Florence, siena, banfi, and cinque terre

Italy!
So this morning we woke up early and all 18 of us headed to Florence. We left at 7 and got there at 2... Long travel but for some for some reason train travel never seems that long to me. One we got there 8 of us were staying in an apartment together but it was a walk away so we bought a map and headed off. Florence is so pretty. It's all arcitechture and shopping. A lot of shopping. We finally got to the street and had to be buzzed into this sketchy door where he the man informed us we were going to be split up and at 2 different locations. The Julies and Arleigh and I took the apartment. I was pretty nice. A place to sleep and a good view. We got ready and went to meet the other group. It is so hot here! This is what I envisioned when I packed a month ago so it was nice to finally get to wear my clothes. It's nice to be sweating instead of freezing! We waited and wAited and they were taking forever so we just left them haha. We stopped by the ATM and walked around. We Got some gelato and then grabbed a couple beers at this cafe. The man working there was hilarious. He kept trying to talk to us and we barely understood him. Like usual. The julies wanted piercings so we walked to the shop around the corner and one got her nose pierced and the other a part of her ear. Hahah. They were so scared and the guy was so funny about it. He wouldn't let anyone go in to hold their hands. after that we were just walking around and ran into the other girls so we went and grabbed dinner with them. We ran into the other half of our group who was eating too but no one wants to eat with a group of 18... It's hard enough with 8. We ended up eating in one of the major squares. 10 euros for dinner and a drink. I got the veal in a lemon sauce. It was terrible. I was so disappointed. The lemon sauce was a slice of lemon and the veal was so overcooked. It was rock hard. Not a fan. After dinner some people got gelato and we went shopping but the store close minutes before we got there. Not everyone wanted to go shopping so we decided to meet at this bar because we wanted to go out. Or so we thought. We finally got to the bar and the others were nowhere to be found so we just sat and watched the end of the soccer game and got our 5 shots for 5 euros. A great deal and they were tiny and watered down so we well got a lot of them and shared. Haha hours later they still hadn't come so we left to goto a better club. Right when we left the other showed up so we went back. We made some friends... About 5 girls from Scotland? So our wolfpack grew to 9. Haha. We all dance for a while and then headed to another club. They were break dancing which was amazing to watch but I was tired so the girls walked with me home where I went to bed and they web back until 3 am. It was overall a pretty great night.

The next day we all woke up around 9. I took all the stuff off my bed but then slept in Julie's. Haha don't even know. Arleigh slept in the other girls apartment so she called us in the morning and headed over. I hoped in the shower and started to get ready when ar comes in at like 9:20 and is like so bike ride today!?!? Haha the bike ride leaves at 10 keep in mind. So we called around 9:30 to see if we could go and they said they were full but then called us back and changed there mind. So now we are fratically packing to make it on time. Haha it's like 9:50 now and we didn't make it out the door until :55 haha. Hair wet and half of us still dirty. I'm impressed that we pulled ourselves together that fast! We ran to the place and this Scottish man was waiting in the middle of the street for us and knew it was us as soon as we came sprinting around the corner. Haha. We threw our stuff in his office and headed off to the van. Bad decision to drink the night before. But in our defense we didn't know we were doing a bike ride the next day. The drive seemed like forever and he was driving like a mad man over all the windy roads and hills. They had to pull over and put Julie in the front seat so she didn't vom all over. Hahaahaha. So when we finally arrived at the castle we toured the castle which was cool but I wasn't in the right state to appreciate it. The castle was a winery and they had oak barrels of wine bigger than me... Bigger than all of us. We hiked up to the top and got a nice view of Tuscany. We were in the chianti region. After the view we got a glass of wine.... Great just what we needed... And bread with olive oil. The olive oil tastes like olives, which you would assume, but back home ours doesn't taste like that. It is also spicy from the soil it grows in. Pretty cool. Just FYI I miss a lot of beautiful scenery writing these stupid things. We are on a bus right now drivinig through Tuscany to go tour a vineyard. It's goregous outside. I'm never coming back.  

