This past week from November 7th to the 11th my Mom took her first trip over to Europe since 1998 to come visit me in Florence. Accompanying my mom for the journey was her college roommate Lynn and her daughter Tricia who are like family to me.
They couldn't have picked a more perfect time to come! As in love as I am with studying abroad and living in Italy going 4 months without seeing or really being able to call your family is never easy. In addition you will always have your days where your frustrated with Europe, everyone, and everything. For example having a shower so small that you cannot move and the curtain sticks to you when you do or as stupid as this sounds not understanding why you can't find chocolate chip cookies anywhere. Hey nobody can stay in honeymoon phase 24/7. Having my mom and close friends here was exactly what I needed not to mention so much fun!!
The first day everyone arrived I had class till 3:30. I practically ran out of my class when it was over to meet up with mom, Lynn and Tricia so we could start exploring. I took them all to my favorite sandwich shop and we headed up to the Piazza Michelangelo (my favorite spot in florence) to watch the sunset. Piazza Michelangelo is beautiful and has the most incredible view of the city. We enjoyed the sunset and decided to sit at the cafe up there and drink some wine and snack. The jet lag and exhaustion was evident in everyones faces. My mom nodded off a few times at the cafe (sorry mom, had to share).
When we had finished up we all decided that everyone needed a nice Italian dinner for the first night. We stopped at a place I have been to before and has amazing food! Everyone was very satisfied by the food and wine, which made me feel very Florence savvy for picking a good restaurant for day one. It Italy 99.9% of the time you get a free Lemon Cello shot after your meal. So everyone got the lovely experience of chocking down a nice Lemon Cello shot after the meal. We were all stuffed but how could you get through your first day in Italy without gelato?! YOU CAN'T! So I took them over to a gelato stand and everyone got a nice big scoop! From there we walked back to the hotel they were staying at and passed out. Lucky me I also got to escape my far from sanitary apartment and sleep in a hotel for a few days!
The second day of the trip was greeted by a lovely breakfast.Everyone knows I love a good breakfast, if you have read any of my other posts. The hotel had such a good continental breakfast! I think all of us can agree that the fruit salad and chocolate croissants were our absolute favorite! From there we had to speed out and catch a cab to get to our Tuscan wine tour. I'll take a second to tell you all how Italians are the worlds craziest drivers! Sorry NYC taxi drivers...someones got you beat! To them there is no such thing as stopping at a stop sign, not even really slowing down. It's more of a quick glance, speed up and beat the car going in the opposite direction. They have to dodge bikes, vesbas, motorcycles, pedestrians, and of course other cars constantly. I think driving here is more of a science than a skill.
Anyways, of course we got to the tour on time! It began with an overview of wine making and our first experience of the correct way to taste wine. After that we got placed into vans to start the tour. We got put in a van with 4 women who work for Welches. They were a fun group and right off the bat we got deemed as "the chatty car." We stopped off at Piazza Michelangelo on the way so we got to experience the Piazza in the morning. We were then taken to a vineyard where they make wine and olive oil. We got to see the process of making olive oil and I died. I LOVE olive oil and if anything living in Italy has only made my love grow into an obsession. I use it everyday with pretty much every meal. The Olive oil smelled so good!! We were given a glass of red wine to walk around with as we toured the olive oil making and the wine cellar. We were taken inside where in the course of about an hour we were given about 6 glasses of different red wines to try. We also were given fresh olive oil and bread. By the end of the hour everyone was feeling really good. Everyone was chatting and we met two groups of really nice Australians (seriously Australians are the greatest!). We also met a professional unicycle hockey player, yes that is a real sport! I won't get into that but everyone should take the chance to go goggle that!
We loaded back into the vans to bond some more with the Welches workers. We were taken to another vineyard where we were given another tour of where they make the wine and the wine cellars. We learned so much about the process and what makes a good wine. We were then brought inside for more wine tasting and lunch. They had us try another 4 wines and gave us an AMAZING pasta lunch. The sauce was to die for! Nothing like a good, fresh, homemade Italian meal. Afterwards two of the Australians convinced Tricia and I to try a shot of Grappa. OMG grappa is an experience to say the least...it's pretty gross! This was the last stop on the wine tour and from there they brought us back to Florence.
When we got back to Florence we walked over the Ponte Vecchio and I dragged everyone over to get a gelato at Grom. Grom gelato is so so soooo good! They have a Grom specialty so we all split some of that and also a dark chocolate. We were exhausted and went back to the hotel to pass out for a few hours before going out to dinner.
When we woke up I took everyone over to another restaurant that I am
obsessed with Osteria Il Gatto E la Volpe translated into English as
"the cat and the wolf." Here we all enjoyed another perfect Italian
meal. I finally got to try my favorite meal penna alla vodka in Italian. Again it was another one of the best meals I have gotten in Italy. Again everyone was exhausted from the days activities so we went straight back to the hotel after dinner to get some sleep.
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