Last week in Roma

      Monday night we went back to Dar Poeta which is the pizza place with the nutella pizza. I got ricotta and pesto bruschetta and me and Lori split the most delicious pizza I've ever had- it had mozzarella, basil, cherry tomatoes, and potatoes! So delicious!! And of course we got the nutella dessert.

       Tuesday night we went to Scholars one last time to hang out, get drinks, and do karaoke!! It was so much fun. I sang "Wannabe" by Spice Girls with Alissa and Mary Katherine and "Drop it Like it's Hot" with Lori and Lauren (I didn't choose the song...).

       Wednesday we skipped school so that we could see Pope Benedict!!!! We got there around 9:45 (so we could also sleep in that day) and we were in the reserved seated section. We got as close to the aisle as we could so we could see him really well when he drove by in his Pope-mobile! He came out at 10:30. I couldn't believe how close I was to him!! I could've practically reached out and touched him but I didn't because I would've been tackled... So anyway scriptures were read and there were some shoutouts to choirs who came from all over the world and sang. Everything was in like 7 or 8 languages. There were thousands of people there from all over the world- it was so cool. And at the end, the Pope sang the Lord's Prayer in Latin and gave the blessing. It was beautiful.

       That night, Mary Katherine and I took the metro to Piazzo Vittorio Emanuele and meet up with Ms. Raftery and Ms. Lavery for dinner! We wanted to treat them to dinner so say thank you for the amazing experience. They are so wonderful, I love them so much. First we went to get appertivos and they treated us to that, and then we headed to the restaurant, La Vecchia Roma. They cook the pasta in this huge pot and catch it on fire before putting it on the plates. I got bucatini with a tomato sauce and bacon- it's one of their specialties and it was really good. We ate and talked and it was so much fun. It was so cool to have taken the metro across town like 7 stops on our own to this business district and meet up with "co-workers" for some dinner. Mary Katherine and I felt like expert residents of Rome :)

Appertivos

Ms. Raftery, me, Mary Katherine, and Ms. Lavery at La Vecchia Roma

       Thursday was the big 4th grade show. It was called "Unity in Diversity" and they sang songs from around the world and the boys in my class did a Russian dance, the girls in my class did an Indian belly dance, and the boys in Mary Katherine's class did a break dance to hip-hop (for USA) and it was hilarious. The orchestra also played some famous tunes from different countries, such as "London Derry Air." They also welcomed everyone in different languages, said thank you in different languages and our two Chinese boys, Andy and Sylvio, spoke in Chinese when introducing the Chinese song about the Jasmine flower. It was really cute and well done.

       Thursday night we had our farewell dinner at I San Pietrini. It was a five course meal- we had fried pizza and then a potato, cheese, artichoke thing for appetizer, then basically the same pasta I had the night before and then risotto for our main dishes, and then we had an almond, chocolatey thing for dessert. After dinner, Max wanted us to go to this outdoor summer discoteca in the center of Roma near the Coliseum. We got an "In" ticket and then found out that in order to leave we had to get an "Out" ticket and to get an "Out" ticket we had to buy a 15 euro drink.... I got this strawberry slush thing with like a pound of straight sugar in it...it was disgusting. No matter how much I tried to mix it, I could still feel the grittiness of the sugar and that's all I could taste. I took like five sips and threw it out, a total waste of money. But other than the crappy drink, it was actually extremely entertaining... it was like a circus. There were clowns and a popcorn machine, and clowns riding bikes through the crowd blowing a whistle, and there was really good music- a mix between Italian and American. There were acrobats and on stage, there were all these characters dressed up crazy and they were legit dancers. They even exploded this confetti thing and started a fog machine and had trippy lights. I've never experienced anything quite like it- I felt like it was a real life cirque du soleil and I was inside of it instead of just watching the show haha. It was crazy and really fun.

