Internet in Italy is Impossible. Sorry!

Delays in writing seem to be caused by a variety of events, although in the case of the delay that puts the posts for Forence and the Cinque Terre slightly behind schedule, it is entirely due to a lack of internet access in Cinque Terre, Pisa, and Rome.  It wasn't until we arrived in Sorrento that we had reliable (and free) internet, even in our own room.  Please enjoy our last few days of events, below.

Florence with Andy! Part 1.

Day One:

After departing Castiglion Fiorentino for the last time on this trip, anyway, I hopped aboard my train to Florence, knowing that Andy would be waiting for me there, and he was.  Six weeks of waiting seemed to disappear as I welcomed him to Italy with a hug and kisses aplenty.  Our first course of action was to find our hotel, the Hotel Sampaoli.  We had directions but had neglected to have a map.  Despite this, we found it with little trouble, situated on the fourth floor of a row of buildings, just north of San Lorenzo (and its famous market) and the Medici Palace, directly over a Greek Restaurant. 

We rang the bell, heard the door click, and entered.  We were greeted in a minute or two by the man running the establishment who offered to help us with our bags and lead us up the stairs. The only complaint we could have lodged about our room was its location, literally opening on the lobby and its traffic, but the room itself was of a reasonable size, had a decent bathroom, a window, and a very large fan.  No AC but that's not uncommon and the fan did much to cool the room.

Me on the bed in Hotel #1, Sampaoli in Florence.

Nice people, decent location, no AC.

After resting for a bit, we headed out in search of lunch.  I took Andy to the small panini shop I'd been to on two of my previous visits to Florence and enjoyed their panini while walking around.  I took Andy past many of the notable spots including the Duomo, Orsanmichele, San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, and the Ponte Vecchio.  At the Palazzo Vecchio I gave Andy a informal version of my presentation about the statue of Perseus and Medusa.  We also hunted down the restaurant we had reservations to dine at the following evening, the Quatre Lione, which had been recommended by the neighbors we'd recently acquired back in Austin.  Past the ponte and a right at a book shop and there it was in a small piazza.

We headed back towards the hotel, stopping to grab a gelato at Grom on the way (strawberry and lemon for both of us) and took a stroll through the San Lorenzo Market, as Andy was tired from his flight.  Apparently, there'd been a group of teens on the flight who didn't ever shut up and sleep, so he wasn't able to get any sleep on the flight.  While he napped, I played on the computer and looked up the train schedule for our departure to the Cinque Terre and the hours of the Galileo Museum.

Strawberry and Lemon Gelato from GROM Florence

For dinner we went to a spot recommended by the hotel (there are only two they recommend, the second being the Quatre Lione) called Za Za.  The outside seemed loud and full, so we opted to sit inside and were lead to our choice of tables by a very perky Japanese girl.  It seemed that the place had a lot of front-of-house Japanese people, actually, which I found rather odd.  I had Tagliatelli (the really wide noodles) in boar sauce, grilled chicken with roasted potatoes, and a salad.  Andy had Pici with pesto sauce, a mixed grill platter with chicken, beef, lamb and a pork sausage with roasted potatoes, and a salad.  We tried a house white wine with it, and Andy followed it all with his first Italian coffee (which he's now addicted to because they don't make him as "hot" as a full cup of coffee would).

Dinner was followed by a slow stroll around Florence, enjoying the cooler air of the evening and the lessened crowds.  We walked towards the Ponte Vecchio and saw all the jewelry shops closed up for the night with their beautiful wood coverings in place to protect the glass and jewelry inside and took photos of the Arno with the lights reflecting off it from the buildings along the banks which, since I didn't have my camera at the time, we decided to return the following evening to get better shots.

The End of the Line...

It's over.  My six week study abroad is finished and I'm celebrating in a hostel in Florence with Andy, who is sleeping off his plane ride next to me as I write.  I told him to sleep on the plane but, apparently, that's difficult when you're surrounded by a school's worth of high school students, particularly when they won't shut up and sleep themselves.

The last week at Santa Chiara was pretty calm.  We stayed in Castiglion Fiorentino all week so that people could work on their group presentations and the class photography exhibit, which was on Tuesday.  It went pretty well, I think.  I was in a mood not fit for company, so I spent the time up in my room watching the Disney Animated Hercules and listening to the people in the courtyard below.

