Happy leap year! It's been about two weeks since my last post, and I have had a couple of fun-filled weekends since then. During the week though, two weeks ago, two of my roommates and I got tacos! Believe it or not, be in Italy long enough and you WILL crave non-Italian food and we were all sitting around thinking how much we wanted nachos or tacos or a burger or cheese fries, or something (which is an occurance more common than I care to admit.) Luckily for us, we have El Chico down the street and around the corner! So to El Chico we went, and we got ourselves some Mexican food. It was delicious. The sun was also out, so that is always a plus.
On Saturday, since I didn't have anywhere to be, I spent most of the day outside with one of my Wisconsin housemates, Caimyn, and we soaked up the beautiful weather we were having, and even stopped by La Fiera de Cioccolate, the chocolate festival, one last time before it came down the next day. First we got ourselves shots of chocolate liqueur in chocolate shot glasses and then sat and watched some adorable little girls get balloon flowers and lick off chocolate stars with sprinkles that had been drizzled on the backs of their hands.
That Sunday, Caimyn and I went on another little adventure south of Firenze. We were with a group, but this time it wasn't just students, but people of mixed ages from all over the world, which was a surprise to us, for sure. We were with people from Mexico, Spain, Malta, England, Columbia, and Venezuela, New Zealand, and some students from New York.
The first place we stopped was called San Gimignano, an adorable little town that was rather quiet while we were there, due to it being fairly early on a Sunday morning. We wandered around and took some pictures, ate a little something, and admired the magnificent views of Tuscany.
(Standing by the well in Piazza della Cisterna, San Gimignano)
(View of the Tuscan countryside from just outside of San Gimignano)
After that we had a short drive to Monteriggioni, which is now a village but used to be a fortress built as a look out for Siena, which would war against Florence. The fortress served as a warning to the city further south if enemies from Florence were coming. You could definitely tell it wasn't really a town because it was in the middle of the countryside and it was just this massive circular wall that now has some shops and little restaurants in it. It was beautiful also, but unfortunately we only had fifteen minutes there, which mean we didn't get to climb up on the wall, but I bought a little thimble, took some pictures, and on we went.
(Standing by the well in the middle of Monteriggioni-Seriously though, this was almost the middle of the fortress)
Our next stop was Siena. Luckily for us the sun came out and was shining nice and bright for us throughout the rest of our day. It was so warm and cozy and we loved it. I even had to pull out the sunglasses.
(Sunshine in Siena!)
We had a little bit of free time to grab some food and explore before we had a city tour. We got lunch at a cute little place near the main square of Piazza del Campo. I got bruschetta, which is actually pronounced "broosketa" in Italian. Sorry, it was hard for me to accept too, but in Italy, "ch" actually gives off the "k" sound. I was also a little surprised/bummed about it because it was basically garlic olive oil on toast with tomatoes. I mean it was very good garlic olive oil and tomatoes on toast so I wasn't about to complain. That may have just been that restaurant and it was still delicious.
(View of Piazza del Campo, which *fun fact* is shaped like a conch shell, the religious symbol for pilgrims that often came to visit the city)
After we ate lunch and walked around the Piazza to soak up some sun, we went on a little walking tour of the square and up to Siena's Duomo, which was absolutely stunning. More amazing even than my wonderful duomo in Florence, inside at least, despite what people may say.
(My thought is that this is God's teaser of what the gates to heaven look like)
(Duomo, decorated floor to ceiling)
We learned all about the Siena Palio, which is a horse race that takes place on two days every year, one in July and one in August. There are ten competitors, each from one of the 12 different neighborhoods of Siena, and the jockeys ride bareback, using their crops not on the horses, but on the jockeys to try and knock them off of their horses. It doesn't matter if the jockey makes it through the three laps of the piazza, because if just the horse makes all three laps first, it wins, so they all go crazy. If I ever go back to Siena again in my life it will be to see that race.
The tour went rather quickly and before we knew it we were back on the bus for our final adventure of the day... WINE TASTING. This was my first official wine tasting, and it was so much fun. We drove back into the Tuscan countryside to a lovely estate to have the tasting. We were greeted by a hilarious gentleman who lived and worked there, and who was part of the family who had been making wine from these vinyards for over four generations. He taught us how to properly taste the wines, of which we got five, including a Chianti Classico, famous in the region. We also got prosciutto, cheese, bread, and chips to go along with it. The other thing that we had a tasting of, debately better than the wine, was oil. We tried two different olive oils and a balsamic vinegar, which I didn't know could get any better than I had already experienced here. We had extra virgin, of course, and the famous white truffle olive oil, which I was lucky enough to try before coming to Italy thanks to my lovely sister who brought some home for us when she was in here. Caimyn and I eagerly and happily ate and drank up everything we were given, we did pay for it, after all. When we were finished for the evening we left for Florence quite content (and let's be honest, a little drunk). It was a spectacular day.
