Somewhere near our apartment.
Showing posts with label Florence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florence. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Search for More Students
Giver of language, Teacher of tongues, Ambassador of the English language, a EFL teacher. Sounds like a great job teaching gig, and it pays just as bad as every other "great" teaching job out there.
Many TEFL teachers will begin their teaching career at a language institution. If you read my other blog, So You Think You Want to Take a TEFL Course, you'll know that this is not enough to get by on. The key usually is to get private students. They are the EFL teacher's "bread and butter." You get paid better and you deal with one student who usually is motivated and has very specific goals. All great, but where do you find them?
My initial thought was to try a posting on craigslist. In the States this is usually a great start, it gets your message out to a wide audience quickly, and its free. This does not work in Florence. People just don't use craigslist for things like that here. There are plenty of postings for rentals (be very cautious of scams), but for other things its just not how its done here.
A suggestion by the school where we took the course was to order business cards. I personally really enjoyed this. I like having a business card, I fell more legit now that I have cards to hand out. The only problem I have with handing them out is that my command of the Italian language is very limited. I was talking to one guy trying to explain what I do, and he may have gone away with the assumption that I'm a singer in a band (I'm not really sure, so don't ask.) I still gave him a card, but this form of advertising would be much easier if I spoke more Italian. Additionally you need to be going places and when you're counting your pennies going out doesn't really fit in.
Another option that I'm going to take on is posting fliers at schools. Florence has numerous schools. These institutions apparently have community bulletin boards where a lot of the communication of want ads are posted. These are supposed to be great resources for lessons and for other things like apartments and such. We'll see how that one goes.
If any of you teachers, or anyone with experience networking, out there have some other suggestions please comment.
Many TEFL teachers will begin their teaching career at a language institution. If you read my other blog, So You Think You Want to Take a TEFL Course, you'll know that this is not enough to get by on. The key usually is to get private students. They are the EFL teacher's "bread and butter." You get paid better and you deal with one student who usually is motivated and has very specific goals. All great, but where do you find them?
My initial thought was to try a posting on craigslist. In the States this is usually a great start, it gets your message out to a wide audience quickly, and its free. This does not work in Florence. People just don't use craigslist for things like that here. There are plenty of postings for rentals (be very cautious of scams), but for other things its just not how its done here.
A suggestion by the school where we took the course was to order business cards. I personally really enjoyed this. I like having a business card, I fell more legit now that I have cards to hand out. The only problem I have with handing them out is that my command of the Italian language is very limited. I was talking to one guy trying to explain what I do, and he may have gone away with the assumption that I'm a singer in a band (I'm not really sure, so don't ask.) I still gave him a card, but this form of advertising would be much easier if I spoke more Italian. Additionally you need to be going places and when you're counting your pennies going out doesn't really fit in.
Another option that I'm going to take on is posting fliers at schools. Florence has numerous schools. These institutions apparently have community bulletin boards where a lot of the communication of want ads are posted. These are supposed to be great resources for lessons and for other things like apartments and such. We'll see how that one goes.
If any of you teachers, or anyone with experience networking, out there have some other suggestions please comment.
- Did a certain strategy work for you or was it a combination of many?
- Did any of them fall flat on their face? (craigslist for me)
- Do you know of other ways to advertise in Florence?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Where to Eat: Best Coffee in Florence
After Rachael's claim of finding the "best cappuccino in Florence" I did some research to find what other people believed to be the "best" in Florence. To my surprise and dismay there was very little out there. How could this be? No coffee lover's guide to Florence?! Where are the top 10 cafes in Florence? The top 5? If you can find them you are a better explorer of the internet than I, but my internet did not have much for me to go on.
This was a sign that I needed to do something. I couldn't let this continue any further. People need to know where they can expect to get a good coffee. You don't want to be wandering around aimlessly when that caffeine level starts to dip low. Bad news.
In light of this, and to verify for myself the accuracy of Rachael's "best cappuccino" we set out to try and compare 4 of the better coffee shops we have found thus far. Its important to note that none of the bars I review below were disappointing, if you're ever in a pinch for some quick caffeine any will more than suffice.
