How Many Sights Can We See in 48 Hours? 5 Girls take on Florence & Pisa!

Friday, July 25^th was supposed to be my last day on this magical study abroad trip. However my prayers to the Italian Travel Gods (and my dad) were answered and I was granted an extra 4 days in this beautiful country. On our last day in Ascoli we were visited by our Italian friends who sent us off with a warm goodbye and made the act of leaving that much harder. I really want to thank our friend Giorgio who made us feel so welcome and so at home while we were in Ascoli Piceno and we will never forget you or the fond memories we have shared with you! 

Rachel, Irene, Angelica, Tom, Giorgio, Me, Kasey, Amanda, Lindsey

Me & Giorgio

That morning (Friday) myself and four other girls set out to begin our own adventure on our own for the very first time. We took a bus to Rome in the morning and that afternoon we hopped on a train to Florence. When we got off the train we were definitely overwhelmed by the big city and not having any idea where our hotel was. But, we were able to use our Italian and ask an officer for directions and find the hotel on our own. It was definitely one of the first experiences that made me feel totally independent and has forced me to come out of my shell to be comfortable advocating for myself and talking to strangers. If I’ve gotten anything out of this trip, it is definitely a new sense of self-confidence!

Found our way to the hotel!

That evening we set out to explore Florence and find a place to have dinner. We settled in at Trattoria Kitty and had an amazing meal of Caprese salad, pesto pasta, tomato-basil pasta, and a curry risotto dish. The food (like everywhere else) was delicious!

Chicken & Curry Risotto

Tomato Basil Homemade Spaghetti

Caprese Salad

Homemade Pesto

Ponte Vecchio

Saturday morning we headed out at 8:30 a.m. to start seeing all the sights that Florence has to offer. We started our morning at the Galleria dell’Accademia where we enjoyed magnificent works of art including Michelangelo’s “Statue of David”.

Michelangelo's "David"

Michelangelo's "David"

Christine, Kristina, Rachel, Emily, Me

From there, we headed over to the Duomo where we hiked up the 463 stairs to the top of dome to take in the breathtaking view of the entire city. The Duomo at the top of this church in Florence is the largest brick dome in the world. The view was absolutely amazing (definitely worth standing in the hour-wait line). 

View from Top of Duomo

Artwork on the ceiling of the Duomo

Duomo in Florence

Me, Christine, Emily, Rachel, Kristina

Rachel, Me, Christine

That afternoon we went to the markets to do a little shopping and we totally got sucked in to one of the vendors selling leather jackets. He chatted us up and convinced us to go back to his store where he custom fitted a jacket to one of our friends (Emily) and pulled out all of his tricks to make her fall in love with the jacket. He fit it perfect her taste and body shape, scratched it with a key to show how it does not scratch, and then lit the sleeve on fire to show it will not burn. We kept asking how much the jacket cost and he would keep saying “ah, no worry! Just look” and show us even more reasons to buy the jacket. In the end, it ended up costing 160 Euro (almost $300) which was almost heartbreaking. Emily was able to keep her cool and not fall for his tricks but it was definitely heartbreaking to walk away from that perfect jacket.

Setting her coat on fire

Telling her how the coat should fit

Emily & Her Leather Coat!

That night we had our last dinner as a group at Trattoria Za-Za’s and we definitely spoiled ourselves. The food is so delicious it is hard to portion-control but hey, when in Italy!

Me @ Trattoria Za-Za

Curry Risotto

Homemade Fettucine Pesto

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Sunday was definitely our most jam-packed day but it was the most fun. We began our day at 7 a.m. and made our way to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa (you can’t come so close to Pisa and not make the trip).

Me, Rachel, Christine, Emily, Kristina

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Emily, Rachel, Me

Obviously a cliche picture had to be taken

Leaning Tower of Pisa

We arrived back in Florence at noon where we stopped for a quick lunch (and a quick shopping spree) and then made our way to Walkabout Florence where we geared up (no pun intended) for our VESPA TOUR! We rented vintage vespas and were given a guided tour all over Florence and Chianti where we got to see breath taking views and have an experience you could not get anywhere else. We stopped in a vineyard where we got to walk through and pick fresh blackberries off the trees and pick grapes off the vine to try. The entire experience was so surreal that I am still in shock it even happened. 

Christine, Me, Emily, Rachel, Kristina

Our trusty steads for the day!

Emily, Rachel, Kristina, Me

View of Florence

Rachel's first time on the moped!

Fiat 500

Grapes from the vineyard

Fresh picked blackberries!

After the Vespa tour we quickly headed back to our hotel to grab our luggage and then ran to catch a bus to Greve, Chianti. We will be spending one night and day in Greve, Chianti and then we will be headed home on 29^th. This trip has been absolutely amazing and I am so incredibly sad to be leaving. The people I have met, the places I have seen and the memories I have made will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Wine Tasting, Seafood & Grottammare Coast!

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Last night we had our last “field” trip as an entire group of UNH students and it definitely was a bittersweet moment. As a group we took a trip to Grottammare where we got to experience an authentic wine tasting at an actual Italian Vineyard. We took a tour of a vineyard called Le Caniette and got to see and learn about how they make all their different types of wine and where they store it. The man who owned the vineyard was very passionate about how he makes his wine and his philosophy is that the quality of the wine is based upon how the grapes are not grown and the time spent tending to their health rather than the time spent in the lab fermenting the grapes and adding flavor. The trademark wine of the vineyard is called Mellone, which is a red wine specifically from this region of Italy. The owner says that this wine is most special to his vineyard and is their specialty. And one of you lucky souls (if you’re even reading this) has a bottle waiting for you for when I get home ;) 

Wine Cellar

Wine Cellar

Wine Tasting

Le Caniette Vineyard

Garlande, Kate, Christine, Erica, Kristina, Emily, Rachel, Me

Me at the Wine Vineyard

After the wine tasting, we headed down to the coast of Grottammare where we were treated to a fabulous seafood dinner on the water. But first, naturally we took some cliché pictures on the beach as a group!

Me at the Grottammare Coast

Katharine, Me

(Top): Katharine, Rachel (Middle): Garlande, Emily, Kristina (Bottom): Kate, Erica, Christine, Me

Emily, Kristina, Erica, Garlande, Rachel, Me, Kate, Christine

At dinner we were treated to a 5-course meal of all fresh local seafood. We tasted foods such as squid, octopus, shrimp, clams, and mussels for the first three courses. Then for the fourth course we had all of the same seafood, but fried! Now if any of you know me, you know that I am the pickiest eater in the world and I am the girl who usually ops out of the Clam Bakes at the Cape to eat a bowl of spaghetti instead. Well, you all better start making room for one more at the dinner table because you have a new seafood eater on your hands! (Well, sort of) I’m happy to say I tried the clams and the mussels and loved both of them! The squid …. Not so much. And the octopus .. couldn’t get over the tentacles. But, needless to say the dinner was a success and I can add two new foods to my repertoire!

Squid, Octopus, and Shrimp

Kristina's Reaction to the Octopus!

Fried Seafood!