Vagabond or Bust

Wow, I completely forgot to mention my weekend trip to Florence, Italy last week.  And ironically enough, I will never forget this trip as it has officially become the most ridiculous weekend of my life, hands down, feet down, “man down.”  

To kick off this adventure, Chris, Caitlin, and myself left for the train station six hours before our scheduled train departure at 10:45 pm.  You may be asking yourself, “why Brendan?” Well, as I have previously mentioned (and will inevitably complain about in the future), Italian transportation is an incredibly large joke.  I thought Delta was bad, but boy, was I proven wrong.  There is this thing here in Europe where workers just go in strike whenever they feel like it: “I think I want a longer lunch break, STRIKE!” “Man that company party last night got weird, STRIKE!” “When in Rome…STRIKE!” Ok, there is a real reason, but it’s more fun to pretend like Europeans are lazier than Americans. Anyways, there was a planned strike for our departure date.  After getting on the wrong bus and taking two hours to make a 30 minute walk to the station, we made it to Termini five minutes before the last train left for the night.  Unfortunately, we had to leave our fellow travelers in Rome to catch the next train in the morning as they hadn’t even left Trastevere yet.  Lucky them…

We arrived in Florence determined to blindly find our hostel and immediately seek out food.  After a while of wandering (and an unplanned run-in with Ilana Wolstein) we decided to take the second option of directions given to us by a bunch of literal stoop kids.  Side note: the first option was to follow a dark alley to a dead end.  We found the hostel and well, um, huh…let me explain it this way.  You know in horror movies when the ditsy blonde walks into the dark cellar and everyone is yelling at the screen about how dumb she is and how she completely deserved that chainsaw to the abdomen? Yeah, well, we were that proverbial blonde.  We walked in the doors, up seven flights of stairs in the pitch black, and were greeted by two men whom we immediately coined “crackhead” and “crazy eyes.” 

At this point, we unanimously decided that the only possible way to stay at Hostel the night was to go out and drink enough to lose all inhibitions, and subsequently, survival instincts.  In this endeavor, great success. In life decisions, huge fail.  But hey, it was only 10 euros per night and I’m poor.  So, we went out to Red Garter with Chris’ friend from Clemson and slept like little prisoner babies that night.  The next morning we woke up and left instantly to meet up with our other friends who had taken the 6:45 am train in.  We succumbed to the lure of McDonalds breakfast and postponed all lures of a shower and change of clothes at the hostel.  But rolling ten people

nothing to you, then well, open a book.  After, we went to see the Michelangelo’s David. This brings up a quick point that I would like to make.  The David is not special nor is it cool.  In fact The David Letterman > The David.  The David Fullmer > The David.  And dare I say? The David Hasselhoff  > The David.  Yeah, that’s how I feel about this guy whose hands and head are disproportionate to his body and cost 15 euro 

deep, we decided that no crackhead or crazy eyed Italian could overcome us (again, probably not the best logic).  Anyways, we rallied and did a lot of the tourist attractions including the Duomo and Duomo Capula. While Rome is a 

far superior city to Florence, the view from the Duomo rivals that of the Vatican.  Florence is honestly breathtaking from the top of the Duomo; and not because of its altitude, but the uniformity and structure of the city’s buildings and streets.  Pictures may speak 1,000 words, but seeing this in person requires none.  Moving on, we visited the Uffizi Museum, which is very famous for its arrayed art collection.  The gallery houses everything from Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Annunciation to Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus to Raphael’s Madonna of 

the Goldfinch.  If these mean 

to go see. Spend your money on something important to the world, like beer or pizza.  The girls proceeded to go leather shopping (cause I guess that’s famous in Florence) while Chris, Alex, and myself scoured the local market for a place to spend our money on something important to the world.  After a nice midday break, we made fools of ourselves back at the leather store by creating puppets out of mink scarves.  And so, the birth of Master Scarf and Monsieur Lerow came to be. 

Ok, just one more… The Any Homeless Man Named David > The David.

Being poor college students, we barely eat and spend our money on other…vices.  But in Florence, we got our money’s worth spending 15 euro on a 4 course meal with all you can drink wine and a bar crawl after…best of both worlds.  Those worlds being keeping yourself alive, the former, and slowly killing yourself, the latter.  I left my Rome friends for a while to meet up with Ryan Cristal and Natasha Volny, my buds from Vandy, and also ran into a bunch of other Commodores.  It’s definitely nice to see some familiar faces for a change, because I usually have to rely on coincidence to see Paige (called out).  We ended up at a club called Space and that’s where this chapter needs to end.  

