We made a failed attempt to walk to Fiesole yesterday. We were really close, I'm sure we'll find it next time. This was taken while walking back down to Florence.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Photo of the Week: Jan. 4, 2009
We made a failed attempt to walk to Fiesole yesterday. We were really close, I'm sure we'll find it next time. This was taken while walking back down to 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.
Monday, December 28, 2009
So You Think You Want to Take a TEFL course.
After taking the TEFL course last month and having time to reflect and analyze the whole experience from a more distant perspective I want to share some of that experience to help inform anyone curious about it or considering doing something similar.
This course will take up all of your time. ALL of your time. Having just graduated from college last spring I thought that I was plenty prepared for the rigors of another month of schooling. I had taken no less than 15 units while working at least 25 hours a week for the last several years, so another month sounded like a walk in the park. Although it wasn't intellectually straining the course consumed my focus for the month. From 8 a.m. til 5 p.m. you are busy with teaching lessons, peer evaluating, and lectures on various aspects of teaching and grammar of the English language. Afterwards you go home and begin planning your lessons until you pass out roughly around one in the morning. You would assume that after a month of lesson planning it would have gotten progressively easier. You would be wrong. Not completely wrong I suppose, it does get slightly easier, but it still takes just as long. As the course continues you will become more aware of considerations that should be taken into account. So with each successive lesson that you need to plan there is a new element to incorporate.
What is nice about this intensely focused course is that you genuinely do learn. I spent 5 years in college and have a degree in accountancy, I spent one month in this course to get my certificate. Which one do I feel better prepared to do as a profession? Hands down, I feel more confident to start teaching. I remember very vividly hearing many graduating accounting majors expressing concern about not knowing enough to go into auditing or to work as a tax preparer, many already had jobs lined up. (And we wonder why we are in a recession.) These are the people preparing your financial documents, and the people reviewing them. After 5 years of schooling I felt exactly the same, I was in way over my head. Now, after only one month of focused learning and practice I am very aware and confident in my ability to be a teacher.
What should seem like an obvious step is planning a budget for while you're taking the course. If you didn't think about that then perhaps teaching isn't really going to be your thing, because forethought definitely isn't and that's a bit of a prerequisite. What ever you think you're going to need for your budget add some extra money to that. After spending all day taking notes and teaching, the last thing that you want to do is to go grocery shopping, cook, and clean all before spending the rest of the night planning your next lesson. This is totally doable, we did it, but planning on grabbing a pizza for dinner or a quick plate of pasta is a must. Not only to save some time, energy, and your sanity, but you want to experience some of the country you're in while you're here.
Another important consideration is how long will it be in between finishing the course and when you start working you'll have to budget for. This can be a rather tricky aspect to estimate. In the TEFL world, job guidance is basically as follows:
Advisor: Where would you like to work?
Student: (Fill in the blank) sounds nice.
Advisor: Oh great! That's a wonderful place. What you should do is move there and THEN start looking for a job...by the way...you usually only start with maybe 10 hours of work, so try looking for multiple jobs. And Good luck!
Student: WTF?!
My point being, you should make sure to budget accordingly. Plan for any moving expenses you might incur, because where you want to work and where the TEFL school aren't always in the same place. Budget for however many months you expect it to take to find a job. Note: This varies widely by location. In many parts of Asia, its sounds as if you show up with a TEFL certificate you are guaranteed a job. In Europe it takes a lot of pounding the payment and knocking on doors. Make sure that when you are planning your budget for the time you won't be employed that you don't include any income from what you expect to make your first month working. Two reasons for this. First, you won't be making enough to bother including in your budget. Second, even if you do make enough to live off that first month (you won't, but let's stay optimistic) the industry standard is to pay only once a month. So you won't be getting any income from your first month of work until your second month anyways.
The demand for TEFL teachers really is international. If you are looking to take this course as a way to travel it is an excellent opportunity. Students from my class are spread out all across the world. You can literally go any where in the world an find a job teaching English as a foreign language. Yes, the highest demand for these teaching jobs is in Asia, as soon as you begin researching that will become extremely evident. That's not to say there aren't jobs in other regions of the world, I'm teaching here in Italy.
