An In-Depth Conversation With Florinka (Flo) Pesenti, Winner of The Amazing Race 3

Based on my Reality High Test Results columns, you probably would think I would be the last person with whom Florinka Pesenti, one-half of the winning team of The Amazing Race 3, would consent to do an interview. After all, one of my columns literally had "Shut up, Flo" as every other sentence! But it's strange how life works out sometimes.

I attended Television Without Pity's third TARCon Amazing Race finale party here in New York back in December. Imagine over a hundred people in a crowded bar screaming "Shut up, Flo!" in unison as the finale progressed! But I had taken it one step further - my good friend Janna had made us matching "Shut up, Flo" T-shirts! Then she had to duck out before the show ended, leaving me the sole Shut Upsey Twin.

After the show ended, nearly all the Racers from the present season and a good deal of the ones from past seasons eventually joined us. Sure enough, eventually Flo and I came face to face - with me in THAT SHIRT. I had no idea what to expect, but she took it with grudging good humor, and we talked for a bit - mainly about PR, actually, because as it turned out we had both worked for the same firm, just at different times in different cities.

I enjoyed talking to her, though, so when I saw she was getting ready to leave, I gave her a napkin with my contact info and told her if she wanted to do an interview where she could give her side of the story, let me know. She said she'd definitely take me up on it because she had a lot to say!

The one little detail I neglected to mention was that since I'm extremely new to writing professionally, I'd never actually done an interview before! So unbeknownst to her, she would be my guinea pig of sorts. I did know that I wanted to do something a little more in-depth than the average contestant interview - something kind of along the lines of a Vanity Fair or Talk piece, because those are the kind of interviews that really interest me as a reader.

It took some time to actually pin down the specifics - it was the holiday season, I was in the process of moving, it took her awhile to find the napkin, and then the original date we set had to be pushed back because she got called out to Los Angeles early at the last minute. She was extremely apologetic about that and very concerned that I'd get in trouble with my editor for missing a deadline - really, all of my dealings with her personally have been nothing but positive. Finally, over a month after the party, everything came together. As it turned out, we didn't live too far from each other, so I suggested a small cafe across from my old apartment with a second room that was usually pretty quiet.

Armed with my microcassette recorder I'd bought just for the occasion and tons of notes, I arrived at the cafe to discover to my dismay that it was packed and the background music was louder than I'd remembered. To make matters worse, I could have sworn I'd heard somewhere she was allergic to cigarette smoke, and there were people smoking even in the non-smoking section! So I'm panicking and envisioning having to spring for a cab to the nearest Starbucks... because I didn't want her to keel over during the interview or anything!

As it turned out, I was worried for nothing. She was a couple minutes late because she was coming straight from a yoga class, but she liked the cafe a lot. (It is a cute place.) We settled into the only table open in the quieter room - one so ridiculously small and awkwardly placed that she kept banging her head on the entryway door every time she moved - and for the next hour and a half, proceeded to talk about the race, reality TV, movies, New York, life, and more.

RealityNewsOnline: OK, so hopefully this will be pretty painless...

Flo: (laughs) Oh, don't worry. I've done so many of these; it can't be much worse!

RNO: So, let's start with the basics. Where did you grow up?

Flo: I was born in Manhattan, then I moved to Italy when I was eight, then I moved back to Manhattan with my parents for my father's job. I grew up on the Upper East Side.

RNO: What part of Italy?

Flo: Milan. My parents live in Milan now; they moved back when I was 16. They're Italian citizens; they were just here for business. I stayed here and went to high school and college at Vassar.

RNO: Is that where you met Zach, or did you know him before then?

Flo: We both grew up in New York, so I knew of him through a friend in my high school - we both went to New York City high schools - but I never actually met him until the first day at Vassar at freshman orientation. I was looking for him - my friend said, "Look for this guy, he's very tall, very Jewish-looking, he's from Manhattan - you can't miss him!" And there's not that many men at Vassar - it's like 30% men - so it was very easy to spot him!

RNO: Right. I didn't even know until very recently that Vassar and Sarah Lawrence are both coed now.

Flo: Most people don't.

RNO: So did the two of you hit it off right away?

Flo: Pretty much. You know, we're both from New York, we knew people in common, so we just started chatting - you know, it's the first day, you don't know anyone! So we really hit it off, and we just became really good friends.

RNO: Cool! What were your majors?

Flo: His was political science, and I majored in psychology with a minor in early childhood education.

RNO: So when it came to The Amazing Race - it was your idea to do the show?

Flo: Yeah. I saw - I watched - I was fixated on the show from the other seasons. And my mom came to visit me - I had just graduated from college in May - and we were sitting on the couch - I was living in Williamsburg [trendy artsy neighborhood of Brooklyn] at the time, and we're watching the show - she was there for two weeks so we saw two episodes together - and we got to talking about how I go to visit her in Italy a lot and something always happens - I have to fly standby, or I miss my flight - and she said, "This reminds me of you and your little adventures!" And I said, "I can do this! I can totally do this show!" And she's like, (sarcastically) "Yeah. OK. Yeah." And I was like, if I do this show, I'm going to need a good partner. So I called a good friend of mine, and he said no. I didn't have a driver's license at the time, and he said, "I'm not doing it with you because you don't even drive!" So then, about a couple days later, Zach had been in Chile teaching English for a year, and I hadn't seen him - we'd been emailing - and he came over to Williamsburg to see my apartment, and I said, "What are you up to?" And he said, "I don't know, I don't know what I want to do, I want to travel more..."

RNO: (laughs)

Flo: Yeah! So I said, "You are the perfect candidate!" I can't believe this - it's been in front of my face for, like, an hour! So I said, "You have to see the show! We have to apply!" And he was like, "I've never heard of it, what is it," and it happened to be a Wednesday night, so I said, "Go home and watch the show and call me tomorrow." And he called me the next day and was like, "OK, let's give it a shot!" So I got my license, obviously, shortly - I said, "Zach, I don't know how to drive - I mean, I know how to drive, but I don't have a license..." And he was like, "Oh, it's no big deal, we'll go to my parents' country house and I'll teach you." So, I mean, I never drove - he never let me drive on the show, which was a shame, but, you know, if he was sleepy, or God forbid he hurt himself, I could drive.

RNO: So was that the only reality show that you watched?

Flo: Oh no - I watch every reality show! Survivor, The Mole, The Real World - I watch them all! And now, of course, I watch them more because now I can really identify with these poor people! (laughs) Who have really subjected themselves to something that they didn't expect!