(Us "properly" holding our wine to taste it)
This past Thursday I had my first real fashion photography shoot in class... It was kind of a mess, but I guess we worked it out. I really had no idea what I was doing, and of course the professor told me to go first because I was stupid and standing near him when no one volunteered to do so. The concept was interesting but I don't think many of us were very prepared for what we were doing.
I also had a cooking class with SAI (my study abroad program) Thursday night! It was a blast. We met Alessandro, our head chef who would be helping us make a potato soufflé to start, hand-made fettuccini with a mushroom sauce for our main course, and chocolate mousse for dessert. Everything we made was delicious and given that it was my first time making pasta by hand, actually making it was a ton of fun too. A great part of all of this was also that it was free! Nothing like free food in college, and in this case it was a free Italian cooking lesson. It doesn't get much better than that.
(Making pasta!)
(Our new friend Alessandro)
This past weekend was full of travel as well. However unlike the weekend before, the weather became my biggest obstacle. On Saturday I went with FUA to two towns, Montepulciano and Pienza. Unfortuantely, it was pouring rain and cold the entire time we were out. I had a rain jacket, rain boots, and an umbrella and I was still quite chilly, and various people who had none of those things were obviously feeling miserable. I felt bad because I tried to and did have a pretty good attitude about it throughout the time we were there, but I felt like it was hard to give either city a fair shot when there wasn't much to see due to their size, and given how awful the weather was.
(Our view from the side of the main square in Montepulciano... still pretty despite the unbelievable fog)
We did get to go to another wine tasting in Montepulciano, however, and that was really cool. The actual tasting wasn't quite as good as it was the previous weekend, but the environment was awesome because it took place in an ancient cave below the Piazza Grande in the heart of the town.
People have been using this cave to produce wine since the 1500's and it has been used by Etruscans for other purposes since the time of Christ, which is amazing to think about. It was probably three or four stories down from their shop on the street, so we got to walk down all these winding stone stairs to get there. I saw the biggest wine barrels I have ever seen in my life, and I learned a lot about the wine making process. We even got to go down further into the cave to see what used to be a little tomb for the heads of the Etruscan family household that lived there, before the Romans raided it. (Naturally.)
(Talosa winery in Montepulciano)
We got to try three different wines, including the wine the town is famous for, Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. We also got plenty of food, which helped the physical discomfort a lot. We had this typical dish that was kind of like a bread/vegetable bake, as well as a classic board of meats and cheeses, or "un tagliere di affettati e formaggi," in Italian.
We drove to the nearby town of Pienza after our tasting, at which we spent even less time. Unfortunately both of these towns are knows for their amazing views of the countryside, and we were unable to see much because of the fog. We tried a little bit of three different pecorino cheeses (made from sheep's milk), which are well-known and special to Tuscany. We had the cheeses in a cute, local cheese shop that you knew walking in was pretty legitimate given how much it smelled.
(View from Pienza... less vinyards than Montepulciano because they're more known for cattle rather than wine)
Although I was still worried about the weather (since it was scheduled to rain all over Italy all weekend) I booked myself some train tickets to the little microstate of San Marino! I was excited to go because it is technically it's own little country, which many don't realize, so it was my first excursion outside of Italy, and everything I had seen and read about it looked wonderful. It did not disappoint. Just look at this, my view after having climbed out of the bus and up a flight of stairs:
GORGEOUS. I went on Sunday and it was a spectacular decision, despite having some hiccups with the trains along the way. It was my first time riding on a train outside of the US and I also went by myself, which made it a little harder but definitely helped me learn more. I accidentally validated the wrong ticket at the first station, which was just so stupid on my part; I wasn’t paying close enough attention. That ended up costing me another 10 euro later in the day, but it wasn't a big deal. I soon got on my train and was happily on my way, right on time. I was in and out of sleep throughout my first leg of train ride, awakening to see some beautiful scenery or to chucke at the group of rowdy Italian gentlemen traveling together for the day. I transfered trains to get to Rimini, Italy, which is the best way to get to San Marino because it's difficult to get directly there. I unfortuantely had to sit and wait in Rimini for a while for the next bus to San Marino to get there, but when it did, I was thrilled.
