Chianti, Pisa and Lucca

Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, I have been very very busy. This past weekend has been wonderful!

On Friday we went to Chianti. It was RWU and ASU that went that day. It was beautiful there! I got to taste two wines. They were very good. The place wasn't far from Florence. It was about a half hour bus ride. We arrived there and got a tour of the place, had lunch, tasted the wine, and walked around and took many pictures. I learned a lot while I was there too. I learned the proper way to taste wine. First you DO NOT hold the glass on the glass. You hold it by the stem. Then you swirl the wine glass. If the tears (they are not called legs!) are close together and run down slowly, it has high alcohol percentage and it has full body. Then you smell the wine. We had to try to figure out what it smelled like because the chianti wine has the smells of many fruits. Then you look at the wine. You do not hold the glass up. You tilt the glass and hold it against something white. If it is violet red it is not very old. If it is ruby red its kind of old. If it is brown red it is aged. Then you get to taste it. You are supposed to chew the wine(weird). I also learned a lot about Extra Virgin Olive Oil. EVOO is not the same as regular olive oil. The extra means it has an acidity of less than .3%. Virgin means that it is pure and is only made out of olives. Manufactures of olive oil don't put the acidity level on the bottle because they can pass it off if it is under .8%. One way to tell if the EVOO is good is to look at the bottle. If it is a dark bottle, that is good because it protects it from the light. Also cans are good too, because that blocks the sun. If the acidity is on the bottle don't get it if its over .3%. The EVOO that we had on bread at Chianti was amazing! Best I have ever had!!

On Saturday I went to Pisa and Lucca with 40 other students. Pisa was fun. We took our 'Pisa pictures' which took a very long time. We then watched what other people did in their pictures. Some were really funny. One guy kissed/hugged it. And another woman put earmuffs on it! Then we went to the Baptistry, and Cathedral, and the Burial Ground. The Baptistry was very cool. A woman sang and it sounded like there was 20 people singing because of the echo. Then we went to the Cathedral which was BEAUTIFUL! I lit a candle for Gramma and Papa there.  Lots of frescos and beautiful gold ceilings! There is a Saint that is buried there who hasn't decomposed yet. He is in a glass tomb and it was very cool! Then we went ti the burial ground which was really cool too! Then we went to Lucca and ate lunch and went for a 2 hour bike ride along the raised boarder of Lucca. It was a lot of fun!

Tonight me and my roommate are going to attempt to find a chinese food place in Florence. With us luck!