Missing Florence

Margarita Pizza from Naples and rigatoni with eggplant



This past week I have been thinking a lot about Florence. I had a dream where I was eating Italian food last week and I woke up missing Italy. I was completely spoiled by the cuisine and atmosphere abroad and I deeply want to return soon.

First of all, the food and wine in Italy is simply delicious. Here in the states, it is almost impossible to find Italian food as good as it was in Italy. Seriously, the pizza here isn’t real pizza. In Italy, the crust on the pizza is thin, almost cracker like. Here the crust is so big and fatty that I am full after a piece or two. But since the crust was so thin in Italy, I could eat a lot more of the pizza. The thin crust also helped the other flavors become more dominant tasting. My taste buds could focus on the cheese, tomato sauce, sausage, vegetables etc.; instead of the tasteless crust. My favorite pizza was probably eggplant pizza or potato pizza. My host mom would make pizza with potatoes on it sometimes and it was simply divine. Just thinking about it makes me hungry.



The pasta was also amazing. The ingredients were also super fresh and they did not use much cheese or sauce. They also used the perfect combination, not too much and not too little. Dinner time was one of my favorite times while I was abroad.
The wine was also amazing. During my semester In Italy, I was blessed with the opportunity to wine taste in Chianti three times and wine taste once in an old cellar in Florence. The wine tastings were fabulous, each of the wineries was very knowledgeable about their wines and how they are produced. They would also give you a generous taste. By the end of my tasting experiences, I usually had finished about 4 or 5 glasses of wine. Wine is also so much cheaper in Italy. You could get a decedent bottle for about 3 euro. Here in the United States, if you spend $5 dollar on a bottle of wine, it usually doesn’t taste very good. I wish I can have the cheap wine I found while abroad. The wine here is breaking my budget. I have come so accustomed to good wine in Italy that is hard to go back to the not so tasty cheap wine.



Studying abroad in Florence was the best experience of my life. I loved the food, the wine, the people and the chance to see new things. Back home, I see the same thing again and again, day after day. I miss the adventure of traveling to new European cities or seeing new works of art in museums. Well, as I sit reflecting on my time abroad, I plan ways in my head to return again soon. Due to money and time, it seems as if it might be awhile before I return, but I will one go back to Italy. It Is my dream.