It's the Little Things

I’m not quite ready to start wrapping up this blog because I still have about 7 more weeks to go before returning to America...but as the end gets closer, I’ve started to realize just how amazing this year has been so far. The first weeks after coming to Navalmoral, I doubted myself and wondered why I ever signed up to move to a foreign country, completely alone. But, after those few rough weeks, I started to love it. Besides the big things, like my trips and fiestas, that I’ve already written all about, there have been little, smaller moments in Spain this year where I have been so completely and totally happy about my decision to move here. Here are a few of the many:

1. Putting the food on the table during my “Fakesgiving”
I knew that one day, when I had a family of my own, I would have to start playing a bigger role in the orchestration of Thanksgiving. But this year, I realized that responsibility had come sooner than expected. Usually spending the holiday with a lot of family, I was determined to make the day in Spain special, so I wouldn’t feel so sad about missing home. After running from store to store and cooking for hours, II put the food on the table in front of my Spanish friends. Their “ooos” and “awws” of approval were only matched by their “mmms” after trying all of the dishes. I had completed a step in adulthood and made Thanksgiving! Very successfully, at that.

2. Elevator dance party in Salamanca
Early in the year, I went to Salamanca with two other auxiliares, who I didn’t know very well. Luckily, we hit it off. We had gone out to dinner and to a few bars, then went back to our hostel to freshen up before hitting the discos. In the room played some music to get pumped for the night. Once ready, we continued the party in the elevator ride down to the lobby. With “Give Me Everything Tonight” blasting from one of my friend’s phone and us singing along, we were so into the music that we hadn’t even realized that the elevator doors had opened. Standing in front of us were about 8 very confused Spaniards. But, instead of being embarrassed and quickly putting the phone away, we acted like it was nothing and kept on singing. Best part?...I caught the moment on video.

3. Understanding my cafe men
In my post about “El día del centro,” I touched on who these men are. They are all teachers who I hang out with in the cafeteria in school, instead of socializing with the women. I’ve been getting coffee with them pretty much since my arrival here, but one big thing has changed since then...I can now understand them. When I got here, understanding the garbled accents of the Extremeños was close to impossible. I was so frustrated at not being able to understand the language that I had devoted eight years of my life studying and that not being able to understand people meant that I was unable to form relationships with them. My cafe men were always very patient with me and most of the time, I would sit in silence as they talked and I would try to pick out a word or two. As the year progressed, I started to understand them more and more until finally, one day, I was able to contribute to conversations and actually talk to them. Most recently, I had a deep discussion with one of them about the educational systems of Spain and America and the improvements that need to be made. I’ve come a long way.

4. The day I put my mattress on the floor
My back is much happier now. Enough said.

5. Dancing in Mundo Pop (now called Soundclub)
Navalmoral used to be known as a big party town. These days, things are a lot quieter. But that doesn’t mean that the bars have shut down. One of my roommate’s favorite bars to go to is on the street that used to be the central hub of nightlife. Now, if we enter that bar and there are more than 4 other people there, we are amazed. But this place does serve its purpose. Whenever we go, we take advantage of the lack of people and we request songs (they always play older music) and dance like fools, with zero inhibitions.

6. Coches choques during Carnaval
I had an amazing time the entire week of Carnaval, but one moment stands out as my favorite. Dressing up in ridiculous costumes, going to party tents, drinking beer all day, and being around my friends were all things I had expected from the fiesta...but riding bumper cars was not. About 10 of us went up to the fairgrounds and paid the small fee to ride the bumper cars for two rounds. Our five cars made up about half of the people on the “track.” I laughed so much and sang along to the music (yes, “Ai seu te pego”) as we spun around in circles and crashed into each other. It was pure joy.

7. Watching a Madrid v. Barcelona game in Madrid
Being squished into a standing-room only bar, filled with Madrileños, during a game of intense rivalry could have been very overwhelming...but instead, it was a night I wanted to freeze in time. Drinking beer, eating free tapas, and cheering on Madrid with everyone made me feel like a true española. The two times Madrid scored were marked with such happiness, and the one time Barcelona made a goal, with sounds of disgust. When Madrid won the game, the energy in the bar was contagious. Also, the Spanish kids who were running around the bar were adorable.

