I all sat around our kitchen table taking turns going through the study guide and explaining things. Study, study, studying the night away!