Under the Tuscan Sun

Prepare yourself for a long blog entry!

I just returned from spring break.  Sarah and I arrived in Florence on Tuesday and got back to Barcelona a few hours ago. 

On Tuesday, we got to Florence and set off to find our hostel.  We were looking at the directions, fairly lost, when a woman came up to us and asked if we needed help.  We did.  And she walked us to about a block away from our hostel!  After dropping our bags off, we went to meet some of our friends from Barcelona for dinner (they were in Florence for the day).  We got gelato and then it started pouring...

We took shelter under an arcade and saw a rainbow.

We had a nice dinner and a friend of one of their friends was studying in Florence and took us to see a Beatles cover band.

Clearly they don't look like the Beatles and Paul wasn't able to make the show but they were good.  We had to leave after about 45 minutes so we could get up early for our bike tour of the Tuscan countryside.

We biked fifteen miles throughout the day and we stopped at the Corsini's vineyard where they make wine and olive oil for a tour and lunch.

The Corsinis have been royalty (dukes or something along those lines) for hundreds of years.  They used to have a vineyard but when it became too dangerous to live in the countryside, they moved into Florence.  A few generations later (about 20 years ago), some of the family members moved back into the country villa to restart the family business.  When they were clearing out, they found the bottles above.

On Thursday, we walked all around Florence.  It is a beautiful city. Plus, the people are very friendly and went out of their way to help us.  When we would look at a map, chances were that someone would come up to us to offer directions.

Il Duomo.

 Around the outside of the city.

An art class by Ponte Vecchio.  Almost all the stores on the bridge were ritzy jewelry stores.

 

We walked about 12 miles (according to our calculations) on Thursday.  This was extremely rough on our feet but we did get some really nice pictures. 

On Friday, we went to Pisa where we took the requisite tourist pictures...

I've been eating my Wheaties!

Then, on Saturday, we went to Cinque Terre.  It's a region of five villages along the coast of Italy.  We went to two.  One of them was very touristy and the other was splendid!

The food in Tuscany is not what I think when I think "Italian."  Yes, I had gelato every day and I had my fair share of pizza but there was hardly any pasta!  And there was very little tomato sauce.  The pasta was mostly in meat sauces which was good but not what I had expected.  The pasta was always cooked al dente which was delicious (not like al dente pasta I make when I'm impatient).  

We had a typical Tuscan dinner in Florence one night.  Our appetizer was a plate of salami (I think), ham, and pieces of bread with chicken liver on top.  Which I ate, of course, because I am trying everything that is put in front of me (I even tried the salami which I do not normally eat.  To clarify, I normally try everything except meat with casing-- sausage, salami things, hot dogs, etc.)  I had a Tuscan bean soup as my main course and I really enjoyed it.  The food was good, all in all but if we're going to compare the food in Tuscany to that in Sardinia, I'd pick the Sardinian food in a second (YUM!).

The people in Florence were particularly wonderful.  They were very friendly.  At the Beatles cover show, our friend's friend's friend (wow) reserved a table for us and bought us drinks.  People helped us with directions and the people at the restaurants were really nice.  I would not be nice if there were as many tourists in my town as there are in Florence.  It seemed like half the people there were Americans.

I bought myself some new sunglasses in Florence and a blue scarf (I'm wearing it in the picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa but I know it's not the best picture.  I'll take another.)...  they were each only five euro!!

I know this entry is short on pictures of people.  Sarah has most of those so I will post them tomorrow.  Look forward to some very sporty bicycling pictures!