      Friday was my last day in Rome and it was just a chill day. I slept in and we got lunch at 12 at this really good panini place by Old Bridge and then got our last gelato- I got cookies, dolce latte, and nutella. Then we went to a market and used some of our last euros shopping :) The people flying out on Saturday had our Vatican tour Friday night. At 6, me, Lori, Laura, Daniela, Kate, Kelly, and Kyle went to the pasta place that we went to that very first day for lunch. We got bruschetta and carbonara to share and I got spaghetti with cheese and pepper as my meal. Then we headed to the Vatican for our tour. We toured the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. The art and sculptures and everything was incredible. And the Sistine Chapel was amazing. We couldn't talk or take pictures inside because it's so holy. The Sistine Chapel was built in 1475 and it only took Michelangelo 4 years to paint ceiling on his back! From 1980-2000 the ceiling was restored (lightened up) because it had gotten so dark over the years from smoke….the chimney in the corner of chapel was used to let the people know when a new Pope was elected-white smoke meant new Pope had been chosen, black smoke meant no Pope had been chosen. When it was restored they left patches of dark spots to see how dark it had gotten. It took so much longer to restore than it did Michelangelo to paint it! The Sistine Chapel is always illuminated, even in the day, which I thought was interesting. I also learned that Vatican City is its own country because all the Catholic countries couldn’t agree on which country should have heart of Catholicism so they made it its own country right there in the middle of Rome and it's 100 acres!

      I feel so lucky and blessed to have had such an amazing opportunity. Living in Italy and indulging in the culture was so incredible. I can't believe I got to see so much ancient history and artwork and also get experience teaching in a different country. It was the most incredible experience and I had the time of my life.

You can call me Ms. Jones

      I feel like I'm a real teacher here and it's so awesome. Ms. Raftery has had me do so much and I have learned a lot. She has had me take over Reading and she wanted me to do Non-Fiction, so I took home excerpts from this book about teaching Non-Fiction and have planned my Reading lessons for everyday. My observed lesson that Kyle watched me do was teaching the kids how to summarize main ideas when reading Non-Fiction and it went so well. I didn't think teaching Non-Fiction would be that exciting and I didn't think the kids would be that engaged, but I was wrong. There was a bin of Non-Fiction books in the classroom that I used and there were lots of books about animals, and weather, and volcanoes and Mt. Everest, etc. The first day I introduced Non-Fiction and we compared and contrasted Non-Fiction and Fiction and the kids came up with examples of Non-Fiction. Then I taught them the different strategies while reading, like summarizing main ideas, etc. I had them look through the books and practice the skills they learned and I was thrilled when I realized how excited they were. They would be like, "Ms. Jones, did you know...!?" and they were so excited about the different things they were learning from reading these books. They would look at the books together and talk about them. Eleonora was really engaged in a book about endangered animals and when Reading class was over she was upset she didn't get to finish it so I told her she could take it home and finish reading it. The next day she brought it back and showed me a part that talked about endangered animals in China and we're learning about Ancient China in Social Studies so she was making that connection, and it made me so happy. Things like that are so rewarding for a teacher and it made me feel so good. The last day we had Reading, I had the kids read a book and "teach" it to the class. Alessandro read a book about snakes and he talked for about 20 minutes about all this interesting stuff he learned about snakes and all the kids were so engaged and asking questions and talking about it. It brought a huge smile to my face. It was so cool to have taught them their Non-Fiction unit and to have them be so excited and engaged.

        The third week of practicum, Ms. Raftery had to get DRAs done (reading assessments to determine their reading level) so she had me take over pretty much all the lessons. I did Social Studies one day and I taught them about the Silk Road. We made a web diagram about trade and the importance of it and then we read about the Silk Road and talked about it and I also briefly introduced Marco Polo. I did Math one day and I taught them 3D shapes. First we went over homework and I would call on someone to give the answer and then the kids would give a thumbs up or down. Then I introduced the 3D shapes and we had the actual shapes to use so they could see them. I taught them edges, faces, and vertexes and then passed the shapes around and partners would study the shapes and count the faces, edges, and vertexes. And then they filled out a table with a picture of the shape and they would identify the shape and say how many edges, faces and vertexes it had. I also showed them nets and I drew a net for a cube and folded it up into a cube and passed it around for them to see. At the end, Claudio, Cosimo and Alice came up to me and told me that I did a really good job teaching them and that it was really interesting. It melted my heart :). And then we had snack and Riccardo used his snack time to make his own net and showed it to me--so cool. I also did Language Arts and Spelling. In Language Arts we corrected sentences with commas and colons and they also wrote a news paper article about the music recital.

