Cookies, Markets and Monster Fish

     One evening last week, Lizzy and I decided to make cookies! Real, good, American cookies :) The way my mama makes em! We made chocolate chip and also peanut butter. I taught her how to make the fork prints on the top for classic cookies! We had so many cookies that I took some with me to my language class. They were gone immediately with plenty of compliments on how good they were. I was even asked to bring the recipe, to which I told them that I found a simple recipe on Foodnetwork.com which is what I use for any and all recipes I need to find!

     The other day, we went to a big lunch get together with many people, all elderly except for us. It was very traditional and nice, the grounds were beautiful. Giova and Luca set up traps for robins, after we ate we went to collect the traps, and to mine and Mavi's dismay almost every trap had an adorable little birdy in it that was now dead. They took them home and after they were cleaned and cooked, Luca and Giova ate them. Whole. Head. Beak. Feet. EVERYTHING. He kept trying to get me to try it but there was no way I was gonna take a bite into one of those little birdies. In a completely opposite direction, from little birds I feel the need to tell about the MASSIVE fish Lizzy and I stumbled upon. One day we went and sat out on this concrete slab in the river, water only runs down half of it and the other half is used for tanning in the summer, and fishermen and couples in the winter. It was a beautiful day so we went down and sat for awhile. Eventually we saw a guy hook something, he was pulling and reeling for a few minutes and I was confused, it either had to be a huge fish or his line was caught on something. Other fishermen started to move closer to this guy so so did we. At last he pulls it close, another man grabs the pole so he can reach in the water and pull it out as I think the pole would have broken if he had tried to get it all the way out that way. Never in my life have I seen anything like it! I was so shocked and luckily for you, I had my camera and got some pretty great shots of this fish. He was so very proud of this fish, posing with it for all who wanted to come and snap a photo. Later we figured out that the name of the fish is a siluro d'Europa. 

One thing that I love so much about Florence is the random markets that you stumble upon. On any given day in random piazzas you can find food markets full of fresh foods and homemade crafts. Anything from olive oil, wine, honey, peppers, pork, sausage, pastries, bread, chocolate and cheese. These markets are always crowded with locals and tourists alike, sampling the small pieces offered at some of the stands. I love everything about these markets, each stand does a great job of making their products look exceptional and they're all incredibly authentic. Some of the signs on the olive oil said it was pressed just two days previous. Some of the stands are so colorful and being here just makes you feel rich, in culture, but not in money when you're finished there! Luckily, there are enough samples to keep my money in my wallet, Costco samples don't even come close :p It's so interesting and fun just to wander around and take it all in. 

     As it should be, art is a topic in Florence I could talk about forever, but unfortunately talking about it is nothing like seeing it in person. Recently, they put huge stone boulders with random metal objects in Piazza Santa Croce, definitely modern are but still pretty cool. And around the duomo they put potted olive trees that were fun to weave in and out of. And on the Ponte Vecchio they hung bright pink butterflies up on string and they looked like they were flying. All of these came and went together so they must have been from some sort of project but I love to see all the interesting things that they add in randomly around the city. It's always fascinating to see what new things are around and makes me feel giddy whenever I stumble upon something new.