Tuscan Weekend: Part 2

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel--continental, aka I ate everything. There was a hot chocolate machine and a juice machine, both of which I frequented a lot. After breakfast, we boarded the bus to Florence. We had a walking tour of the city--saw Dante's house, wrote love wishes to Beatrice, saw the duomo, crossed Ponte Vecchio, went to some markets. It was nice to have a tour of the city to get more information and insider tips. The tour took about two hours and then we were let on our own. As a group, we decided to visit the leather market, get lunch, some more shopping, climb the cathedral, and finally see David. While everyone bought something at the leather market, I didn't get anything. I didn't love anything. I was still stuffed from breakfast so I didn't get lunch when we stopped. Our next adventure: climb the dome of the duomo. There are 463 steps to the top. It got a little claustrophobic, especially because at one point people were coming down as we were climbing up. A little cramped and dark, to say the least. But the views from the top were worth it. It was so nice. After the climb, we made our way to see Florence's most famous man: David. The statue was huge. He is very imposing. I got a few souvenirs at the gift shop (secrets). We had time to kill so we just walked around before getting on the bus again.

We had dinner at the hotel again. Some pasta thing, salad/second course like Friday, chicken and fries, and finished with tiramisu. Early morning on Sunday--we were out a full hour earlier than on Saturday. I paced myself through breakfast this time because we were getting lunch at the winery. Once we were "under the Tuscan sun," we had a tour of the place, a wine tasting, pasta making lesson, and finally a huge lunch. We started with a meat and cheese plate, then pasta with meat sauce, chicken and potatoes, and finally a fruit tart. It was a long meal and I definitely gained 10 pounds over the course of the weekend. But then it was time to go back to Rome. It was a great weekend but I missed Rome. I also had homework to do.  It was a fun time--a memorable and worthwhile trip!

duomo

the Arno and me

Ponte Vecchio

Florence

Florence

Fattoria del Colle

view from the winery