Fiesole

Day 6
Our delightful evening began with a quick bus ride uphill to the small town of Fiesole. Fiesole is a quaint town, overlooking the city of Florence and providing breathtaking views of the Duomo and our new home town. It's the kind of town where everybody knows everybody, much like that of Mississippi, and where although the roads might be tiny, the view is anything but. The town does have it shortcomings, however, with extremely inclined roads.... not so good for us Mississippi folks on top of a five course meal of pasta and bread. Below are a few pictures of another divine meal. Please note the 35 euro Bruschetta which we all shared as our appetizer.

As we strolled to the bus stop after dinner, we came across our new best friends who were singing some old school gospel hymns. The group of about 8 were from all the world, who like us, are studying in Florence for the next month. These individuals were from South Africa, Ethiopia, Canada, Bangkok, Brazil, and Michigan... oh the people you meet in foreign places. To top off the night, they continued sharing their voices with us for the entire ride back.

Excerpts from our journals:
"Italians have it all figured out. For instance, just look at their ever so famous gelato. It comes served in a cone WITHOUT paper and absolutely NO hole in the bottom."

"Not only do we have to look down for holes and uneven cobblestone streets, but we also have to look down to avoid the dog poo poo."

Tomorrow we have a trip to Pisa in store, followed by Cinque Terre on Sunday... Google it because it's gorgeous. We also booked a cooking class for next Thursday. Jack and Jenn in the kitchen, this is gonna get interesting... As always, please feel free to leave us a friendly post! It makes us happy :)

Molto Amare,

Jack and Jenn

CIAO!!!!

"Mammia Mia, the Wine!"

The past two days have been quite adventurous. Class has begun, and we are beginning to feel all settled in this Tuscan Country. Plato once said "Wine was given as a balm, and in order to implant modesty in the soul and health and strength in the body." This fellow is considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time. So to pay tribute to the man, we decided to experiment with a little wine tasting this afternoon, along with the rest of our classmates, in a small winery known as La Tancia.

La Tancia is located in the heart of Chianti, about a thirty minute bus ride uphill from Florence. The Villa dates back to the 14th century and produces some of the best wines, in our opinion, available in Tuscany... not to mention their food and olive oil. Italians do it right, serving a solid four courses for a traditional meal. Primo, the first course, was spaghetti.. heavenly! The Secondo, second course, consisted of bread, cheese, salami and eggplant followed by Contorno, our third course, which consisted of mouth watering Bruschetta. Bruschetta, Jennifer's favorite meal ever, is toasted bread with a mixture of tomatoes and olive oil. To top it all off, we had scrumptious biscotti cookies dipped in Vin Santo, an Italian dessert wine. Below is a few pictures of the delicious meal which we thoroughly enjoyed along with our magnificent vino!!! "Buuoooonnnoooo appetito!!!!"





Now about class. We began our first full day yesterday. Jennifer is taking History of Civilization to 1648, which meets at 10:30 every morning in our traditional spot in The Loggio, in the midst of Piazza della Signoria. The first day of class was interrupted, however, by a lovely orchestra which had blocked off the area celebrating the "Festa della Republicca"- the birth of the Republic... What a way to kick off the month. In the afternoons, Jaclyn and Jennifer are taking Watercolor, and Jaclyn is also taking Figure Drawing. So far we have been sketching in the midst of The Loggio from around 4:00 to 6:30. The atmosphere is surreal.... We shall discuss in more detail on another day.

On another note, our parents would be proud. Colleen, one of Jennifer's roommates, happens to be quite the cook, and we are learning quite a bit in the kitchen. Last night was our first meal at Venezia 4. Supper consisted of salad with a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing along with "Italian" style potatoes, "Italian" sausage, and scrumptious bread. For dessert, Colleen prepared a deeeee-licious combination of cantaloupe and prosciutto (Italian ham). It seems like this blog has consisted of food, wine, and more food and wine. After all, this is Italy :) Below is a pic of our first attempt at supper.


We'd like to continue sharing a few more of the things Italians do quite differently in this country... here we go!
- Italians drink wine for every meal. Well almost every meal. Because of this, they often mix water with their wine while at the lunch or dinner table...
- As we said earlier, a traditional meal consists of four courses. How do they manage to eat four courses yet still remain smaller than Americans... perhaps no processed foods has a thing to do with it.
- You can get plane tickets EXTREMELY cheap here if flying to the surrounding countries. You can get a ticket from Paris to Pisa for less than 40 Euro, that's cchhhheeeeeapppppp folks.

Excerpts from our journals:
"I swear, if one more Italian hits on me I am leaving the country."

"Ladies, charge your cameras. Tomorrow is going to be a good day." (In reference to the winery)

This weekend we are planning day trips to Fiesole, Cinque Terre, and perhaps Verona or Sienna. We shall see, but this means more posts to come. Please feel free to leave us a friendly post! It makes us happy :)

Molto Amare,

Jack and Jenn

CIAO!!!!

La Tancia Winery

day 3

Almost 6,000 miles away, we are officially settled in the city that we REALLY try to fit in to. Our humble abodes reside across the city. Jaclyn is located in Santa Maria Novella, the city's first dominican church, while Jennifer's apartment is on Via de Venezia "the street of Venice". We hope we can share our adventure of Florence and the surrounding areas this month.

The past few days we have been getting familiar with the area we will be living in. Collier Parker, the head hancho, had his sister come and give us two orientations of the town. Orientation 1 consisted of us learning about the location of the ATM's, the fresh market, the gypsies, and most importantly the grocery store. Now. The grocery store. Imagine yourself walking into a hole in the wall where you recognize nothing but the bananas and the apples. Really though, none of the words are familiar and you sometimes find yourself buying things that resemble American food. Our most "favorite" item in our first grocery store visit was the mozzarella cheese balls, which are floating in a plastic package full of mysterious liquid. We have also found the cities treasure which is... the one euro bottle of wine. Orientation 2 consisted of museum talk, train information, and tips for bargaining with the infamous street vendors "fake louis vuitton". With each post we will include personal stories, tid bits about the culture, and excerpts from both of our journals. We hope you enjoy.

The Italians do quite a few things differently here... we'd like to share them with you.
- Air Conditioning does NOT exist. Windows become your new best friend.
- You MUST open your window after taking a shower to prevent mold from growing on the walls.
- Our European dryer consists of a fishing line outside of our window with about ten clothes pin... This should be fun.
- There are 'red spiders' here.. which are the equivalent to our love bugs. They. Are. Everywhere. (as well as mosquitos)


Excerpts from our journals:
"Mamma mia!!!! the wine!!"

"In a store yesterday the man behind the counter asked us where we were from. When we said we were from Mississippi he moved his hand in a winding motion, nodded and smiled, recognizing immediately our beautiful state. He proceeded to tell us the word "Mississippi" is funny to Italians because to youngsters it reminds them of the word "wee wee". For once in our lives, we are not looked down upon because of the size of Mississippians, but we were recognized for the beautiful attributes that our great brings to the world."

"If we are 25 without a spouse or a serious boyfriend, we will most definitely be coming back here to find one. Sometimes we find it hard to focus on the architecture and sculpture of the city because of the stunning beauty of the Florentines."

Sorry for the delay of getting this up and running. There are many more hilarious encounters that will need to be posted and we look forward to sharing them with our family and friends. Please feel free to leave us a friendly post!

Molto Amare,

Jack and Jenn

CIAO!!!!