5 Favorite Apericena Spots in Florence

Good evening all,

It has been raining all day. It's wet and rather unpleasant outside. I've been busy all day with some house works in the morning, and spent the whole afternoon doing my first task of this term. I just finished it a moment ago, so now I have time to write a post on my blog again. 

As I am sitting here in my living room, thinking of what to share with you this time...my idea is still pretty much on food. After giving you a list of Oriental restaurants and food shops in my previous post, I will give you a list of Italian restaurants this time. 

Selamat malam,

Setelah ngobrolin makanan Indonesia kemaren, seperti janji aku, ini dia daftar toko-toko yang menjual bahan makanan Asia, dan daftar beberapa restoran:

Kalo kamu suka jalan-jalan di daerah mercato centrale, Basilica di San Lorenzo, dan Stazione Firenze SMN, maka kamu sudah dekat dengan 3 alamat jalan (via) berikut ini:

Makanan Indonesia di Firenze, emang ada?

Jadi kamu ada di Florence, salah satu kota yang indah di Italia. Tujuan kamu mungkin untuk belajar, entah kursus bahasa, kuliah seni, tata boga, atau desain busana. Jadi kamu menetap minimal 6 - 12 bulan, bahkan mungkin lebih dari setahun. Sebulan pertama, kamu masih bingung tapi penuh semangat cari tau ini itu, penyesuaian sini situ. Karena semuanya masih serba "baru" buat kamu, kamu masih antusias cobain segala macam khas Italia, selama cocok buat kamu dan kantong kamu, gak bikin kamu sakit, ataupun melanggar hukum...aduh, amit-amit!, jangan sampe deh. 

Salah satu yang udah pasti kamu coba, yang jelas makanan dan minumannya. Ya iyalah, namanya juga kebutuhan primer. Mana bisa hidup tanpa makan minum, bener gak? Nah, semua juga tau dan setuju kalo di Italia tuh, pizza, pasta, anggur, dan kopinya yang yahud dan kudu dijajal. Ada yang bilang, kamu belum bener-bener merasakan Italia, kalo belum cobain pizza, pasta, anggur, dan kopinya. Dan...aku tuh setuju banget! Jadi pantes dong, begitu kamu tinggal di sini, makanan Italia jadi makanan sehari-hari. Kalo minuman, anggur dan kopi, kayaknya suka-suka aja deh. Gak semua pendatang suka sih, jadi bebas aja pilih minuman lainnya.

Mimpi bekerja di Italia? Bagaimana caranya?

Mencari pekerjaan di Italia bahkan di wilayah Eropa Selatan umumnya bukanlah hal yang mudah - bahkan banyak orang-orang di sinipun kesulitan dan harus berjuang keras mencari kerja. Dan jika anda lancar berbahasa Inggris kemudian pindah ke Italia, maka maaf, ada tambahan nilai minus bagi anda sebagai pencari kerja di Italia. 

Jadi bagaimana caranya agar anda dapat makin dekat pada peluang anda untuk mengejar mimpi anda di Italia? Pekerjaan macam apa sih yang mungkin dapat anda dapatkan sebagai seorang yang lancar berbahasa Inggris?

Community Diary - Part 3

As the community has grown bigger, there were more activities, events and small gatherings have taken place. It did not matter who took part and who did not, every moment worth to be remembered and well appreciated as it showed the generosity of your contribution. Thank you!

 

A Tornado-force Wind in Florence

I heard something and I thought I was dreaming, I looked around in the dark, tried to lift my sleepy head. I saw the clock on the bed side table it was still 3am early morning.  I should not go back to sleep, I thought, as I would be late for school at 7am. I heard the sound of the wind blew really hard as if it swirled in front of our bedroom window. The window glasses were shaking and made a lot of noise. My head told me to stay awake but my eyes were too heavy to stay open. I felt asleep again although I remembered I could still hear the sound of the wind, swirled, hurled things up, banged windows and windows’ shutters. Storm, I thought, maybe the school would have to close today due to this hard wind, and I fell asleep again.

A moment later I woke up with eyes open wide when the glasses of our bedroom window shook and made such a loud noise as if they would shatter in no time soon. I heard things fell and the sound of our plastic buckets hit the fence of the balcony. I remembered my laundry clips, many must have been blown away already, I thought. Oh well, a reason to buy new laundry clips. The swirling sound of the wind continued until it was time for us to get up our bed and get ready for school.  It happened that I was scheduled to substitute a Physic teacher who took his personal day on that very day. I was grateful Jos didn’t have to go alone through a hard win that morning.  

