Day 8

        Today marked the first day of our first free weekend in Firenze! A large group of us took a group tour to Chianti, where we hiked around the vineyards and ended with another wine tasting at a local vineyard home. We had to be at the train station to leave for Chianti at 7:30, which was definitely a struggle, but we all made it on time, so I guess that was a great way to start the day. When we arrived in Chianti I reached in my backpack to find the water bottle that leaked in my bag earlier that morning had gotten all over my camera and basically broke. So currently, my camera is sitting in a bag of  €2.00 rice. Thankfully, everyone else had a camera on them and was glad to give me their pictures! Besides my camera issue, the rest of the day was amazing! We spent about 3 hours walking in the vineyards and taking pictures. We were even in the “heart cubed’ at one point. The heart of Italy is Tuscany, the heart of Tuscany is Florence and the heart of Florence is Chianti, or more specifically Panzano in Chianti and that is where we were!!! I have to add that the scenery was beautiful! It seemed unreal. I have never seen anything so green and smell so fresh. The area was draped with olive trees, grape trees and flowers. If felt like we were in a movie! After our hike through the valley, we went to a family’s home in Panzano for our wine tasting, which was only necessary because Chianti is known for their fabulous wine. We went to the home of the Sassolini’s. The house itself dated back to the medieval times and had been kept in the same family since then, producing wine. It was crazy to think we were sitting in a home that was over 1,000 years old. The wine tasting was very pleasant; we were given appetizers before we tasted our first wine. Our first wine was a red wine that was very smooth and I surprisingly really enjoyed it. I can proudly say it was the first glass of wine I had ever completely finished! I know my family is going to be really proud of me for that one (Mom, Greg, Sam…). We were then served our first pasta of the afternoon and given a white wine. This wine did not even really taste like wine; it was really sweet and smooth, however I did not finish the entire glass. After our second pasta was served it was back to a red wine. To be honest I don’t remember at all how this wine tasted, most likely because two desert wines were served right after. Both desert wines were so high in alcohol content that they were served in small shot glasses, instead of wine glasses. I personally did not like either, but the last wine served that was 43% alcohol, the classic grapea wine in Italy, was one that no one really enjoyed. The alcohol percentage was so great that it was almost unbearable to drink. Overall, the wine tasting in Chianti was really fun. It was not as informative as the previous wine tasting I went to earlier in the week, but it was good! My family will be glad to know that I bought a small bottle of all natural olive oil from this vineyard!

          Today was a great day and tonight a bunch of us our planning on going to museums around Florence. Every once in a while, they keep the museum open late for the public free of charge! That is the plan tonight, instead of bar hopping, we our museum hopping! Ciao amici!

The Valley in Chianti!