Then we had the opportunity to buy wine and oil and headed off to the fun part. The bikes! I rode oompa loompa! Hahha so much fun. We split into 2 groups and then headed off into the countryside! It was a lot of downhill but they wouldn't let us go fast... Not that you really can on a mountain bike.  I miss my bike :(. Anytime you want to mail it over mom you just let me know. I learned by the end to be last and wait until they were half way down and then just fly down!!! Hahah system beat. It was so much fun. Experince of a lifetime. There are vineyards and olive trees everywhere here. That's all there is. It's amazing! We stopped for lunch which was salad, a creamy tomato Penne and dessert. Forest berries (boysenberry) ice cream. It sucked haha but the pasta was great. I think my full-o-meter is broken because I definately could have eaten another plate or two. Then we got back on our bikes and did a long flat section and 
Looked at the scenery. After about 30 min of riding we got to a hill where you could ride up or put your bike on the truck and drive up. Of course I rode it! But all my friends got on the truck. Haha. I think only about 6 people do it and they all pushed there bikes part of the way. It was a b**ch for sure. And the heat! It had to be 95! That was the killer. I made it up without walking but I had to stop a couple times as to not pass out from a heat stroke! I also rode on the wrong side of the rode. It had better shading :). We stopped at a cafe at the top of the hill and had a little water and continued on. The last part was a short ride back to the castle. We got the shirts there that say Tuscany bike tour on the front and "put the fun between your legs" on the back hahaha. Dad and bill I tried to get you one but they didn't have you size. So sorry! And mom I didn't figure you'd appreciate it to the fullest extent so... We loaded back up in the van exhausted mainly from the sun. Ugh I want my bike so bad. Maybe I'll just buy one and call it my souvenier. If bill can bring back a surf board (to colorado) I surely can bring a bike! I can at least use mine! 

So now we are in the death van a little less hungover and a lot more tired. I had to put my head down and close my eyes. The drive and driving is just too much. We finally got back and went to go get dinner. Sounds like an easy task. It's not. Not at all. We went to about 15 restaurants and they were all closed or sucked. When we finally found one I didn't like my meal (risotto mom. I didn't like the risotto) and only ate half of it. It was made with roclette cheese which was what we had in class, but it was so salty. Ugh. Not having good luck eating in Italy. Except for the pizza and champagne I just had for breakfast. Mmmm. Breakfast of champions! After dinner we headed to the train station. We were sitting on a Bench waiting for the train and ar went to get a drink and comes spriting back yelling the train leaves at 20:10 it was 20:07. Happens everytime. So we ran and caught the train. It was so hot on that stupid train we were literally dripping sweat. Just adding to the day of biking. We arrived in sienna at around 9:30 and asked where we were on the map. Not on the map haha. All they could say was taxi. So we took a taxi. Oh. My. God. We arrived and this little lady was creepin in the shadows who was actually the lady that checked us in. Haha.  

Side note: Jake just came up to mr freaking out and took off his socks and asking if the 3 bites on his foot were bug bites. Hahaha. Great. Good to know I'm the bed bug expert. I'll put it on My resume. 

So back to the hotel. The lady let us into our room and our jaws just dropped. We are in the most goregous place ever! It is so nice! 2 giant beds. A couch. A tv. A kitchen with a fridge and dishwasher and a table! And the best part. The bathroom! Ohhh myyyy. 2. Count em two bathrooms with giant showers and mirrors and it is luxurious. I am so so happy. So it was a fight to
See who showered first. I got second but that was fine because I got to
Take a long tome. Freezing cold shower. Ahhhh it felt so good. Nothing as refreshing. Especially after such a sweaty and hot day. We all then went to bed at around midnight. I didn't sleep at all. And I had to wake up twice to charge everything. Phones, 3 cameras. So that didn't help my sleep. Took me at least an hour to fall back asleep each time grrr. We were all so exhausted. I don't know why I didn't sleep. I wrote half of this last night, I bet you can tell where I picked up again. My change in mood was drastic.

