Italian Stallions

Last weekend Christine, Cassie (my roommate) and her cousin who was in town for the weekend decided to take a vespa tour through Tuscany! This tour came highly recommended; one girl even saying it was the best thing she did while in Florence. I thought I can’t leave Italy without being on a vespa since they are basically the main type of transportation here. We met Saturday morning and took a 40-minute drive to the countryside. I have to say I am going to be the happiest person when I NEVER have to get in a car with an Italian driver again. I thought I was a horrible driver these people literally I would say have never really been taught how to drive or the rules of a road. Half the time we are driving in all three lanes, it is truly a talent. Anyways we arrived safe at our destination. It was basically a huge ranch because the company also offers a horse back riding tour! After getting fitted for our helmets we head up the hill to pick out our vespa. As I walked up to the vespas I sized each up to see which one was going to be the fastest and that would be mine! I obviously chose this black one with racer strips (kinda) that was in mint condition…..or so I thought. I later realized that it had about 30,000 miles on it and was a tank (lets just say going up hills I got passed be EVERYONE! Ugh that did not fly for me…maybe this could also be attributed to my recent expansion from Italian cuisine??)

We pulled out onto the open road and even those who were lets just say less experienced with two wheeled motor vehicles made it out alive!! I had one almost accident when I turned back to see friends and almost fell into the ditch AHHHHH soo scary. Although I made it out alive I cant say that all others were so lucky. Our little friend Christine had well she would refer to the incident as a sort of “tipping”. Someone forgot to put their feet on the ground when they came to a stop….rookie mistake (I wish I could say that this occurred in the beginning half of the trip but no not the case ahahah). A couple other people fell in the off-roading section but nothing too major.

Now I have failed to mention that this is a vespa and wine tasting tour. At first I was a little hesitant to see how wine tasting and vespa riding were going to work together, but I would say for our sake luckily the first place we were going to wine taste at was closed so we ended up having to wait till the end to do so. (mom and dad will be happy to here) After arriving back at the ranch we got into the vans and headed to this little castle on top of the Tuscan hills where we had lunch. Soo yummy we got gnocchi and an alfredo pepper pasta. After lunch we were on to wine tasting! The guy who was working was great and taught us tons about his families vineyard and wines. Overall this was definitely one of my favorite days in Italy!! I loved our guides, of course they were young and cute, and the people we had on our trip were awesome and fun to get to know! I would tell anyone who comes to Florence that this tour is a MUST!! (side note about Italy and their customs…no contracts or papers were signed releasing the company of liability…heck they didn’t even check if I had a valid drivers license…..ohhhhh Italy!)

PS the Younger guy in the wine tasting picutres is our guide and the older one is the guy who owned the vineyard and shop.

Cinque What?

Since we had a long weekend in Florence (Monday is some sort of holiday here) we decided to spend on day and go to Cinque Terra. This place is raved about by everyone who has visited so I was excited to see what all the talk was about! We took a train (about 2 and a half hours) to get there, we have learned that this is one of our favorite ways to travel because you can arrive ten minutes before it departs and there is no hassle. The train ride there was definitely longer than expected. You could see around us the doubt on our friends faces about whether or not we had made a good decision about making the long journey or not.

Upon arrival in Cinque Terra my jaw dropped! I was stunned by how beautiful this coastal town was. Just a little background about the place, it is composed of 5 different towns that line the Mediterranean Sea. The cool thing about this place and probably one what it is most known for is the fact that you can hike from town to town in the edge of the mountainsides! OMG you cannot believe the stunning views you get while trekking from place to place.

Our first hike was I would say beginner but that sounds even too hard for it hahaha. It was more of a relaxing stroll from town to town total a mere 10 minutes. Breaking a sweat here was never an issue. After getting to the first town we were starving (obviously because of all the hard work we had just incurred). Cinque Terra’s claim to fame in the food division is pesto. After many trials while being abroad I have come to learn that pesto well just isn’t my thang. While everyone else opted in I opted out and for a more traditional meal of spaghetti a pomodoro. (It is amazing that while I would never order noodles with red sauce in the states here I would have to say its one of my favorites! Its just so simple but SO flavorful, you cannot even try to compare it to anything you have tried before back home)

Our next hike was from the town of Verranza to Monterosso. This was no “beginners” hike it was 2 hours long and you had to work for it the whole time pretty much. We started out with about a solid 30 minutes of stair master…oh yeah we were feeling the burn. Why I even put makeup on that morning who knows? It was interesting though it always amazes me how many people can hike in jeans?? Haha to each his own. We winded around the mountainside but always having a front row view of the ocean! I cannot possible put into words what a cool experience this was! After about an hour and a half (yes we beat the estimated time GO US!!!) we had made it to Monterosso. Once we got here we were soo excited to take a break and headed down to the beach! We got to napping and………WE MISSED OUR TRAIN. Man was this a catastrophe! So we ended up getting back later than expected to Florence but I have to say that nap on the ocean was worth it!!!

