La Baghera Lamporecchio

... a browse through their beer selection and as I was doing so the waitress extolled the virtues of the Aventinus Eisbock.
She said it was a 12% beer that still had a Belgian fruity quality but with the 12% kick.
Had to give it a go and after half a glass on top of the 9% tripel I just had before am really feeling that kick as I write this!!!
Lucky she gave me some bread and crisps to go with the beer...

I liked Florence so much the first time I went, I came back! I realized in August that I loved this city and that I didn't have enough time to spend here, so I decided I wanted to go back to enjoy the slower moving life of Florence.

The first day we got to Florence, Katy and I went straight to the leather market. I had been eagerly waiting the entire semester to buy a new purse, and I knew I had seen several I really liked in Florence, so I had made ...

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 ...

... since some monks were on the site a few hundred years ago.

Walked around Baboli Gardens which were pretty stunning and crazy to think they were someones backyard at one stage.

After dinner with Zoe, Nonie, James and Kerrin we walked around looking a bar and then when we found it didn't like it so just got 3 bottles of wine for 10 Euro and headed back to the hostel - only to see 4 bottles for 10 Euro around the corner!!!

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

... excellent hiking territory. The fact that there are hundreds of europeans outfitted in fancy hiking clothes, lugging big daypacks, and equipped with new fangled hiking poles is proof of such. While we did not have quite the perfect lazy indian summer weather of the previous day the cloud cover helped to keep things cool. Which was a good thing as the hiking here is quite hilly giving us a much needed dose of exercise. We stopped in at the cute ...

... oh which by the way there was a bus strike that day from 1800 to 2100 but it was still early enough. so i asked the driver to tell which stop was near the ostello as i knew he didn't go by it and i got off there and walked back to the hostel. got myself showered and rested a bit and then got dressed and walked to city center for the tratorria Dr. bloomgarden told me about. took me about an hour to walk to city center. go there about 630p and was waiting about where there walks up ...

... too, and now are going to take it easy before another day roaming around and site seeing. I am trying to convince Chad to take a tuscan cooking class with me, but so far unsuccessful - they do however have biking tours through Tuscany that I think I'll get him interested in - they do wine tasting and stuff so his interest perks up. take care, April and Chad

THE BUS TOUR A foreword: As with all of this blog, I'm just going to make a broad assumption that Bridget and I are in fact, the only people in the entire world to have ever laid eyes on the cities and artifacts we saw. :) Oh, and all the best stuff (which is inside the churches) you can't photograph so you'll have to imagine it as we go along. One more thing: every day is basically obscenely swelteringly hot with ...

... pauvre boulanger (ère)! Visit to the beach essential on Boxing Day! Okay, so some of us were still wearing gloves and hats... Here is a point for the postal system in France - an amazon book ordered, arrived in less than 2 days! Voting in Canada's election - downloaded Application form for registration and special ballot - 'for electors who reside in Canada but are AWAY (inside or ...