When we first arrived in Florence last October, we experienced the fortunate misfortune of having a fair bit of confusion with our apartment rental. Under the false impression that one must have an address to apply for an Italian visa, we frantically arranged lodging for ourselves via the internet days before submitting our visa applications. Breathing a sigh of relief, we left our passports and all kinds of paper work with the Italian consulate in Portland (OR) towards the end of August, and figured we were pretty much all set. But approximately 2 days before departure, I received an apologetic e-mail from the rental agency explaining that there had been a small mix-up with dates and the apartment we reserved for the year wouldn’t be available until early November (a problem because we were due to arrive on October 5). In compensation for our inconvenience, they kindly offered us a bigger place in a more central location for our first month at the same price we were to pay for our original apartment. Not having much other choice and figuring the pictures they sent looked pretty good, we agreed to the change. Typically, though, all was not settled. The next morning, I was greeted by another apologetic e-mail saying that new apartment wasn’t available after all, but they had another even bigger place that was even close to our eventual apartment and thus would make moving simple. This place, they warned, might be a tad noisy because it was near the train tracks, but it was nevertheless very nice and worth much more than we would be paying for it. With some help from google maps, we discovered in dismay that the “near” the train tracks meant literally overlooking the train tracks and Campo di Marte, one of Florence’s major train stations. Attractive is not exactly the word one would use to describe the location (at least not based on photos from google street view), and to someone who is not a sound sleeper (me), train noise all night didn’t sound very appealing at all. So this time we wrote back asking if they had anything else.
Showing posts with label Zucca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zucca. Show all posts
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Pumpkin (zucca) tart
When we first arrived in Florence last October, we experienced the fortunate misfortune of having a fair bit of confusion with our apartment rental. Under the false impression that one must have an address to apply for an Italian visa, we frantically arranged lodging for ourselves via the internet days before submitting our visa applications. Breathing a sigh of relief, we left our passports and all kinds of paper work with the Italian consulate in Portland (OR) towards the end of August, and figured we were pretty much all set. But approximately 2 days before departure, I received an apologetic e-mail from the rental agency explaining that there had been a small mix-up with dates and the apartment we reserved for the year wouldn’t be available until early November (a problem because we were due to arrive on October 5). In compensation for our inconvenience, they kindly offered us a bigger place in a more central location for our first month at the same price we were to pay for our original apartment. Not having much other choice and figuring the pictures they sent looked pretty good, we agreed to the change. Typically, though, all was not settled. The next morning, I was greeted by another apologetic e-mail saying that new apartment wasn’t available after all, but they had another even bigger place that was even close to our eventual apartment and thus would make moving simple. This place, they warned, might be a tad noisy because it was near the train tracks, but it was nevertheless very nice and worth much more than we would be paying for it. With some help from google maps, we discovered in dismay that the “near” the train tracks meant literally overlooking the train tracks and Campo di Marte, one of Florence’s major train stations. Attractive is not exactly the word one would use to describe the location (at least not based on photos from google street view), and to someone who is not a sound sleeper (me), train noise all night didn’t sound very appealing at all. So this time we wrote back asking if they had anything else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)