8. Cata de vino
This wine tasting was a spontaneous thing that my roommate sprung on me. Completely free, we got to try four different wines and eat some killer tapas. Sitting there with three of my closest friends from this year made me realize how lucky I am. Laughing, gossiping, and drinking together, I couldn’t have asked for a better Monday night or for better company.

9. New Year’s Eve in Valencia
One would think that I would talk about the raging disco my cousin and I went to, or some outrageous story involving meeting a Spanish celebrity...but this New Year’s Eve, definitely my favorite one so far, was spent ringing in 2012 with 12 grapes, going to a few bars for a short time, and sitting in a park for a couple of hours with Allison, catching up on life...and I may or have not rapped a performance of “Look At Me Now” (and may or may not have it on video).

10. Families telling me not to leave
I teach private lessons to 7 different families. A few months ago, I told most of them that I was debating coming back to Navalmoral for a second year. Lately, they have been asking if I had made my decision. Telling them that I would be going back to the States for the next year, the families haven’t been saying “Good luck” or “Keep in touch”...but instead “Why??” or “Please come back! Our kids really like you!” Realizing that even though most of the time I feel terribly prepared for my private lessons, still, my kids have been learning and enjoying their time with me. I’d much rather the families be trying to convince me to stay, than sending me happily on my way. I’ve gotten really close to some of them and I will miss them very much. All of these moments, however small, are just a few of many that have shaped and defined my experience living in Spain this year. Let’s see how many more of them I can have in the next 7 weeks before leaving!

Te Llegarás a la Gloria

Today we had “El día del centro” in my school…basically the Spanish equivalent of Field Day. All classes were cancelled, so I could have either slept in all day, or gone to school to party. Guess which one I did…

Field Day started around 8.30am (when school starts) and I really don’t know what I missed (except churros con chocolate), but I showed up around 10.30am. When I got there, the hallways were eerily abandoned. I had no idea where activities were or what people were doing. I went to the English department’s office and found one teacher, doing some work, and asked her what was going on. She didn’t know anything.

I wandered down to the patio and found some of my “café men” (whenever I get a coffee in the school bar, I never associate with the gossipy women, but rather the men’s group…and they love me) making migas. Migas are a really typical dish around here that I had been told time and time again that I just had to try. It’s pretty much breadcrumbs cooked with olive oil, meat, peppers, and other mystery ingredients. So the café men were making migas and when I went over to talk to them, I was immediately greeted with, “Rachel! Want some migas??” I said, “Sure!” Then they asked, “And want some wine?” And not even waiting for my answer, they poured me a cup. That’s right. Wine. At school’s Field Day. Before 11.00am. I love Spain.

The migas were very heavy (a lot of olive oil), but pretty delicious. My cup (okay, cups) of wine went well with it. After my café men and I ate and drank, some of the (women) teachers I teach with came to the bar and we all got a coffee for a bit. While we were partying, all of the kids were running around, playing soccer, basketball, doing scavenger hunts, and other non-wine related activities. After coffee, I poked around a table that was selling art that some of the kids had made, until I was called back over to the migas stand by the café men. They poured me about a half-inch of a drink into a cup and said, “Drink this.” I said, “Um…what is it?” They told me it was a sweet wine called “La Gloria” (because after you drink it, you end up in “la Gloria), homemade in Extremadura. It was wonderful. Very sweet. Then, I stuck around for, yes, another cup of red wine. Don’t worry, these cups weren’t big. I mean, not very.

Leaving the café men to clean up and put away the migas materials, I went exploring. I sat in on a rehearsal of a play that the theatre club is going to put on (not quite up to Broadway standards…but it was cute seeing some of my students up there). When I got bored with the rehearsal, I went to see what was happening outside, but a noise in one of the hallways caught my attention. I went into a classroom and found a bunch of kids, a couple of teachers, and a Wii! They were playing a dancing game that was definitely more technologically advanced than the days of DDR. It was so funny watching them dance around and it looked like they were having so much fun doing it that there was no way I couldn’t NOT try it. After my performance (another teacher was on my team), one of my students gave me a high-five. It may or may not have been the student who wrote his “What I’m thankful for” Thanksgiving letter dedicated to me…

After playing the Wii, I watched the director give out some prizes for the day and then one of my students performed a pretty sick beat boxing show for the whole school. Ending the day, the teachers all gathered in the bar for a lunch en plan picar.

