Calzaiolo San Casciano in Val di Pesa

... ambiance. The Duomo wasn’t actually as great as I remembered, but it was one of the first churches I went to and, since I’ve seen so many other, I’ve realized that it isn’t as cool as I thought back then. But I still enjoyed it.

After walking around and doing as much as we could (it was Katy’s last day in Florence, well, traveling in general really), we went to pick up Ali and Kelsa, got refreshed back at the hostel ...

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

... Rossi was her husband. Then I realized that this old lady was the wife of a bicycling legend and the frame on the wall was one of the frames from his hay-day.

We moved onto shopping and grabbing pizza for lunch then on to the piazza Campos. Here we looked around until it was time to go to St. Dominics Church for the start of a walking tour. The tour guide gave us interesting history about Siena, its churches, and its customs. We ended up at the Duomo which was incredible ...

Buonjourno! Sorry for the apparent lateness of the previous entries ... trying to find internet access is like trying to chocolate cake crumbs on my plate!!! We arrived over the border and stayed at a place called San Lorenzo. Next morning we made our way towards Genova (Genoa) - where one of the Lonely Planet recommended rides leaves from. We ended up at a place just past Genova, at a place called Nervi. The coastline along the way has ...

Hi all It has been a while since we touched base as we have been busy busy busy! We arrived in Florence on 30 April after spending ages trying to find somewhere to stay the night before we got there we really had trouble finding accommodation and then we found out that it was a public holiday in Italy on 1 May....................gee.......there was also a soccer match on between scotland and florence.....more on that ...

... bugs. Luckily we had a very comfirtable private room with a nice comfy bed where we could spend some time recouping and that is what we did as the weather in Florence was freezing and wet. The 2nd day after a nice long sleep in we went to the Accademia Museum where the famous statue of Davud lives, and thats all that is there other than some other not very exciting sculptures and paintings. We pais 10euro or $15 auddie to see a nude giant names David, but to be ...

... this establishment with it's enthusiastic service. Huge plates of meat and vegetables left us all stuffed. You'd think the pasta in Italy would be something special, and yes the pasta itself is very good and the sauces are tasty, but quite plain, certainly not the nouvelle fusion type creations we see in N. America, Also in all the small towns as well as the big cities we visited in Italy (and to a large extent everywhere on our travels ...

... abode and started my homework for my three classes tomorrow. (Oh yeah, tomorrow is Friday for me!) I finished pretty quickly, but decided not to go out to the Public House (It's the official GU Bar) for Lindsay's Birthday and then onto a Punk/Rock Cover Band concert at a plaza near GIF to instead update my "Journal" as I hadn't done anything before today. Apparently many people around here (in the pension's farthest away from campus) aren't happy with the living ...