View From the Top

As we approach the last days here in Florence I want to soak in everything possible about the place I have called home the last 4 months of my life! One of the best places to see the city is from the Michangelo Piazza. There are stairs that people can sit on and over look the city. We took some of our guests that were visiting up there this last week to watch the sunset. There is often a guy who serenades viewers….quite the treat! Being up there and looking out to the city makes me realize just how luck I am and how sad that I am going to have to leave this AMAZING places I have called home…..

Things I Have Learned...

While being aboard there that been a few key rules I have learned from the Italians....

• one is not to drink a cappuccino after 10 am (in the old days they use ot have their milk delivered everyday to them and it was thought that the milk was spoiled after 10 because of the lack of refrigerators. Also they believe that milk slow digestion crazzzzzies. If you want a coffee pick me up its always an espresso)
• there is no such thing as spaghetti and meatballs. No meat is served in pasta dishes unless the meat is cooked into the sauce, i.e. bolognese or meat sauce. (please dont ask to add sausage or meatballs thing just tend to get embarrassing....ps first meal here I did that and i got not only my pasta dish but litteraly about 15 meatballs on a plate seperate....yeah awkward)
• wine is to NOT be drank after dinner....no no no no if you go out for a drink after dinner it is a cocktail or beer order a glass of wine and you will scream american.
• yes they serve you bread everywhere here and immedaitly after being seated, but you are not to eat it until your meal comes. No olive oil and vinegar, no butter, hey the bread isnt even salted so it really doesnt taste good on its own. If they believe you are an American sometimes they will bring you plates and the oil and vinegar, but we have learned to just wait come on its not that hard.
• italians dress for the season NOT the weather....this has been a hard one for me to grasp lately as I trek around in shorts because of the 70 degree weather and italians and still in parcas, scarfs, and boots (i know they are miserable and pouring sweat under all those layers)
• shorts are a big no no. Way to scandulous for the people here. Wear at your own risk, im telling you get ready for digusted looks and stares, great way to find a boyfriend though.
• sandals automatically mean americans....sandals are only to be woren at the beach or by water.
• tipping is non-existent here, no one does it so save your money for that gelato (ps you know whats great about this rule, you are allowed to sit for as long as you want without ever feeling like you are being rushed out)
• italian men think that any girl that walks by them is theirs....probably for me one of the hardest things to adjust to. Walking up and down my street, not to mention its 9am and im going to class, I get the "ciao bella", "oh my so beautiful", "would you like to come home with me", "ciao shakira" (ok beans gets this more often than me hahaha) and soo many more lines that I feel would be inappropirate for my blog.
• At restaurants (usually smaller ones) you are expected to calculate your own bill and ljust leave the money. Let me tell you if you dont look at the prices before ordering this can be a difficult one.
• everyone knows that you NEVER get the mounded gelato...rookie move
• driving rules: HA there arent any....if your car fits you can drive down and "road" you want and stop signs they should be renamed to suggestion signs.

As of right now this is all i can think about but there are much more so this post might be seeing a sequel.

It's the Little Things

One of my favorite things to do in Florence it to go out to the piazza signoria (the piazza I live in) and listen to a local artist play music! It is one of the BEST parts of Florence. Almost any night here you can find him out there playing the guitar and singing. Locals and tourists all come together to enjoy the beautiful ambiance of the Ufizi, Arno, and the Vecchio (all huge monuments here in Florence) and some of the best music. Guess what else...if you open our windows in our room you can here him! simply amazing and something I am definitely going to miss about this little city....

Munich

A few weeks ago a couple friends and I made a trip out to Munich, Germany for the weekend. We once again went with a travel company this time called Euro adventures (we have learned that this is by far the cheapest and easiest way to travel around Italy if living in Florence). After the short bus ride of about 8 hours we arrived in Munich around 4 am. A few hours of sleep at the hostel and we were up and ready to start site seeing! Because we have become such avid bike riders of here we signed up for another bike tour! I definitely think these tours are worth the money. It’s amazing how much ground you can cover by bike. We rode by gardens, the town hall, churches, and got a little background on the city. I thought one thing that was really interesting that we learned was that you wont see the Germans being very patriotic because they feel like it they were to be that would be taken as them supporting Hitler, still a very sensitive subject that it not often talked about in Germany.

