Thursday, June 27, 2013

Travel Day - Siena to Rome

Last train day! We got up, packed up, had our free breakfast, figured out the bus route, got to the train station and got on the train. Exciting morning right? Well I wish I had taken a picture of our train because it was only one car long! I guess not too many people are heading to Chiusi, Italy?
We had an hour and a half layover in this little town that luckily overlapped with lunch.
We grabbed sandwiches at a little family run cafe. One of my biggest pet peeves about Italy is when they heat up sandwiches they heat up with lettuce too! So my lettuce gets all warm and gross... Luckily they made it up by have the cheapest gelato yet.
We got on our second train, but it should have been called an oven. We were all just dripping sweat while sitting still. Paige put it perfectly, "I feel like we're being cooked." Luckily my mind was playing the Lizzy Migure movie over in my head! We managed to find our hostel using poorly translated directions and Paige's map. The hostel was great and we all took advantage of our private bathroom with a raised shower! It was early evening when we ventured out to our first sight, the Trevi Fountain. 
It was pretty exciting to come around the corner and see this famous fountain. It felt a little like it was out of a movie... The Lizzy Migure movie in my case. I made my wish!
(And it wasn't to get a haircut, but I am getting one in 3 days.) Our next destination was Piazza di Popolo. We walked down the big shopping street, Via  del Corso in order to get there. I had one thing I was willing to spend money on, a maxi skirt. I have a maxi dress I love and I've wanted a skirt for a while, not to mention I need to be appropriately dressed for the Vatican! Well we passed and Zara and Paige I sprinted in! I found a great skirt that I'm super excited about! We all all of a sudden became pretty ravenous and went on the hunt of a baked pasta place my book recommended... Unfortunately it turned out it was closed and not closed on Sundays but closed closed. Luckily we walked by a cute place on the same street and popped in their. It had such cute plates. 
We started with the mixed bruschetta: tomato, white bean, liver, and prosciutto.
I ordered the spaghetti carbonaro. It was nice and peppery just the way I like it! And the bacon pieces were huge!! 
I wasn't feeling like dessert, but Magdalena was and decided to order something without hearing the Italian translation. We all thought it sounded like a fruit tart and she asked the waiter "is it good?" And he looked a little confused as he said yes. Well that's because it was actually just a fancy fruit salad.
We all burst out laughing and the waiter looked confused again. Magdalena kept saying "I want cake." But I sure enjoyed helping her finish her huge plate of fruit! After dinner we walked through Piazza di Popolo.
Then on to the Spanish steps, which were packed at night.
I also really like the ship fountain that was right in front of it.
It was a great first night in Roma!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Siena - Day 1

Bells are beautiful unless they are blaring through your window every half hour starting at 7am. We can hear the bells all the way from the Duomo on the hill, but the bells from San Domenico are SO LOUD. More unfortunate than the super loud bells was that I was definitely sick with another cold. This time my throat is fine but my nose is constantly running. I just shrugged it off and got excited for a day of sight seeing and wine tasting. We made our way over to the Duomo and got a lovely view of San Domenico and our hotel along the way.
The yellow building to the right of the church is ours! The duomo here is absolutely gorgeous inside and out.
It had all of my favorite things:
1. Cool floors
They covered up a lot of the floors with rugs I assume to prevent wearing them down, but I found this cool skull and cross bones still visible.
I also love simple, but colorful patterns.
2. Beautiful ceilings
And especially in the library!
This little room just glowed!
3. Stain glass (which I didn't get a great picture of)
It also had some sculptures by Michelangelo. He was commissioned to make a sculpture of St. Peter and he put his own face on it! So they didn't ask him to make the other 8.
I decided I want my next pet to be this thing...
I could keep posting pictures for days, but I will cut myself off there. We walked to Il Campo again, but deicided not to climb the bell tower because you have to leave all your belongings unlocked at the bottom, only 15-20 can go up at a time, no one who is scared of small spaces is allowed, etc. So we got lunch instead.