All in all, “El día del centro” was a success. My stomach feels a little wonky right now…I blame the migas…but I’m definitely glad I decided to get out of bed and go play at school today. The teacher of the one class I have on Thursdays told me today that she doesn’t need me tomorrow, so it looks like someone’s weekend has started early! Now I can look forward to going to Madrid to see “The Hunger Games” in versión original…even though I’ve seen it twice (completely legally) on my computer already…

Italia: Verona and Bologna

We got into Verona and, after a bit of difficultly, got on what we thought was the right bus to our bed & breakfast. Once off the bus, we spent about 20 minutes walking around with our suitcases, trying to find the place. Thank god for insecure Wi-Fi. Ivana was able to get GoogleMaps on her phone, and we had soon found it.

We buzzed into the bed & breakfast, located on the fourth floor of an apartment building, and were met by the adorable owner, Emmanuelle. Ivana and I weren’t sure who we loved more, Stefano or Emmanuelle…so we decided to bring both of them home with us. The bed & breakfast was really cute. Ivana and I were put in the obvious honeymoon suite, decked out in red and tons of flowers. Emmanuelle told us, “It’s very romantic.” Thanks, Emmanuelle…

It WAS quite romantic.

After Emmanuelle mapped out the city for us and gave us advice on where to go, we caught to bus to the city center. We immediately fell in love with Verona. When you think “Italy,” the vision you get in your mind is definitely exactly what Verona is. A small city, surrounded by a river, it’s quaint, cute, and though touristy, there are plenty of places where you can get away from it all.

We explored for a long time, holding off on going to Juliet’s balcony, as Ivana wanted us to write letters to her, like in the movie. After, of course, searching, we found a nice lunch place and ate our pizza and drank our beer outside on the patio. The whole “letters to Juliet” thing didn’t actually happen and apparently (I’ve never seen it), her balcony was nothing like it was in the movie. The tiny square with the balcony was filled with people and a little overwhelming, so we got out of there as soon as possible.

Then, we crossed the river and paid to go into an old Roman amphitheatre. Having been a theatre major, I was finally able to share my knowledge about vomitoriums and choruses in an appropriate place. We explored for a while and, while sitting, overlooking the city, a bird pooped on me. Great. We took it as a sign to leave there.

Channeling my inner Evita.

We stayed on the other side of the river, outside of the main city, and walked. We ended up in a park and sat for a while, doing dramatic readings from one of Ivana’s Kindle books. We didn’t really want to go back to the bed & breakfast, just to sit there all evening, so we tried to delay dinner for as long as possible. We went back into the center and found a cute, but completely deserted cafe. Deciding to stay for one drink, I ordered a prosecco, and Ivana a spritz (a bright orange, bitter drink that I tried in Venice…not a fan). The cafe ended up being really fun, playing American oldies classics, with the bartender bringing us an endless supply of small sandwiches and chips, and even a free second round of drinks. For four drinks and tons of food, we only ended up paying 5 euros (plus a small tip as a “thank you”)…sometimes I love being an American girl abroad.

We went across the street for a nice dinner of more prosecco and gnocchi. Catching the last bus back to the bed & breakfast, we got back, said goodnight to Emmanuelle, and got ready for our last full day in Italy.

For Wednesday night, we had originally booked a place to stay in Bologna. But back in Florence, we realized it was stupid, as Ivana’s flight was at 6.30am and we would only be in the bed & breakfast for a few hours (and paying a lot for it). So I emailed the owner (they never asked for any credit card number as a guarantee) and told him we had gotten food poisoning and wouldn’t be coming to Bologna anymore. He was fine with it and told us to get well soon. How sweet. Because of this, we knew we would be spending the night in the Bologna airport and wanted to put off getting there for as long as we could.

Wednesday morning, we had breakfast with Emmanuelle and two South American boys who were staying there as well. After chatting, we went into the center and stocked up on food for the day and night from a grocery store. Having our luggage with us, we went back to the park we had been at the day before for a morning/afternoon of reading and hanging out. It was fine for a while. We ate some baguette, cheese, and ham for lunch, and I even made a trip to go get us gelato and bring it back to the park. But then, the weather started to change. We had been so lucky all week, having sun…but that day, not so much. We sought shelter in a café and got cappuccinos. After talking it over, we decided to just head over to Bologna and take it from there.

