Villa Le Barone -Greve In Chianti Panzano

... of a day it was outside).

After spending a good amount of time enjoying the view, we headed back down toward the river, winding our way down little stairs and hills, until we were next to the Ponte Vecchio. At this point, Steve broke off again to find a place to eat, while the girls strolled in and out of shops just taking in the scenery. Later, we met up with Steve and headed back to the hostel for the night in preparation of the big day ahead.

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 ...

Siena photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album. php?aid=164853&id=613699523&l=d 7d2db6b42

Thursday caught a bus to Siena with Nonie and Kerrin.
The Duomo there is one of the best and most beautiful churches I've seen inside and out - and I've seen more than enough churches to last ...

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

... once again used the public city bus to get into town. Upon arriving our group made a be-line for the bike store. We got there and the place was packed with people from our group. We all got our turn to go into the shop and this time I got to go into the back room. When I got there the old lady from the day before was there and on one wall was a bike frame and pictures of a cyclist named Rossi who was a Provincial biking champion in the 50’s. The woman told us in Italian that ...

... there (the display runs April 24 - November 3, 2008) that features Alabaster sculptures from 1780 - 1930. There are also some displays about how artists and architects worked with alabaster and some very interesting information about the alabaster trade that sprung from Volterra and went all over the world in the 17th and 18th centuries. Our next stop was Siena, the largest of the three towns we visited today, and although not the most picturesque ...

... singing several songs around the table. We could hear them singing more songs after dinner and learned at breakfast the next morning that they were singing drinking songs from their college days. I've decided that Fagiolari is a fine place if you have the right expectations. It is a great place to relax and enjoy the scenery and food but not a very good place to use as a base for day trips and a hurried schedule. It is certainly not your typical B&B. In fact, breakfast seems to ...

... was mostly intact and was made out of the same marble as the cathedral. I turned in and made it back to the hostel, where I found Braden a tiger skin patterned shopping bag that I could of fit it. The next day we went straight to the Uffizi Galleries to see the massive amount of art they have, including Boticceli's Birth of Venus. Unfortunately the rest of Italy had the same idea. We waited 2.5 hours to get into this museum where again they didn't offer a ...

We were up early and quickly made our way outside to meet the taxi to go to the Busabout pick-up site. Soon the bus trip was under way and we were leaving Roma, sad to leave the B&B, but excited about our adventures ahead of us in Florence and Tuscany. We stopped at Sienna on the way through, and it was beautiful countryside the whole trip. Going into the Tuscan region was ...

I thought the snow would disappear on the journey back from Assisi to Firenze. After all the last time it snowed in Firenze was a very brief snowshower last year, then 4 years previous. They were a mere novelty though as it didn't last. There was no actual ground coverage of whiteness. The last major blizzard was in 1985 when the Arno River froze over. Elena's family has a picture of her on the mantlepiece as a 9 year old ...