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| San Gimignano, Tuscany |
This
week/weekend was unlike any other weekend I have had abroad thus far…Why is
that you may ask? Because this weekend, I stayed in Florence! That’s right, I
actually explored the city that I have been living in the past 5 weeks. This
week I did things that most tourists do on there first day of coming to
Florence. Surprisingly, this was one of the best weekends I have had here so
far.
Every
Tuesday night the roommates typically all go out to dinner in Florence. It
allows us to all be together and catch up on the events that occurred during
the weekend. However, this weekend I decided to cook for the roommates. I
called me texted, got the recipe, and headed off to the market. Going to the
market is something I do everyday, however this time was different because I
was shopping for 8. Everyplace I went in the market the store owners would look
at me as if I were crazy because of the amount of food I was ordering. For
example, when I went to the butcher to ask for veal, he cut me 2 pieces and
started wrapping it up. I looked at him and was said, “No no no, otto (eight)
per favore”. He would look at me, look down, slice one more piece and say “Bene?”
and once again I would have to say “no…otto”. This went on every single time he
would cut a piece until I finally gave up when he got to six pieces. As this
occurred with each market shop owner, I slowly started to realize that the
owners probably assumed that I was a dumb American buying all or my groceries
in bulk as if I were shopping at Costco. This is something that they look down
on and they try to encourage you to buy only what you need, but little did they
know, I was shopping to feed a family of eight! That night I successfully made my mama veal
scampi, with roasted asparagus and ricotta and spinach stuffed ravioli in a
fresh pesto sauce. There were many clean
plates, so I am going to assume my roommates enjoyed it too, unless they were
just trying to be nice…
The next
night we all went to our first family styled Italian dinner at Il Gatto. We had
been to Il Gatto before, but never for family style. When we first sat down
they brought us pizza bread, red and white wine and water and informed us that
it was endless all night, (Endless wine and bread?! That’s good enough for me
right there!). Then they brought out an anti-pasta course that included
prosciutto, salami, bruschetta, grilled vegetables, fresh tomatoes, and fresh
mozzarella. After anti-pasta I was about stuffed. They then started to bring
out giant platters of pasta, one at a time. The first was bowtie pesto parm
pasta, the second was tomato vodka sauce pasta and the third was lasagna pasta
with meat sauce. The end of the third pasta beyond stuffed me, but little did I
know…There was a fourth pasta… Linguine with portabella mushrooms in a white cream
truffle sauce. Just looking at the fourth pasta I thought I was going to
explode, however, I managed to eat a few bites J.
The best part about the entire meal was that it only cost us 15 euro!
When
Thursday night rolled around, the roommates that decided to stay and I
discovered that we had nothing planned for the weekend. I looked up the weather
and it was suppose to be one of the most beautiful days in Florence thus far so
I suggested we partake in a Tuscan wine tour. We signed up at 10:45pm Thursday
night and were on a bus to leave at 8:00am Friday morning. Our first stop was 2
hours away in a town called Montalcino. We stopped at a wine vineyard called Altesino.
There we tried toured a vine cellar and learned about the wine making process.
After we tried three of there most popular wines, a Chianti Classico, Chianti
Classico Reserva, and Brunello. After tasting these wines while looking out at
the vineyards under the Tuscan sun, we loaded the bus and took a 45-minute trip
to a wine vineyard outside of Siena called Tenuta Torciano. There we tried five
local wines including a Verranica di San Gimignano, a Classico Reservo, a
Brunello, and a dessert wine. Instead of just tasting all these different
wines, we were served a 3-course meal of antipasti, soup, and truffle lasagna
to pair each wine with. It was truly the definition of wining and dinning.
After the last vineyard, we stopped and explored the medieval town of San
Gimignano. Exploring the city was like exploring the outside of a town from a
fairy tail, and San Gimignano is home to “the worlds best gelato”. The trip was the highlight of the weekend.
New friends were made, wines were tasted, and great gelato was consumed under
the warm Tuscan sun. Who could ask for a better day?
When
Saturday rolled around, the roommates and I decided it was time to explore a
few of the museums in our own hometown. We finally went to see Michael Angelo’s
David. While exploring the museum with many of his works, I discovered that Michael
Angelo started many more projects than he completed. That being said… Mom, you
shouldn’t worry about me not finishing any projects. You never know the one I do finish may turn
out to be a David….The David was incredible and so were the other artifacts and
paintings in the museum as well. I finally feel like I have seen some of the
parts of Florence/Italy I should have seen about a month ago.
Overall,
the weekend was every successful. I learned that you don’t have to travel every
weekend to have a great weekend. I learned that a wine tasting is meant to be
just that, a tasting, and that drinking all of your glasses of wine may not
always be advised. I learned that when going to a market to cook for eight
people, make sure you stress to the market owners that you are cooking for
eight people. Lastly, I learned that bathing suit season is only 2.5 months
always, and the all carb diet is not working so well…But hey! If you’re going
to eat pasta, pizza, and gelato for 3 months straight, the best time to do it
is when you’re studying abroad in Italy.
P.S. You can click on the photos to make them larger and scroll through them!