        We had the music recital on May 30. Louisa sang and she has the most beautiful singing voice-it truly gave me goosebumps. Andy and Cosimo played the violin. Riccardo played the electric keyboard and Alessandro played the trumpet, which is the first brass instrument in Marymount. The Arts is a really big deal at Marymount. There are lots of plays and concerts and such. Mr. Williams is the music teacher and he is British and a huge drama queen. The big 4th grade production was on June 7 which was Thursday and we basically didn't have any classes that whole week-it was all play practice. Mr. Williams just expected to have the kids all day without it messing anything up and he was so annoying. And he wanted us to be there the whole time at the practices too to help keep the kids under control, because he refers to students as "animals" (why are you a teacher??). But it was worth it because the show was adorable.

        Ms. Raftery's class is paired up with a kindergarten class to take care of the garden. On Wednesdays they go out to the garden where they are growing veggie plants and water the plants together.

      May 23 was May Crowning which is Mass. Catholics worship Mary a lot and all the kids brought in a flower and we made them into bouquets and the kids "crowned" the statue of Mary with all the flowers. All the kids either wore their first communion outfits or their very best school uniforms and we had Mass and Communion in the auditorium and sang hymns and scripture and prayers were read. It was really nice. 

Our class's bouquet for Mary

A day in the life of a teacher living in Rome

The alarm is set for 6:30 every morning, we leave San Pietro by 7:30, walk through St. Peter’s Square to the Risorgamento bus stop and catch the number 32 bus by 7:45. We switch busses and get on the 301, which takes us to the driveway of Marymount and then we walk the rest of the way up to the main gate. We usually arrive at Marymount between 8:15 and 8:30. Once we arrive, we go to the bar to get cappuccinos and then make our way to our classes. I do the attendance in the morning and we hear the announcements, which is a few announcements and the morning prayer. In May they celebrate Mother’s Day too so every morning they would pray for all the mothers and in June they also celebrate Father’s Day so the last week of practicum, which was June, they would pray for all the fathers. They would be like, “God please bless our mothers…Bless the mothers who are sick and bless the mothers who have babies in their tummies…etc.” It was precious. They also prayed for the people in Northern Italy affected by the earthquakes this month (yes, plural). And then at the end of the announcements they would say things like, “Have a super duper mega dayyyy!” And just imagine them saying all this in a foreign accent…priceless. They have all the core subjects and also a lot of specials (art, music, p.e., computers, library) and they have Italian. Between having a "special" and Italian everyday, there are a lot of planning blocks, which is really nice. See the schedule below. During planning blocks, Ms. Raftery and the other 4th grade teacher, Ms. Lavery, and Mary Katherine and I all talk and plan together and sometimes go to meetings. I feel like a real teacher and it has been the coolest experience.

            At the end of the day, either Ms. Raftery or I will choose a “Star of the Day,” someone who stood out to us that day. Then I meet the group in the outside area where the bar and cafeteria is and we make our way back to the bus stop. The bus ride is much worse in the afternoon. We wait longer, they are more crowded, and they are hot and smelly, and we usually don’t get home until almost 5! It’s such a long day and I’m exhausted. Most days, on the way home from the Risorgamento bus stop, we grab gelato at one of the best gelaterias in Rome, Old Bridge. And it’s only a five minute walk from our apartment! My favorite combination was cookie and dolce latte...yum.

        Mondays are “market days” when we go to the Carrefour Market up the street a little from San Pietro. It’s a pretty short walk. We get fresh fruit and tomatoes, cheese, and bread and a few other odds and ends, and everything is in Italian so it takes some time going through there and making sure we get what we want. You have to buy the plastic bags that they bag your groceries in (seriously, we have to pay for everything) so we bought one of those big reusable bags. So we make dinner at the apartment some nights and go out to eat other nights. Every week, usually Wednesday or Thursday, we have a group dinner with Kyle and Steve. One week we grabbed some sandwiches at a market behind San Pietro and walked up to this park with an overlook of the whole city and watched the sunset. We usually go out and get drinks Thursday nights, and we found this Irish Pub called Scholars that we love. It's just a fun pub with a lot of college students and other study abroad students. They have t-shirts from different American colleges hanging on the walls. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesday nights are karaoke nights. We go and get Magner's, a Northern Irish beer which is a hard cider, and it's so good. We also really like going to Piazza Navona and Campo di Fiori. The Thursday before we went to Elba, we went to this really authentic family-owned restaurant with all the traditional Roman foods- lots of breads, tomatoes, mozzarella, olives, and PORK! We also tried tripe, which is sheep stomach and it's a delicacy. I was really grossed out by it but I wanted to try it because when else would I have that opportunity!? I took a tiny bite and it was really chewy...yuck the texture really got to me. The brothers who waited on us were Mauro and Lorenzo and everyone was flirting with them and when we left we all got free limoncello shots! Then we went to see the Spanish steps.

