Viva Italia

So some of you clever folks might have gotten the memo that the Schatz and I went to Italy for a week. Florence, to be precise. And the even trickier ones of you have already cruised through my selection of photos posted at a certain social-networking site.

Be that as it may, I would be remiss I suppose, if I didn't post my impressions and culinary exploits here. That's what this damn thing is for. Aaaand the german amazon hasn't quite gotten around to delivering my book to me here in Switzerland. Bastards.

So anyway, Italy.


Due to my inordinate and inexplicable love for italian food (my family is WASP through and through) and warm, sunny places, I have always imagined that Italy would be a happy place for me. You know, the kind of place you visit and it just clicks and you say "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?!"

As you can see, I went with high expectations. Quite high.

I was not disappointed in the slightest.

I'll give you the less interesting things in a high-speed rundown:

Hotel: FANTASTIC. If you go, stay at the Hotel Cellai. The deskpeople are lovely, helpful and fluent in a variety of languages. Make sure you specify what kind of a room you want, because it's a boutique hotel, not Best Western. They have small rooms and pimp rooms. We asked and we received, if you know what I mean.

Shopping: Good enough to make a girl weak in the knees. They have (as apparently most European countries/cities do) annual sales in January/February and July/August. Really, really fantastic. Be prepared to hemorrhage money and be thankful for the opportunity.

Locals: Well, in the Summer, the city is overrun with Americans. Some of them look italian, some of them don't. The locals we encountered in retail and gastronomy were helpful and English-speaking. Bus/Tram drivers also very helpful, not so fluent in the foreign languages but verrry fluent in sign language. And you don't have the feeling that people are perpetually trying to snow you. Italy does somehow have that reputation and I can say that the worst thing that happened to us was that we got overcharged for one of the lemon sodas that the Schatz got addicted to during our stay. Really, coulda been a lot worse.

The City: Breathtaking. A little stinky in the summer because lots of the less fortunate like to pee in the sidestreets (do NOT assume that liquid on the ground is water, EVER.) but aside from that there is so much of the old architecture that's been preserved, so many goregous piazzas and cathedrals and duomos and old statues that you get the feeling you could change people's clothes and the stores and easily be in another century.
Funny related sidestory and the reason we have decent pictures of this escapade at all:
I actually set foot on this journey thinking that I'd be able to take all necessary photos with my phone. My old camera was broken in a drunken incident at the beginning of the year which I believe was also chronicled here, but bygones. Anyway I really did think that my lovely little BBbold would do Florence justice. We got in late and after dinner we went for a walk in the city. Just kind of meandering because that's what we do well and out of nowhere I saw this really breathtaking cathedral. The street ended in a huge central square and I'm staring at one of the most imposing churches I've ever seen (and as you know, I live on the old continent where they DO business churches). I looked at the Schatz, the Schatz looked at me and I said, "honey, we need a camera. NOW."
So we spent the first day asking around where the nearest, large electronics store was to be found. Successfully, might I add. Another testament to very helpful, English-speaking locals. So now we have a nice little sony. Nothing to write home about, but it got the job done.


That was the rundown. Now it's time for the grub.


The food we had was fantastic. We tried to do a good mix of everything--nice meals, street-food, take out, basic sit down meals so that we could get a real picture of what people eat there. Not just the tourists. I'm not going to write down everything we had, but I'll do a top 5. I'm not as good at food porn as Anthony Bordain, so I'm pretty sure a bite-by-bite chronicle of eight days worth of food might not be that entertaining.


(drumroll please.)

5. The mushroom strudel and the steak courses of our multi-course dinner. Divine.

4. Real buffalo mozarella in an insalata caprese. WHOAH. Real Mozarella TASTES like something!!!

3. Crazy things with rice. I in my ignorance, saw rice as the direct competition of pasta. This is not so.

2. These little fried soft salty chewy roll things we had the first night at dinner and never again.

1. PIADINE! Dear lord, find a place that serves them. Italian streetfood at it's finest. If you don't like it, you haven't had the right one yet.


I am now realizing that the things I liked the best and the things I took pictures of are two different kettles of fish. Probably because I was too busy stuffing my face with the deliciousness to commemorate the moment. Oh well. I do have what normal people would consider a ridiculous amount of food pictures. Most of which were taken before I realized that my camera had a specific setting for those types of pictures.







The motto of the story?

Go, try the shellfish and generally enjoy yourself. I highly recommend it.

Zürich is rainy and other thoughts

Hello lovelies.

Greetings from once-sunny now soaking-wet Zürich.