To allow for equal comparison at each bar I had a caffe and a cappuccino. Here are the results(in no particular order)...
1. The first bar to be tested was Donnini Caffe' Pasticceria. The caffe I had at Donnini was medium to full bodied. It had dark roasty flavors that made the espresso quite smooth with a short finish. The caffe was lighter in crema than I would have liked and the shot could have been pulled for a few seconds longer, which may have created a more lively drink. Second came the cappuccino. This was very well made. The dark flavor of the espresso melded well with the milk. The barista also added a dash of cocoa to the espresso before pouring the milk foam. Overall the drink had a nice balance, velvety foam, and was served at very pleasant drinking temperature.
Caffe - 0,85
Cappuccino - 1,10
2. Next up is Gilli. The caffe was bright and lively. Unexpectedly it still had mellow earthy flavors with a hint of nuttiness. A slightly complex coffee with a light body. The cappuccino had balanced flavors, but to me it left something to be desired in how the drink was assembled. The cappuccino was wetter than I prefer, and although the foam had well formed micro foam it had separated completely from the milk. This made the drink closer to a short latte than a cappuccino. It tasted good, just not what I wanted.
Caffe - 1,00
Cappuccino - 1,30
3. Third on the list was La Loggia. The caffe was citrusy with a little fruitiness as well. There were subtle roasty notes. The caffe had a full body with a smooth finish. The cappuccino had well balanced flavors, but was still a bit wet. The foam was very smooth.
Caffe - 1,00
Cappuccion - 1,20
4. The final cafe in our adventure was Il Bigallo. The caffe at Il Bigallo had a light body to it. It was rather bright and had lively citrus flavors. The cappuccino was perfectly balanced in flavor and the milk to foam ratio. The foam was lush and smooth. The coffee flavor was prominent without overwhelming, and was accentuated by the dash of cocoa added. This is the best cappuccino I have had in this country. This place was visited on Rachael's recommendation, it did not disappoint.
At this point I was too jittery to remember to take note of the cost (these tastings were done in roughly an hour on an empty stomach. Whoops.) On my next visit I'll be sure to find out and post it.
A map of the above bars, along with all the places reviewed in "Where to Eat," can be found by clicking here.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Florence in the Winter
It was snowing last night in Florence for the first time in years. I had been watching the weather reports religiously for the last week hoping that their forecast would hold and some of that fun white snow would come our way, and look what happened. This is the first time in years that I've been in a city while its snowing, and I couldn't wait to go out and see it for myself. Dragging Rachael along, we put on all of cold weather cloths and headed out to enjoy the city. Heading down the street towards the city center the first thing we noticed was the lack of people. This place was abandoned. There were the occasional group of young adults running about, but nearly everyone who was out was 
American. Next in our observations was that all of the shops and many of the restaurants were closed up for the night. The entire city had shut down on the account of the snow. I have never been on Corso with that few of people out. Usually it is littered with people all throughout the day, but apparently Italians do not have the same affinity for snow. Granted it was rather chilly out, the temperature was floating around 1-2'C.
American. Next in our observations was that all of the shops and many of the restaurants were closed up for the night. The entire city had shut down on the account of the snow. I have never been on Corso with that few of people out. Usually it is littered with people all throughout the day, but apparently Italians do not have the same affinity for snow. Granted it was rather chilly out, the temperature was floating around 1-2'C.
Wandering around it was interesting to see the buildings begin to collect a dusting of snow. Seeing Brunelleschi's dome painted white was quite memorable. The snow was extremely heavy and wet. Falling in large chunks rather than flakes.This morning I woke hoping to find the city buried under the snow. Unfortunately this was not the case, but there was still some traces of the snow left on the ground and on the roof tops. So, after getting ready we headed out again to see what there was too see. What we saw was mostly our breath because it was freakin' cold out there. It was still relatively empty for such a touristy city on a Saturday.
