Podere Torre Greve

... museums and this one was expensive). While Steve was in the museum, I got separated from Ali and Kelsa, so I spent the time shopping here and there. We all met up, and decided all the girls were in total shopping mode, so Steve went off and did his own (manly) things while the girls shopped. That night, we just kinda chilled at the hostel.

The last day in Florence was beautiful. Clear skys, great temperatures, so we decided to go across the ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I spent the morning taking an Italian exam!!! The afternoon was a little more fun, touring Palazzo Pitti with my Art History class.

It was a little strange spending it without everyone but my school put together a little gathering for us. A group of us dined on a typical American Thanksgiving at a local restaurant. We were served Butternut Squash soup with bread, Turkey ...

... life time on this trip already!
Climbed the tower in the main piazza, saw an enormously large pizza and had wild boar sausages for lunch which were a bit gamey but nice.
Went for drinks at Lochness bar and ended up drinking long islands as there wasn't much in the way of wine or beer there.

Hi Everyone!

After an exhausting weekend in Brussels, I was in for yet another treat with cooking classes in Florence. Organized by my school, a group of us met with a chef for some lessons.

We were taught how to prepare typical Tuscan cuisine including Ribollita and Stuffed zucchini-flowers.

Everything was delicious & I look forward to trying these recipes at home!

I'll update you soon,

Siara

... find them, not knowing who I was looking for, then Kathie came out to help. We caught up with them and I then figured out that Kathie was talking about Dave and Loraine Huner. Their son played baseball with Michael and that son and his twin sister graduated with Michael.

After quickly saying hello we went back to dinner then after dinner went to the bus stop for our ride to the hotel. At the hotel Kathie and I relaxed then started getting ready for our last day of riding.

Ryan's real birthday was celebrated two days later with a private wine tour with a very knowledgeable guide in the Cinati Classico region. For the wine lovers (and our record|) I'll go into a bit more detail on this region and its wines as detailed in an official Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico publication. Chianti Classico Black Rooster is a premium wine produced solely in Chianti, Tuscany's famous wine region situated between Florence and Siena and covers ...

... cellar where we saw the old method and the new method for bottling. Alessandro also showed us that many of the barrels used there are very old, some dating back to the early 1900's. Many of the barrels had an odd glass contraption on top because Montagliare winery still uses the traditional method (invented by da Vinci) for dealing with the changing volume of wine in the barrels during the fermenting process. In addition to seeing the ...

... The little town at the top had a nice little café that we enjoyed some cold bottled water and a bathroom break at before journeying another fifteen minutes down the road to the castle. Our bicycle adventure in Tuscany completed, we hopped in the van with Keith and made our way back to Florence, once again blasting disco and dodging people and cars as if we were in a real life video game. On the way back we stopped at Piazza ...

... altar looks like it's painted, but no, it's inlaid stone in many different colors. The tomb of the princes, where Lorenzo and Giuliano di Medici are buried is amazing. It was created by Michaelangelo and is so beautiful. There are statues over the tombs depicting Dawn and Dusk, very famous pieces, and they are so lovingly crafted. A hilarious part of the tour was seeing the trap door where MIchaelangelo would hide from the ...

... used by pastors. As the snow disappeared level by level on the mountains, the pastors moved uphill so their sheep could get the fresh grass. The buildings resemble big wooden tents and are still up there. Mario is proudly Italian, speaks only Italian, but is very disappointed by his country today. He admitted to me that he's always voted communist. His wife is in the hospital for a few weeks, after she recently fell. After three-and-a-half hours at Mario's, I left to face the ...