Normally I don't have too many problems with the weather. This Summer has been quite nice...some heat wave, low humidity, a bit of rain...but the thing is, I'm living out of a suitcase and I have been for the past 2 weeks. Due to ridiculous weight limits for inter-euro flights, I was only allowed a paltry 20 kg of luggage. This left no room for multiple cardigans or rain boots. Hell, the only close-toed shoes I have with me are my running shoes! Long pants are also underrepresented. This has to do of course with the weather while I was packing. The foreseeable future looked like HEAT WAVE.

Oh well.

While visiting the Kunsthaus yesterday (GREAT collection folks. Really. And Wednesdays are free entry. Go if you're here.) I got stuck in the rain. In leggings and birkenstocks. I was wearing a windbreaker which got the worst of it, but generally a weather-appropriate clothing FAIL. I therefore announced yesterday that should the weather again be so miserable, I would refuse to leave the house. So I'm here. Doing laundry, watching old school disney flicks and waiting for the DHL man to bring me my latest Politkovskaya book (side note: I love that woman.).

All in all, not a bad way to spend a day of vacation. The Schatz is worried that I'll be bored and cranky, but I tried to persuade him he's got nothing to worry about...unless the DHL man does not bring my book. In which case I will not be bored, just cranky.

But let me tell you a bit about Zürich.


I know I already posted an overview of the city, but now I've seen some more things, taken some better photos and generally been here a bit longer. So I feel like another post is in order. I might not have done the old girl justice before.

So. Zürich is not really that exciting. It is beautiful, clean and full of great luxury shopping if that's your thing. If you don't mind paying substantially more than you would elsewhere, Zürich is the place for you. However, being as I am, a fan of alternative funk, I'd been searching in vain since my first visit, trying to find at least a single street with a few funky hip stores doing cool things. All leads I thought I had turned out to be funky fata morganas, and I was getting discouraged. Lord knows I'd really racked up the kilometers traipsing through Zürich and searching. Finally I stumbled across a website of an exberlinerIn living in Züri and though she listed mostly things that were not anywhere off the beaten path, she mentioned a store called EINZIGART. (einzigart.ch) in the Josefstraße in Zürich. I put in on my list and did my daily wanderings which included the Haus Konstruktiv (very very cool: hauskonstruktiv.ch) and a loooong walk through Zürich's "red light district" (rather tame if you don't count the occasional junky and the ageing prostitutes). By the time I got to the Josefstr. I couldn't even remember why I wanted to be there. And I walked down the wrong end of it first--lots of neat restaurants and a lot of indian folk but no cool stores. So I walked down the more boring looking side and PRESTO, a la peanut butter sandwiches, I see the SHUALA concept store. I couldn't really believe my eyes, I went in and had a wander. It's one of those stores that's a dime-a-dozen in Berlin (spoiled, I know) featuring handmade stuff from various european grass-roots designers. (shuala.com) It's cool, but vasssstly overpriced. I bought a bag just to convince myself this wasn't another hipness mirage. I continued my meanderings and found all kinds of neat stuff, including said EinzigArt store (really, really neat stuff there folks.) and another store called something like Liliputans...it was full of the most unholy kitsch you have EVER seen. We're talking everything available in red-white polka dots, plastic flowers and childrens toys in shades of bright my eyes weren't used to. Di-vine.

I recommend walking the street from Langstraße to its end (Hafnerstr.) which is also a treat. Just around the corner is a store that blew my mind...Garten Eden, full of antiques, the odd plant and really great glassware. In the Hafnerstr. itself there are a few hip-seeming clothing stores, which I didn't bother checking out...they looked cool enough.

I can't tell you all what a relief this was to me. I felt quite guilty passing this city off as lametoast...turns out there are a few highlights after all.

The whole waterfront thing tickles me. Not the Züri See...it's nice but often very crowded with cosmetically augmented older women (botoxed face+bleached blonde extensions+silcone rack+short shorts with jiggly chicken legs = unaesthetic, sorry. I don't usually bodysnark, but if you are that gungho with the plastic surgery you kind of invite it.). I'm talking about the Limmat. It feeds into the Züri See along with the Sihl and if you walk upriver, you encounter some nice places to swim, grab a coffee and just enjoy the day. Unfortunately, due to all the rain, some have had to close. The river is getting a tad full.

There was also the Swiss Ironman here last weekend and this Sunday is apparently some kind of national holiday (hence, I believe, all the flag-action in the photos) involving fireworks. I'm almost sad to be flying out on that day.


But only almost. Really, I miss Berlin and my apartment and my friends and using the smart functions on my smartphone. Vacation is cool and all, but I kinda want to go home now.