After a quick bite while we warmed up in Il Ghibellini I made the precarious journey up to piazzale Michelangelo to get a view of the city while it still had traces of snow. The piazza was crowed with photographers, like myself, of all levels. I'm certain that there are bound to be very similar postings on many facebook pages in the next few days. I guess I'm no better though, and I can't blame them. It was rather pretty.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
A Quick Word of Warning
To all men thinking about visiting this city with their significant other consider this your warning. Florence is infested with small adorable babies. I don't know where all this talk of Italy having a declining population is coming from. This census clearly did not happen here in Florence. The people here are doing more than their part to make up for the deficit. Don't quote me on this just yet, but I'm fairly certain that this city has more babies per capita than any other city I have ever been to.
The first few weeks here Rachael and I were too preoccupied with the course to notice the unusual trend, but it didn't take long for her to pick up on the peculiar abundance of these cute little things that are over running the city. Via del Corso is a virtual baby parade. Mom's and Dad's are constantly meandering along this street pushing their babies in their tricked out strollers. You may want to do some additional hand strengthening exercise before coming as you will be enduring plenty of hand squeezing because the one you are with will be constantly falling in love with another cute baby every few minutes, and frustrated at not having one of her own.
Europeans definitely got the strollers right though. I'm not sure how they afford babies in this country. They seem to purchase strollers for very specific periods of the babies life, periods that they will grow out of in a matter of days. For the very small ones the only stroller that will seem to do is one where they can lie down in a bed then be zipped into a sleeping bag and then have the cover of the stroller zipped and snapped up so that the baby does not even have to know that its outside, sounds like a great way to travel. I would like to be pushed around in one of these strollers.
As of yet I haven't attributed a cause to this abundance of small children in the city. It may be something in the water, more likely though it is something in the wine. It could also be a combination of the beauty and history of this city, Florence is undoubtedly a mecca for anyone who loves food, wine, art, history, shopping, and everything else that makes Italy such an alluring country. For those of you wishing to hold off the discussion of 'why don't we have kids yet,' you may want to consider holding off your visit until you are prepared. You will have to give up a lot to avoid that, so its up to you to decide. Consider yourselves warned.
The first few weeks here Rachael and I were too preoccupied with the course to notice the unusual trend, but it didn't take long for her to pick up on the peculiar abundance of these cute little things that are over running the city. Via del Corso is a virtual baby parade. Mom's and Dad's are constantly meandering along this street pushing their babies in their tricked out strollers. You may want to do some additional hand strengthening exercise before coming as you will be enduring plenty of hand squeezing because the one you are with will be constantly falling in love with another cute baby every few minutes, and frustrated at not having one of her own.
Europeans definitely got the strollers right though. I'm not sure how they afford babies in this country. They seem to purchase strollers for very specific periods of the babies life, periods that they will grow out of in a matter of days. For the very small ones the only stroller that will seem to do is one where they can lie down in a bed then be zipped into a sleeping bag and then have the cover of the stroller zipped and snapped up so that the baby does not even have to know that its outside, sounds like a great way to travel. I would like to be pushed around in one of these strollers.
As of yet I haven't attributed a cause to this abundance of small children in the city. It may be something in the water, more likely though it is something in the wine. It could also be a combination of the beauty and history of this city, Florence is undoubtedly a mecca for anyone who loves food, wine, art, history, shopping, and everything else that makes Italy such an alluring country. For those of you wishing to hold off the discussion of 'why don't we have kids yet,' you may want to consider holding off your visit until you are prepared. You will have to give up a lot to avoid that, so its up to you to decide. Consider yourselves warned.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Where to Eat: Restaurants - Part 1 of Many
Florence has some delicious restaurants. Any guide book could tell you that. What they won't tell you is that its really overpriced. This place is expensive when you want to eat out. None-the-less it is nice after a light apertivo to go out and have a tasty dinner.