At our hostel, we needed to be up and out by 9:30 every morning for cleaning until 4 pm.  While we initially found this to be a relief from the griminess of the actual people there, we learned the truth shortly after leaving Florence.  Instead of sanitizing and cleaning, the Firenze police were more concerned about the drugs that crackhead and crazy eyes were supposedly cooking in the kitchen.  So we needed to be out the next morning at 9:30 am after getting back at 5 am in the morning.  Rough start doesn’t begin to describe this epic rally.  Fortunately, we couldn’t have asked for a better day to do all the outdoor sight seeing.  First, we trudged along to the Ponte Vecchio where something happened once, but I’m not sure why it’s famous.  

After came the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.  These were short-lived because around this time, our hangovers began to kick in.  Naturally, we bought some boxed wine, crackers, cheese, meat, and jam and made the hike to the Piazza Michelangelo where we had a “picnic” that overlooked all of Florence. 

I’m not sure how accepted it is to drink at a monastery, but the monk seemed fine with it when he drank our wine.  Wouldn’t that have been a cool story if it were true?  Damn, oh well.  Moving on, we spent our last night in Florence at a club called Fullup where I ran into more Commodores (some who will never remember that) and we had a…fun night.  Alter egos Master Scarf and Monsieur Lerow tried to take Bambi to Albania. ‘Nuff said.  

Saying goodbye to crackhead and crazy eyes was one of the hardest things I have ever done.  I think it took me under three second to grab my belongings and run.  But, I will never forget them and all the free sangria parties they tried so hard to invite us to.  Live Long and Prosper Florence. We had an incredible time. 

Until next time fans,

Keep on keeping on.

For more photos, check out my facebook album 

Ciao my American friends and loyal cohorts! First and foremost, YES, I am still alive despite strong past evidence to believe otherwise.  Second, I apologize for my absence and lack of updates-I haven't posted anything to this blog for a while, but it's not because I'm busy (most definitely the opposite). Rather, I have been feeling particularly uncreative and unmotivated these days (unless you're a future employer reading this, in which case, I am SUPER busy with work and exceptionally motivated). Now, this absence could be the side effects of staying out too late and/or not getting enough sleep, but surprisingly no. It’s the stinkin’ weather.  In my family, we have a saying that never fails to disappoint: “avoid liquor.” Oh, sorry wrong one, I meant to say “when the Fung’s go on vacation, we bring the weather with us.” And as you can imagine, Cleveland has graced Rome with its wonderful presence.  Yes, it has perpetually snowed here all week for the first time in 27 years and I am the lucky recipient of this miracle (insert straight-faced emoticon)! Before you say, “but Brendan, you love snow,” let me remind you, this isn’t Midwest snow where we grab our skis and head to Holiday Valley. No, this is equivalent to Nashville snow-one where everything is shut down and bad driving becomes worse driving. Add the -9.5°C temperature (that’s 15°F) as the icing on the cake, and this past week has been anything but a “roman vacation.”  However, despite a cancelled weekend trip to Tivoli (public transportation in Italy is…unreliable to say the least), this countrywide standstill has given me the opportunity to get to know Trastevere far better.  And for that, I am grateful.  We spent the whole weekend within the confines of our small historic town (sound familiar, Chagrin?), uninterested in the notion of travelling throughout the ice-covered and taxi-less city.  A solid mixture of the Gladiator drinking game, an outstandingly lazy Saturday, and an enjoyable loss for the Patriots left us with an altogether great weekend.  Next up…Krakow, Poland.  I can already hear mom and dad in my head, “avoid liquor.”

"It's

just

life,"

they

say.

Italian Cooking 101

Course 1: bruschetta al pomodoro, basilico, e mozzarella di bufala

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 200°C) and toast the bread until crisp and golden brown for about 5 minutes. Rub each slice of bread with half a clove of garlic, then drizzle with one table spoon of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) and season with salt. You can toast the bread in the toaster, but using the oven dries it out more, adding an authentic touch! Be sure to use only a good cold-pressed EVOO as the dish depends on the quality of the oil.
For your tomato and basil topping you have to chop the Roma tomatoes in small cubes, dice the Buffalo mozzarella in small cubes, sprinkle with salt and black pepper, and garnish with fresh basil leaves. Drizzle with few table spoons of EVOO and serve.

This is a pasta dish with homemade pasta and a thick red bacon sauce...molto bene!

Pasta Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 4 cups all purpose flour 00 SIFTED
- 4 eggs

Sauce Ingredients (serves 4 people):
-8 oz guanciale (or pancetta) diced 
-3 lb can tomatoes, peeled and chopped (the best type is called San Marzano)
-1 medium onion, finely chopped
-1 carrot
-1 stalk celery 
-1 small red chilly pepper, seeded and chopped (I used chili flakes instead of the fresh one, as it's not so invasive)
-Salt and freshly ground pepper
-1 cup pecorino cheese
-2 bay leaves

Sauce Instructions:
Sauté the chopped guanciale in a large frying pan over medium heat until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. In the meantime, in a large frying pan over low heat, stir in the "soffritto" made from blended carrots, celery and onion with E.V. olive oil and cook until it starts to brown. Turn on the heat over medium-high and if you want you can even stir in some dry white wine and cook it until it'll evaporate (please never use any sweet wine, it's disgusting!). Then you can add your chopped tomatoes and cook it for 15/30 minutes (depending on how much sauce you're cooking). Add the guanciale and bay leaves and chili pepper. Mix well and season with salt and pepper. 

