That's A Wrap!

Hey Everybody!

Well, as you may have guessed I have been incredibly busy soaking up my last few days of Italy. I probably wont finish my section on my family's 10 day visit, so expect for me to tell you all about the rest when I get home. There’s simply to much I want to share about that trip. But now that I am almost on my way home I'd really like to share some of the last few weekends and thoughts I have been enjoying while wrapping up my two month stint in Italy!

The weekend after my family left Florence API took us to Lucca and Cinque Terre. This was a trip I had really been looking forward to! Friday was the fourth of July, which is really weird to celebrate in a foreign country but my roomies and I rocked it out despite the distance. It started off in Lucca, where we left API, who had planned yet another day of walking tours around the city. We decided that we had had enough of walking tours and were ready to strike out on our own! So we found a place that rented bicycles out by the hour and biked along the city walls of Lucca for the next four hours. We dipped in to the city once and rode around to see the churches and little stores that filled the town, but we had fallen in love with the large city walls. When I say city walls, you probably picture a thin road made of stone that’s pretty high up! Well, the high up part is right, but its actually a huge road, probably wide enough for three cars to ride side by side and it has a TON of trees and even a few parks that branch off it (Pictures of it above). It was a gorgeous view from the road and I have never had so much fun on bike! After Lucca we were taken to our hotel and we swam for the rest of the day! That night before dinner all of us girls ordered a beer and toasted to America. We even hummed the Star Spangled Banner (We hummed instead of sang because lets face it, no one can really sing that song on pitch)! It was actually one of the most fun 4th of July's I have had yet!

Saturday we were taken to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is kind of like a "second rate" Capri. I actually feel lame even saying that because Cinque Terre was SO beautiful. So I take it back. Cinque Terre is JUST as beautiful as Capri. We were dropped off at La Spezia, a little beach town at the very beginning of the island chain that makes up Cinque Terre (AKA the 5 islands). We took a boat from La Spezia to Port Venere, which is a really great little beach town. It was pretty sleepy and not much to it. API had set up another tour and we skipped it again. So we wandered around the little town, laid on the HUGE rocks that they call a beach and enjoyed the sun and the sound of the waves! It was so relaxing and beautiful! From Port Venere we caught another boat to Monterosso, the only Island out of the five-island chain that has a beach...again a rock beach, but still, a beach! The boat ride over there was SO fun because there were some HUGE waves and the boat kept rising and plummeting. There were actually a few times I thought Anna and I were going to be thrown off the boat (thus that picture of us on the slideshow above), It was so fun! Monterosso was (surprise, surprise) beautiful and we spent the entire time sunning! It was a wonderful Saturday and Sunday, all I did was read and sunbathe! I actually used sun tan lotion for the first time in my life because I have finally began to worry about what all this laying out is going to translate into in the next thirty years. So I applied and reapplied through out the day! We had some really great pesto pasta because my Food and Wine professor says the area surrounding the Cinque Terre grows the best basil in the country and thus they make the best pesto around. He was right- it was delicious! We decided to join API for a little hike they wanted to take us on (Cinque Terre is known for their hiking trails). The trail they took us on is called Lovers Lane. But let me assure you, it’s a lot less romantic than it sounds when you’re walking it with 50 other people, none of whom are your love. But it was still a gorgeous hike with gorgeous views. Unfortunately my camera decided to die and I have yet to get pictures of it from Anna. But trust me, it was gorgeous. On Sunday, after we had spent the entire day in the sun we drove back to Florence and I was so tired I pretty much took a shower and went right to sleep!

The next weekend all of my roomies and I stayed in Florence, I don’t really even remember that weekend because most of it was spent lounging around the apartment reading. I have read 5 books so far in Florence, all in the last 3 weeks. I've been doing some serious relaxing, and loved every minute of it!

Last Friday my roomies and I were hungry...but we didn’t want to go anywhere so we decided to make apertivos in our apartment! Apertivos are a wonderful invention, very similar to Tappas in the States but better I think. I think I explained this in my Milan Blog post but I'll go ahead and give you a recap. Apertivos is where you go in to a restaurant, and purchase a cocktail for 6 euro or so and you get full access to a wonderful all you can eat buffet of snacks like pastas, or bruschetta or procuitto and melon. It’s pretty great!!! We decided to go to the grocery store, buy our own procuitto, mozzarella, tomatoes and peaches (for dessert). We took it all home, whipped it all up and thoroughly enjoyed our hard work! It was so fun! (Pictures of it are on the slide show!)
Saturday we went to Viagreggio, which is just a small beach about a two-hour train ride from Florence. I've been there before; I went there with Emma during first session. But this time I went with my roomies, Lexi, Anna, Hannah and Hannah's boyfriend Steven. We had a great time, lounging on the beach and then we had dinner at a really cute little restaurant where I tried gnocchi (potato dumplings) with a crab sauce! It was delicious! We even had crème Brule that was ffffaaabbbuulous. That's my favorite dessert! We got home around 11 and I again, took a shower and went straight to sleep!

We had to wake up early on Sunday because we were meeting a bike company at 9:30am to go on a Bike Tour through Tuscany! We didn't have reservations but they assured us we shouldn’t have a problem getting in. We ended up not being able to go with the first company that left at 9:30 but we were told to wait around for the Taste of Tuscany Bike Tour at 10:00. So we waited for about 20 minutes and luckily we were able to make it on the tour! We drove about 25 minutes outside of Florence to an 11th century Castle that is still being lived in by a Count and Countess! We were given a tour of the castle, and the wine process they have set up in order to age and bottle their wine and olive oil! We were able to climb the tour of the castle and see the amazing view from the top and then we climbed down and had a wine and olive oil tasting in the castle’s courtyard. It was so beautiful!!!

After a glass of wine we hopped on our bikes (I know...drinking and riding...really?) and started our 13-mile tour! 13 miles sounds like a lot but we took a lot of breaks and broke up the trip between Lunch. We rode downhill most of the way before lunch, which we had at a really cute little restaurant, and then rode for about 45 minutes on a straight stretch through olive and wine groves. After the bike tour we got back on the bus and went back to Florence. I basically never wanted to move again! So I took a shower and .... watched a movie! THEN I went to sleep! haha, changed it up there for ya :).

All in all I think its going to be a fabulous last week. I only have 5 more days till I am home as it is, and I am looking forward to wrapping up Florence by revisiting all of my favorite places and making sure to get in some news ones. Two months seemed to have flown by in retrospect. But I will wait for those thoughts till Friday when I will write again!
I hope you have great week- I will be writing soon!
Ciao ciao!