I paired my pizza with the last of the bell pepper I got at the Florence food market.
It was a really cool tie dye yellow green and super fresh. The next thing on our agenda was a chianti and castles tour! Magdalena decided to take a shower. So like I said there isn't a shower there is just a drain in the center of the bathroom and a flexible shower head/ pull around curtain. I was standing in the kitchen nook and all of a sudden I realized my feet were wet. Well the drain in the bath room must not have been working at all because it was flooding into our room! We stopped the shower and I got the woman who worked at the reception desk. She didn't speak any English and didn't understand what I was telling her. I brought her to show her and she grabbed a mob and we cleaned up all the water. However she never said anything out fixing the problem? So we were all like, well I guess I'm not showering till Rome... We regroup and met our tour group. It was us four, a young Australian couple and a charismatic couple from Texas. We all started our quite, but once we opened up it seemed like we were just one big group together. We first went to a small castle called Castigliano.
Magdalena also kindly pointed out that I have had panorama on my phone the whole time! 
What a beautiful country side! The inside of the castle was so small! Arin even found a sign that said the earliest documentation of the castle was 1126, which means it probably existed before then! The first vineyard we went to was Poggio Amorelli.
It was just as lovely as you'd expect and a very charismatic owner explained the process to us. She explained the importance of swirling the wine in the glass and swishing it in your mouth before drinking it. She also gave a generous pour.
The first wine we tired was a white wine from their other vineyard near the sea (lower elevation is better for white wines, but all vineyards are usually on hills with a rocky ground so that water rolls off instead of over watering the plants). The Vermentino IGT Marrmma, poggio barbone was a 2011 and you could even taste that it was more salty because of its proximaty to the sea. Next we tired their olio extra vergine di olvia. It thought it was pretty strong, but I was happy they brought it on more bread because I already ate the cheese, bread and meat on my plate. Then we tried a red wine called Morellino di scansano DOCG - poggio barbone. DOCG means that it is certified from this area. It was a "lighter bodied red that should not be used as a table wine." It ws made with 90% San giovese grapes and 10% marlot grapes. I thought it was nice and sweet. For the main show we tired the Chanti Classico DOCG. For it to be a chianti Classico it must be 100% San giovese grapes from this region and bare the black rooster symbol. She described it as "dry, but smooth." My favorite part came next... Balalmic vinegar!! We tried a 12 year old one, which I thought was yummy and a 20 year old one, which I wanted to marry. She said she saved the best for last which was a RIserva Poggio Amorelli Chianti Classico DOCG made with of course 100% San giovese grapes! I think it was my favorite... But who knows. The view of the vineyard outside was perfect.
Our guide dropped us off in a small town to do a quick walk through and we picked us up at the other side when we realized we lost Magdalena... I had been walking with the Australian couple and Paige and Arin was with the Texas couple so we hadn't noticed Magdalena had gotten distracted by trying on rings. Luckily she was quickly retrieved her and we were off to a beautiful panoramic view. 
Fattoria Lornano was our last vineyard. It had a gorgeous property and villa with rooms for rent and a pool with a view! 
We were able to go down into the cellars.
To give a size comparison this barrel is a renovated 100+ year old one that is still being used (the smaller ones only last about 5 years).
I won't go into as much detail about these wines, which were also great, but we learned about the same typical Chiantis (and my nose was getting progressively more and more stuffed, so my taste was decreasing).
The only one I want to specifically mention is the small bottle on the furthest right. It is a special type of wine that ages in 100% sealed barrels for many years. We tired a 2003 and it is extremely sweet and thick. It was really fun to try something new. Now I'm ready for more wine tours in Charlottesville and Napa! 
We returned to Siena and decided to make dinner. I was feeling extremely under the weather from my SECOND COLD OF THE TRIP! (I swear I don't even get sick twice a year usually!) I just wanted some comfort food... Luckily I was in the land of comfort food aka pasta. 
