November 18th

I slept through my alarm but was thankfully woken up by a friend to tell me that they were waiting on me for our wine field trip to a vineyard in Verona. I raced out the door and literally ran the mile to where we were they were waiting. It was so sweet of my teacher to wait and it really means a lot to know that a teacher cares about you and enjoys having you around.

The three hour bus ride passed quickly due to the fact that we were all asleep, with one potty break caused by me, we made it there in a rather reasonable amount of time. For this trip, we went to two different vineyards that are located only a mile or two away from each other. The first we went to was a vineyard called Masi and it contained one of the oldest wine cellars in all of Italy. The tour was very informational and the wine is rather famous around Italy. I am not sure if it is famous in the US, but I do know that they carry Masi brand wine in some stores. After our trip to Masi, we went down the road to a vineyard called SergoAlighieri and it was breath-takingly beautiful. The fall colors were all around us from the golden yellows to the cranberry reds, this is one of those times where pictures do no justice. We walked around the vineyard and got an amazing tour filled with a lot of information. We also saw their rooms they hold the grapes in until they are perfectly dried out.

After our tour they took us to their main reception hall and we had our wine tasting. They had a feast prepared for us of different cheeses, meats, and bread, I was beyond happy. We all ate while evaluating the wine and just really enjoyed each others company. My class is really nice because there are only about ten of us so it is very quaint and cozy. Our teacher is only around 24 years and so cute, she always has the cutest clothes. She is really fun and sweet, she really enjoys our class.

Oh I should have said this earlier but now I will give a little bit of history of the vineyard. The name Alighieri might ring a bell because of the author Dante Alighieri, the author and former residence of my beloved city. When Dante was exiled from Florence, he and his family settled in Verona on a plot of land and decided to start a vineyard. The vineyard was run primarily by his son, but Dante lived there as well. A few hundred years ago, the last born Alighieri was a woman and she then married a Count with the last name of Serego. He allowed her to keep her maiden name because it was so famous as long as she was willing to have his name before hers, something very radical for these times. The decedents of Dante still live on the lands and run the vineyard. The current generation has two daughters and so they are hoping to be able to find men who will be willing to let them keep their names and continue to run the vineyard. We took the bus back and I slept a majority of the trip.

Of the three vineyards that I have visited, this was hands down my favorite. From the atmosphere to the lands to them providing us food to the history, it was just the most amazing experience. I would rank them vineyard 3, vineyard 1, and then vineyard 2.

We made it back to Florence and I had dinner and started my homework. The girls wanted to see the fourth Twilight movie, and although I am not a twi-tard, I thought it would be fun to go and see it with them. Turns out that it was not too bad of a movie and so it was a good experience in the end. And now I can say that I saw a movie in Italy.

When we got back to the apartment, I packed for Rome and worked a little bit more on homework. Rome was early the next morning and so even though I went to bed at 1:30, I knew I needed to make the most of my sleep. I was beyond excited to go to Rome.

Con amore, Ciao!