After getting there we were all in somewhat of a daze. We walked through the streets and through a market with stand after stand of bags, belts, leather jackets, scarfs, knick knacks, it was totally overwhelming. The Duomo started peaking out behind the buildings and we were in the center of Firenze! After we grabbed a nice dinner. After dinner we grabbed some gelato and sat on the steps in front of the Duomo and people watched then headed back to the hotel which was only 3 minutes away. We all hit the hay early to prepare for our big day ahead!
After a good nights rest we got a free breakfast from the hotel including cute little packets of nutella, the staple in our diets. We hopped on a charter bus all dressed in sundresses heading to a vineyard in the Tuscan hills where we were going to have a tour of a castle, have an oil tasting, make homemade pasta, and do a wine tasting.
The drive was gorgeous and I had no idea what lay in store for us. We spent the day at Castello Del Trebbio which is the only currently inhabited castle left in Italy. It was originally owned by the Pazzi family in 1184 (pazzi translates to crazy in English). The Medici's were the most powerful family not only in Florence but in Europe all together, and the Pazzi's were plotting to kill them so they could be the most powerful family in all of Europe. There's a room at the castle called the "conspiracy room" where the family plotted their murder. They decided the best way to kill the Medici's unsuspectingly would be to do it at church...by the way the pope supported this. They were able to kill one of the men but another, Lorenzo got away. He had all the Pazzi's hung and took their castle, he also eventually became the pope, I'd say that's pretty good revenge. There was one coat of arms of the Pazzi family left at the castle in the courtyard. The castle has 40 bedrooms and our guide informed us that this is a small castle. Our guide was Alberto who is actually the cousin of the man who lives in the castle. The castle has stayed in the family for years. It was such a precious love story. A man and a woman met on the train, the woman was from Austria the man was from Italy. They immediately fell in love and got married, the man was 59 the woman was 19. A little icky. Nonetheless they lived happily together and had 5 kids. The husband bought his wife the castle as a gift for giving him 5 children in 6 years...any woman who can accomplish this deserves a castle. Then when they past, the 5 children were left to decide what to do with it. None of the children wanted it except for the 24 year old daughter Ana. She still lives there today, she's now 46, with her 3 children and her husband who runs the vineyard. The property has expanded so much and it contains a vineyard, a shop, a restaurant, and cottages for visitors to stay in. They also have about 20 weddings there a year.
We took a tour of the wine cellar and came up to one of the dining rooms where we had an oil tasting. I really didn't know what to expect from this because I've never thought too much about olive oil, but it was really interesting especially for those of you that enjoy cooking! Alberto explained how they also make extra virgin olive oil with their olive trees. He was telling us that good olive oil has a lot of medicinal purposes and is really good for your health. He also said that most olive oils that you see in the store aren't good for you at all. You have to look for oils that have a acidity level of about .1 or .2% for it to be good extra virgin olive oil. Some olive oils that are suppose to be "good" have acidity of up to .8%. To get olive oils with a lower acidity its all about the time between when you pick the olives and when you squeeze them. The only time you can pick and squeeze the olives is during the month of November and you have to do the squeezing within 24 hours of squeezing. The olive oil they produce is not refined at all and no chemicals added which makes it untouched.
After the tasting we went into the kitchen to work with his aunt Adrianna to make some pasta. I've never made homemade pasta before and we got to knead the dough, roll the dough, slice it, then dry it out. Adrianna made the most delicious sauces. She's been doing it for years and made it look so easy! Then we headed outside and across the path to the restaurant on the property. We sat and started drinking some Chianti which the region is famous for. 80% of their wine is made from the grapes that make Chianti. The meal was delicious and one of my favorite meals in Italy thus far.
We had some time after to go into the shop and walk around the vineyard. It was absolutely breathtaking and looked like a green screen. I just sat and tried to soak in as much as I could. I felt like I was in Under the Tuscan Sun! We drove back to the city which was about a 40 minute drive. As soon as we got back it started drizzling, it was actually perfect timing. We grabbed our raincoats and were ready to shop. I had a bunch of gifts to get from the market and a leather jacket for myself. Within the first 5 minutes of being in the market I felt a warm rain drop on my head. I was thinking hm...that's odd, and reached up to touch it, it felt kinda gooey then I looked at my hand...it was green. We went into one the leather shops and an older italian man working at the shop pulled out a tissue for me and told me it was good luck to get pooped on.
It's hard to live up to Saturday's experience, but Sunday was still so much fun. We got to sleep in and had the complimentary breakfast, then some of us took off on a train on our way to Pisa. We hopped on a train and sat next to a guy who just graduated from a college in Seattle and was backpacking around Europe by himself before heading off to law school. He seriously is living the coolest life. He's been everywhere. He was listing all the places he's been and he's only been traveling around since April and will continue till July. All he had was a small backpack and the clothes on his back. Don't know if I could pull that off...
We got to Pisa and it was raining, but that didn't put too much of a damper on our excursion. What did put a damper on our excursion was that we were almost pick pocketed. We were just strolling down a street and there was nothing open, and no one was outside, except for this small group of 12 year old girls. They had an umbrella and kinda ran past our group, what I didn't know is that they came right back around behind us. I felt a brush on my right hip and with ninja like reflexes I swung around. I saw a taller girl and a shorter girl right against me and my purse was unzipped almost halfway. Luckily nothing was taken, same for the two other girls who were approached by these pick pocketers. We moved on with our day a little smarter and wiser about the streets and came upon the tourist attractions.
We saw the Baptistry, the Cathedral, and the leaning tower! Obviously we took the leaning picture, a classic. After that a few of us stopped at a cafe around the corner.
We headed back to the train and met another backpacking friend, a JMU alum! He graduated in 2008 and just graduated from the grad school for Audiology. When we got back Mary Katherine and I headed to the Bell tower, even in the rain we wanted to see the beautiful views of the city.
We climbed 100's of stairs leading up to the highest point in Florence. I had that belly dropping feeling multiple times. There were four stops on the way to the top and on our second stop the bells started going off! I had the biggest goosebumps. We were looking out on the entire city literally right underneath the bells. MK said she almost cried and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. It was definitely one of my biggest moments of realization on this trip. I just couldn't believe how many people there are in the world and how I have the chance to see bits and pieces of it.
Both of us realized our cameras were dead heading up the bell tower, but luckily old faithful turned on a few times allowing us to snap some pics. We had to let her rest in between takes but she made it to the top with us! When we did get to the top we met 3 americans from Seattle who were traveling around Italy, one was older and the other two were a couple a few years older than us. While we were walking down we ran into some students from CNU. After seeing the whole city and realizing what a big world it was, I also had the sense that it really is such a small world after all :)
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