For the most part we have been eating mostly street food that you can find every few steps, there are some delicious find out there. The only problem is after a month panini become rather dull. To combat this we have been trying to adventure out here and there to explore the food options at our finger tips. While living on a budget we have also been making an effort to find affordable eateries. Two places have stood out in my mind thus far.
The first is I Ghibellini. We stumbled upon this place a few weeks ago and were delightfully surprised with the results. The restaurant has a welcoming charm and a friendly staff. What earned this place the honor of being mentioned in this first edition of 'Where to Eat' in Florence was the table bread. Straight from their wood fire oven, they brought out what might best be described as the Italian version of a soft tortilla chip. Imagine the tastiest thin crust of a pizza you have ever had now kick that up several notches and you would be in the ball park as far as flavor. From there I enjoyed their gnocchi which was everything I was hoping for. On our second trip back Rachael and I decided to try out some of the pizzas they had to offer. Sticking with my go-to pizza diavola I was not disappointed. Rachael adventured into newer territory with a pizza topped with prosciutto cotto, mascarpone, e mozzarella. Can I say delicious? Absolutely.
Next up is Pizzeria Toto'. This place some amazing pizza. Like AMAZING! For any of you in the know, this is vera pizza. For those of you not informed this is a very precise way of making pizza (the best way.) To see exactly what I'm talking about you can read what it takes here just to be qualified. The have the best pizza the I have had since being back in Italy. The crust is perfectly cooked with that combination of almost chewy/slightly burnt. The sauce is simple yet delicious, and then they top it off with a showering of olive oil. All of this for a reasonable price as well. Definately worth visiting the next time you are in the neighborhood.
A map for the establishments, and all others reviewed by "Where to Eat," can be found by clicking here. More editions coming soon...
For the most part we have been eating mostly street food that you can find every few steps, there are some delicious find out there. The only problem is after a month panini become rather dull. To combat this we have been trying to adventure out here and there to explore the food options at our finger tips. While living on a budget we have also been making an effort to find affordable eateries. Two places have stood out in my mind thus far.
The first is I Ghibellini. We stumbled upon this place a few weeks ago and were delightfully surprised with the results. The restaurant has a welcoming charm and a friendly staff. What earned this place the honor of being mentioned in this first edition of 'Where to Eat' in Florence was the table bread. Straight from their wood fire oven, they brought out what might best be described as the Italian version of a soft tortilla chip. Imagine the tastiest thin crust of a pizza you have ever had now kick that up several notches and you would be in the ball park as far as flavor. From there I enjoyed their gnocchi which was everything I was hoping for. On our second trip back Rachael and I decided to try out some of the pizzas they had to offer. Sticking with my go-to pizza diavola I was not disappointed. Rachael adventured into newer territory with a pizza topped with prosciutto cotto, mascarpone, e mozzarella. Can I say delicious? Absolutely.
Next up is Pizzeria Toto'. This place some amazing pizza. Like AMAZING! For any of you in the know, this is vera pizza. For those of you not informed this is a very precise way of making pizza (the best way.) To see exactly what I'm talking about you can read what it takes here just to be qualified. The have the best pizza the I have had since being back in Italy. The crust is perfectly cooked with that combination of almost chewy/slightly burnt. The sauce is simple yet delicious, and then they top it off with a showering of olive oil. All of this for a reasonable price as well. Definately worth visiting the next time you are in the neighborhood.
A map for the establishments, and all others reviewed by "Where to Eat," can be found by clicking here. More editions coming soon...
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Finito!
We have just finished the last component for the CTEFL course, and I'm super excited! We were both offered jobs teaching at the American Language Center which we just accpeted yesterday. The contracts officially starts in January. Until then we are going to be doing some training in test preparation and in the materials they use at the school, also doing some substitutions and private lessons until our contract start with the next trimester.
Its a little surreal still at the moment. One month ago we were talking about moving here and would jokingly say that we want to both do really well in the course so that they will just hire us and we can stay living in Florence. And here we are! Its weird how well this has all turned out.
We are going to have at least the next week off from doing anything related to teaching. Hopefully we'll find ourselves in a few of the museums with our free time. The last month hasn't left many opportunities to explore all that Florence has to offer.
