Europe Trip- Day 8: July 5, 2012

FLORENCE
By Kristin

We went to our hotel for breakfast today and realized that the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo is on a whole other level from the other two hotels we stayed at...SO busy!

Our group did a walking tour of Florence at 8:00am seeing many sights we saw yesterday on our own, but adding a few new stops:  Museum of Science, the Duomo, and Dante's church and home.  Then we did some shopping, gelato eating (Vivoli Vivoli: supposed to be the best in Florence) and saw Santissima Annunziata.  At Santissima Annuziata, we lit candles for Eric, and our two miscarriages: Baby Champ and Baby Poggie.  Then, we met up with our group again to do a Wine Tasting.  It was great! 


Shot along the Arno River with the Ponte Vecchio

Duomo
Candles for my brother Eric, Baby Champ, and Baby Poggie.
All three are in our thoughts every single day...
At the wine tasting we got to sample olive oils and balsamic vinegars and olive spreads.  My favorite was a 20 year aged balsamic and Josh's favorite was the regular balsamic. 

Different Extra Virgin Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars
Wine Tasting
We got more free time and we went and ate at O'Vesuvio where the Jersey Shore cast worked and had a great pizza!  Then we saw six other sights:  San Lorenzo Market, Santa Maria Novela, Santa Trinata, Santa Maria Carmine, Sato Spirito, and Pitti Palace.  Our walk back to the hotel was horrible for me and I totally over heated!  :)

We took a little nap then got ready for the "Be Our Guest" dinner with our group.  We went to a private family owned castle which makes their own wine, EVOO, rents apartments, has a restaurant, sees groups like ours, and does weddings.  Our guide told us of an amazing history.  It is 900 years old and used to be owned by the Pazzi family, the second most powerful family in Italy.  It was bought by a husband and wife as a summer house, but became so much more.  It is now owned by a daughter, her husband, and their three kids.  We got to learn a lot about wine and EVOO too.  Then we ate! The food was great! 

The castle is up in the hills so the views were awesome too.  We even bought some wine from them.  Amazing night!!!
Ciao Florence!
Castle: "Be My Guest" dinner

Wine Cellar
AMAZING food.  That sauce in the bottom right is a "soup" of sorts.  They mix a tomato sauce with  pieces of bread and drizzle EVOO on top.  The best part was that it tasted like my family's spaghetti sauce :)

Us with views in the Tuscan Hills


Josh's Favorite Part of the Day:
Everything about the "Be Our Guest" dinner at the castle.

Kristin's Favorite Part of the Day:
Every single thing about the "Be Our Guest" dinner at the castle.

Josh's Biggest Surprise of the Day:
That the pizza I had a O'Vesuvio was the best so far on the trip.

Kristin's Biggest Surprise of the Day:
That we went to every single place on our spreadsheet.

Gelato Count:
Josh: 1 (chocolate with nut and mixed berry)
Kristin: 1 (chocolate mouse and raspberry)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear School Board Members

My name is Kristin- I am a teacher, a learner, and a global citizen. I have four sons going through this public school system. I thought I might enlighten you to what a day looks like for one of my sons.... He wakes up over two hours before school starts. This gives him enough time to take care of regular routines like getting dressed, making his bed, and eating breakfast. This early morning start allows him to spend a bit of time relaxing and gives him some much needed time to work on homework. When you get 6-8 pages of math homework per week, the expectation of reading every night, and spelling/vocabulary work, sometimes you need the mornings AND the evenings to stay caught up. The school day starts. My son is in school for more than four hours before he eats lunch. During this 4+ hours he is experiencing a very long literacy block. He needs to sit still, he needs to listen, he needs to work fast. My son does not work fast- he has always taken his time. I love that about ...
Read more

Bikini Body Mommy and Diastasis Recti

I did not exercise while I was pregnant at all out of fear. I am usually a runner and from someone who had two miscarriages previously, I would have been content with lying with my legs in the air for nine months if someone would have let me do it; I wasn't moving any extra than I needed to. I know that exercising is safe and this was an irrational fear, but I wasn't taking the chance. When I was pregnant with Nolan and Judah, I gained almost 65 pounds.  This is very much within normal, healthy, range for twins.  You can imagine what that extra weight plus having two babies in my uterus did to my body.  Towards the end of my pregnancy, I could barely walk around my house or to the mailbox or up and down stairs without being winded, tired, and incredibly sore.  My ankles, knees, and thighs were literally giving out from the extra weight in my abdomen area. After the boys were born, I had to reteach myself how to move and exercise.  The pregna...
Read more

Drugs AREN'T funny

Over the weekend I made one of the biggest To-Do lists I've ever made.  I am in one of those states where it feels I have so much to do that I can't even start.  Where you wander around from room to room knowing there are things you need to take care of so you clean a little, organize a little, grade a little and nothing actually gets completed.  It's overwhelming and makes me feel heavy.  My need to control things aka "my crazy" really gets out of wack. I say that because I should not be writing this right now.  I'm supposed to be grading papers, but I saw something today that made my To-Do list go out the window and compelled me to write this blog right this second. I read an article posted on a former co-worker's facebook page about a Saturday Night Live skit.  It was poking fun at medicine's like NyQuil, but it was called "Heroin AM."  I found myself frustrated, saddened, disappointed, but especially angry reading the article and seei...
Read more