Mamma Mia! Florence and Tuscany were beautiful! Belissimo!

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting on our blog!  We really like writing it and has been an awesome way to remember what we did... we miss everyone at home (we can't believe we'll be home in less than 2 weeks) but have had a really fun time so far.  We are now in Greece (after an eventful time getting there - we think that our mussels in Bari gave us food poisoning) but we are here and loving it.  Below is about our time in Florence... 

Old Bridge in Tuscany

We had been told before we got to Florence that, like Rome, they would be in the middle of a heat wave (45C).  Although we love the heat, it’s a little hard to see everything when it’s so hot.  Thankfully, when we got to Florence, the heat wave was over.

Florence, or Firenze, is known for its museums and history.  It was home to one of the most influential families in all of Europe - the Medicini family; it is also home to ‘David’ the statue done by Michelangelo (see pictures below but beware you may not be able to tell which is the actual David).  Anyways, coming into this city we knew there would be a lot to do and so, you may think that (by the information I just wrote) that we did all of it. But, alas, it was just a copy and paste from our good ol’ friend Wikipedia.  Travis and I were a bit done with museums and decided to take a cooking class, visit Tuscany, taste wine and drink balsamic vinegar (which we had a lot more fun doing) instead.

David? Travis??

When we first got there we walked around and then headed to our cooking lesson.  I think this is one of the most fun nights we have had during our trip.  We were put in groups of 5 and each assigned to a kitchen (I felt a bit like Grade 8 Cooking).  We started off by making our dessert which was a frozen chocolate and cookie roll as well as a strawberry and cream mousse.   Our appetizer was next and was an eggplant, tomato and melted mozzerella cup. We then made a mushroom linguini pasta from scratch (Rebeccah you would be SO proud of us!) and finished off with rosemary and garlic chicken.  They then took us to their cellar where they served the food we had made tonight and we drank wine and visited with our group.  In our group we had a couple from NYC (his name was Donny, he had an annoying accent and I was not impressed with him from the start when he said ‘what? at least I don’t play with dogs all day’) and a girl on a highschool exchange from Switzerland.  Nonetheless, Travis and I had a lot of fun and would recommend  everyone to try it out.

The next day we spent wandering around the markets.  Florence has a huge amount of leather goods (you can buy a really nice leather bomber jacket for around $100 Euro) so we spent the day shopping for a purse for me, some sandals for Travis and little presents for our families.  We also managed to go for a run through a  park that overlooked the historic center of Florence.

Our third day in Florence we signed up for a trip into the Chianti region of Florence (Tuscany area) and it was absolutely beautiful.  We left early in the morning and went to a small historic town.  Before we left, our guide asked if anyone was prone to car sickness because the roads were windy (and he drove like a bat out of hell which really didn’t help). While I thought I would be fine, by the next town I was sitting shotgun with my head out the window.  After arriving in the second town, we walked around a bit.  The historic part of the town was situated in the middle of a castle and you could walk around beneath the perimeter castle walls.  Also, every other shop was a wine shop, some with bottles over 100 years old. 

We were then off to the winery.  When we got there, the owner told us that he used to be a veterinarian but after working for over 20 years decided to buy an old vineyeard and fix it up (maybe that’s in my future???).  He had since fixed it up into a paradise.  In addition to his vineyard and growing rosemary (which was delicious) and lavender, he also made balsamic vinegar and organic creams as well as hunted wild boars and truffles.  We sampled his balsamic vinegar (who knew that if you let it sit for 30 years it evaporates into a syrup – one that he charges ~$50 for) and then he made us a lunch that he paired with the different wines of his vineyard.  He also had an outdoor pizza oven (which is something I’ve been talking about building since I was in Seattle) so he explained to me and Travis how he built it and how to cook food in it.

Balsamic Vinegar Barrels

We then headed home.  We spent the rest of our day wandering around Florence and at night went back to the park overlooking the city to watch the sunset (with a couple hundred other people).  We also tried to call the Carusos (who are in Florence) because we thought it would be cool to see them but they didn’t have their phones on.  Anyways…

This guy drew this... in chalk

We are on the train now to Bari, Italy (its in the south east) where we will be catching a plan to Kos, Greece tomorrow.  CIAO!