This was the weekend for Florence!
I was able to leave Milan on Thursday and spent the afternoon walking around and taking a few pictures. The following morning I had scheduled a bike tour of the Tuscan countryside including a vineyard and olive oil making tour. The bike ride was a bit tough since I haven't ridden in quite a few months, but it was a good workout with well-timed stops to rest going up quite a few hills (808 ft elevation gained in 1/4 of our trip). Part of the route we took was included on the Road World Championships bike race just a week or so prior. The tour consisted of a few other Americans, and was led by two American ex-pats. We had a good time together.
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| seeing what I can see of Florence! |
On the bike ride, I found out / saw where Michelangelo grew up (Caprese), learned that olive oil olives are picked by hand, and that a Chianti classico comes only from that specific region (makes sense) and it tasted very nice also. Oh, and for the olive oil, if it's 'extra virgin olive oil' the acidity is <.8 vs <.1 for just regular 'virgin olive oil' (or something like that...) Good to know.
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| Me and my bike in front of the 500+ year old vineyard |
After the bike tour was done, I walked to the train station to meet Meghann and we walked around, found some dinner, enjoyed the life of the city and played a game of chess (which I miserably lost). Somehow we started using 'hashtag' everything in order to describe exactly how we felt. #sillyroommates. Saturday was our day to wander and shop! So wander and shop we did! We bought a few things (which won't be mentioned so as not to inform the possible recipients) #christmaspresentscheck, and found a random wine and olive oil tasting in a piazza that was accompanied by the soothing sounds of an accomplished street musician playing renditions of '90's music #wineandmusic #relaxingbreak. I then made one of my infamous quotes (remember
'old dirt' in Pompeii) by saying the following to Meghann, "If we were able to google zoom out from where we are right now, we would be in Italy." #thatjusthappened
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| Friends together again! #friendspub |
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| Ponte Vecchio! |
Sunday we took in a few historic sights, Michelangelo's David (which was quite impressive), a sculpture museum, and a couple of churches. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the museum with David so I have nothing to share here except that it was #reallyreallyneat #nowords. We also had scheduled a wine tasting close to the train station before we left and enjoyed some very delicious cheeses and hams wonderfully paired with a few tastes of excellent small vineyard wine #tastebudheaven #goodsommmelier #italygoatcheese. Being from California, Meghann said it was actually the best tasting she'd ever done. #scoreflorence
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| At the sculpture museum |
We boarded our train and headed home. All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic trip! #hashtagonetripforthewin
~Elizabeth
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