Just a few hours after my parents left, I met my cousin Kara
and her two friends, Shannon and Rachel, at the train station. They had been traveling
for almost a week before coming to Florence, stopping first in Paris and
Venice. They had an amazing time in Venice and all thought it was a really
great place. We hopped on a bus and headed out into the Tuscan countryside for
a little wine tasting. It was the first beautiful sunny day I can remember in a
few weeks, so we really lucked out. The bus took us to a little Tuscan town,
and then to a castle which is where we had our tasting. We took a tour of the
estate and inside the castle, where the family who owns the vineyard still
lives today. The family also made olive oil and it was very cool to see that
whole process as well. After returning to Florence, we got settled at their
hotel and then headed out for dinner, which consisted of huge bowls of yummy
Gelato. What a beautiful day!
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| The four of us in Tuscany. Me, Rachel, Kara, and Shannon |
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| Beautiful countryside and Beautiful sunshine! :) |
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| A couple of the huge storage vats. They use oak to give the wine a better taste. |
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| Kara and I with Lorenzo, an 80-year-old man who has lived and worked in the castle for 60 years and only took off one week for his wedding and honeymoon. Pretty spectacular story. |
On Thursday, I had class all morning so they hung out,
checked out the leather markets, and went to see David at the Academia Gallery.
They too thought it was a pretty incredible sight and much different than they
expected. We took a hike up to Piazzale Michelangelo to enjoy the sunset. I'm so glad the weather was so pleasant!
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| Kara and I at Piazzale Michelangelo |
The next morning, we got up early en route to Palermo,
Sicily. We took a train to the Pisa airport and then a flight into Palermo. We
took a taxi from there to our hotel in the city center of Palermo, which is a
huge, urban city located on the North West side of the island. The weather was
beautiful and much warmer than the weather in Florence. What a nice change to
see this bright sun! The landscape outside the city was amazing. Huge cliffs
that jutted almost out of nowhere and long mountain ranges in the distance.
This made me very excited, as we really had no idea what Sicily had to offer.
We spent most of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel after our long day of
traveling, and then went out for a nice dinner in the evening. It was so nice
just to hang out with Kara and her friends as I haven’t seen her since my
birthday in July.
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| One of the crazy trees at the English Garden in Palermo, Sicily |
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| one cannoli, two cannoli, three cannoli, four! |
On Saturday, we explored Palermo for most of the day and
took our time walking around and seeing all the sights. There were beautiful
churches and cathedrals, huge grassy parks, and a beautiful coastline. We had
no idea Palermo had such a large city center and so many things to visit. We
also stopped for some huge Cannoli’s and were on a bit of a “sugar high” for
the rest of the night because of it. We ended the night with a bottle of wine back at the hotel. What
a perfect ending for such a stress free day.
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