Florence

5/8/13 Day Nine

Tom found his map! :)

Ciao Rome... On to Florence.

The drive through Tuscany was beautiful, although I slept through most of it. We stopped at the greatest winery for what we thought was to be just a tasting and light snack. The lady told us all about the grapes and how rain affects them. She also told us how they make "Oil of Olives." She told us that Italians don't drink wine, they "sip" it with food. They took us to beautifully set tables where we started out sipping, but managed to finish I don't know how many bottles of vino. We all got drunk and were slurring our words. We had cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, salami with fennel, bread with oil. For dessert we had biscotti dipped in holy (sweet) wine for 10 seconds. They were amazing and I couldn't stop eating them. After buying our oil, balsamic vinegar and sun-dried tomatoes, we returned to the coach and were all singing and laughing.

We made a stop in Pesi and saw the Leaning Tower and took photos. It was very touristy. Linc had a Big Mac.

Dixie and Larry bought Tom a baseball cap as a gift for helping Dixie get around. He has been so helpful to her, even though he has less than perfect knees himself.

We got to our room and then all had dinner together, before having an early night. We were exhausted!

5/9/13 Day Ten

Our room here in Florence is nice. The ceilings are high and it's airy and big. Somehow we got a room with a balcony!

We went on a walking tour with a lady, Anna Maria who is 78. Yes, Linc asked her her age. She was hilarious! She had all of the ladies vote on which side of the statue of David we thought was the best and of course we all voted on his back side. :) We saw Michaelangelo's tomb. The statue of David was more beautiful than I imagined it to be and it's 16 feet high. I am loving learning so much history!

We went to a jewelry store as well as a huge leather store where we learned a lot about fine Italian leather. They gave us a coupon, but none of us found anything we couldn't live without.

We had lunch at a nice place overlooking the river and bridge with houses on it. I can't remember the name already. We had a huge two course heavy meal. Tom was sweet to trade meals with me, since I didn't care for mine. ;) After lunch we did some more shopping and stopped for gelato an cappuccino.

We found a great restaurant while on our walk. When we looked in the window, we saw the chef cooking and he invited us inside. We went back there for dinner and had planned to have just wine and appetizers, but ended up having our most expensive dinner yet. It was a bit of a scam, because we thought our waiter was being generous, offering us extras, but we got charged, big-time. He made us authentic salad, table-side and I took many pictures. Our spaghetti was a lot like goulash (dry). The chianti was "better" too, but we have had so much and I haven't had any that I haven't liked yet! I am still not a wine snob.

We came back to our hotel and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful evening out in the courtyard. We played charade's, acting out everyone on our trip so far. We must have been having a little too much fun because all of a sudden a man yelled out his window, "SHUT UP!!!!!!" We decided it was time to call it a night. :)

5/10/13 Day Eleven

Okay, I'm not going crazy, eating and drinking too much today! We'll see...I must say though, I haven't had one headache yet, so it might be true about sulfates causing headaches. ;)

We did an excursion with the group which took us to a cute city called San Gimignano, where we had cafe and some amazing lemon biscuits. We shopped around, took photos and the guys had gelato at the world's best ice cream shop! Linc said it was the best chocolate he has ever had.

I loved the ride through Tuscany listening to Andrea Bocelli. We stopped for a visit in Siena, where we took a walking tour with another guide. She told us about the big horse competition and how the different areas were divided in Controdas (sp?) and all have their own flags. It appears there is still competition between them. I think she said she was a caterpillar and she married an elephant against her parents' will. It turns out they were right, meaning she was divorced. She also told us that to be a guide you must know 3 languages. She spoke English, Italian, Portugese, Russian, Latin and Greek. Wow!! We took a nice walk through another church. Oh, and she complimented me on my outfit! Yay! At the end of the tour she told us that when we see a caterpillar back home we should think about Siena.

Dinner was at a cute place by the big market where I found a cute navy purse for me or Meghan. Tonight was our least expensive, but our best dinner yet. The owner was a one man show. We watched him cook and serve. Soooo good!

Noteworthy: not a lot of garlic, no butter, no golf courses and no meatballs in their spaghetti.

Highlight of Florence for me? The wine and oil tasting... And of course, seeing the statue of David.