For lunch we stopped at the world’s largest beer gardens to get some typical cuisines and a beer! This garden can seat up to 10,000+ people! We were so lucky with the weather being hot that day!
After enjoying a bratwurst we got back on our bikes and went to see the river surfers. These guys were amazing! The water shot out so fast so they had to be on there game when surfing. I wanted to try it out but knew that would never end well.

That night we signed up to go to a popular beer hall for dinner. It was the Strong beer festival and so the beer hall was having basically a huge party. I had no idea what to expect, but as we walked in I was shocked to see everyone dressed up in traditional German clothing, lederhosen and beer fest dresses! I felt so out of place and even that they were not happy to have us “Americans” there with them. The hall was well literally a hall. The room was filled with long tables and a stage in the front where beauty competitions and strong men contests were held all night long. Also there was a traditional German band that played live music.

I loved the laid back feel of the place. Everyone was just kind of hanging out and talking with good friends! Although the locals intimated me at first they were quiet possible the NICEST people I have EVER met! All night we kind of moseyed around and talked to people from all over that were there just to have a good time. I loved meeting all these new people and experiencing this unique adventure!

The next morning we woke up and headed out to Dachau, the concentration camp that was just outside the city center. I cant even put into words what a touching experience this was. Just walking around gave me the chills and made me question how something this terrible could have ever happened. I felt that when walking around I could picture the awful things that took place and the sadness that was brought from ignorance.

A quick nap and we were off to a new beer hall. This time we went to probably the most famous in the city called, Haufbrahaus. This restaurant held about 6,000 people. We didn’t have tickets this night so we had to walk around until we could find tables to share with locals. We just hung out and played cards. I love the relaxed culture.

The markets in Munich were AMAZING. I loved all the fresh ingredients and different foods you could get. We walked around the markets for hours just browsing around. I have to say I got some of the best olives ever here!

Sunday morning Christine, Chelsea and I decided we would wake up early and try to see a couple more sites before leaving….funny thing is EVERYTHING is closed on Sundays in Munich. I am not kidding, you cannot find one store open, not even a grocery store. I was the most odd thing to me. The only 2 things open we churches….and you guessed it beer halls hahaha. We were starving so we went to the same beer hall from the night before to get some typical German dishes. I order the spaetzle and it was amazing! Kind of a rendition of Mac and cheese with grilled onions on top yum yum yum! Back on the bus to head back to Firenze!!

Venice

This ones for you dad! You would have loved the open fish market!!



The week after Spring Break Christine’s (better known as Beans) parents arrived in Florence! It was so fun to have parents in town! Almost as good and the real thing (my parents). The Abel family was nice enough to invite to out to a few meals with them one which included a chef that came to the house they were staying out! The lady was SO great we had a four-course meal that included artichokes, polenta, pasta, chicken, and chocolate cake! Yum yum yum!

After the week in Florence Chelsea and I went with Christine and her family to Venice for the weekend! This was the first time we have stayed in a real hotel since being aboard and boy was it a treat! Robes, slippers, a private shower, not a twin sized bed, the amentias are endless! After settling in we took a boat over to another island off of Venice called Murano. Here was the famous place where glass blowing started! We got to watch the guys make all different things from glass including horses, bowls, etc. After we walked the factory we were taken into a showing room where we got to observe some of the one of a kind pieces that were made there. Lets just say I walked away empty handed after finding out that one goblet alone was 900 Euro……

Next on the list was dinner! Being the Abel’s and that they are super planners we had reservations at a little place not far from where we were staying! Everything here was amazing including my homemade pasta noodles and the fish! At dinner the Captain (Christine’s dad) had ordered a bottle of white wine, being a nice place the restaurant kept it chilled in a bucket for us…blah blah blah….ends up as we went to refill our glasses Debbie (one of the other ladies that had come on the trip with us) accidently had taken the wrong bottle of wine out of the bucket. This of course caused our table to start laughing hysterically and trying to make it look like that was ours all along. Ended up that the table across from us knew that they had the wrong bottle so the restaurant ended up giving them a new one but Oh was that SOOOOOO funny!

The next day we took a gondola ride around the canals of the city! Omg the view of the city is waayyy better from on the water! After the ride we kinda walked around and casually strolled through the piazzas. It was nice to get to bed early every night and kind of not have a whole lot to do…sooo relaxing! We headed back to Florence on Sunday and could not have asked for better weather! Spring is in the air and I LIKE IT!