Pasta Instructions:

For the pasta dough all you have to is mix 4 cups all purpose flour with 4 eggs. Then roll out the dough powerfully to a thin, almost transparent sheet (don’t forget to use flour on the marble surface). Now it's time to cut the pasta into the tagliolini shapes, long and thin, as thin as you possibly can. Let the pasta sit before cooking, then put a large pot of boiling water over high heat. When the water is boiling, toss in a tablespoon of salt with the tagliolini pasta. Stir to keep the pasta from sticking. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, until a piece of pasta tastes cooked.
When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan with the amatriciana sauce and add freshly grated pecorino cheese, serve hot.

Course 3: straccetti di manzo con funghi e rughetta

Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 1/2 lb beef carpaccio
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly chopped parsley
- Salt
- 1 cup dry white wine (Frascati wine)
- 8.8 oz Champignon mushrooms (bottom mushrooms)
- 8.8 oz Pletus mushrooms (elephant ear mushrooms)
- 8.8 oz freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Saute in a frying pan chopped garlic without peeling the skin (as it contains all the nutrients and it's good for the anti-oxidant nutrients) and the sliced mushrooms, cover with a lid and wait until all the water will be released for about 8-10 minutes (timing will depend on the type of mushrooms you are using).  Then add the white wine and wait until it will evaporate. 
In the same pan, turn up the heat up and add olive oil. Season the meat with salt and saute for few minutes in a seperate pan. The outside should be nicely browned, but it should still be tender and soft overall. Adjust a bed of fresh bitter arugola salad at the bottom of your serving dish and spoon the mushrooms sauce over the beef. Add chopped parsley in the same pan to let it season with the rest of the ingredients.
In the end adjust the meat and mushrooms over and add freshly grated Parmesan cheese to coat the dish. Serve hot, and it will be delicious.

Course 4 (side dish): Broccoli Romaneschi

This is a spicy sidedish of cauliflower, which Italians refer to as "broccoli."

Ingredients (serves 4 people):
- 1 clove garlic (don't forget to keep the skin on it while you're sauteing with extra virgin olive oil)
- 2 heads of roman broccoli (cauliflower)
- Salt
- Chili flakes

Instructions:
First clean and wash the broccoli. Then remove the bottom of the plant and chop the tops into halves. Let the broccoli cook in salted boiling water for a few minutes, until each piece becomes tender and soft. Then in a large frying pan, over medium-high heat, let the garlic brown with extra virgin olive oil. Once the garlic is brown, toss in your boiled broccoli, leave to simmer with garlic until everything is nicely sauteed. Season your dish with salt and chili flakes. Serve warm.

Course 5 (Dessert): Canestrelli alla Nutella

In other words, Nutella cookies.  Italians eat Nutella like Americans eat McDonalds: sometimes for every meal and with little regard for their health.

To make the dough you have to mix 5 cups of all purpose flour, 2 sticks of unsalted butter, 2.5 cups of granulated sugar, 2 eggs, and a pinch of salt. Mix everything powerfully on a slightly floured marble surface, and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours.  

After at least two hours, roll out your dough and cut with small stencils or any shape you would like. With half of these dough shapes, cut a smaller hole into the middle.  Place on a wax sheet lined baking pan.  Heat the oven to 350°F and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Sprinkle pieces with small hole ("tops") in powdered sugar.  On the fuller cookies ("bottoms"), spread Nutella in a thin layer. Place the tops on the bottoms, using the Nutella like glue and fill in the hole generously with Nutella.

Ingredients:

-5 cups all purpose flour

-2 sticks unsalted butter

-2.5 cups granulated sugar

-2 eggs

-Salt

-Powdered sugar

-NUTELLA

A tavola non si invecchia

FORZA ROMA!

AS Roma: 5

AC Cesena: 1

Hanging out with my good friend, XL bottle of vino. (And Paige too).

Florence, Italy

Venice, Italy

Paris, France

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Prague, Czech Republic

Sensation White, Belgium

Mallorca, Spain

Ibiza, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Pompeii and Amalfi Coast, Italy

Dublin, Ireland

Munich, Germany

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tough life

how i will spend the next four months

Rome At A Glance

THE ETERNAL CITY

"All roads lead to Rome"

PS. This isn't my photo, but there will be many to come.