Peas, pasta and wafer cookies = pure happiness.
And we don't have to pay a cover charge for the best view in the house (maybe the town)!
I was feeling horrible after dinner because my sinuses were so clogged I couldn't blow in or out of my nose. It was a miracle when I found some nasal decongestant (which I thought I was out of) in my backpack. I took that and some ibepeophen and passed out.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Travel Day - Florence to Siena

Already heading to our second to last place?! I can't believe it! Well it was a pretty uneventful morning. We packed up, checked out, picked up some breakfast along the way and made it to the train station. We hopped on our train and we were in Siena before we knew it. We picked up a bus ticket to city central (which was really pretty).
However, my book didn't have a map of Siena and the directions the hotel gave to Paige were pretty unclear without a map to center ourselves. We knew we had to get off at the city center stop, but then we were clueless. We asked a really nice woman who turned out to know French, some Italian and close to no English. However, she said "I show you" and proceeded to walk us to our hotel! She didn't even know exactly where it was, but asked multiple people on behalf of us and delivered us to our front door! We felt so grateful and wanted to buy her gelato or something as a thank you but she just said you're welcome and head on he way. Our hotel was only part of a much larger building that was siting right next to the church of San Domenico. It was interesting because I think some people lived there and some just rented. Regardless our room was perfect for us!
It had a little kitchen in a closet, a bathroom (with the showers that are just in the middle and not raised up), a big canopy bed, a loft with a pull out couch and a big window with the most beautiful view of Siena!
Yah that's the view from our window! Magdalena and I decided to be loft buddies.
The best part about being in the loft was the ceiling.
After we got settled in we decided to use a 10% discount we were given for a ristorante about two doors down. We knew it was going to be good because we had ice in our water!
And surprising enough olive oil and balsamic vinegar for our bread!
I got a panini with ham, cheese and artichoke with a side salad.
It was really good! The waiter all informed us that there was going to be a city wide celebration for the summer solstice that evening (I think it was called white night or blanco notte). We went back to the room and I was feeling really tired. I hadn't slept great in Florence (it was hot and the beds were not the best). I have been to Siena before so I told the girls I would just rest and they can go explore. I finally gave in and watched one of my movies I rented from ITunes in Barcelona. Bridesmaids was nice way to relax and laugh a little that afternoon. I know I travel with the best people when they come back with fresh groceries to make dinner!! They got tons of fresh vegetables and pasta with tomatoe sauce and pesto AND COOKIES.
I have been craving cookies, not pastries or fancy sweets, just a run of the mill cookie! As we started making dinner I realized that people were starting to set up for the nights celebrations outside our window.
Balloons and light up toys. I also had some lovely ladies preparing the salads.
I miss cooking so much so helping make these meals is like a little slice of heaven for me. And the fresh veggies aren't bad either.
That's right raw mushrooms in the salad and I had cooked ones in my pesto pasta. I think I'm official mushroom eater.
This was by far my favorite. The tomato sauce was good too, but I went as far as to scrap some of the sauce off my tomato noodles to have more pesto.
They also grabbed a diet coke and who wouldn't with a label like this...
We also split some wine and decided to go explore this festival, which we could already hear the music from. The streets we absolutely packed! There was 10+ little stages set up around the city with lots of different types of music like DJs with pop, rock, orchestra and a Native American duo.
I also saw some of the light up stuff that was being set up behind our place.
For those of you familiar with vine, I was making an awesome vine, but somehow it got deleted! Was really upset because it was awesome. Anyways we all fell in love with the cutest little boy who didn't want to leave with his parents and instead just wanted to dance with his balloon. I didn't take a picture of him, even though I wanted to, but here is what he was jamming to...
Not a bad setting for a band I'd say. We even wandered into Il Campo.
And decided it was time to head home. We got a little turned around, but luckily it's a small city and we got back on track. When we got back I was starting to feel under the weather (AGAIN). I was just happy to get in bed!