Once our train arrived in Bologna, we had no idea what to do. It was only around 3.30pm and we didn’t want to go to the airport until at least 9.00pm. Having our suitcases, we couldn’t really go sightseeing, so we sat at a café and again, had prosecco (me) and a spritz (Ivana). Killing more time, we moved to another café and had macchiatos. We didn’t want to keep wandering, as it was raining there too, so we decided to be adventurous and go see a movie…in Italian. We ended up seeing “Mirror Mirror” (“Biancaneve”) and actually really enjoyed it! I was able to understand most of it because Italian is so close to Spanish, and I think Ivana got a lot of it too (come on, we all know the Snow White story). After the movie, we picked up some paninis and got on the airport bus.

Once at the airport, we found some chairs to sit in and I went over to the RyanAir terminal to try and check in (even though my flight was over 12 hours away). For the first time ever, RyanAir decided to be kind and I was able to get my ticket stamped. This way, I would be able to go through security with Ivana early in the morning. Getting back to our spot, we went in search of a better, more comfortable spot to spend the night. Luck was with us. Like manna from Heaven, we found an easily overlooked space with real lounge chairs in them…like almost laying down! There were many and only one was taken, so we had our pick. We got comfortable and a few hours of chatting and snacking later, we were even able to sleep for an hour or two.

After going through security, we shared our last pastries and cappuccinos of the trip and said our goodbyes around 6.00am when Ivana’s flight boarded. I spent the next three and a half hours hanging out, until my flight left. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane, so I was very tired by the time I reached Madrid. Navigating the metro to the bus station, I was all set to get on the next bus to Navalmoral. Unfortunately, we can’t be lucky in all that we do. The next two buses were full and I had to wait about four hours for the next one. Wanting to cry from exhaustion, I bought my ticket and headed across the street to pass the time eating lunch and having a coffee. When it was finally time for my bus, I was thrilled to get on. A little over two hours later, I was home!

My Italian vacation was perfect. It was a wonderful time with wonderful company. This year, I have definitely developed a love affair with Italy. Not as much as Spain. But very close.

Italia: San Gimignano, Siena, Monteriggioni, Chianti, Firenze

The first day in Florence, we had signed up for a tour, going out of Florence, into Tuscany. We got up early, ate the pastries we had bought the day before, and drank some coffee before going to the train station, from where our bus would leave. We registered once we got there and got onto the bus. Our tour guide ended up being an adorable Italian, named Stefano, who couldn’t have been older than 28 years old. Both Ivana and I may or may not have wanted to take him home with us.

The first stop on our tour was a small, walled-in medieval town called San Gimignano. It was a tiny town, so we only had about an hour there to explore on our own. Ivana and I went to a few lookout sites, where we got some great photos. We also talked to some other girls from our group who were about our age. Another “small world” story. The girls are teaching in England, but all graduated a year or two ago from George Washington. Ivana even knows one of the girls’ cousins. What are the odds?? Once we had taken pictures, gotten a cappuccino, and were ready to go, Ivana and I were the first ones back to the meeting point, where Stefano was waiting for us. Our love just grew stronger for him, as we found out he was an archeologist, studying for his PhD, speaks four languages, and can read Greek and Latin. Yes. Please.

The next stop was Siena. We had the option to either eat with the group (there were about 14 of us total, ranging in ages 22 to 60something), or we could go get lunch on our own. Ivana and I, knowing we would take the whole hour just finding a place to eat, decided to go with the group. We paid a set amount and got some salad, pasta, ham, cheese, and wine. The food was fine, but we were really happy that we ate with the group, as we made friends with them and I even got to speak Spanish with a couple from Chile. After lunch, we had a guided “hour and a half” tour of Siena. It ended up being just over half an hour, with the option to pay a few more euros and go into the cathedral. As Ivana and I had seen a lot of cathedrals and half of the stuff inside was covered up for Easter, we decided to skip out. We got gelato (obviously) and were delighted, as it was the number one gelato of the trip. After that, we went to the main Piazza del Campo, where we sat and I ended up taking a siesta in the sun (and got a lovely farmer’s tan). Then, we met with the group and got on the bus to Monteriggioni.