Woke up and opened the shutters to an amazing view of Tuscany and vineyards. Oh my. Happiest girl. We took showers and headed off to catch the bus into town. Waited for the wrong bus. Naturally. So now we are in a franctic hustle to get a taxi so we can catch the bus. We had to go knock at that lady who checked us in's house. Haha. It was just down the road. She called us a taxi and we made it 8 min late but the bus waited for us! Yay. You know how you see in movies the roads lined with trees. I always thought that looked too good to be true. It's not. It's so pretty! We got on the bus and headed off fo the banfi vineyards. The drive was amazing but I sprang most of it writing this so I didn't get to see too much. We arrived at this castle and picked up our tour guide and drove down to the manufacturing plant. We got to see where they sort the grapes all the way through the barrels it is stored in for years. I thought it was a really interesting tour. Cool to see how wine is made. I would like to see it when it was more in use though. It's not time to harvest so it is pretty quiet. After the tour we drove back up to the castle where we had a wine tasting. 4 wines, one white and 4 red. They were delicious. I normally don't like red wines but these were smooth. It was an interesting experience but I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Probably because I don't. After the wine tasting we went to the private dining room to have lunch. Oh wow. It was amazing. Ah- mazing. Noodles with a butter sauce and cherry tomatoes with a little sausage and asparagus. It was so delicious. The 2nd course was really good also. But nowhere as good as the first one. Beef that was so tender you could cut it with a butter knife and roasted potatoes. Mmm so yummy. Then we loaded back onto the bus and headed back to sienna. When we got in ar and Julie and I went into town to explore. We ended up finding the horse races which is this major event where every village has a horse and a flag and a song and they turn the major plaza into a horse track. Everyone sings for their village and wears the flag. It was so cool to see but the race was short because it was just a practice round. The actual race isn't for a couple of days but i'm glad I got to see the practice round. Once we got back I went for a walk and then went to bed. Good day. 

Today Julie slept in and Arleigh and I just talked until she got up. We packed up our things and the nice lady drove us to the train station. Ahh. We got there and met a nice group from California who we talked to for a while. The train was messed up so we had to take a later one and decided to goto the grocery store across the street. Had plenty of time to get our things and head out but if course we still ended up sprinting for the train. We took 3 trains to cinque terre which is 5 little villages on the coast of Italy. We are staying in corniglia which is the third little town. After hiking up a giant hill in the 90 degree weather we finally made it to our hostel in the center of town. It is pretty nice! Nothing compared to our last place but we have our own bathroom and room. But we put an extra bed in the room so it's a little tight but it's not like we spend anytime here anyway. After we got here we went and got gelato and then put on our suits and headed down to the beach. This village is tiny! We found the path to the beach down this tiny staircase with a little sign. Whew the hike down to the beach is a long and steep one! But once you get down there it is worth it! They're isn't any sand but there is a pier you can jump off of into the water and places you can layout and tan. They're are a bunch of little boats that I want to borrow and go for a row but I refrained. The water has so much salt in it that it is so easy to float. It's so muh in to lay out in the middle of the inlet and float on your back! And there are a lot of little hot pockets in the water. It's so refreshing! After a couple hours of swimming and tanning we headed back up the mountain of stairs. I'm going to have the nicest but after this. It's like a never ending stair master here! When we reached the top we found a little restaurant and went upstairs to eat dinner. I had penne with tomato sauce and pesto! Mm the best of both worlds! After dinner was more gelato and then cold showers. Ahh so nice. Ar and Julie went for a walk while I showered and when I was done it was entirely too hot to sit in the room so I went outside and found some benches with a nice view and went to sit an write this and read. These 2 boys walked up and stood at the railing for a while and one of them left while the other one came and sat next to me haha. He ended up being from corniglia and spoke pretty good English although I had to slow down and explain a lot of stuff.  It was really interesting talking to him because I got to pick his brain about the town and what's it's like and what italy is like! Apparently this is only a town of 300 people... Tiny wow! And there are more in the summer for the tourism. There are vineyards on the hill and they at just for the families of the village. They All make their own wine to drink for the year. He lives with his whole family and thought it was crazy that I live in the same town as mine but I don't live with them. We talked for a while and he wanted to take me to this place to watch the subset but I declined. After we talked somemore and I established he wasn't a rapist we went to the spot. It was about 2 min away and through the center of town. It was so wowed walking through town with him because everyone knows everyone And everyones business. I could tell they all were talking about him but I still don't speak Italian so I have no idea what they were saying. The view fom that spot was amazing! You can see 3 of the 4 towns from there! After a little I said goodnight and headed back to the hostel. The girls weren't there so i went back to the bench area and there they were!!! We talked for a while and I showed them the cool spot and then we came back and went to bed! Great day!