Pisa and Pizza!

Today, my roommate and I got to experience 2 new things. The train station, and Pisa!

The train station was crazy, everyone and everything seemed to be moving so fast and we just could not keep up! Eventually, we figured out how to get our tickets from a kiosk and then had to figure out the Italian on the tickets to tell us what platform to wait at and what train to get on. It was very hectic! We tried asking for help from a random person, they didn't speak any english. Then tried asking a person at a ticket booth counter, he just drew a picture and pointed- no words.. Finally we were given some helpful instruction and by this time.. we had 4 minutes to make it to the train,we walked so fast to that platform!! We got on the train and a minute after we sat down it started moving- we got lucky!

When we got to Pisa, we decided to buy a map before we left the station because neither of us had ANY idea at at all of where we were/ where anything we wanted to see was. And when we walked out, we just kept walking.. didn't take out the map once. We walked past little shops and through the town and it was really nice! Its a lot like Florence only smaller and less crowded. We decided to just keep walking and exploring and we came across the tower! It was very cool to see in person, we did not go up to the top, unfortunately, because it was raining really hard and it was pretty cold, so we just took our touristy pictures and went to find a place to wait out the rain.

We took cover in a pizza place! Lucky us, right? It was SO good! We sat in there and waited for the rain to lighten up (and ate pizza) before we moved on… to gelato:)

It was a very nice town and I would love to go back on a nicer day so I can climb to the top of the tower! 

Cooking class!

COOKING CLASS!

Tonight I took a cooking class at a cooking school called In Tavola! It was so much fun, we made Caprese di Melanzane (Eggplant Caprese), Pasta Fresca all' Uovo (Fresh egg pasta) that we made fettuccine and the ravioli with, Tortelli Di Patate (potato tortelli), and Pinna Cotta with Chocolate Rum Sauce. It was pretty easy.. but we will see how much I did learned when I actually have to make everything by myself and not a professional helping me! Luckily, they gave us the recipes and instructions so hopefully it will turn out the same as it did tonight, because everyone needs to try it!!

It was worth all the work!

Ciao!

-Chef Natalie :)

Taste of Tuscany!

 There hasn't been anything very exciting happening here the past few days.. I came down with strep throat- not fun! So I haven't done much, but I am all better now! And it is perfect timing because today(Saturday the 24th) my friends Danielle, Nicole and I went on a day trip to Tuscany! We went with a travel group called bus2apls and they planned the whole thing for us, which was nice because we really didn't know that much about what to do there, so this was perfect! We got on the bus this morning at 8:00am and traveled to Montalcino which is where the winery, Altesino, is. We were taken on a tour through their wine cellar and where they make the wine, store it, and where they package and label it. All very interesting to see and learn about! After the tour, we tasted 3 wines and were allowed to walk around their HUGE property and take pictures.

After that, we got back on the bus and left for a winery just outside of Siena called Tenuta Torciano. It was beautiful there as well. I believe they said that the winery has been in their family for 7 generations!  We were there for lunch and a wine tasting/lesson on how to taste the wine. Who knew that there is a proper way to pick up your glass, hold your glass, swirl, smell and taste it? I did not know! We were told that you have to pick up the glass with your non dominant hand and then place it in your dominant hand with 3 fingers under the base and your thumb and pointer finger hold on the top.. then if you want to place it back down, you have to place it in your other hand and set it down.. And that is how we had to do it the entire lunch! For lunch, we had an appetizer of the best salami, cheese, and bread w/ oil.. Then we were given a house vegetable soup, and for the main course we had lasagna.. SO GOOD! It was, I think, a 3 cheese and sausage lasagna with truffle oil on top, it was delicious! We also tried their home made balsamic which was great and with all of that-about 9 kinds of wine.. 1 white, 1 desert and the rest were reds. My favorites were the Baldassarre, and a Brunello Di Montalcino. As we were tasting these wines, the food was brought to us and the owner was telling us things like "take a bite of the salami and cheese with a sip of this wine" and then the bread and cheese with the other and it was just so much fun and so delicious!

