Florence Day 1 continued

Walked across Ponte Vecchio and continued along the South bank of the Arno, kept walking and came across All'Antico Ristoro di Cambi - local restaurant, was hungry and decided to stop and eat.

It was really funny, as I came in to sit down, there was an old couple opposite me, and the old man turned to me and smiled and said "Ciao!" and his wife shot him a look of disgust, and he said to me, "Gelosa!" (jealous in Italian), and I nodded my head and smiled.

  
 OMG I ordered half a litre of wine, after that it was game over. House wines are pretty decent and are considerably cheap. I think it was about 4 euros or so? I can't remember the price.

Penne with Ragu

Trippa alla Fiorentina

To be honest with you I wasn't too impressed with the food. Initially I thought I hit jack pot, because the restaurant was full of Italians and the menu was all in Italian-signs of a good place. I thought the ragu was too salty and the trippa was not flavourful enough, I had to add lots of salt to it. 

By the way, trippa is a local delicacy Tripe cooked in tomato sauce. I had a better one last year at another restaurant in Florence.

I don't know really. This place seems to have pretty good reviews from what I read on the internet. Maybe it just didn't suit my taste.

The other restaurant I was brought to last year was definitely a lot better :) 
This is the other restaurant.

 This place has very delicious Italian food :D

 Saw two random people sun bathing by the river banks of the Arno.

I somehow managed to find my way back to Luca's apartment even though I had not been in a year and was slightly tipsy. I am surprised at how well my memory serves me.I realised I have a pretty good sense of direction afterall :P I used to absolutely HATE reading maps, but after visiting so many foreign cities, I am getting good at it :) Although sometimes I do pretend to be lost just so I can strike up a conversation with a random person. LOL :P Also when I'm too lazy to figure out the direction I am at.

Luca brought me to one of his friend's birthday party. It was at a bar by the Arno River. Really beautiful view. He was nice and introduced me to the rest of his Italian friends. They couldn't speak English very well, but they were really nice and made an effort :) and thank goodness I could understand and speak some Italian, so it was good practice for me. One of them nick named me Sponge Bob Square Pants for ability to absorb information quickly. Hahaha.

We decided to have supper at a Japanese restaurant after. They seem to go there quite frequently.

It is a small little shop with a really lively atmosphere. Everyone seem to know each other and were talking and laughing. There were lots of Japanese customers in there as well.

I bump into Alessandro there whom I met last year via Luca. He was there with his other Japanese friends, and he introduced me to them. But they only spoke Italian and Japanese, so I had to make do with my broken Japanese/Italian. I'm starting to think I am pretty multilingual at this stage.

Everyone was so friendly, and I felt instantly at home there. Had a good catch up session with Alessandro where we talked about almost everything :) I think that's what I like about Italians, they're so well educated, friendly and easy to talk to.

Anyway I switched tables when the sushi arrived. My friends said that I only come back when there is food :P

I love the salmon sushi! I think I ate more than the three Italian boys. *embarrassed*
More embarrassing is they paid for my meal. I insisted on paying them back, but they refused.
Italians are so hospitable! You can't help but love them!
very pai seh!

Taking photos in the middle of the street

Playing Bob Marley on ipod and singing in the street of Florence :P

Giulio and Giusto

I hope I remember their names correctly.

We had to take this self-portrait as the photographer kept taking lousy pictures of us! 

By the way, Giulio told me that he used to go shopping once a week until the economic downturn hit Europe. Now we know why Italians are so well-dressed! 

I was playing around with Giusto's iphone and decided to call his friend and asked him where he was. I somehow managed the whole conversation in Italian and they thought it was so funny. 

Giusto was really nice and he brought me to meet his friends at Sant' Ambrogio.

Apparently it's where all the Italians hang out on Saturday night. 

Tasted some Campari.

Note: Campari is an alcoholic apéritif obtained from the infusion of herbs and fruit (including chinotto and cascarilla) in alcohol and water. It is a bitters characterized by its dark red color.

I don't know if I'm a big fan of it, it taste kinda bitter.

Had a really good conversation with Giusto. 

His English wasn't very good, but I understood what he was trying to say.

Io capisco :)

He is very sweet, he said he wanted to say more things to me but his English wasn't very good, and I said don't worry I understand what you're trying to say. 

 I love how you can have really intellectual conversations with Italians :)

Also it's interesting to share and exchange different cultures and experiences.