Top of the Spanish Steps!

        It's really cool because during the week we live as real residents living an everyday life in Rome and then get to do cool touristy things on the weekends. It's the best of both worlds- seeing all the sights and also getting to experience living like a typical person in Italy and really experiencing the culture.

Isola d'Ebla

6AM depart Residence San Pietro, train ride, bus ride, boat ride to Elba, van ride to hotel and we finally made it around noon. We rented two station wagon-type cars for the weekend that Kyle and Steve drove for going to the beach and Max drove one of the hotel vans. It was kinda cool riding around in an actual car in Italy. They drive on the same side of the road as we do, so it wasn't totally weird. We listened to the radio and it was mostly Italian music but every once in a while an American song would come on and we got so excited haha. Max's family owned the hotel we stayed at. Everything was paid for except alcohol, so that was nice. We had a five course meal for every meal in the dining room. This was the first weekend trip that Max came with us and he was kind of in charge instead of Kyle and Steve which was a big adjustment. He would tell us to be ready at a certain time and we wound up just sitting around forever. He had no concept of time and no schedule and it was so annoying. I guess it's a cultural difference-we're used to having a plan and a schedule and they're more laid back and go with the flow without everything being mapped out.

After we had a late lunch on Friday we went to a beach. To go to the beaches we went to this weekend, we drove up the mountain and back down, so it was a long, scenic drive. The mountains and cliffs went right down to the beaches which was beautiful. We were there from about 4-7 and it was a little chilly. I didn't get in the water but I took a nice nap on the beach. It wasn't a nude beach, but apparently nudity was still acceptable because there was a topless woman and a naked man, and naked children running around. It was interesting to say the least. When we got back from the beach we had a five course dinner and Max wanted everyone to go clubbing (with his friends and the hotel staff-awkward?) but I was too tired and went to bed early.

On Saturday we were going to go to two different beaches but we had a lot of fun at the first one, so we stayed there all morning and afternoon. It was cloudy and a little chilly in the morning but the sun eventually came out and it got warmer. I got in the water this time and it was really nice. It was cold at first but felt good. It was so blue and clear and salty and wonderful. And there was a bar on the beach that had good pina coladas and bellinis :) They were also playing fun music. The date was June 2, which is the day Italy celebrates its reunification, so it's like our 4th of July. So there was a beach party, but it didn't really get going until after we left. That night we had appetizers and drinks at Max's dad's restaurant, which was right down the street from our hotel and right on the Bay of Mola. It was very impressive and beautiful. Then we went back to the hotel and had a huge dinner and then a lot of us went to a nearby village. There had been a festival that day and it was a cute little village with cafes and shops.

On Sunday morning we just laid out by the pool until lunch and then we left after lunch. It was too cold to get in the pool though :( Rome has been so hot and sunny but Elba was cloudy and cool...It would've been nice to have Rome's weather in Elba and then have Elba's cooler weather in Rome but oh well...it was still pretty and I'm glad I got to see Elba.

Gondolas Galore

Another early departure Friday morning and about a four hour train ride from Rome to Venice but we finally made it to the beautiful city around noon. It was about a 20 minute walk from the train station to our hotel, Pensione Guerrato. Venice is like a maze, zigzagging everywhere and things aren’t clearly marked. There are a few main streets in the center of town and there are alleyways, but everything just snakes along the water and there are over 400 bridges. So all of us zigzagged our way over bridges and whatnot with our luggage (and having to pick up our rolly suitcases and carry them awkwardly over bridges because all the bridges were stairs) and got turned around a couple of times, but finally made it to our hotel. The rooms were different, one of them was a two person room, some four and some five, so we couldn’t easily do the same set up that we have in Rome, so we drew names and mixed up the roommates. I was in a five person room with Jo-Elle, Kara, Dana, and Mariel. All of us immediately went to explore. 

