The week the weather changed!

The week we got home from spring break, the weather changed and it was suddenly spring time!  It was sunny and 70-75 degrees everyday!  We all had school work to dive back into after the break but we couldn't help ourselves from wanting to be outside and soak up the sun that we had missed for the past few months!

Wednesday, I barely made it through class before heading to the open air market, getting lunch to go from Ganzo, and then meeting Anna at the train station!  Wednesday was the final day to use our Eurorail pass so we decided to head to a beach town in Italy, Viareggio.  Viareggio is known for its outlandish floats and parades during Carnivale each year but we headed to the town simply to enjoy the sun and the smell of the ocean.  Once we got onto the train, we were both hungry so we opened out lunches and of course I had the wrong one.  There were several poeple waiting for salads while I was at Ganzo and I was given the wrong one.  I was hungry so I tried eating it even thought I had no idea what was on it and I found out that I like feta cheese! 

The train was a double decker and was basically empty leaving Florence but at the next stop, a school field trip of boys filled the entire cabin. In fact, there wasn't even enough room for all of them so Anna and I moved our stuff in order to make room.  The boys were young and Italian.  Anna and I kept eating and chatting while they played "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt from their phone.  After a while one finally worked up the courage to try and talk to us asking how old we were.  At first they guessed 17, do we really look that young?! They ended up being only 16 and couldn't speak much English at all.

After getting off the train, we didn't have a map or any sort of directions we just headed in the general direction that we thought the beach was in.  We wandered down suburb like streets for about half an hour before reaching the beach.  We got gelato, took off our shoes, and headed toward the water. The sand was more like dirt and the water was freezing but it was a beautiful day so we enjoyed ourselves.  After the beach we walked down the pier where there were tons of people fishing and cleaning off their boats in preparation for the summer.  We were wandering through the shops and streets when we saw a giant cartoon churro.  We followed the cartoon to a little churro hut where the worker made us a cup of fresh churro's covered in sugar.  They were amazing and so filling!  We made our way back to the train station and I was actually a little sun burnt!

Thursday during my wine class we took a field trip to a wine bar.  I had never been to one so it was quite the experience and totally different than I was imagining.  The entrance led into a food store and the hall brought us into a liquor store.  Our teacher explained that where were were was the largest liquor store with the widest variety of wine and liquor in all of Florence.  I was a little confused since, yeah they had a lot of bottles but nothing compared to even tiny liquor stores in the United States.  They had bottles of wine in every price range starting from 5 Euro all the way up to 2,000 Euro.  Who could afford 2,00 Euro on a bottle of champagne? I have no idea.  After our brief introduction we headed downstairs and that's when I understood; there were wine bottles covering every square inch of wall in four rooms and there were stands all over each room with even more wine!

We looked around and then sat down at a giant table and were brought a sample of prosecco, a sample of white wine, and a Chianti.  In addition to the three amazing samples, we were also served bruschetta, chicken liver(YUCK), and pecorino cheese with honey and pears (YUM).  We talked about wine, Florence, and travelling for the remainder of class getting to know one another.  It was an amazing experience, and just think; I'm getting college credit for it!  Even thought it was a short week, I watched the minutes tick by until I was released from my Italian class that afternoon.  After class I met the girls in Piazza San Marco where we shared a bottle of prosecco as a the sun set, it was so relaxing and I was completely happy.  For dinner we headed to our favorite pizza place near Piazza Santa Croce.

The next morning, we all slept in and then Anna, April, and myself headed to Boboli Gardens to enjoy the day.  We chatted, listened to music, and read for hours before being kicked out at closing time around 6pm.  Anna and I headed to Ganzo for dinner when we both realized that we were definitely sun burnt!  We went home to pack and get ready for our trip to Rome on Saturday!