Before getting to the town, Stefano told us, “You all get half an hour in the town. I don’t give you half an hour because we must leave. I give you half an hour because after half an hour, you will be very bored.” Stefano wasn’t lying. There are about fifty inhabitants of this (again) walled-in medieval town. We covered the whole thing in about fifteen minutes and then had no idea what to do with ourselves, so we went back to wait at the bus.

Finally, the “best part” (as Stefano kept telling us) had arrived. We were heading out into the “shire,” also known as Chianti, to a winery. This winery was the most incredible winery I have ever been to…and I have been to my fair share. It had some beautiful views of Chianti and was an all-organic facility, making not only their own wine, but also balsamic vinegar, truffle oil, olive oil, different products from their flowers, and honey. After a brief tour of the balsamic and wine cellars, we went into the tasting room. We got to taste three different wines and try the oils and vinegars. For dessert, we even had vanilla ice cream with thirty-year old balsamic vinegar on top. Delicious.

Once back in Florence, the George Washington girls, a girl studying at Oxford, Ivana, and I all decided to go to dinner together. Oxford girl had been to a place the night before and said the food was great, so we followed her into the center, right next to the Duomo. Turns out Oxford girl was a little naïve. One should never eat in the tourist center. The wait staff was terribly rude (refusing to give us anything to drink when we asked for tap water), the food was pretty gross (truffle oil pasta…but there was definitely no truffle oil on it) and expensive, we had to pay a 4 euro cover charge each (usually it’s less that 2), and on top of that, after we paid, we had to ASK for our change and when they did bring it to us, they had shorted us five euros. We made a fuss, got our money, and left, swearing never to eat in a place like that again. We then showed our new friends where the “Jersey Shore” pizza place was, said goodbye to them there, then went back to our room where we fell asleep watching “I Am Legend.”

We had originally thought Monday would be another day trip somewhere, but we were tired and felt we had seen what we wanted of Tuscany. Instead, we decided to have a nice, relaxing day. After having breakfast, we walked through the outdoor market, and then went back to our Friday lunch spot where, again, we ate very well. The guys even remembered us and gave us limoncello shots at the end of the meal. How sweet. We then walked a bit, bought some Peronis, and headed back up to the overlook where we found a nice spot to sit for a while. We didn’t have a bottle opener, so we ended up asking another group of people, about our age, drinking beers near us to use theirs. Unfortunately they weren’t from a school in Virginia…no story there. We spent probably close to two hours just sitting and chatting in the sun. After that, we explored some churches and then headed back towards the center. We ate dinner at the place we had gotten pizza from when our sandwiches weren’t cutting it, but this time, we got calzones. They were amazing.

Tuesday morning, we had to wake up around 6.00am to get on the train at 6.55am to Bologna to catch a train to Verona. Exhausted, we got up and cleared out of our room. We got on the bus (luckily it was the high speed one…Italian equivalent to the Ave) and waited. We were delayed due to a “mechanical malfunction” (great), but finally were off about half an hour later. We were hungry and nervous we would miss our train to Verona. Luckily, the train had a café car, so after a pastry, we were just nervous. Apparently, the Italian gods were smiling on us. We got in Bologna with five minutes to go (originally should have been 40) until our Verona train would leave. The Verona train was not even close to as nice as the other train (this one smelled a bit like a bathroom), but we were just happy to be on our way.

Italia: Firenze, Pisa, and Lucca

Oh, I have been terrible about writing here. The end of March, into the beginning of April, schools across Spain had a week off for Semana Santa…also known as Spring Break 2012!

A few months before, I had planned an Italian vacation for my week off with one of my best friends from university, Ivana. Both of our flights would fly into Bologna on Thursday morning, where we would meet up, and head off to Tuscany. Unfortunately, Spain decided to have a countrywide strike on Thursday, so I had to take the bus into Madrid on Wednesday, spend the night in the airport, and wait to see if RyanAir would cancel my flight. Luckily, I was on the same bus as a friend of mine from a town over and we were able to catch up during the two-hour trip to Madrid. When I got there, I had dinner with and hung out with my friend Juan until about 3.00am, when he drove me to the airport. At the airport, I didn’t sleep any, but I did get some Kindle time in and made friends with a Greek girl.