After our lunch, we made our way to San Gimignano which is a walled medieval town on top of a hill. The view from this spot was really breathtaking, it was like there was a screen with a painting on it.. it just did not seem real or that I was really there seeing it. The land and hills went on and on and on, I can not even begin to describe to you how beautiful and breathtaking it was. I guess it is just something that you have to see for yourself to understand! Along with a beautiful view, the best gelato in the world is located there. And it really was amazing! Now, that place is the best gelato I've ever had! To bad it is over an hour and a  half away or I would be there all the time! I guess I'll just have to settle for some place here in Florence and not the one in Tuscany:)

Well, that is all I have for today:) I put more pictures of the view and the buildings on my Facebook page so if you'd like to see more go there! 

Ciao!!

The Uffizi!

I do not know how to start this post because I could say so much about the Uffizi, but at the same time I am speechless about it! There was SO MUCH to see, you could really spend hours in there and still not see everything. Uncle Dale- you were right when you said you could go in every week and each time see something new! Just amazing art work, and all the detail along with how old everything is.. I feel so excited that I was able to be there and see all that art close up and in person. My program gave all the students museum passes so I can go there for free as many times as I want to!! These are just some of the pictures I took, there are so many and they really don't do any justice to how awesome everything is.

So, everything inside was amazing but the view of the river was really cool too!

After that, we went to one of our advisors favorite gelato place.. it is now my favorite! Its called Gelateria die Neri and its the best I've had here so far that is for sure!

Piazzale Michelangelo- and more steps...

Today I hiked up the MANY steps to Piazzale Michelangelo and the Church of San Miniato al Monte with a few classmates! We walked through Giardino della Rose, the rose garden, which was very pretty but there were no flowers to see, our advisors say to go around April/May and it will be completely filled with every color rose! I will be going back for sure to see that:) We continues up and the further and further we went the more beautiful the view was, It seemed like you could see the entire city of Florence. Another sight that was completely worth the hike!

So at the top was the Church of San Miniato al Monte, I believe they said it was one of the oldest churches in Florence and it still holds services. We did not get to go inside because of a service that was going on actually, but thats okay because the view of the city was enough for me!

Everything else is going really well here! I am doing great and the food is still amazing! I think I am completely adjusted to the time difference now because I can sleep through the night which is exciting! I am also enjoying the 50 degree weather here unlike at home where it is freezing.. I miss the snow but I do not miss the air hurting my face! 

  Well, we are going to some museums tomorrow so I will have pictures and post again soon!

Ciao!!

Favorite Find!

Ciao!
  So, there hasn't been anything that exciting happening here in the past few days. Just little things that are exciting for my friends and I, like our first trip to the grocery store. That is an experience in itself! We were in there for a while trying to figure out things like which milk is the skim milk, if it is detergent or softener, and if it says salt or sugar..basically just what anything says! So it was an interesting experience to say the least!
  I started classes yesterday, they went well! I am taking Italian 1, a culture in education class (where I do my field experience), Educational Psychology, and an online math class. I have all 3 classes on Monday, and just one  Tuesday- Thursday! Classes here aren't very different, the only thing that is weird is the size of my classes. My Italian class is a full class with about 20 of us, my culture ed class has 6 people, and my Ed Psych class has 2.. it is just me, my roommate and the teacher.. weird! Its okay though, because it turned in to an independent study course since its just the 2 of us and we only have to meet once a week! The teachers and advisors I have are really great, I think this semester will go well:)
  I don't have any pictures of any new food I've eaten because we stopped going out (besides breakfast, I can not pass up the croissants) and started cooking here! It is so much fun! We made a pizza, pasta, caprese sandwich's, and some baked chicken. I am going to be an awesome cook when I come home!

I do, however, have a picture of the best invention ever- it will save college students/anyone everywhere!

Pocket Coffee.. It is a small shot of espresso in a chocolate nugget. They wake me up and are delicious! Favorite find so far..

Tonight we are going to make some ravioli, and then go volunteer at The Misericordia. We are going to see how Italians charity works:)

Fino a domani!

The Doumo

Today was the first day a friend and I were actually able to act like tourists, normally we just want to blend in so it is not obvious we aren't from around here but today was different:) We went in to the Duomo, which is the gigantic cathedral in the middle of the city.

We went inside and looked around a while- it is huge! The paintings, stained glass, and other things in there were so cool to see.

After that we walked up the about 500 stairs to get to the top to see the view of the city, it was a hike! 

But it was all worth it when we made it to the top, the view was breathtaking!