MICHELLE PETTY
Florence Columnist
When a person thinks of Italy, great wine, olive oil and pasta immediately come to mind. Pepperdine students in Florence have experienced all three in a myriad of combinations.
It surprised us all when we found that Italian food, both in and out of the Villa, is amazing, but for some, it wasn’t enough.
We have all tackled the adventure of finding just the right restaurant for a Saturday night or the cheapest bag of make-at-home pasta in the grocery store.
At the Villa, we have a lovely chef named Sara, an Italian woman I adore. She spoils us with incredible food and even gives in to making us french fries on Thursdays.
However, like cafeteria food, even great food is hard to handle every day. So, where do we go when we want something else? We step out of the Villa’s double doors and explore Florence.
One Pepperdine favorite is Spera’s, an award-winning pizzeria two blocks away. My personal favorite is pesto with bell peppers. Frequently, I have to tell the staff there that yes, I want a vegetable, since the Italian word for bell pepper is pepperoni. I’m sure other American college students are confused when they order pepperoni and get bell peppers instead.
We also dine at formal restaurants, which is an experience in itself. At Acqua al Due, a highly-recommended restaurant we’ve all come to love, I encountered the Italian cover charge for the first time. The cover charge is the Italian way of making sure the waiters get enough money. It’s convenient to not have to figure out the tip, but as Curry Chandler agreed, it’s not as good as one might think.
“I don’t like the cover charge. The great thing about tipping is that the waiter wants the tip, so he’ll work hard for it,” Chandler said. “In Italy, we’ve noticed that sometimes, especially on busy nights, the service isn’t what it should be.”
When looking for restaurants in Florence, the Californians in our group, myself included, couldn’t help searching for a Mexican restaurant. Much to our surprise, we’ve only found two in the whole city, one of which is wretched in comparison to our admittedly pampered So-Cal tastes and another that is half an hour away on foot. This introduced us to another Italian truth that was well stated by Lewis.
“Italy has Italian food and almost only Italian food. I can’t wait to get back to the states and have more choices with food again,” Lewis said.
But don’t think that all of us are saddened by the lack of cultural diversity in food.
“If I’m going to spend a semester in Italy,” Chandler said. “I’m going to spend it eating Italian food.”
One of the most harrowing experiences we’ve had with food is with the Italian grocery store Esselunga. I bake a lot for social events here, so I’ve had to navigate through the unlabeled aisles for baking items that seem to only be used in America and blink confusedly at the way they’re organized. Order is there, but it’s a strange one.
“Esselunga is good for buying things for the weekend, but it doesn’t compare to American supermarkets,” said Christopher Runyon. “There are days when I pine for Ralphs.”
02-09-2006
