Tuesday, October 21, 2008

firenze con la mia amica jen!

Still on "catch-up"mode...

Two weekends ago (the same weekend as the Pisa and Lucca trip), Jen came to visit me! She flew into Rome and spent the night there Friday night, and came to Florence Saturday night. We had SO MUCH fun together! It was so great having one of my friends from home here, especially because I have been missing them A LOT. 

So I basically just showed her around Florence and we had lovely dinner dates every night in which we would share various entrees, salad, bruschetta, tiramisu, and of course a bottle of wine! Our favorite meal was at Yellow Bar. Jen got a pasta dish with yellow and green linguine, tomato cream sauce, mushrooms, and ham. I tried a bite of it and it was delicious. I got a calzone (my first one in Italy!) with gorgonzola, mozzarella, and ham. SOOO GOOD. AND of course we shared bruschetta, an arugula and shaved parmesan salad, and a nice bottle of chianti. Everything was amazing!



Il Porcellino!


We took a lovely half-day trip to Greve in Chianti, which is a little town in the hills of Tuscany. After a breathtaking bus ride and confustion about where to get off, we absolutely fell in love with Greve. It had awesome views of the surrounding wineries and olive groves, cute little houses, beautiful foliage, and of course, plenty of wine!



Wine tasting in Greve


So... we basically want to live in Greve! We also went to Panzano, which was about 15 minutes from Greve, when Danielle came to visit. Panzano was great because we went to a gorgeous family-owned and run winery that had delicious wine and wonderful views: 



View from Le Fonti Winery


Then on Friday, we took the train to Rome to hang out with a few different friends. I saw the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's for the second time, and we also went to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.... Roman icons! I didn't feel like I needed to go to the Colosseum again, so Jen and Danielle did that after I left and before they went to Paris.

I was so glad I could have a good friend come visit me, especially after the emotionally trying time the previous few weeks. In late November, I am lucky that two more friends are visiting me! Well, they are also lucky ones to be coming to Italy! 

Next up: Venice!

ciao

2 comments:

Kristin said...

love this post...i want to see more of your adventures!!! miss you =)

Angry Anne said...

this post makes me jealous. come home now please! more importantly, come visit me in LA and play with my kitties! I live right off of Venice Blvd... does that mean you'll like it?! :)