**THE FOLLOWING POST WAS WRITTEN AND IS ABOUT LAST WEEKEND (September 16th-17th)**
What another great weekend in Italy! Hard to believe that we have been here for going on three weeks now- mamma mia! (And yes, Italians do say that!)
Here are some highlights from the past few days:
Thursday evening, after finishing up with class for the week, Christie, Caroline, Amy, Margaret, MR, and I strolled around our neighborhood in hopes of finding an open table for Apperitivo--an Italian custom where you can go to a restaurant or wine bar to have a drink and with it comes all sorts of yummy hors d'oeuvres and appetizers, often out on a buffet. This happens from about 7pm to 9pm and is supposed to be just delightful and so very Italian. However, we got a bit of a late start and did not make a reservation anywhere and ultimately ended up out of luck. After a bit more wandering (okay 45 minutes of wandering) and a few desperate phone calls to make a dinner reservation for six somewhere ("a table for six at venti trenti?? venti trenti per favore??".....our Italian lessons have not caught on as much as we may have hoped by now...venti trenti does not quite mean 8:30, but it is close enough), we finally stumbled on a tiny little place directly across the street from our apartment. With a view of the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio if you are seated close enough to the back wall of windows, this itty bitty place had the basics for very low prices. Lasagne (not lasagna--this suggests that you would like to order a single lasagna noodle. Marcello, my Medici teacher told me so!!), spaghetti, formaggi, vino, etchetera etchetera etchetera (how you pronounce etc etc etc in Italian!) Margaret and I both got the special of the day--tagliatelli with a mushroom sauce. SO good and SO simple. As a table, we split a starter of cheese with jam and honey. SO delicious. Our waitress was a sweet Japanese girl who is here studying at the University of Florence. And the owner of the store was very kind, too, an older man who brought us out a calculator when we were struggling to divide up the bill. I hope that I will be able to eat there on a regular basis and befriend the people who work there. That is totally something that locals do.
Anyways, enough about food. (For now, anyways). Friday morning, we got an early start and met Christie and her dad, who was in town visiting this weekend, to depart on our bike tour of the Chianti countryside! A full day, the iBikeItaly tour consisted of biking through 30 km of somewhat hilly Tuscan countryside with a stop in the middle for lunch at a local vineyard and a tour of the winery. We tasted two of the wines they produce as well as the extra virgin olive oil and organic extra virgin olive oil made at the winery as well. As Bill, our sometimes overbearing but well-meaning guide, said, "You're gonna want to put some olive oil on that!" Who knew how many things you could or should put olive oil in...at least according to Bill. We had a lot of fun trying to taste the difference between the regular and organic olive oils and eagerly scarfed down out lunches as our morning biking had given us quite the appetites. On the way back to town, we pulled over next to some vines that had already been harvested, and Bill told us to go walk up and down the rows and look for grapes to eat. They were just delicious!! It was pretty unreal, one of those moments when I think to myself, "Is this really my life? Am I really here right now?"
Caroline and MR enjoying our delicious Tuscan lunch! Although no olive oil is pictured in this image, know that it was there and it was GOOD.
Most of the gang at fresh-off-the-vine grapes stop #1
Me rocking my helmet with my bike and a lovely bunch of grapes
Annie and I eating harvested grapes that were going to be processed to make wine right out of the truck bed! (Ignore the random girl on the right.)
Caroline was totally in her element for this entire day as grapes are her favorite food, followed closely by popcorn. (I think!) Here she is happy as a clam standing in the middle of a vineyard with grapes fresh off the vine.After a full day, we rested up, cleaned up, and tried to pretend that our bottoms were not as sore as they were before we met Christie's dad for a delightful dinner at La Giostra, the place with the great pear ravioli. It was such a nice (and very delicious) evening with sweet friends. We decided that it was our somewhat unconventional way of celebrating Vanderbilt Parents' Weekend. What a treat it was!
Saturday, Margaret, MR, Clara, Caroline, and I hopped on the 11:10 bus for Siena, a beautiful medieval town a little over an hour outside of Florence. It was so beautiful and quaint! We were able to buy a ticket that got us into the Duomo, the Duomo museum, the Baptistery, and the Cript. The cathedral in Siena is especially noteworthy because nearly everything is still in place on the interior. It was just breathtaking inside. Also, the cathedral has very unique marble inlayed floors, 56 different scenes composed by 50 different artists over 200 years, that are uncovered only in September and October for conservation purposes. We felt very lucky that we got to see them. They were very interesting- almost like comic strips on the floor.
One of the many quaint little streets in Siena
I enjoyed very much getting to explore the town all afternoon yet still be back in time for dinner in Florence. How cool is that?I will post about this past weekend (Amalfi Coast and day trip to Venice with my Imagery in Public Spaces class) next week, when I get my second set of disposable camera pictures developed.
Until next time,
Grace
P.S. The Sassers are here now (such fun!), and they have brought with them my camera charger. Therefore, I will not be using disposables anymore!
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