The weekend of hiking (and eating good food!)

Yay we finally have internet in our apartment. I hate feeling like we have to rely on it, but it really has been hard to get in touch with my family/start booking weekend trips without it. Now the only thing left to conquer is this little cold that I have developed....

On Friday after class a group of about 10 of us decided to trek up to San Miniato to hear Gregorian chants. I didn't know too much about the church or its location before we went, but I am always up for seeing more in the city so I went along. WHAT GORGEOUS VIEWS! We crossed the Arno (the major river) and then had a 20 minute walk to Piazzale Michelangelo. It was very touristy there but we had excellent views of the city. We then continued the climb up the church with even better views. It was much quieter up there and we really got to enjoy the truly exquisite church. The chants were beautiful, but we didn't stay long for fear of interfering with a mass that was starting.

My two roommates, Collen & Bonnie.



The view on the hike up.

Once we had hiked back down we had worked up a bit of an appetite, so my two roommates and I decided to check out this cute little pizza place on a very sleepy street on the other side of the river. We were there before it even opened (the Abad family dinner time of 6 pm would never go over here) so we had a little bit of time to explore. Man are we glad we waited around. The pizza was excellent and we got a vegetable stuffed focaccia that was to die for! We will definitely be back there. Dinner was followed by round two of dark chocolate gelato and then an early night in since we were leaving for a day trip to Chianti the next day.

Saturday we got up quarter to 7 to meet tour guides from Florence for Fun who were taking us to the famous wine region. We got on a pretty smelly public bus for an hour long ride through the windy roads. Once there the guides took us on a two hour "hike" throughout the vineyards. The views of the region were breathtaking. Apart from some pretty annoying girls that had wound up on our trip we had a great time just taking it all in.

Once we arrived back to town we were taken to an old villa, where the residents (some local winemakers) had created quite the spread of prosciutto, salami, bread and olive oil, two kinds of pasta and desserts, not to mention several large glasses of wine :). After the two hour meal we were allowed to wander along the property and then we headed back "home". All in all, it was a great trip.

We had planned to hike up to Fiesole on Sunday to see more views of the city, but it turns out that the bus that we would have to take down after sunset isn't in service. I ended up not feeling to well and spent the day doing work at school/trying to get rid of this cold. Oh well, we've got a few more months to fit that in.

Cinque terre this weekend!