We broke into two groups to get lunch and my group found a cute little restaurant with outdoor seating with pretty greenery and hanging lights. I got margherita pizza…again haha. Then we walked around the maze of the city, stopping in shops and we found a bakery. Alissa got a strawberry meringue that I tried and it was really good. That night for dinner I got only my first salad of the trip (the first was a Caesar in Campo dei Fiori). It had a bunch of different lettuce, fresh mozzarella cheese, carrots, tomatoes, and balsamic vinaigrette. And I had my first Bellini! We also got the house white wine and for dessert, Mariel and shared the profiteroles. They were like cream puffs but in milk chocolate…I didn’t like it very much. Daniela got the almond cake, which was pretty good, but the almond flavor was almost overbearing. After dinner we found some of the girls sitting outside this self-serve café and we went in and grabbed some more Bellinis and headed for the main canal (it’s totally fine to walk around with open containers in Italy).

We went on a gondola hunt, having to split up in different boats because they only hold up to five. Me, Lori, Mariel, and Lauren hopped in a gondola and our gondolier was Ivan. The canal and city was so beautiful at night. I was in awe, trying to listen to Ivan and take everything in at the same time, while also snapping a million pictures. Ivan was hilarious. He didn’t tell us too much history stuff but he told us some stories and he sang to us! He had a beautiful voice haha it was just so perfect…and romantic which brings me to my next point. Gondola rides during the day cost about 15 euro, but at night, they charge more (25 euro) because nighttime is when couples take gondola rides and…well, get a little too intimate to say the least. People pay more to be able to get more use out of the gondola and have the gondoliers literally just turn the other way. Haha I am not even joking, this is for real. But anyway, it was such a beautiful night on the water, so peaceful, and being sung to was the cherry on top :) and then when we passed under one of the bridges, I forget the significance, but he had us kiss each other’s cheeks (like the European way- a kiss on each cheek). We were just being rowed along through the main canal, under bridges, through little canal/alleyways in between people’s houses, like how cool is that. It was a perfect night and a perfect little gondola ride and I’m so glad I got to experience that.

Saturday morning we slept in a little bit and went down to breakfast. When we got dressed we went out to the square and bought some fresh fruit from the market. I got a nectarine, some green grapes and some strawberries. There were markets with fresh fruits and vegetables and also fresh catch fish markets. So as you can imagine, there were pigeons and seagulls everywhere! After we got our fruit we headed back to the main canal where we were the night before to catch a boat taxi over to Murano Island where they do the glass blowing. Venice is famous for its Murano glass. When we got there, we saw a glass blowing demonstration, which was really cool. After they heat it up and shape it on the rod, they literally blow air throw the rod and glow the glass up like a balloon. They made a vase and a horse figurine. At the end of the demo, the guy blew the glass and let it pop/explode. Then we walked in like every single glass store on the island. I got some wine stoppers, a bottle opener, earrings, and I don’t even know what else haha (so all my gifts are done :) ). We spent hours there just admiring everything; it was all so beautiful.

Murano Island

We also saw a few weddings at these beautiful cathedrals on our way to and from Murano. We saw a beautiful bride and groom come out of a beautiful church on the water and everyone was throwing rice or whatever on them. It was so cool, gosh I can’t even imagine getting married in Venice! And then some of the wedding guests got on our boat taxi haha.

We got back from Murano around 5ish and we went to the Rialto Bridge, which is the main, huge bridge in Venice, and it’s lined with stops, vendors, gelato, etc. We went in some of the shops and vendor stands. There was a ton of glass stuff and Venetian masks. We also saw this really cool store with beautiful beaded jewelry and it was all separated by color. There was turquoise, purple, green, red, and white. We stopped at this one artist’s vendor who had beautiful canvas paintings of Venice. Some were watercolors and some were oil paintings. They were so beautiful, I couldn’t resist getting one. I got a bright oil painting that I thought captured the beauty of Venice so well. I’m so glad I have it to frame and keep forever.

Venetian masks

Saturday night we wanted to get seafood (I don’t really like seafood but I wanted to try some in Venice because I thought it would be a sin not to eat their seafood that they catch fresh every morning). We went to this little tiny restaurant on one of the side roads and there was this little bridge that went over a narrow canal and right into the front door of the restaurant. The waiter gave us champagne as soon as we sat down and we got some pinot grigio. They bring the fish out still as fish and debone and skin them right there at the table. I got gnocchi with lobster which was delicioussss!! And some people got tiramisu for dessert.

Gnocchi with lobster

After dinner we went to the square outside our hotel where there was a bar and everyone just hung out outside in the square. After a while, we went to the water and just sat and talked; it was really nice.

           

            Sunday we checked out at 11 and had until 4 before we needed to meet up to catch the train back to Rome. There was a big kayak race through the grand canal and when we were on the Rialto Bridge, we caught some of the kayakers coming through.