Even walking around here is amazing. The city is getting set for the Christmas season. The streets are draped in white twinkling lights. In the piazza where we went to school and where we're going to begin teaching they are setting up a Christmas trees and stringing up even more lights. This city is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. Its fun to call it home.
Ciao from Florence.
Its a little surreal still at the moment. One month ago we were talking about moving here and would jokingly say that we want to both do really well in the course so that they will just hire us and we can stay living in Florence. And here we are! Its weird how well this has all turned out.
We are going to have at least the next week off from doing anything related to teaching. Hopefully we'll find ourselves in a few of the museums with our free time. The last month hasn't left many opportunities to explore all that Florence has to offer.
Even walking around here is amazing. The city is getting set for the Christmas season. The streets are draped in white twinkling lights. In the piazza where we went to school and where we're going to begin teaching they are setting up a Christmas trees and stringing up even more lights. This city is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. Its fun to call it home.
Ciao from Florence.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Due Caffe Lungi Grazie.
As many of you know I like to consider myself a bit of a coffee connoisseur. Thus I was quite excited at the opportunity to start trying Italian coffee, which is generally considered to be some of the best in the world. On average I would rate the caffe that I have had here as superior to what you could expect from an American coffee shop. Thus far I have not been absolutely blown away, but I have found one bar in general that I particularly like, La Loggia on Via del Corso is quite tasty.
We stumbled upon La Loggia after wandering around Firenze last weekend and I’m sure it was fate. Why is that? Well let me tell you about the bomboloni we discovered while deciding what to have with our caffe lungo (a slightly long pulled shot of espresso). Imagine a light and fluffy freshly baked doughnut that doesn’t have the hole cut in the middle. Now roll that in sugar and inject it with a sweet lemon flavored custard. Best thing ever! Those just happened to come straight out of the back, still steaming, while we were standing in line. Like I said, it was fate. Needless to say, after seeing these delicious little treats we had found our afternoon snack. On top of that La Luggia has had the best caffe I have had since I have arrived in Italy. I need to try a greater variety of the options that La Loggia, but if you ever find yourself in Piazza Della Repubblica in desperate need of a coffee between 4:30 and 5:00 (they bake fresh bomboloni at this time!) in the afternoon don’t miss the opportunity to check this place out.
We stumbled upon La Loggia after wandering around Firenze last weekend and I’m sure it was fate. Why is that? Well let me tell you about the bomboloni we discovered while deciding what to have with our caffe lungo (a slightly long pulled shot of espresso). Imagine a light and fluffy freshly baked doughnut that doesn’t have the hole cut in the middle. Now roll that in sugar and inject it with a sweet lemon flavored custard. Best thing ever! Those just happened to come straight out of the back, still steaming, while we were standing in line. Like I said, it was fate. Needless to say, after seeing these delicious little treats we had found our afternoon snack. On top of that La Luggia has had the best caffe I have had since I have arrived in Italy. I need to try a greater variety of the options that La Loggia, but if you ever find yourself in Piazza Della Repubblica in desperate need of a coffee between 4:30 and 5:00 (they bake fresh bomboloni at this time!) in the afternoon don’t miss the opportunity to check this place out.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Firenze!
Getting to Florence was nearly a disaster. A strike had been scheduled. Thank goodness the people we were staying with spoke Italian. On a visit to Venice there had been an announcement on the train, I haven’t the slightest idea what it said but the people we went with heard and understood it. The regional trains had planned a strike for Saturday evening through Sunday night. Awesome, right when we were supposed to be going to Florence by train. Luckily, the strikes were only affecting the regional traffic, so after making a quick change and getting a ride to the Mestre station we were on our way.
