an unexpected eventful weekend!

Thursday night the roommates and I stayed in so that we were able to wake up early Friday morning to make it to the Chianti Wine tour (which was a free trip through SAI so there was noo way we were going to miss that!)

So Friday morning we headed to the meeting spot and hopped on the busses and were on our way to Chianti! Since none of us really read the description of what the wine tour would entail, none of us really knew what to expect but that didn't really bother any of us! Once we arrived in Chianti which was about a 45 min bus ride give or take, we were split into two groups to begin the tour of the Wine barrels and Olive trees. My group learned all about the olive trees first and about the production of olive oil which was pretty interesting I must say! We then made our way into an old dungeon which contained tons of barrels of wine in the aging process.

(Aging Chianti!)

( Me with the barrels!)

(The dungeon with the Wine!)

Once we had seen all of the wine barrels and began to move on to the next sight, my need to go to the restroom was no longer just a need but a must! So I talked Avry into straying away from the tour with me to head back to the main building where the only bathroom was! Being the good friend that she is, of course she came with me! However, when we got back to where we had left the tour, there was not a soul in sight! In the meantime we discovered a beautiful court yard and stopped for a quick photo shoot until we met back up with the tour!

(Beautiful Courtyard!)

(Striking a pose while were lost!)

(When we met back up with the tour and the girls!)

Once we met back up with the tour it was time to head to the dining rooms to begin out wine, cheese, olive oil, bread, meats and dessert wine tasting! We were all expecting maybe like a little plastic cup filled not even 1/4 of the way full for the wine tasting and a cheese cube. Boy were we wrong. We walked into a full spread table with 4 bottles of wine, three different types of meat, assortments of cheeses as well as toasted bread bruschetta. It was beautiful and not to mention delicioussss!

Once the meats, cheeses, breads and wine was gone we headed outside to wait for the busses to take us back! Feeling giggly, we went on a picture frenzy involving Avry in a bush, Skylar becoming a Red Raider fan, and taking a Florida Gators picture for Inbar! (Even though I slipped in the guns up with my Gator chomp!

   (All of the girls after the Wine and cheese tasting! (Avry, Ashley, Erica, Skylar, me, Inbar, Stephanie!)

(The newest Tech fan!)

(Skylar, me and Avry!)

                                  

                                                                   (Avry's tree photoshoot)
    

We all used the bus ride back as our "nap" time for the day! Once back in Florence it was close to that time to start getting ready and go out for the night! Friday nights usually start out at a bar called Bigalo and then after a few drinks everyone heads to the club Fulup. That night me, Skylar, Inbar, Erica, Stephanie, Ashley and Avry all went out for a good night together! After Bigalo a few of the girls decided to just head home, while Skylar, Avry and I carried on to Fulup! Now when you get all of us out together we know it will be a fun filled night! Avry had to catch a train real early in the morning to Milan for a class trip so she headed on fairly early( well early in our eyes!) While Skylar, me and a group of our friends also studying abroad stuck around and of course, made it into the VIP for some late night dancing! Once we realized it was around 3am we decided we should probably head home as well. On our way home, we are just walking down the street minding our own, laughing and telling stories when all of a sudden we run into a group of guys telling us not to continue walking in the direction we were. We proceeded to blow them off and continue walking like we do on a daily basis to all the Italian men. Now that we look back on it, we wish we had listened to them because what was around the next corner will scar me for life! We walked around the corner to discover a group of police men telling us to turn around and go the other way because there was a body laying on the ground with a sheet over it. We are not sure the exact story of what went on but all I know was that it was mortifying! But thanks to Skylar, the camp counselor, we made it home safely and discussed this "body" for the rest of the night!

Saturday February 20, 2011

The next morning we were originally planing on taking a train to Bologna for a day trip. Once we all woke up sort of later than expected, we decided maybe we should just stick around Florence for the day. Well we didn't really end up staying too close to Florence because we had heard talk about a town called Fiesole which is located on the top of a bigggg hill that overlooks all of Florence. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather outside and make the 2 hour hike to the top of it! Before leaving we went to the market and got some produce, bread, cheeses and meats to make a light picnic to take with us! 

                                                      (Camp counselor tour guide Skylar!)

By 2:00pm we were on our way! The weather outside was beautiful and sunny allowing for us to wear shorts and t-shirts! Thats a pretty big deal for February in Italy! My job before we left was to google the directions and write them out for us, I did just that, but the directions did not help us one bit! We started walking in what we were lead to believe was the right direction until we decided to finally ask a man if we were heading in the right direction. His response was a laughing "good luck!" We got a little discouraged but decided to truck on anyways! 