A bunch of us went to San Marcos Square (Saint Marks Square) for the afternoon. We went up to the top of the bell tower and the 360 degree view of Venice from up there was surreal. I had to pinch myself I couldn’t even believe how breathtakingly beautiful it was.

San Marcos Square

            We walked all around the square and down to the water and we stopped at a restaurant to grab a quick lunch. I got a tuna sandwich with tomato and it was the best tuna I’ve ever had, I’m pretty sure.

           Venice was just so incredible. The water was so greenish-blue and beautiful, boats and gondolas everywhere, art and masks and glass and it was just so unique and beautiful. I love being on the water so much…I would love to live in an apartment in Venice and look out my window and just see water instead of concrete…yeah I could totally live in Venice :)

Under the Tuscan Sun Day 3

Sunday was a rainy, yucky day, but we decided to take an impromptu trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower! There was 16 of us total including Kyle, so only five girls stayed behind in Florence. We took the train and it was about a 45 minute ride. Pisa is the sketchiest town and ugly and dirty. There were these young girls, like not even teenagers, who came in between our group and tried to pickpocket two of our girls! We also took the roundabout way to the tower from the train station so we were probably going through all the dumpy neighborhoods. We finally made it to the tower and wowww it really does lean A LOT! It was packed with tourists and it was so funny because everyone was standing with their arms out to do the typical "holding up the tower" pose. Of course, I had to get a touristy picture too.. and I'm glad I can say that I've seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Under the Tuscan Sun Day 2

Castello del Trebbio

We caught the bus (a nice tour bus, for once) outside of our hotel at 9am Saturday morning and drove through beautiful Tuscany to Castello del Trebbio (Tuscany is a region and Florence is in the region of Tuscany). We met our tour guide, Alberto, and he was hilarious. It was already one of the best days (maybe even the best) we'd had so far, but he just made it that much more great. He was the best tour guide I've ever had. Anyway he showed us all around the castle and gave us a little history about it. The castle has 40 rooms, which, believe it or not, is small for a castle. The woman who owns it has owned it since she was 24, after both her parents died and her siblings didn't want it, and she is now 46 and it is a family business. They grow Sangiovese grapes to make their wine. During the wine tasting, we tasted two kinds of Chianti (Chianti is the region where the grapes are from, not the name of the grape and there is no such thing as real Chianti in the US, so I feel special for getting to taste it in Florence :) ). Another fun fact is that they eat a lot of wild boar because if not, the boar would eat all the grapes and they wouldn't have any wine!


Alberto first took us in this "sacred" room where we weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was beautiful, and people have gotten married in that room, including Alberto himself! Then he took us in the dungeon where all the barrels of wine were- it was insane!

Barrique barrel: French/American oak. $1,000 for a barrel, $8,000 for a big barrel but the barrique barrels only last for three years because they absorb the wine and then they sell the barrels to whiskey makers

Then Alberto told us all about olive oil production. Oil production is in November and you have to pick and squeeze olives within 24 hours. Olive oil is different from wine in that olive oil doesn't age well like wine does; the younger the better, and you want to look at the harvest date. Then Alberto told us all about olive oil production. Oil production is in November and you have to pick and squeeze olives within 24 hours. Olive oil is different from wine in that olive oil doesn't age well like wine does; the younger the better, so you want to look at the harvest date. Alberto said that we should have two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil a day. But there is a big difference between olive oil and extra virgin olive oil- olive oil has ten times more acid than extra virgin olive oil, and usually you don't know this because they don't have to write the acidity on the labels. Olive oil shouldn't have more than .3% acid. Extra means that it's under .08% acid and virgin means that the oil was made with pure olive trees- no additives. You want to look for thick, dark glasses of extra virgin olive oil, it's more expensive but it's the best. After he gave us all the background info about olive oil, it was time for our tasting! First we tasted moraiolo olive oil and then frantilo olive oil. There was also a third one but we didn't taste it, we just smelled it, to see the difference between good oils and bad oils. To do the tasting, we warmed the little cup of oil in our hands and then smelled it. When it came time to taste it, we literally took a shot of it- it was disgusting! I chowed down on bread and then drank sparkling water to cleanse my palette. 