If Europe is of particular interest, and you're American, you should be aware that there are some difficulties with working here. First with jobs in the EU, EU passport holders are given job preference, I know that doesn't sound fair, get over it. Secondly, it is very difficult to get the required paperwork to work and live here legally. It shouldn't be very difficult for you, but there is a catch 22. For most countries you need to have your future employer send documentation to the consulate so you can get your work permit, but most companies won't hire you without a work permit. (I know...it doesn't make sense to me either.) What's funny about the work permit is that it requires almost no effort from the employer, they just don't want to do it. There are several ways to get around this, but none of them are technically "legal."
If I haven't dissuaded your interest there are plenty of resources on-line to check for teaching positions, and schools to get your certificate all around the world. Simply search for "TEFL" and more resources than you'll ever want will be at your finger tips. For information about the certification course I took, there is a link at the very bottom of the sidebar of this page under Relevant Links. Click the link to Via Lingua.
This course will take up all of your time. ALL of your time. Having just graduated from college last spring I thought that I was plenty prepared for the rigors of another month of schooling. I had taken no less than 15 units while working at least 25 hours a week for the last several years, so another month sounded like a walk in the park. Although it wasn't intellectually straining the course consumed my focus for the month. From 8 a.m. til 5 p.m. you are busy with teaching lessons, peer evaluating, and lectures on various aspects of teaching and grammar of the English language. Afterwards you go home and begin planning your lessons until you pass out roughly around one in the morning. You would assume that after a month of lesson planning it would have gotten progressively easier. You would be wrong. Not completely wrong I suppose, it does get slightly easier, but it still takes just as long. As the course continues you will become more aware of considerations that should be taken into account. So with each successive lesson that you need to plan there is a new element to incorporate.
What is nice about this intensely focused course is that you genuinely do learn. I spent 5 years in college and have a degree in accountancy, I spent one month in this course to get my certificate. Which one do I feel better prepared to do as a profession? Hands down, I feel more confident to start teaching. I remember very vividly hearing many graduating accounting majors expressing concern about not knowing enough to go into auditing or to work as a tax preparer, many already had jobs lined up. (And we wonder why we are in a recession.) These are the people preparing your financial documents, and the people reviewing them. After 5 years of schooling I felt exactly the same, I was in way over my head. Now, after only one month of focused learning and practice I am very aware and confident in my ability to be a teacher.
What should seem like an obvious step is planning a budget for while you're taking the course. If you didn't think about that then perhaps teaching isn't really going to be your thing, because forethought definitely isn't and that's a bit of a prerequisite. What ever you think you're going to need for your budget add some extra money to that. After spending all day taking notes and teaching, the last thing that you want to do is to go grocery shopping, cook, and clean all before spending the rest of the night planning your next lesson. This is totally doable, we did it, but planning on grabbing a pizza for dinner or a quick plate of pasta is a must. Not only to save some time, energy, and your sanity, but you want to experience some of the country you're in while you're here.
Another important consideration is how long will it be in between finishing the course and when you start working you'll have to budget for. This can be a rather tricky aspect to estimate. In the TEFL world, job guidance is basically as follows:
Advisor: Where would you like to work?
Student: (Fill in the blank) sounds nice.
Advisor: Oh great! That's a wonderful place. What you should do is move there and THEN start looking for a job...by the way...you usually only start with maybe 10 hours of work, so try looking for multiple jobs. And Good luck!
Student: WTF?!
My point being, you should make sure to budget accordingly. Plan for any moving expenses you might incur, because where you want to work and where the TEFL school aren't always in the same place. Budget for however many months you expect it to take to find a job. Note: This varies widely by location. In many parts of Asia, its sounds as if you show up with a TEFL certificate you are guaranteed a job. In Europe it takes a lot of pounding the payment and knocking on doors. Make sure that when you are planning your budget for the time you won't be employed that you don't include any income from what you expect to make your first month working. Two reasons for this. First, you won't be making enough to bother including in your budget. Second, even if you do make enough to live off that first month (you won't, but let's stay optimistic) the industry standard is to pay only once a month. So you won't be getting any income from your first month of work until your second month anyways.
The demand for TEFL teachers really is international. If you are looking to take this course as a way to travel it is an excellent opportunity. Students from my class are spread out all across the world. You can literally go any where in the world an find a job teaching English as a foreign language. Yes, the highest demand for these teaching jobs is in Asia, as soon as you begin researching that will become extremely evident. That's not to say there aren't jobs in other regions of the world, I'm teaching here in Italy.