Our journey to the top of Fiesole was filled with beautiful sceneries, graffitied walls, and steep narrow roads with no spaces for walking! This only made our adventure more eventful though! 

(One of the steep hills!)

(Some graffiti)

After a little over 2 hours had passed and we had still not reached Fiesole, we decided to stop and have lunch since blood sugars were low and tensions were high! 

                                                       (A little glimpse of our picnic!)

After we were refueled with energy we pressed on in the direction of Fiesole. We now knew we were semi headed in the right direction because we FINALLY saw a sign that read "Fiesole."

 Eventhough we could see lots of ground to cover ahead of us, we could not help but stop every few minutes to snap some photos of the breathtaking views. 

(Another sign!)

(Almost to the top!)

                                                                       (So beautiful!)

Before we knew it, we were finally entering the town of Fiesole which was on the tip top of a huge mountain/hill that we had jokingly pointed at in the beginning of our hike saying "oh wow ya well make it up there, nott!" But we made it!!!

(Made it to the top!)

                                     (View of Florence! my house is right by the dome!)

(View of Florence!)

We had finally made it to Fiesole! From here we walked a few more minutes to the look out point so we could get an even better view and enjoy our bottle of wine and desert to celebrate making it to the top!

                                               (Me at the look out point in Fiesole!)

                                                                 (Time to celebrate!)

                                                                 (Beautiful View!!!)

Once we got all of the pictures we wanted and finished off the wine we decided it would be best to take a bus back since it was already getting late! Overall, our 2 hour hike that turned into a 4 hour hike was totally worth it and is something I will always remember! It was goodbye Fiesole back to Firenze!

Venice! "Vienze"

This past weekend Avry and her roommate Jessy and my two roommates Erica and Inbar traveled to Venice!

 

                                              

It all started early last week when Avry approached me with the idea of taking the 4:30am train early Friday morning so that the price was cut almost in half! Of course I agreed to that! We all had the brilliant idea that we should go out Thursday night to "21" (the typical Thursday night place to go) stay out till around 3:00am, make a pit stop at the secret bakery and head on to the train station from there. So, several free drinks later we left the bar and went on to get our late night snack at the secret bakery. Now for those of you who are unaware of what exactly a "secrete bakery" is, they are small little bakery shops all over Italian towns that are open all night preparing pastries, croissant and pizzas to supply the local bakeries for the following days. Of the 7 secret bakeries in Florence my friends and I have only been able to scope out one of them since they are quite difficult to find. Here is just a glimpse of what all goes on at a "secrete Bakery."

 

( Group of us with the actual "baker" from the secret bakery!)

                                       

(Outside of the secret bakery!) 

                                                    (Enjoying some secret bakery pizza!)

The beauty of these bakeries is that after a long night out tons of students flock to them for late night snacks only costing one euro! However, since they are located right underneath buildings where people live it is very important to be extremely quite while visiting the "secret bakery." On this particular night when we went, we had just walked up as a large group of obnoxiously loud people walked away. The people before us had obviously disturbed the residents surrounding the bakery because as we sat down to dig in to our delicious late night pizza, a giant bucket of water from the window above got poured allll over me. I was drenched. Yes, the other girls got a little wet as well, but I definitely got the wrath of the unhappy neighbor from above.

After drying my self off, changing into my train cloths that I had responsibly laid out the previous night and grabbing my overpacked duffle bag we headed on to catch the 4:30am train! Since non of us had slept the walk there was quite interesting I must say! However with the help of Jessy we made our train, switched trains at the right stop and ended up in Venice right on time! Once we were able to check into our hotel we all knew we would be worthless without a bit of a power nap. Well a power nap that turned into a two and a half hour nap! Once we were rejuvenated, we headed out to explore the streets (or canals) of Venice.

           

As everyone knows, Venice is very popular for the famous gondola rides. So being the tourist the we were, there was no way we were going to allow ourselves to leave Venice with out riding one! Venice is full of tourist traps, and we almost fell victim to one the second we stepped out of our hotel and the first gondola driver we saw offered to take us for a 30 minute ride for 20 euros a piece. We snapped back to reality and said to ourselves, "hey, we are a group of 5 young girls....we can get a better price than that!" So we carried on and continued to negotiate until we got the price down to 10 euros per person which is pretty good if you ask me. Ironically enough, that day I happen to be wearing my black and white stripped jacket that just so happen to match all of the gondola drivers so of course I had to pose with one of them!

