I LOVE Tuscany!

So I am really unsure where to even start. I just had the BEST week.

I will do my best to keep it short so you can read it all...

Monday- Siena. Visited Duomo and Duomo museum. Had some great gelato. Dinner- ravioli with butter and sage- one of my favorites here. We stayed in a really fun hotel.

Tuesday- leave Siena to travel to Cortona (the city that Under the Tuscan Sun was based on). After a few hours travel to Fattoria Santa Vittoria a local winery. We had a tour of the winery followed by wine tasting with a meal prepared by our own personal chef, Francesco. The winery is owned by a family, who was so sweet and had the cutest little 2 year old girl. Let me just tell you about the meal... 1st- antipasta: riboletto (traditional tuscan soup in 3 varieties), Francesco's homemade bread and sausages, proschuitto, different cheeses. Next, homemade pasta with ragu (so good). Third, porchetta (sort of like pork tenderloin), mashes potatoes and beans. Finally, chocolate lava cake with yogurt and kiwi. The meals just keep getting better. Then we made our way to Florence and arrived at our hotel. That night we went out for some delicious mexican food for a change.

Wednesday- we woke up and made our way to the Accademia. Saw Michelangelo's David, got chills. Lunch at a make your own panino place, The Oil Shoppe (highly reccommended). Then I hike up to the Capucci museum, a famous Italian designer. (check the pictures- some amazing dresses that really are works of art.) Then we went to the leather market and shopped around town. For dinner we went to Aqua Al Due, which had been reccommended by most people who have been to Florence. Delicious meal of a pasta sampler, best Greek salad, blueberry steak and a dessert sampler of chocolate torte, tiramisu, cheesecake and apple pie. I could have just eaten dessert and been happy. We went out to a bar/club/pub not sure what to call it and celebrated Ginny and Rob's engagement.

Thursday- First visit to Ferragamo museum to see all the different shoes including ones made for Marilyn Monroe and Eva Gardner. Made our way to Uffizi museum for famous works like Boticcelli's Spring and Birth of Venus. Lunch again at the Oil Shoppe where I made my own salad. Then we walked around and found the hostel we would be staying in for Thursday and Friday nights. We went to have mexican again (hey, it's rare to have anything other than pizza and pasta). One of the girls we were with knew some girls studying in Florence so we went to their apartment to hang out for a little while.

Friday- McDonald's for breakfast (ha) Then Sarah and I walked around the market for a few hours and finally made some purchases. (leather jacket!) The guy who sold all of us leather jackets was a guy named Fernando. Fernando grew up in mexico but spent 7th grade near atlanta georgia. So he speaks perfect English, Spanish and Italian. He suggested a gelato place, "Perche non" which had coffee cruch, possibly my all time favorite. He also suggested a restaurant, "Gato e Volpe" where we ate for dinner. It was so delicious. We met a friend, Daniel at Perche Non who had graduated from Princeton and was in Florence to collaborate with other physicists. He studies the universe. Daniel didn't really know anyone in Florence so he came with us to dinner. He bought the table different antipastas and was really sweet.
Since Fernando's two reccommendations were so good we decided to go along with his third reccommendation, an Irish pub. Fernando met us there and then we went to a place to dance, Twenty One for a little while. What a fun last night in Florence!

Saturday- woke up and went straight to shop and do some last minute things in Florence. Don't worry we got some coffee crunch gelato before we left town. It was such a beautiful day so we made sure to go take pictures at Ponte Vecchio. Make sure you check out my pictures! We then took the train back to Ariccia. As much as I loved Florence, it felt great to be back "home."

Today we went for a quick slice of pizza. (it's funny how no matter where you go it's so good.) Now I am working on some homework that's due because we go on spring break in one week! Paris, Dublin, London here I come!