The Saturday after our big school field trip we decided to wake up super early, try to find the bus station, and go Grieve in Chianti for a wine festival. The bus ride over, of course was beautiful. It was drizziling outside so the ground was wet and the sky grey and cloudy but it was still beautiful. The hills seemed to go on forever and they were filled with every color of green imaginable. I remember taking an art class (or possibly a science class) and the teacher said that the human eye can only recognize a percentage of color because we can only see a certain wavelength or something and I think I decided as we were driving through Tuscany that the hills contained every color green reconziable to man and more. All the shades from yellow green, to moss green, blueish green, green with a little red so that it has shades of brown... every single green you can find on the color spectrum was outside my window. And then there were the houses which were more like mansions, and they seemed to grow out of the landscape and fuse with the hills. It was beautiful.
When we got to Grieve it was still raining and we had no idea where we were going so we just wandered until we found a market where they had fresh fruit, vegetables, clothes and purses. It was like a huge flea/farmers market. It was wonderful, but still drizzing so we decided to find sheltor and we ended up at this café facing the piazza where the wine festival was going to take place. We had arrived at about 9 and the festival didn’t start until 11 so like anyother Italian, we got some coffee and a brioche and just sat and chatted and when we weren’t talking we were watching all the people go by. We ended up hanging out until 11:30 and when we decided wine tasting it was POURING! But its ok, cause we all got a glass of wine, and huddled underneath the little stands talking to all venders and other tourists. By the end of the day, I had tried a lot of different wines, mostly chiantis but it was a good experience because I could compare all the different flavors within one group. I also tried a really good dessert wine that tasted carmely.
After a long day of wine tasting we took the bus back to Florence and napped for a bit and then we all decided (around 10) to go salsa dancing. We all got dressed up: makeup and hair and some how I was convinced by the girls I live with to wear high heel shoes. And you know what I put on my red patent leather high heeled shoes and went out because I looked good and I had been watching all the Italian woman do it here so easily, But soon enough I realized this was a horrible idea because:
1. I am NOT graceful and I am NOT a crazy Italian woman.
2. It was raining
3. Florence is paved with cobblestones which makes walking in tennis shoes uncomfortable.
4. We were walking over to the San Spirtito area, which is on the other side of the Arno, which is also…..ON THE OTHERSIDE OF THE CITY!!!
5. And finally, we didn’t actually know where this place was meaning we were going to get lost.
We ended up spending a good hour wondering around, sometimes going in circles, sometimes just simply going the wrong way. And honestly, after this adventure I can actually tell my grandchildren: I walked in the rain, up hill both ways in high heels to go dancing because at one point, we were actually walking up a dirt hill to NOWHERE! Fully pissed, I was ready to give up when our luck changed and finally someone was able to give us useful directions.
After that, the whole night changed. I ended up having so much fun that I want to learn how to salsa and I want everyone I know to learn how to salsa so we can practice together.
My first Italian coffee and brioche
hanging out in the rain before the wine festival
our awesome goody bags/wine glass holders. Very fashionable.
At the salsa club with the mates
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