So, let's backtrack to Friday night. All of us were pretty tired, and we had to get up super early the next morning for our tour, so we stayed in. I cooked, the way we had learned in cooking class, and made chicken pesto pasta using tortellini and green beans. That, plus an apple and some Pellegrino made for a pretty awesome dinner. Also, I'm super impressed with myself. I think this is the most I've cooked for myself, possibly ever. Actually, I'm sure this is the most.
The next morning, it was up at 7:45 for the "Best of Tuscany" tour. It included visit and tour of Siena, wine tasting and lunch at an organic farm and vineyard, visit to San Gimignano (a small, medieval town) and a visit and tour of Pisa. It was a long day.
First stop, Siena. It was beautiful. The Duomo (which actually means Cathedral so lots of cities have a duomo) is incredible; it houses works from Michelangelo, Donatello, Bernini etc. But the most impressive thing is the marble floor which has been carved into. It's truly a masterpiece. The main square (Il Campo) where Il Palio (the horse races in Siena) is run is also beautiful. The square is set atop all three hills Siena is built on, so it's in this really unique shape that's hard to capture in pictures. And our tour guide was so cute. She was this probably 60 year old lady with the weirdest outfit: a feather jacket, jeggings and gold platform shoes. She was so funny. The most incredible thing about Siena, to me, was how different it was from Florence. It's all hilly and everything leads to a gorgeous view and it's a lot smaller than Florence. I definitely didn't have enough time there, but I'm not sure you could ever really have enough time there. Oh and I had my first hot chocolate or ciccolata calda. It was like hot chocolate pudding aka delicious. Here's some pictures:
Also, I have a lot more pictures. A lot more. I'll try to put them up on Shutterfly soon. I even have some ones with me in them (don't worry Mom).
Next stop, lunch. The wine and food was incredible, of course. Everything was made on the farm (except for the cheese). We had bruschetta, pasta al ragu, proscuitto and salami with pecorino cheese, and for dessert, these sort of almond biscotti things. We had a different wine with every course and by the end, I was more than happy to take a nap. Unfortunately, the day was only half over. The views were also incredible, I took lots of pictures of those too.
After lunch, we made the quick hop over to San Gimignano, a beautiful old medieval town. It was basically deserted (what with Carnavale and all) but the views were beautiful. We only had an hour though, so we basically ran through the town, stopped and took pictures, and ran back.
So after running back to the bus, it was off to Pisa. Pisa, of course was beautiful. We tried to get those stupid pictures with the tower and we kind of succeeded, but the light was against us so I think we'll need to go back. I did manage to get one funny one and a picture of people taking that picture (kind of). We need to do our research and go back though. And the Duomo there is, of course, incredible. Everything seems to be beautiful here - it's really not fair.
After a quick tour of Pisa, it was back to Firenze. We got in about 7:30 and man we were exhausted. After some downtime and a quick dinner of sauteed chicken (for me at least), we managed to get it together to meet some of the other students for a quick drink. By the time we managed to find them, they had been there for a while so we had one drink and then set off finding the secret bakery.
What is a secret bakery you ask? Well, it's a bakery. That's secret. See, all over the city, there are bakeries that cafes buy their morning pastries from. So these bakeries bake all night, so the pastries are fresh in the morning. And technically, they're not allowed to sell to people, but they do. So you have to know where one is (or know someone who does and is willing to tell you) because most people won't talk about it. The one we went to is on a random side street of a random street off a random street off a main piazza. So it's hard to find. And once you get there, there are no signs (except for one saying be quiet, because you have to since it's a residential area and it's late at night) and it's a glass door. You tell them how many and what kind you want and for one euro a piece, you get a fresh from the oven pastry. It's really cool and really good, so I hope I can remember how to get back there because we will be hitting that place up a lot, I imagine. I got a chocolate croissant and man, it was incredible. All warm and chocolatey...man now I want one again. For another night, I suppose.
So finally, that brings us to today. This morning, after a super long day yesterday, we slept in until 1 and finally got moving around 2:30. Me and the roomies went to lunch at this American diner (called The Diner) and it was really good. I had a bacon cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake. USA USA USA.
After lunch, we met up with some other UNC people and walked up to the Piazzale Michelangelo, a piazza that offers a great view of Firenze, especially at sunset. We got up there, took some (well a lot) of pictures and watched the sunset and the city turn from day to night. It was beautiful. And there was a woman singing and playing guitar in the background, so it was fairly magical. We will definitely be back up there.
For dinner, I repeated my awesome chicken pesto pasta combo. And now I'm working on this and heading to bed. Oh and I did a load of laundry today. I think it went alright, my clothes are drying now. I'll let you know how long it takes them to dry...dun dun dunnn.
Tomorrow is fresco making and more Italian class. So here's to another busy day and another week in Firenze.
Ciao!!
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