Day 21: Taken by Tuscany

I found Wi-Fi! I wrote this blog post on my phone on Monday, so I apologize if the tense isn't quite right (considering today is Thursday). I'll try and post my one's for the rest of the week either later today or this weekend. Pictures will have to wait until Sunday, but I promise it will be worth the wait! They are fantastic!! I'm off to London in a little bit -- pray we have a safe flight on Ryan Air! Ciao everyone :)

Monday - June 7, 2010:

I started typing the name of this post and came to the realization that I have been living in Italy for 3 weeks... I still can't get used to saying it or thinking it! But as I look back on those 21 days, it's crazy to think how much I've already learned, how much I've already seen and how close I've gotten with the other girls--and we have 2 months left. If the next 8 weeks are anything like the past 3, I can't help keep the grin from creeping onto my face because the thought makes me giddy and excited. Bring it on Italy (and England, Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland and etc)!

As mentioned, our bus left promptly at 6:15 a.m., so I was outside the Palace waiting with my ginormous backpack strapped on, ready for the road trip. Considering I stayed up until 12:30 to finish reading my second chick-lit novel of the trip (''The Convenient Groom'' by Denise Hunter. It was literally too good to put down! It only took me 3 days to read. Ladies... highly reccommended by SK) you'd think that I would do nothing but sleep on the bus ride. For some odd reason I was not feeling the need to sleep, so instead I studied my Expert of the Day and listened to Tyrone Well's song ''Sea Breeze'' on repeat. The ride took us about 3 and a half hours, meaning we arrived at 10:30.

Enrico dropped us off at a small town called San Gimignano. I didn't know anything about this town or what to expect.... to be honest, when Cinzia let us loose after Noelle gave her ''Expert of the Day'', I didn't know what to do. So I followed the crowd and wandered. Geez was I pleasantly surprised! This was only our first stop in Tuscany and I can already tell the scenery and the shopping are going to be taking over the blog posts. This area only had one road that was boardered by huge, stone buildings containing shops. I was going to try and keep it a secret, but I can't -- I racked up on some gifts for home and I am so excited I can barely contain myself! That's all I am going to say or else I will spill the beans and that is no fun!

Our second stop was wine tasting at the winery. Brittany gave her ''Expert of the Day'' on Tuscan wine and food, prepping us for what we were about to taste. First our tour guide, Siro, led us around the winery and showed us how the wine was made. He explained how the grapes were grown differently for each wine they produced. The scenery was absolutely picture-esuqe! I felt like I was in a movie - one movie in particular that came to my mind was ''Under the Tuscan Sun'' because it was absolutely scorching. I thought I was going to have a heat stroke. Bad day to wear jeans. We 'oohed' and 'aahhed' over the view for a while and chatted it up with Siro before heading inside. After touring the steel barrels and oak barrels that held the wine, we went inside to the eating room. Siro brought out the first white wine for us to try. It had been aged since 2006. I must have been a jabber-mouth because Siro pointed at me and asked if I'd like to help him demonstrate how to taste the wine. I got all excited, hopped right up to join him and then, after he ased me a few questions, I realized he thought I was Brittany (The Expert of the Day whom he chatted with earlier). Oops, oh well! I got to stand in front, swirl my glass and sample the delicious wine. I was a huge fan of this first vino!

Here are some tasting tips straight from Siro: 1) Check on top of the wine in the glass to make sure nothing is on it or it is not cloudy 2) Check the density of the wine by swirling wine in glass. Good wine sticks to the side of the glass and the legs take a long time to crawl down. This one had exceptional density! 3) Smell it with your nose in the glass and your mouth slightly open. White wine smells of either fruit or flowers or a combination of the two. This one was of green apples and pear! 4) Then the fun part... Take a big sip and let it sit in your mouth. Swish it around and see what you think. Good wine is supposed to stay in your mouth long after you swallow it. This one did that - it had a refreashing aftertaste! 5) Repeat these steps as necessary. No one wine or even one sip of wine is the same. You'll discover a new taste, smell or texture with each sip!

Inbetween samples they brought out our lunch -- pasta and meat sauce along with some locally grown olives. We were clean platers! For the next try Siro brought out 2 red chianti wines. Terebolo is the first one and it is all natural and is bottled straight from the steel container (not placed in an oak barrel to age). The second one is made from the same grape except that it has been stored in oak barrels for 8 months. So we had a taste test between the two. I was not a big fan of the first one... I'm really trying to learn to like red wine on this trip, but the unoaked one didn't win me over (but it had a really cute label!) The second one on the other hand, was a tollerable red. I actually kind of enjoyed it -- it wasn't as bitter.

While we were trying these he brought out a plate of bruschetta (pronounced brew-ske-tah) and cheese to cleanse our palate. We were in heaven!! The cheese was made from sheep's milk -- delishhh :) and there was also some bread drenched in garlic and their home made EVOO. Now we are talking about some good food -- this is the kind of food I've heard about and wanted! This wine tasting was so much fun -- I could have stayed there for hours sitting at the table, laughing, taking pictures and asking Siro a numerous amount of questions! It was hard leaving, but we managed to get on the bus for our next stop... Volterra!

Volterra's scenery ranked right up there with my expectations of Tuscany. This town was different than the previous ones we have visited because it had more cool, medieval style to it. It was straight from the scenes of New Moon when Bella goes to save Edward in Italy! It is what all of us were talking about. We had a guided tour of Volterra and let me tell you -- her looks were deceiving. She looked all nice and sweet wearing her mismatched earrings and cork wedge heels... but she meant business. I think she didn't have pateience for us because we were walking slow, taking pictures and lollygagging around the town (we also were a little sleepy from our wine tasting and hour long bus ride/nap that followed it). We kept trying to look in windows and she'd hurry us up and say ''Come on now, we don't have all day!'' Oops! But the town was extremely cool and laid back -- I got a really good vibe from it. Our last stop of the tour was a stop into a local alabaster shop -- alabaster is a type of material similar to marble, that Volterra is known for. Alabaster is east to sculpt with, so we went into a shop and watched one particular sculptor make a beautiful bowl from a block of alabaster. It was amazing, how he made it look so easy. It tok me back to my high school pottery class, when I got on the wheel for the first time and thought it was going to be so easy. Boy was I wrong. But this guy, Roberto, knew what he was doing. He has been an alabaster sculptor for 30 years!

That was our last stop of the day, so from Volterra we were off to Siena for the night! After a windy ride through the rolling, green hills of Tuscany, we got dropped off at our Hotel. Kate, Katelyn, Ashley and I are roommates in this quaint little hotel for one night. Once we unloaded, a few of us hit the streets of Siena and made our way towards Piazza del Campo. We ran into some more girls from our group and so we all decided to ''carpe diem'' and have dinner at one of the outside caffes in the Piazza. What a good choice! The weather was perfect and the Piazza was hopping with poeple. I ordered pizza (surprise, surprise)! After our dinner we weren't quite ready to turn in so Becca, Emily, Katherine, Lindsey, Katie and I walked around this local park.

I can't believe it is only day one of this week. How could it get better?! I have a suspicion it will though... Let's hope for it!