The Birth and The Farewell

Welcome baby Alessia Bianca Zein!

On Thursday, October 23, 2014, we received a great news about the birth of Alessia Bianca Zein. She is the first child of Joni Zein and Erna Mariana, she is also the first baby who was born within the family of Indonesian Community in Tuscany. We all excited when we heard about Erna's pregnancy and were glad to welcome baby Ale, felt like we have our own niece. 

Festival del Cinema d'Indonesia_Le Murate

Since the first time we arrived in Florence, I've been thinking of how to promote Indonesia. Unlike in the Netherlands where number of Indonesians are large, Indonesians are only about 200 to 250 people in Italy. Once I attended a simple Indonesian bazaar organized by a cultural foundation founded by an Indonesian friend who lives in Rotterdam to celebrate Indonesian independence day and to promote Indonesian culture. Two foundations were involved in organizing the whole event which took place in a good size of a hall for about 250 people in Rotterdam. It was a family bazaar with a bit of Dutch 'gezelligheid', the bazaar inspired me to have the same event in Florence. Unlike in Netherlands, however, as I went around and gathered information, I found more obstacles and more challenges to do so.

However, when we came back from our summer holiday last year. I heard from Malina, that she and her husband have organized a festival of Indonesian Cinema in Florence in continuation with the one they held in Pietrasanta. The organization was done by Malina and her husband, an Italian lawyer, the poster was designed by Erlinda, an Indonesian student who studied design in Florence. I was so excited about this event, finally, we had this opportunity to make Indonesia more recognized and pop-up in Italy. Thank you to Jacopo and Malina for their hard-work and the Ambassador of Indonesia for Vatican City for their supports in making the Festival of Indonesian Film a successful event. 

Hailstorm in Summer on September 19th, 2014

#somethingnew #fromwhereIstand #wheatherphenomenon - stood on about 10cm thick of hails 

I'm from the tropic, so at first I was scared but then I was quite amused to see that much of ice cubes poured down from the sky with lots of noise on the roofs...in summer! Good thing was that the storm stopped right at the time I had to leave the house for work. It was such a joyful bike ride on the road covered with lots of hail and through some thick fog. I found that day....so amazingly entertaining!!

Dark sky above the city center of Florence. Image courtesy of florensics.wordpress.com

The sky looked completely dark, “Oh no! It’s going to rain!” I said to myself. I had to go to work at 13:30 every day and the fact that the sky was so dark made me a bit reluctant to go out. However, no matter how I felt, I had to get ready and go anyway. A while later, I heard ‘bang bang’ at the backyard. I thought, now what?  It sounded like a neighbor was getting himself busy before the rain comes.  I went quickly to the kitchen window to have a look, but I saw no one outside. And the ‘bang bang’ continued, this time harder and even harder when I stood in my dining room. Then I realized, the sound came from the roof and the attic above my dining room sounded as if it was going to collapse.

A Highlight on Firenze #bikewalk for Instagrammers on September 6th, 2014

the view of Florence from Lungarno Benvenutto Cellini

I saw the announcement of this Firenze #bikewalk event last week on the Florentine after I came back from our holiday. So I shared it to our Indonesian Community in Tuscany on Facebook page. Unfortunately none of the ICT's friends interested to join. I personally interested in the event as it was related to a popular photo-sharing application, Instagram. My goals was to find new friends.

The bike ride started from the meeting point right at la piazza della basilica di Santa Croce (the square of the Holy Cross cathedral). We biked to the area of San Ambrogio  and had a little stop in front of Parrocchia di San Ambrogio, at the fork of Via di Mezzo, Via dei Pilastri and Via Giosuè Carducci met with two long busy roads of Borgo La Croce and Via Pietrapiana. There were about 70 people joined this #bikewalk event, the name of the event was actually really fit to what we did, it was really a combination of bike and walk (with our bikes), and chat whilst waiting for the rest of the participants to gather.

How to use your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you received the healthcare temporary documents, these documents allow you to visit the doctor and to access health services although you haven't received the Tessera Sanitaria card yet. 

How to get your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you had your Permesso di Soggiorno, Codice Fiscale and Carta d'Identita, you can begin to obtain your Tessera Sanitaria health care card.