                                                    (Me with my twin gondola driver!)

                                                      (Successful 10 euro gondola ride!)
Later that evening we made our way to a small Jazz club that was suggested to us by a man working in a wine/fish cafe! In our minds I believe we were expecting this jazz club to be a popping place with lots of fun young people to interact with. It turned out being a very intimate place where everyone watch was a couple except for us 5 girls. However, we made the best of it and ended up having a really good time anyways!

                                                      (At the jazz club in Venice!)
Venice Day 2:

The next day we got up early to make sure we made it down to the free breakfast. With us being the broke college students that we are, we made sure to stuff our pockets full with the free croissants, mini crackers and of course....the miniature packages of nutella. (our new found love in Europe) Our tour guide/translator aka Avry's roommate Jessy mapped out our plan for the day! In Venice, their main means of transportation is on water, so we purchased the day pass for the water taxi to get around for the day.

                                                           (On the water taxi!)
Venice has 3 main islands surrounding it, Murano, Burano, and Torcello. We first took the water taxi to Morano to check out the blown glass it is so famous for. When we arrived we were told there was a free blown glass viewing so we had the opportunity to watch a man in a factory blow glass into a vase as well as a small horse it was amazinggg! 

 

(The Blown glass factory!)

                                           

(This man was incredible at creating blown glass masterpieces!)

                                                     (The vase and horse we saw him make!)


Morano was a very populated fun island with blown glass stores lining both sides of the streets. After we had a few quick snacks along the way we decided to head on to the next island which was Burano. Oh but the transition was not that simple. Once we mad our way to the right water taxi station to catch a ride, the next taxi did not come for another 20 minutes so we decided to just hang out right around the dock until the next one came. To pass the time, Jessy got a panini, Inbar took pictures, Erica looked at the jewelry stands and Avry and I got a cup of beer. Since we were right on the water, seagulls were swarming everywhere and right as I opened my mouth to comment on how many seagulls happen to be swarming around us, one of the flew by and pooped right into my brand new beer! Immediately we all began to freak out partially with laughter and partially with disgust! All in all, it was a definite memory of our short visit to Morano. 

(On a bridge in Morano!)

(Right before the seagull poop incident!)

(Sitting on the lighthouse!)

The Next island, Burano, was by far the most energetic with its colors. Usually most buildings colors seem to just blend together since they are all so close, but the buildings in Burano were easily distinguishable where one ended and the other began thanks to its bright colors.

Burano is famous for lace making. We went in and out of a few shops admiring the lace and we actually got to watch a little old Italian woman hand making lace. That lady must have some powerful eye glasses to be able to see the small threads she was using to make the lace!

After Burano we made a quick stop in Torcello and decided it was time for us to head back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner. On one of the hotel walls we had noticed a sign several times that said you could get a free bottle of Spumante sparkling wine if someone in our room were to get on facebook and "like" the hotels facebook page. We obviously took advantage of the "first 10 minutes on the internet free" aspect of this hotel to allow one of us to log on. So before dinner, the 5 of us toasted to a good weekend in Venice with our free bottle of Spumante!

(Enjoying our free Spumante!)

For dinner we used one of the guide books to lead is in the right direction for a good affordable Venetian meal. Typically in Italy, people do not go to dinner until around 9:00pm. Unfortunately, by 6:00 we were all starving! So around 7 we headed to the restaurant which was called "Bepi Trattoria." Venice is really popular for its sea food pasta so Avry, Jessy and Inbar tried the pasta with some sea creaturs Ink as the sauce. I decided to stick to the pasta which I thought would just have a little spice to it since it was the spicy past, boy was I wrong about a little spice. 

After dinner we headed back to the room to have some cocktails (cocktails we provided to save some mula) and got into some very interesting conversations involving Avry and her life stories which none of us could contain our laughter listing to. It was still early and we did not want to waist our last night in Venice going to sleep, so we headed out to the streets to see what fun we could find. Venice is not preferably known for its night life so we knew if we wanted to find something to do we would just have to ask people who looked around our age. We ended up meeting a group of 3 boys from a town an hour away that claimed they come to Venice by train on the weekends to go out. The boys were determined that I was a real Italian girl, and I tried to play along with them that I was...until I opened my mouth and spoke chopped up Italian! After interacting with the boys it really made me determined to really learn how to speak Italian and be able to carry on more of a conversation that just asking what is your name! 

All in all my weekend in Venice was a complete success! Made it there and back safely and fit in as much sight seeing, food eating and Italian boy interacting as we could in one weekend!