Wednesday was the first day of group presentations including the one for the group I was in.  One group went earlier in the day and discussed the roads.  After that we had a break and headed on a half hour hike to a nearby vineyard called La Pievuccia.  They organically grow, process, and bottle a variety of wines as well as olive oil and honey.  The owner took us on a tour of the wine making area, although they won't be doing any processing until the harvest in September, and discussed how they grow their plants, why they chose to be organic, and even slightly more natural than organic, as they process without chemicals, as well.  He, apparently, doesn't like Californian wine because in the states wine is something people drink on its own, so it needs to have certain flavors, but here, wine is designed to be eaten with food, so it is much more subtle.

 Olive orchards at La Pievuccia.

After the tour, we sat down to a tasting, with food, of course, little flower shaped pizzas were served with a light white wine, bruschetta with tomatoes and cheese and crostini with an olive paste came with the rose wine, and very good salami and bresaola with a nice bread came with the red.  Somewhere in the middle there were pieces of cheese topped with a plum sauce or a very light honey.  The last taste was of their vin santo, a very concentrated wine that ages for at least five years, I think, in warm temperatures.  It's made from grapes that have been picked and let dry almost to being raisins and tastes a lot like them.  It was served with biscotti, which wast to be dipped in the vin santo, as our TA, Erica, demonstrates in the image below.

Erica was always good for a laugh and a slightly (or entirely) inappropriate joke.

After the tasting, we had the opportunity to purchase some of the products we'd just tasted, and I took the opportunity to buy three bottles of the red wine because I know people at home who will enjoy it, a bottle of the vin santo because in small amounts, it's very nice, a jar of honey, and two bottles of olive oil.

While some of the students stayed to swim in the pool at the vineyard, the members of my group among a few others, opted to head back to Santa Chiara.  On the way back, I took the opportunity to snap some photos.  I took the one below of the Montecchio Vesponi Castle nearby as we were so much closer to it than at Santa Chiara.

The Castle of Montecchio Vesponi

As I was walking along, I saw some little chicks in an enclosure and found them quite cute but I didn't take any photos.  As I was wandering off, a man with lots of hair caught up to me in his white van and, in Italian, started saying something I imagine was something like, "Did you want to take photos of the chicks?" and "Come, come it's OK."  He led me over, gave me a prime spot overlooking the chickenwire mesh keeping the little fluffy things in, and urged me to take photos.  After a bit, he led me towards where the chickens and roosters were kept and urged me, again, to take photos, even suggesting I use a flash to get better shots but it was light enough, even in the shade to go without.  Then, as I was thanking him and heading off, he said something else I didn't understand and yelled to a younger man on the upper story porch to tell me something in English.  He asked if I could send them the photos if he gave me his email address so I told him that I would, and I did.  Here are a couple, one of some of the chicks, and one of a huge rooster with funny white feet.

Later, we gave our presentation with its scavenger hunt, awarded prizes to the winners, and went off to dinner.  Another group went after dinner and that was about it for me that day.  It had been long. At some point I did manage to get up to Cocoa Palm for gelato.

Lemon, Strawberry & Frutti di Bosco

Thursday started with another presentation followed by lunch then another presentation or two... or three... then we went off on another walk to La Pievuccia, this time for their dinner.  Apparently, it's common for some small wineries to offer dinners, or at least, they do there.  We'd been talking about doing it for almost the whole trip, so everyone was pretty excited.  We got semi-dressed up, as there'd be a long walk to get there, and headed out for dinner at eight.  The food was very nice, an appetizer plate with several offerings, lasagna, roasted pork with spinach and thin slices of potato, panna cotta covered with a mixed berry sauce, and your choice of vin santo, grapa, or Nocino, a walnut based liqueur.  I had the first, as I knew I liked it and grapa burns out my nose hairs and I'm not that huge a fan of walnuts. While the food was good, the best part was that we were sitting outside in the early evening with a nice breeze on a smal patio near the olive orchards.  Afterward we took a taxi (in batches) back to Santa Chiara.

Friday was composed almost entirely of packing and getting ready to leave, as I needed to take a train at around 11:30 to meet Andy in Florence on Saturday.  I had my last couple of meals at Santa Chiara, and enjoyed my last gelato at Cocoa Palm (mango, peach, and raspberry, I think); there's a photo on Henry I have to download at some point.

And that was that.  It was over, I was packed.  All that was lacking was a few hours and a few last minute chores like stripping my bed, picking up a bit of trash, and the last minute packing after the morning activities.  I said, and hugged, good bye some of the people still at the center, grabbed my bags and left for my last walk down the hill to the train station... and towards Florence and Andy.

Good bye, Santa Chiara.  Farewell, Castiglion Fiorentino.