Registering for Healthcare 

Registration is handled at a local level by the Local Health Service (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) which issues a social security number and a health card (Tessera Sanitaria). This entitles the holder to low or no-cost treatment. Hospital services are provided free and a 75 percent reduction is given on the cost of outpatient and some dental treatment.

Community Diary - Part 2

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

~cf. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

~cf.Khalil Gibran

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

~cf.Octavia Butler

Spring 2014 in Florence

Of all seasons, my favorite is spring! I really hoped to be able to experience another splendid spring here in Florence and Tuscan region. As always I was so happy when I saw all those trees started to blossom. Last year was amazing, for the first time in my life I saw all these beautiful flowers from tulips to daffodils and beautiful blossoms of cherry, apple, apricot, peach and grapes. 

Community Diary - Part 1

Our Tuscany's Indonesian community have grown bigger, as many more Indonesians were added to the group. Although the definition of community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. One thing in common is that we are all Indonesians, but I am glad to see how everyone is willing for a new friendship and to experience how this friendship has grown and is still growing between us.

We met up for big meals sometime, but we often met up more in small groups, even if it is just for a cup of coffee and dolce or just for a morning walk in a park together. I am so thankful knowing how everyone is willing to open their house, to share what they have, to help each other.

Between Lunch Buffet and Balinesia

I locked my bike at the piazza Largo Pietro Annigoni, then headed to Pingusto, the all you can eat buffet restaurant and our meeting point. Everyone were there already, that was a special lunch gathering to facilitate all of us so we can meet Dina. She lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but was in Florence at that time as she came with her husband who works for GE and had his business trip at GE office in Florence. Beside Dina, Erna Vin Eka Putri was there too. January 15, 2014, was an official day of my first time meeting with Dina and Erna. We have two Ernas in the community now!

Cafés Curfew

Sitting in a nice café on one of the busiest roads in Florence, we were up to la apericena, a late after dinner served in buffet style at a price of a glass of drink. It was Gallery Art Bar on Via dei Benci 30. While we were eating and drinking this guy came in, he was happened to be a singer who regularly performed live music there.  We greeted each other, a little introduction before he finally set for more talks.

Aperativo buffet at Gallery Art Bar.

I noted three things he mentioned :

1. Business has been slowing down a week before Christmas which was quite obvious. It was Saturday night at 8PM and we were the only customers they had;

2. Due to so many complaints from the neighborhood about people getting drunk and caused chaos, liquors or drinks with alcohol can be sold before 9PM only;  

3. The latest law regulation strictly obligated all cafés / bars to close their venues at 10PM, with an exception of one restaurant / bar located across the road, simply because they had more security guards who will drag drunk people away from their venue, or presumably, they had more money to ‘pay’ to the authorities.

The Large Group Meeting and Apericena at Moyo

It was winter December 2013, we had this chat through Facebook, it was Fifi who came up with an idea to have a meeting with all members of the community. At that time I remembered, she has added David into the group. We agreed to have a dinner together and the easiest way we could think of was to meet up for la apericena somewhere at the city center.

The crowded Moyo - Bar & Lounge at Via dei Benci, 23r, Florence. Image courtesy of partyearth.com

I suggested Moyo Bar for some reasons. First, it located in the Santa Croce neighborhood, where there was an annual German market. The idea was to visit the German market together after the dinner, just to be able to spend more times together and to get to know each other better in the fresh outdoor air. Second, apericena would cost everyone a price of one glass of drink, and thirdly, I've been there once, it was spacious enough for a meeting place of 20 people and the food was alright.  

Double Rainbow

I was just arrived home from school that Tuesday afternoon, after I taught Jewelry-making club. As I biked home I saw the sky was dark above Florence but there was sun rays brightly shone through thick dark clouds ahead of me. When I arrived home the sky was darker. 

The double rainbow as seen from our balcony on November 19th, 2013.

FlashBack2 - From Florence to Tuscany

The Best is Yet to Come - More Friends Were Added to ICiT

Things went so quick more than I expected, it was great to befriend with Fifi. She is a lovely enthusiastic woman, a very friendly lady with a lot of energy. She is very independent and energetic, I felt pumped when I got around her. I admired her energy! The night later she added many of her Indonesian friends into the group, and suddenly….from 6 the number has increased to 20 members!  Amazing!