Around 5.00am, I moved closer to the RyanAir check-in counter. People were still stretched out all over the floors when suddenly, anyone who was managing sleep was surly awoken up by the sirens, whistles, and chants of the people on strike. They had come into the airport to throw fliers at us and, I suppose, try to get us not to fly? If anyone in the terminal had supported their cause before, by the time the strikers quieted down almost half an hour later, they had most likely lost most of those supporters.

I was able to check-in, go through security, get to my gate, and get on a bus that would take us out to the board the plane. The only affect the strike had on me was on that bus. All of us stood, doors closed, jammed in like sardines, on the bus for over half an hour while we waited for…I don’t know what. After finally reaching the plane and boarding, I passed out, waking up about 20 minutes later and noticing we were still on the ground. Then, a flight attendant made an announcement saying, “We remind you to turn off electronics before takeoff and that smoking is not permitted on board…especially right now…as we are fueling up.” SO many things wrong with that, I can’t even explain. Oh, RyanAir. We finally took off and I was able to sleep for about an hour and after another hour, we landed in Bologna.

In Bologna, I had to wait a few hours for Ivana’s flight to get in, so I grabbed a nutella cornetta and my first (of many, many) cappuccino of the trip and waited. My reunion with Ivana was great! We picked up right where we had left off when I left in September. We hopped on a bus to the train station, bought our tickets to Florence, grabbed some paninis from a café (where the Italian man called America “Obama’s Land”), and then got on our train. The train ride was uneventful, though we did have little compartments (a la “Harry Potter”) and upon leaving, I almost forgot my purse (luckily a woman in our compartment called after me to tell me).

Our hostel/bed & breakfast/guesthouse was really close to the Florence train station, so we found it pretty easily. It was a great place. The owner, Francesco, was an energetic little man who gave us maps, pamphlets, and any other information about Florence/Italy we could ever dream of. Our room was great, as it was a private room with a TV and a shared bathroom (which was basically ours). After taking (much needed) showers and booking a tour out into Tuscany for Sunday through Francesco, we headed off to explore the city.

Before seeing any of the spectacular sights, we had our priorities. Get gelato. Again, that gelato was the first of many, many gelatos over the trip, and was great. Once pleased, we saw the Duomo, and wandered around, stopping to take pictures of the fake “David” (“Favid”).

Then, we crossed the river, seeing the beautiful Ponte Veccio, and made the steep trek up to Piazza Michelangelo, where there is a wonderful panoramic of the city. We still hadn’t gotten a picture of the two of us together and were determined to get one with all of Florence in the background. First, we asked an English-speaking couple to take one. But, we weren’t pleased with the product. Next, we spotted an Asian couple, that obviously didn’t speak English, but we were able to convince them to take our picture. After the man took our picture and gave us a big thumbs-up, we thanked them and walked away. Turned out that the man never even took the picture…so much for that.

Exhausted, we decided it was time for wine. We found a nice plaza and sat for a while, drinking our first (should I say it again? …of many) glasses of wine. Refreshed, we decided to take our time finding a place for dinner, preferably away from the tourist center. We ended up walking for a good two hours before finding a small pizza place, tucked away in a residential neighborhood. The pizza, wine, and tiramisu were all incredible. We would soon learn over the next week that for the two of us to find an acceptable breakfast/lunch/dinner place, it would take at least one and up to three hours of wandering around. No one can say we didn’t get our exercise…

That night, we settled in and watched a delightful movie in our room, called “12 Rounds.” I highly recommend it. That night, we slept so well, as neither of us had slept more than two hours in the last 36.

Friday morning, we went on a “free” walking tour (had to tip at the end). The tour was okay. The other people on it were all study abroad kids (yes, I know, I was once one) and were all loud and obnoxious. Our tour guide was alright, though he didn’t speak English as well as one would think would be necessary to give tours. Some interesting things we saw on the tour were: little doors in the walls that people used to knock on and out would come a glass of wine; the piazza where soccer/football was invented; the place gelato was invented; and the pizza place the “Jersey Shore” cast worked at during their Florence season. You can guess which was the most exciting for our group.

Our feet had been absolutely destroyed the day before (we wore flats), so we went on an adventure into H&M to get new shoes. I got bright red sneakers, and Ivana got green ones. We were happy with our purchases.