It wasn’t the prettiest of days when we got into Florence. It was raining and I thought it was rather cold. Never the less we decided to walk from the station to our flat because we knew that it wasn’t far. This sounded like a great way to check out part of the walk we would be doing every morning, but luggage wheels do not like cobblestones. Especially when those wheels are supporting 60 to 70 pounds of cloths and whatever else had been crammed into those suitcases. Once we got to the apartment which took a few tries, there are several buildings marked number 5 on this street, we were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. The large wooden doors open to an entrance with high vaulted ceilings that have simple but elegant paintings on them. The flat itself has 5 separate bedrooms, a kitchen, kitchenette, 2 bathrooms and a washing machine. The washing machine was surprisingly difficult to find because it was in the kitchen and looked exactly like anyother appliance. After getting our keys from the women that neither of us could really understand we set out to explore the city some before unpacking.
Our goal was to walk down the street and find the Piazza Della Repubblica and the entrance to the language school. We wanted to get some eyes on where we would be going everyday for the next month. Good thing we did. Maps of Florence are slightly misleading, the scale on them is deceiving. What looks like 2 to 3 blocks on the map which in San Francisco where we were used to walking around and takes several minutes, is in reality like 20 steps here. This town is tiny. Everything is right next to each other. Not having a car is going to be no problem at all. After adventuring about getting lost a few more times we decided to grab some quick street food for dinner and head back to clean up and get things situated in our room. The next morning school started.
It wasn’t the prettiest of days when we got into Florence. It was raining and I thought it was rather cold. Never the less we decided to walk from the station to our flat because we knew that it wasn’t far. This sounded like a great way to check out part of the walk we would be doing every morning, but luggage wheels do not like cobblestones. Especially when those wheels are supporting 60 to 70 pounds of cloths and whatever else had been crammed into those suitcases. Once we got to the apartment which took a few tries, there are several buildings marked number 5 on this street, we were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations. The large wooden doors open to an entrance with high vaulted ceilings that have simple but elegant paintings on them. The flat itself has 5 separate bedrooms, a kitchen, kitchenette, 2 bathrooms and a washing machine. The washing machine was surprisingly difficult to find because it was in the kitchen and looked exactly like anyother appliance. After getting our keys from the women that neither of us could really understand we set out to explore the city some before unpacking.
Our goal was to walk down the street and find the Piazza Della Repubblica and the entrance to the language school. We wanted to get some eyes on where we would be going everyday for the next month. Good thing we did. Maps of Florence are slightly misleading, the scale on them is deceiving. What looks like 2 to 3 blocks on the map which in San Francisco where we were used to walking around and takes several minutes, is in reality like 20 steps here. This town is tiny. Everything is right next to each other. Not having a car is going to be no problem at all. After adventuring about getting lost a few more times we decided to grab some quick street food for dinner and head back to clean up and get things situated in our room. The next morning school started.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Backstory
For those of you curious readers who don't know what Rachael and I are doing with our upcoming adventure in Italy, here's a little insight...
Having recently graduate at what might be the least opportune time since the great depression, Rachael and I found ourselves distinctly without career. To remedy this, and do something awesome, we have decided to FLEE THE COUNTRY!
This coming Tuesday we are moving to Florence! This is where you get jealous. We are going to be taking a course so that we can get our TEFL(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate and get jobs teaching. We are taking the certification course through Via Lingua. This will be our first month in Italy.
During the course we'll be doing our job searching. Ideally we'll be staying in Florence for some time, but we are open to going anywhere the work takes us.
Thanks for reading, please leave comments. Don't forget to check back soon, the next post should be coming straight from Italy!
Having recently graduate at what might be the least opportune time since the great depression, Rachael and I found ourselves distinctly without career. To remedy this, and do something awesome, we have decided to FLEE THE COUNTRY!
This coming Tuesday we are moving to Florence! This is where you get jealous. We are going to be taking a course so that we can get our TEFL(Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate and get jobs teaching. We are taking the certification course through Via Lingua. This will be our first month in Italy.
During the course we'll be doing our job searching. Ideally we'll be staying in Florence for some time, but we are open to going anywhere the work takes us.
Thanks for reading, please leave comments. Don't forget to check back soon, the next post should be coming straight from Italy!
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