A Weekend Under the Tuscan Sun

Pizza along the Arno

Last weekend, we finally had some time to soak in the fact that we are living in Florence, Italy! Thursday afternoon was filled with a long (and much needed) nap that lasted until 5.  We got up, got ready, met our friends Molta Dolce's Happy Hour, and made our way to Gusta Pizza (of course!).  By the time we got there, the place was packed, so we got our pizza (the pesto was delicious!) to go and ate it on a curb, got yelled at in Italian to move, moved, got yelled at in Italian, moved, and then decided to eat it along the Arno, which was a success (even though our pizza was cold)!  We got 1 euro gelato and then made our way back to the pensione for a relaxing evening before waking up early for Verona!

Friday morning, we made our way to the train station in a part of Florence that we had never seen and hoped on the direct train to Verona.  That's when we learned how to ready Italian train tickets.. whoops.  Verona exceeded ALL expectations.  I thought it would be small and quaint and we'd be ready to go soon after, but there was a lot to see and explore! Thanks to advice from Rick Steve, we got our Verona Card (only 10 euro and paid for itself after 2 attractions), saw the Roman Colosseum that was there, and got a delicious lunch at a great price at the Mercedes Cafe.  After reenergizing with some food in our bellies, we were off to the central market (just a lot of touristy stuff and fresh produce for sale) and then to Juliet's House! They were filming a random comedy on the balcony, so we walked around a bit and decided to go back later.  We just walked along the river toward the castle and Roman theatre/ruins.  This city had so much more history than imagined! The theatre was neat and we got a great view of the city and headed back to Juliet's house so we could write our letters.  There really is a Juliet Club (just like in the movie Letters to Juliet!)  that responds to the letters that people write to Juliet.  We had fun writing and reading love letters from the past that were there.  After that, we made our way back to the bus station to get to the train station to catch the train back to Florence.  We got to train station and there was a huge line so we were all stressing that we would miss the train back, but luckily, it all worked out and we got on the train (and the right car) just fine! The ride was SO gorgeous as the sun was setting.  We made our way back to Florence and went out to Dante's Pizzeria with our pensione plus some others- it was a fun, loud group of 13 and we couldn't turn the free wine!

Inside the Colosseum

Juliet's Balcony

Roman Theatre

We finally got a chance to sleep in on Saturday morning! It was amazing to not set an alarm.  We went to The Diner for AMERICAN breakfast!  We figured that we haven't had 'American' food for a solid month, so it was time to get a break from Italian food even for just one meal.  I got blueberry pancakes and orange juice (with ICE! I miss having cold drinks!)- I'm definitely getting an omelette next time!  After feasting on American breakfast goodness, we walked to Santa Croce for Fiera del Cioccolato Artigianale aka the Chocolate festival! There was everything from chocolate shoes, chocolate covered strawberries, to a giant chocolate kebab. It was heavenly.  We sat and people watched (basically just counting the time we saw people trip on the cobble stone and looking at how stinking cute European children are especially when they wear costumes and chase pigeons).  After that, I met my friend Michael, who I met on the plane to Florence and visited in Siena, at the Santa Maria Novella train station.  We walked around the city because the weather was SO nice and as it got later in the afternoon, it also got a bit less crowded/filled with tour groups.  Too bad we ran into a pro-communism protest on my street.  Michael and I met Sarah at the pensione and headed out to dinner at Il Gatto e la Volpe where they have delicious balsamic and bread! We all got bolognese sauce but just on different types of pasta and had some great white wine!  After dinner, we walked Michael back to the station so he could head home and we could watch the Zags game versus Memphis! Half of us watched in one room and another in the hallway, but once we realized that we needed the best internet connection, we all watched the 2nd half on one laptop in one room.  It was a dumb loss, but it was so fun watching out boys and we couldn't help but be a little Sposick!

Sunday was Sarah's 21st birthday!  We went on a Best of Tuscany tour with FlorenceforFun, which is a comapny that organizes weekend and day trips as well as a variety of activities for people studying abroad in Europe.  It was an awesome and long day! We hoped on the tour bus for our first stop in Montepulciano and watched Under the Tuscan Sun (under the Tuscan sun).  I had the best cafe latte at Caffe Polizaino with an incredible view! After that, we had out first wine tasting at Cantina Crociani, where we got to try 3 of their red wines. I bought the Vino Noble from 2008 and am waiting for an occasion to pop it open! After the tasting, we wandered the city a bit and saw the spots where New Moon was filmed.  Then it was time for Percino cheese tasting in Pienza.  We got to try all sorts of their special cheese and got a demonstration on how the cheese is made.  Their olive oil was to die for. It was a nice little farm with gorgeous views of Tuscany and the people could not have been nicer!  We then met up with the rest of the group and went to the main 'town' in Pienza and got a little tour and just enjoyed the views.  We finished Under the Tuscan sun and the drive is absolutely amazing on our way to Centro Scout Sant'Antimo, which was a medieval church out in teh country side. It was a paleolithic church, so there were not depictions of humans inside of it, only animals and nature, which was pretty interesting.  The sun was setting as we made out way to the final wine tasting at Cantina Museo de Montalcino, which was gorgeous and owned by the most adorable little old Italian man. He taught us a bit about when before we sat down and tried some of their best wines.  It was fun getting to know the other people on our program (there was a group of girls from Long Island. Let's just say I will forever be a West Coast person..) and enjoying the vino!  Everyone sobered up on our bus ride back- we got to watch Letters to Juliet and it was fun being able to recognize places that we had just been!

All I can say is I am currently living the Dolce Vida!