After we tasted the olive oils, it was time to go into the kitchen and make homemade pasta!! Adriana, an old Italian woman, taught us how to make our very own noodles and two kinds of sauces! To make the pasta, you add eggs, flour, extra virgin olive oil, and salt and knead them together. Then you roll and roll and roll the dough out until it is paper thin. We could see the table cloth through the dough, that’s how thin it was! Then you fold it and cut off pieces, skinny or fat depending on what kind of pasta you want, and let the strips dry.

After we cut two different types of pasta, tagliatelle which is fat noodles, and tagliolini which is skinny pasta, we all crowded around the stove and watched as Adriana showed us how to make the sauces. We had a sausage sauce and a vegetarian sauce. To make the sausage sauce, you put onion, celery, carrots, thyme, bay leaf and rosemary in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, then add fresh sausage. When the meat is browned, add peeled tomatoes and boil for about an hour and a half. To make the vegetarian sauce, put shallot (a kind of onion) and celery in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, then add grated carrots and zucchini, some thyme and fresh basil, and add some fresh cream and chili if you want! Then BUON APPETITO!!

Sausage tagliatelle pasta

Vegetarian tagliolini pasta

Then we went into a dining room to have lunch and a wine tasting! Our first course was appetizers. We had bread and olive oil, salami, cheese, and a piece of spread with tomato spread and a piece of bread with black olive spread. All of it was delicious. I don’t really like black olives, but even I loved the fresh olive spread. With this first course, we tasted a 2010 Chianti, which is a red wine, and it was delicious. It was my favorite of the three wines we tasted. To taste wine properly, Alberto said to hold the glass by the stem so we don’t get finger prints on the glass because then we can’t see it as well, and the first step is to tilt the glass away from you and look at the wine. Then the next step is the smell it. And of course the third step is to taste it. Our main course for lunch was the pasta that we made! Oh my gosh I think it was the best pasta I’ve had on this trip. My favorite was the vegetable pasta. With the pasta, we tasted a Chianti Reserves. It was thicker and I didn’t like it as much as the first. Then we had biscotti for dessert and dipped it into dessert wine. I took a sip of the dessert wine but it was nasty. It’s not something you want to drink, only to dip sweets in it but I didn’t like it very much.

This castle olive oil tasting/cooking class/wine tasting in the beautiful countryside of Tuscany was the best day so far. It was such a cool experience and so fun and beautiful and I loved it.

All the girls with Alberto!

When we got back to our hotel, we all decided we wanted to check out the market. The market was full of vendors selling everything leather you can think of. Florence is famous for its leather. I bought a brown leather cross body purse and some other goodies :). On our way back from the market, we ran into a protest. It was all in Italian so of course we had no idea what was going on, but looking at the pictures and symbols on the posters, we saw communist symbols, rainbows and trains with x's through them....? It was like a collection of angry people protesting anything and everything. I wasn't sure whether to stand and watch or run and take cover haha. When we got through that mess we went on a hunt for canolies. We found a bakery down the street from our hotel and the man who worked there didn't speak any English but luckily there was a lady in there who did and she translated for us. He was so sweet, not only did he give us canolies, but he also gave us an assortment of other treats and we only paid 8 euro! There was five of us so he would be like buy four and get the fifth free and just kept adding things in there so we got all these goodies for like 2 euro each. And then we told him we'd be back in the morning for croissants but he said he was closed on Sundays, so he put like eight croissants into a bag and gave them to us for free and said to think of him when we ate them for breakfast haha it was so cute. We took all of our goodies back to the hotel and ate them and drank cappuccino....yummm.

That night we all decided to go out and find a bar or two or something fun to do. Florence is much smaller than Rome and easier to get around, so we just started walking until we found something that looked fun. JMU's Florence trip had just arrived in Florence a few days before and as we were walking, Kara saw a guy that looked like a guy in her GCOM class, so she called out "JMU?" and the group of guys turned around and everyone went crazy that two groups of JMU kids ended up together in Florence! They said they were doing a bar crawl, and we were all hesitant to join them at first because our first bar crawl experience, as fun as it was, was also sketchy, but we decided to go ahead and do the bar crawl with them. This time, the bar crawl was so legit! We were at this techno-ish bar at first and had lots of sangriaaaa! Then we went to two other bars and one of them had writing all over the walls of American college kids writing their colleges and fraternities/sororities. Lori and I found lots of Thetas on the walls! We didn't get a t-shirt at this bar crawl but it was really fun and so cool to be with all JMU kids!

JMU Crew