It took me a while to get to CDG via public transportation, but I made it there (just in time, I may add). My NaviGo is only zones 1 - 4 and of course CDG is zone 5, so instead of paying a full fare (yes, I am cheap), I got off the train at the last zone 4 station, bought a zone 4-5 ticket, and hopped back on the next train...saving myself over 5 Euros! (Hey, that's a good glass of wine over here.)
My flight was Air France and I got free coca light and snacks (and a sandwich on the way back too). I guess that's the difference between a budget airline and a regular one. Arriving in Florence, I took a cab to my cousin's apartment on Via Gino Capponi. My cab driver was a woman (not stereotyping, but it is the first woman cab driver I have seen in Europe) and throughout my time in Florence, I noticed lots of women in roles such as police officers, garbage collectors, etc. I don't know if there's more gender neutrality/equality there, but I definitely observed more women in traditionally male professions than in France or the U.S. (though Erin told me that women still do the majority of housework, so the equality piece is debatable.)
I quickly met a few of Erin's roommates (she's living in an apartment with 8 other lovely ladies - yes, 9 college women in one apartment - but miraculously, they seem to get along well, other than sharing responsibility for buying trash bags and TP, but I think that's to be expected) and then we headed out for a yummy dinner!
We ordered a salad sampler and a pasta sampler. I forgot to take pictures, but our salads were fennel, tomato and mozzarella, and chicken with lettuce. All really good!
Then, for pasta we had a penne with blue cheese sauce, a red vegetable sauce, a creamy broccoli sauce, a pasta with artichokes and a gnocchi.
Before dinner, we also had some great bread with a white bean dip kind of like hummus that was very garlicky and yummy!
After dinner, I got some gelato from a nice man named Michael from Transylvania who thought I was only like 22 (again, I'll take it). I sampled a few flavors (including one that was dark chocolate with chili that was supposed to be really hot, but that didn't bother me - a sure sign my sore throat was more serious than I thought - more about that in a later post) before settling on Baci flavor (an Italian hazelnut/chocolate candy). After that, we headed back to the apartment, enjoyed a few glasses of real Chianti and went to bed.
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