Let's see if I can try to catch up a little bit...
The last time I posted was about my weekend trip to Firenze. Since then, I have visited Pisa, Montepulciano, and Paris! I'll try to do a highlight reel of those trips before I fill you in a little bit more about life in Arezzo.
Pisa--
Some of my friends were taking a flight out of the Pisa airport, so a few of us decided to tag along and visit the city for the day. It was a great day trip! We took some epic touristy pictures, had lunch, walked around, ate gelato, basically a standard visit to an Italian town. There's not that much to see in Pisa, to be honest, other than the tower and the surrounding area to that. But it was definitely worth it to visit for the day!
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| Woah look at me stepping on the Leaning Tower of Pisa?!? |
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| We just couldn't resist taking the super touristy pics. Yoliio right?? |
Montepulciano--
I went to Pisa on a Friday, so the next day on Saturday a different group of my friends all planned a day trip to visit Montepulciano, a smaller town in Tuscany just south of Arezzo. My parents actually stayed there for a while and said it was a beautiful little town. By their input and with some great recommendations from a friend of mine who had visited Montepulciano, we thought it would be a great place to visit a few "cantine" (wine cellars) to have some wine tastings and just explore. We thought it would be a pretty relaxing trip, but it actually ended up being one of the most adventurous days yet!
The story begins with getting off of the train at the Montepulciano station. It's not exactly a main stop, so you have to get off of the train pretty quickly. I was bringing up the rear of our group, and some people were taking a little bit longer to gather things up and leave.... meaning that as I was about to step out of the train, the doors started to close. Literally closing on me. So, I just jumped from the inside of the train onto the platform -- it's higher than just a normal step. It's kind of hard to explain, but basically it was just hilarious because I almost got shut on the train. Suffice it to say, that was just the beginning. We get out of the train station expecting to see a bus station with buses running up to the actual town of Montepulciano, since the city itself is up on a hill about 9 km from the train station. What I'm thinking now is that we should have stopped at the larger Chiusi train station to get the buses, because there definitely weren't any running from the small station we were at. Regardless, we had no clue how to get up inside the city walls... we didn't really want to spring for a taxi and no one wanted to walk 9 km there and back. So, we just kinda started walking down the street to look for a way to get there. We happened upon a little winery and vineyard right down the street, and we started talking to the man working there to see if he knew how we could make our way into Montepulciano. He tried to call some cheaper taxis for us, but nothing was working out. Eventually, he offered to drive us up to the town himself in his own car -- there were 8 of us so he took us 4 at a time and only asked us for 10 euro for each trip. We didn't know what else to do, so... why not? He was awesome!
After essentially hitchhiking into the town, we explored for a little bit and found somewhere to get lunch because all of that thinking and stressing had made us extremely hungry. Lunch was a-mah-zing, and then we made our way to the first wine tasting at a place called Cantine del Redi. It was quite possibly the coolest "store"-- if you can call it that -- that I've ever been to. We walked through a bunch of stone tunnels and saw all their wine casks and barrels... I'm not really sure how to describe it, but let me just tell you it was awesome. Here are some pictures...
We didn't see a single person while we were walking through all of that, but we had been informed that we would eventually make our way to the tasting room. And we did!
Their wine was delicious. Montepulciano is known for a particular kind of wine called Vino Nobile, so I couldn't resist buying one of their good bottles of it to take back to Arezzo. A girl can never have too much variety in wine, am I right?
Anyway, as the day progressed we saw some more cool buildings and architecture and visited two more places where we had wine tastings. Probably one of the most epic things I've done so far was at one of these wineries where they have an Etruscan tomb from 500 BC in their cellars. Not only did we visit this Etruscan tomb, we also shared a bottle of their wine and drank it IN THE TOMB! It sounds creepy, but it wasn't at all (it's not like there are still bodies or anything in there). We had a dance party and just hang out down there. It was a once in a lifetime experience!
There is way more to tell about Montepulciano, but I don't want to go on for too long. Just know that it is definitely worth a visit if you ever have the chance! Just promise me you won't go because it's where they filmed a scene from Twilight's New Moon movie when they were in "Volterra"... Because it is. If you can put that slight mishap aside, Montepulciano is great!
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| From the movie |
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| My picture of Piazza Grande |
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| Stupid Kristen Stewart. (They added the fountain for the movie) |
Montepulciano also has BEAUTIFUL views of the countryside over the city walls. The photos really don't do it justice.
Paris--
What can I say about Paris? The architecture, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower... all of it was just beautiful. I think my favorites were visiting Notre Dame (I even got to hear mass and receive communion there!) and Sacre Coeur along with drinking champagne at night in front of the Eiffel Tower. The Louvre was way more fun than I thought it would be, though. Mona Lisa isn't exactly a postage stamp, but she isn't as cool as the Victory of Samothrace -- in my not-so-qualified opinion. We did have one experience with very rude French people, but overall most people were fine and we had a nice time. The food, especially the bread and the breakfast food, was DELICIOUS! I have to say, I like French bread much more than I like Tuscan bread. If you don't know, Tuscan bread has pretty much no salt in it... so it's very bland.
I also bought a book at a bookstore called Shakespeare & Co. that's close to Notre Dame. Apparently that's where F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway would hang out when they were in Paris. Pretty cool. Oh, and we went to Laduree! It's a place known for its desserts, especially macaroons. It was soooo good. The macaroons were great, but I think my favorite thing I got there was a raspberry tart with passionfruit cream. Seriously, best dessert I've ever had in my entire life. Absolutely worth the 6,70 euro haha.
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| I said "hi" to Mona for all of you |
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| The Victory of Samothrace, my favorite piece at the Louvre |
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| The crew! In front of the Louvre |
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| Shakespeare & Co. |
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| Notre Dame |
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| Sacre Coeur |
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| Poppin' bottles! |
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| Our first breakfast (plus ham and eggs not shown)... so much food and it was all amazing |
Well, I'm running out of time before I have to go get "aperitivi" or pre-dinner drinks with my class and my awesome Italian professor! I will post again soon to update on the happenings in Arezzo! I'm staying in town this weekend, so I should have more time. I love and miss all of you and I hope to hear from you soon!
Buona giornata!
