Bosco Lazzeroni Montaione

... and limited to pastry or pizza at 5pm, but I found Brasserie La Loggia near the station that had a full menu all day.
Walked in to order a pasta and was amazed and delighted that they also had a display case full of Belgian, German, Dutch and other quality beers.
Had a La Trappe with my bolognese. Even though it's made in the Netherlands it was still a good tripel.
Was ready to go after that but ...

... headed into the cemetery. It was actually very ornate, the headstones were huge (I remember one being a life size statue of 2 people dancing), and some were in rooms/buildings, I’m sure there is a proper word for them. We each broke off and strolled around separately, then convened together and started walking further up the road. We made it to the Piazza we had wanted to go to, took tons of pictures, and goofed off (I can’t express enough how ...

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 ...

... was really good and the honey ale and double blonde were good too and certainly better than anything other Italian beer to date.


Tuesday checked out the Uffize Gallery which was excellent. All the "Grotesque" style paintings on the ceilings were really cool.

Had the Florentine specialty - Bistecca Florentina at Osteria de Benci. A T-Bone steak from a particular breed of Florentine cow which is fed and bled a certain way ...

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

... of Tuscan/Pisan/Florentine architecture and a number of tall towers, one of which we climbed for some amazing views. They also have a Roman amphitheatre in Lucca, which they have dismantled, using the stones for one of the churches (San Frediano) and the foundations for a very different type of city square (or oval actually). Monday was the day of the aforementioned trip to Florence. We had "done" Florence in 1998, and Lesley had ...

... or something, but hey, there's no money in that), along with tow other books that include abnormal people: The Professor and the Madman and Enduring Love. the narratives are ok, though definitely not my kind of books, but the textbooks. Il mio Dio! This guy actually wrote his own bio page and then put it at the front of the book. He spoke the first day about how he always gets messages from other professors telling him how helpful his textbook and supplemental ...

The wonderful masterpieces and great works of architecture enriching the everyday life of Florence, the capital of Tuscany. One of the most important collections of paintings in the world can be found in the Uffizi Gallery and other magnificent paintings can be seen in the Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, hosting ...

Today was an interesting day. We had some chaos that broke out last night that I found out about this morning. Some of our girls had been out the night before and ended up getting into an altercation on their walk back to our hotel. They ended up getting checked out by doctors and had slight concussions. Because of that we had to make sure they were ...

Yesterday we arrived in Italy! We drove through the most amazing mountain ranges to get here, literally through them in massive tunnels. We went first to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower, it was so great to see something that i had learned about since primary school, but there were way too many people. The Tower and the neighboring church were really pretty and well preserved. We are staying in a really nice little ...