For lunch we decided to cross the river, and once again, spent over an hour trying to find a place. When we finally settled on a small restaurant, secluded from the busy streets, we were very pleased. We ate some wonderful pasta, caprese salad, wine, desserts, and espresso. Half carafes of wine became our new best friend.

Neither Ivana nor I had much interest in paying to see the “real” David, when we had seen “Favid,” or paying to wander around the Uffizi Gallery. We much preferred to spend our money on food, and time, wandering the city. But, one thing we both decided would be worth the money was going to see the grounds of the Pitti Palace. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and not a cloud in the sky, so we spent the next few hours lounging around the gardens. While exploring, we were scolded once for trying to enter a building that a group had just come out of with a stern, “Ladies. No.” I still wonder what was in there…

When we left, we got our gelato for the day, walked a bit, then set up camp on the patio of a café and ordered a bottle of wine to share. When I ordered it, the barman gave me a strange look. What? Ordering a bottle of wine for two people at 4.00 in the afternoon with no food isn’t normal? As we started in on the bottle, another worker brought us a free sandwich. We thought, “Oh, it must be our American beauty.” But then we saw another table of guys with the same sandwich. But then, half an hour later when the man brought us another sandwich, we realized it was neither our beauty nor a normal plate to give out to customers…he was trying to make sure we didn’t get too rowdy. When he approached us, holding a third sandwich, Ivana looked at him and said, “Really??” Apparently, the sandwich was for the table next to us, but he said, “I can bring you another! You want?” We said no thanks, and then he said, “I am afraid you are too high.” We’re pretty sure he meant to say drunk. Apparently he didn’t know that a bottle of wine, spread over almost two hours, would in no way make us drunk. But thanks, Italian man, for looking out for us. We appreciate it.

We ended up going to dinner at the “Jersey Shore” pizza place. The pizza was less than spectacular, but we were there more for the experience than the food. Originally, we had planned to go out on the town that night, but Ivana and I are old women and instead, we ended up watching “Charlotte’s Web” in our room and going to bed around midnight.

Saturday morning, Ivana and I woke up a little early to go to Pisa and Lucca for the day. After a long search for breakfast, we had our pastries and cappuccinos and headed out. On our train to Pisa, a man sitting across from us was wearing a William & Mary shirt and, after hearing us talk, asked us what school we went to. We told him UVa and he said how his daughter is trying to decide between UVa and W&M for college. We spent the next 45 minutes discussing our university. What a small world. Once we got to Pisa, we spent approximately 50 minutes total there. We got another cappuccino, walked across town (10 minutes) to the Leaning Tower, took the obligatory photos, I bought a leaning shot glass, and we were on the train to Lucca. There is nothing in Pisa except the Tower and the city isn’t very pretty. It’s very touristy, small, and probably was my least favorite part of the trip. But at least now I can say I’ve been there.

Lucca, a walled-in Medieval town, is beautiful. We were hungry when we left Pisa, so by time we were in Lucca, we were ready for lunch and not up for sightseeing. We spent over two hours trying to find a place that wasn’t too expensive and looked decent. Neither of us wanted to waste money, or a meal, on bad food. We were getting pretty grouchy when we finally found a place and had some delicious pasta and risotto. Bellies full, we were ready to see the town. We walked for a while, and then decided we wanted to find the palace. After walking past it a few times, not even realizing it, we found out that it was still closed for the season and would open, get ready, the NEXT day. Great timing.

We were there on March 31st...

So, we decided it was gelato time. We took a long route to the front of town, where we had one of the top 3 gelatos of the trip. Then we found some lovely green space, where we stretched out and read our Kindles for a bit. Since it was starting to get breezy, we embraced our tourist status and even though it was about 3pm, we ordered cappuccinos in a café and sat for a while. Then, we got back on the train back to Florence. We weren’t really in the mood for a big dinner, so (of course after searching), we found a bakery. We bought ham and arugula sandwiches and some pastries for the morning, and then stopped at the grocery store to get some Peronis. Once back in our room, we discovered the sandwiches were gross. Again, not wanting to waste a single meal in Italy, we changed back out of our pajamas and went down to a pizza place right below the guesthouse. We got a pizza to share and brought it back to the room to eat with our beer while watching TV.