Pisa & Verrazzano Castle

Yesterday we went to Pisa for a short day trip.  We visited the Pisa church, baptistry, cemetery, and leaning tower.  We learned from our tour that each town is focused around birth, life, and death.  Babies used to be baptized twice a year in which the entire town would gather for the two events.  The church is used weekly to hold services.  Inside the church was extravagant and decorated with a roman inspiration due to the round architecture.  We also learned that Galileo was born in Pisa and conducted one of the first experiments on the leaning tower.  Our tour guide explained the leaning tower was slowly tilting to the ground 1 millimeter each year until the building was secured a few years ago.  The reason why the tower is leaning is due to the soft soil it was built on.  Pisa is located close the sea water and over time the soil became soft and sunk causing the building to lean. After Pisa we returned to Florence and went to the grocery store! 

Today we went to Verrazzano Castle & Winery.  We toured the beautiful grounds and facility.  The Verrazzano Castle produces over 106,000 bottles of wine a year and was founded in 1170.  The winery is known for there Chanti wine and was one of the 1st to produce Chanti Wine.  We got to see the wine cellars, prosciutto cellar, and barrels of wine.  After the tour we sat down in a gorgeous room at the winery that overlooked breath taking views of the Tuscan hills.  We tasted 3 wines, red rosso, chanti, and a dessert wine (which tasted like whiskey) I was not a fan of the dessert wine!  We also ate lunch there and had one of the best meals so far.  We were served pasta, salad, prosciutto, salami, potatoes, quiche, sausage, & bread.  While numerous students decided to get drunk I enjoyed the food and company I was with.   After we returned to our apartment and napped for the afternoon. Finally I was able to Skype with my parents! (Probably my favorite part of the day)

Tomorrow we are planning on gathering school supplies, remaining house hold items, visiting an open air food market and cooking our first dinner together!  Make sure to check out pictures on Facebook.

Ciao! 

Sienna

Today we took a day trip to Sienna with our group and advisors.  We learned that Sienna and Florence have always been rival cities due to their political power and religious power.  We toured a church as well as the main town of Sienna.  Another thing I learned today was that Sienna is known for the best food in Italy.  (Not very hard to compete since all the food is AMAZING HERE)  We took a leisure lunch on the piazza and I enjoyed one of the best mozzarella and tomato salads I have ever had.

 We then returned to Florence and later dined at a local place next to our apartment.  I also learned that our apartment is owned by Ferdomo (very well know Italian Designer)  Unfortunately our internet isn't consistent so hopefully we will work through it so I can skype everyone!

Tomorrow we have orientation and then are planning on taking our first trip to the supermarket! We are surviving off of a small amount of food and toiletries so hopefully we can refill soon!  

FLORENCE!

I have FINALLY arrived in Florence! After a long commute I made it!  It took three flights to get here and the last one managed to lose 70 pieces of luggage.  Luckily mine was not one of them! After the two hour delay of luggage mishaps I was dropped off at my mini mansion! We are living in an apartment with three floors, including four bedrooms (walk in closets...I couldn't be happier) a washer and dryer (impressive for Italy) a kitchen including a dish washer :) and marble counters! Also we have a sun room that overlooks The Duomo (Major tourist attraction and beautiful building which Florence is centered around) We can literally climb onto the roof from our sun room! We were warned about blowing fuses and power outages but hopefully we can manage to avoid those!

I plan on using skype to talk during the semester so hear is my skype username
Alexhoffman7

Tomorrow we start orientation and this week we are taking few day trips to Sienna, Pisa, and a castle!

That is all for now.
Ciao!

Bye Bye America...Hello Firenze!

This is my first official post on my blog! Today I'm packing for the semester in Florence Italy and as you can imagine I having some difficulty fitting everything into my suitcase.  I'm only allowed two checked bags and a carry on.  (That is absolutely ridiculous)  I need my dad's American Airline status about now.    Anyway I leave Sunday morning for Florence!

While in Florence I will be living with seven other friends from my sorority and taking mostly apparel classes along with beginning Italian and Italian Food and Wine.  I'm very eager to start the semester and start traveling!

Ciao!