After the 45 minute drive up Mount Titano into the historical center of the microstate, we all got off and the driver was nice enough to honk, smile, and point me in the right direction after getting off, which was pretty funny, and soon I was swiftly walking all over the place to see everything I could possibly see.
The weather was great. It was cloudy, but the rain held off most of the day and I was sweating half the time I was there from walking up and down so much. I saw the main square and more fantastic views than I saw in Fiesole. It was truly incredible. I can’t imagine what it would look like in the sunshine, but I can imagine it would have been more crowded. The people, locals and tourists alike, all seemed very friendly and just happy to be there. I obviously was too. And I was very glad I had decided to go despite what the forecast was predicting.
(Cheesin big time by the Palazzo del Governo)
I went to see La Rocca, their first tower, also called la Guaita, which was very cool, especially since I got a spectacular misty view of the second tower, La Cesta/Fratta, which I walked to directly afterwards. Both were incredibly cool and never ceased to amaze me. It was interesting because after being asked what I liked so much about San Marino, I realized that it was really just seeing the views of each tower from the other tower. That probably sounds weird, but it was really amazing. From La Cesta, the second tower, I also got to see Il Montale, which is the terza torre (third tower) but you can't go into that one since it's literally just a tower, rather than a big fortress like the other two, and it was more of an actual hike to get there, so I opted out.
(La Rocca/Torre 1/La Guiata)
(My castle in the clouds... View of La Cesta/Torre 2/La Cesta from the previous tower)
(Now a view of the first tower-La Rocca-and the city center from the second tower, La Cesta)
(View of the third tower, Il Montale from La Cesta)
The town had a strange quality to it… It was tiny and quaint, but at the same time so old and majestic, especially given it’s location on the massive Mount Titano. It’s crazy to imagine living there in the time where they needed the towers as actual fortresses to protect the province and when the main city was really contained to the old wall surrounding it, like so many cities in Italy have still.
It started to drip as I was making my way back down to where the busses pick you up to take you back to Rimini, which was perfect timing. I also apparently picked a perfect time to get down there because I was expecting to have to wait a little while for a shuttle, but the nice woman at a little booth asked me if I was looking to go back to Rimini, and there was a bus that pulled away just after I got on. Unforunately the evening became much more stressful after that, given that I had to wait in Rimini for two hours, where I had to pay to use the bathroom-welcome to Europe. I had grown rather cold, and eventually got on my train, which was much warmer, but unfortunately my patience was tried again before the night was over.
I enjoyed much of the train ride, but was very tired and very hungry. Although my train left for Bologna ten minutes early, I became antsy a while into the ride, as we were only two thirds of the way there and my next train was scheduled to leave Bologna fairly soon. Sure enough, I missed that train, because we pulled into Bologna Centrale about 15 minutes late, which still doesn’t make sense to me.
So I stood in a line with a bunch of other Italians traveling all over the place to try to get it fixed. It was a very frustrating experience but then eventually I was pulled into the customer service area, and the woman started scribbling all over my ticket and asked, “You want to leave now, no?” I obviously said yes. Her response to that was, “Okay you run.” I laughed to myself and thought, “oh boy, this ought to be good.” Soon she nicely but quickly pulled me back out in front of the arrival boards and rattled off the train number, location, and platform that I would need to get on, and how to get there. I was shocked for a moment because it was a train headed to Rome, but then learned it would stop in Florence first. She told me to run again, because I wouldn’t make it unless I did. So I ran. I was lucky to be following the trail of another traveler trying to catch his train who carved out a path for me for a little while. I had to run down two flights of stairs, three escalators, and obviously through some halls before I got to my platform. If you know me at all you know I am not a very good nor a very fast runner, but I think I did alright. I was just happy I only had a purse-like bag with me. I thought the train was slowly pulling away when I finally got down to it, but it was actually just arriving. I got on board and it left about a minute after.
That train moved at about 300km/hour (186mph) according to the fancy little TVs on board, so we got to Florence in no time, which seemed magical to me. So after that I got off, walked home through the warm Florence air, had some food, and went to bed. It was quite the exciting and educational day. Although I was traveling for more of it than I was actually visiting San Marino, it was phenomenal. I even paid a few euro to have my passport stamped! I really needed to get into the swing of traveling, especially by train, as I will be doing plenty more of it in the next couple of months, and Sunday definitely did the trick.
I will be off on more adventures in the next few weeks. Next weekend is my first my first multiple-day trip so you will have to stay tuned for that adventure!
Love, abbie