The Institute at Palazzo Rucellai - Study Abroad in Florence, Italy

While I'm not entirely certain of the origin of the Festa della Rificolona (and quite frankly, I'm not completely convinced anyone else here is, not even the Florentines), I definitely participated on Monday night! A group of us waited in the Piazza della Santa Croce underneath Dante's imposing statue, went for gelato, and then danced along while a brass band played. The festival is an annual tradition, and brings people out from all over the city to follow the band around from piazza to piazza, all the while holding beautiful colored lanterns. The music was a lot of fun, and it was a beautiful night. During the daytime there were some vendors set up in the Piazza SS Annunziata, and I was able to buy some homemade hazelnut toffee―delicious!

On Tuesday, my roommates and I attended the weekly cooking seminar at Mrs. Finnochiaro's house. We cooked an antipasti of foccaccia bread, a first course of a fancy-named pasta soup (similar to pasta fagioli, but with chickpeas instead of white beans), a second course of turkey fricassee stuffed with bacon alongside green beans in tomato sauce, and a blackberry torte for dessert. It was quite a feast! We're always really hungry for the two and half hours of cooking that precedes setting the table, but about half-way through the meal everyone gets really quiet and kind of sleepy. The wine definitely doesn't help :)