If Europe is of particular interest, and you're American, you should be aware that there are some difficulties with working here. First with jobs in the EU, EU passport holders are given job preference, I know that doesn't sound fair, get over it. Secondly, it is very difficult to get the required paperwork to work and live here legally. It shouldn't be very difficult for you, but there is a catch 22. For most countries you need to have your future employer send documentation to the consulate so you can get your work permit, but most companies won't hire you without a work permit. (I know...it doesn't make sense to me either.) What's funny about the work permit is that it requires almost no effort from the employer, they just don't want to do it. There are several ways to get around this, but none of them are technically "legal."
If I haven't dissuaded your interest there are plenty of resources on-line to check for teaching positions, and schools to get your certificate all around the world. Simply search for "TEFL" and more resources than you'll ever want will be at your finger tips. For information about the certification course I took, there is a link at the very bottom of the sidebar of this page under Relevant Links. Click the link to Via Lingua.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Bread of Toni?
This year I incorporated a little Italian culture into my Christmas traditions. I had my first taste of panetone, its similar to the American fruit cake, only this is edible. The bread is taller than it is wide, in a cylindrical sort of shape. It resembles a chef's hat that mushrooms at the top. Inside the sweet and fluffy bread are various kinds of dried fruits and nuts.
As the holiday season begins to come around you start to see all the classic signs that the holidays have arrived. The streets draped in lights, the stores windows are decorated with Christmas decorations, and panetone can be found in every Italian shop around. I originally read about this through some blog and I thought it sounded like a fun addition to the usual holiday traditions. The writer went on an on about how delicious this was and how it makes such a great french toast, plus every person we see at the grocery store had at least one in their chart.
I had to give it a try, so we bought a little one from the 99 euro cent store on our way home one day, and set it under our home made paper tree for Christmas morning. Finally, it was Christmas and time to open this little treat up. We had the panetone with coffee while we prepared the rest of our Christmas brunch. It was actually really good. I had been a little skeptical, Rachael had tried some a long time ago and didn't recall that interaction with many fond memories. It was fluffy and only slightly sweet with a hint of citrus. It was a great accompaniment to coffee. I can't wait to get another and try it as a french toast.
There are several stories I've heard about where panetone came from, the one I like the most is about a guy named Toni. Now, Toni was in love with a nobleman's daughter, but the father apparently didn't approve of the two of them getting married. Unwilling to give up on the love of his life, decided to win the father's approval by baking (I guess the way to a man's heart really is through his stomach?!) The father was so impressed by this delicious bread that Toni had made that he allowed him to marry his daughter. The bread was then named "pane di Toni" which as you probably guessed is the Italian way to say "the bread of Toni." Other than that all I know is that is particularly popular in Milan.
As the holiday season begins to come around you start to see all the classic signs that the holidays have arrived. The streets draped in lights, the stores windows are decorated with Christmas decorations, and panetone can be found in every Italian shop around. I originally read about this through some blog and I thought it sounded like a fun addition to the usual holiday traditions. The writer went on an on about how delicious this was and how it makes such a great french toast, plus every person we see at the grocery store had at least one in their chart.
I had to give it a try, so we bought a little one from the 99 euro cent store on our way home one day, and set it under our home made paper tree for Christmas morning. Finally, it was Christmas and time to open this little treat up. We had the panetone with coffee while we prepared the rest of our Christmas brunch. It was actually really good. I had been a little skeptical, Rachael had tried some a long time ago and didn't recall that interaction with many fond memories. It was fluffy and only slightly sweet with a hint of citrus. It was a great accompaniment to coffee. I can't wait to get another and try it as a french toast.
There are several stories I've heard about where panetone came from, the one I like the most is about a guy named Toni. Now, Toni was in love with a nobleman's daughter, but the father apparently didn't approve of the two of them getting married. Unwilling to give up on the love of his life, decided to win the father's approval by baking (I guess the way to a man's heart really is through his stomach?!) The father was so impressed by this delicious bread that Toni had made that he allowed him to marry his daughter. The bread was then named "pane di Toni" which as you probably guessed is the Italian way to say "the bread of Toni." Other than that all I know is that is particularly popular in Milan.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Photo of the Week: Dec. 21, 2009
The Duomo during the snow storm on Friday night. In getting this photo my fingers nearly got frostbite. Cotton gloves only keep your hands warm if they aren't wet. I hope you enjoy.
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.
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