Wine tasting and other Italian fun

Hello Again everyone and welcome to the third edition of Brad goes to Italy.  Its been a pretty tame week so far, so there is not a whole lot to say, but I was able to get a little bit of traveling in.  Like I said in my last email, I went on a wine tasting tour in the Chianti region.  I went with a group of other people from Iowa State and we had a good time.  It started out with with us going to Greve and hiking up some hills to see the beautiful scenery.  It was awesome.  Once you get out of the crowded city, the country side is really cool.  We also walked around the market in Greve.  This is basically like a farmers market back home, but they sell everything in little booths in the town square.  I compared it to a Wal-Mart that was run by a lot of different people.  Some sold clothes, some sold food, others had pharmacy things, and one had power tools.  After that we went to a wine museum and they had a ton of wines that you could try or buy.  I didnt try anything here because it cost quite a bit just to try, but it was fun seeing all the different style that I learned about in my beverages class last semester.  Then we went to a winery in another village not to far away and had some lunch.  When I say lunch, I mean more like a 5 course meal.  It started with some meat and cheese appetizers, then two pasta dishes, a meat dish, then dessert. 
One thing i probably should mention is that we were drinking a lot of the wine that this winery made.  Basically when our glass was empty, they filled it up again.  I had my fair share of them....lets say 10 or so.  It was good!  Dont judge me.  For dessert they also gave us a stronger dessert wine.  It was all really good, and I was feeling very nice by the end of the day.

This week was also my roommates 21 birthday, so we went out a couple of times.  We found a sweet bar that has a Beatles cover band on Tuesdays.  They were awesome...sounded exactly like the Beatles and everyone was singing along and having a really good time.  For his actually birthday, we went out to an authentic Italian resaurant in Florence.  Again, food was amazing.  I actually have yet to find bad food while in Italy, so I am pretty lucky.  The meal started out with meat and cheese again (thats the typical appitizer here) and then we had cheese ravioli, a rice dish, another pasta dish, and then the steak.  Oh my goodness the steak.  It was the biggest piece of beef I have seen in my life that is not living.  Here they serve the steak family style, so they come out with a really thick piece (about 3 inches thick) and it is cut into chunks for everyone to have a piece.  They also serve the steak almost rare, as in, it was pretty red in the middle still.  This may sound gross, but it was really good and juicy.  I liked it a lot.  Throughout the evening we also had a couple bottles of wine and some Champagne.  It was a good evening.

This past weekend I spent in Florence exploring the place a bit more.  I went and climbed the campanile of the Duomo one day.  Its 404 steps to the top and quite a workout.  The views from here were really cool though, so it was worth it.  I also went to the Palazzo Pitti and its gardens and got some cool shots of the place.  I also went to the Galleria Dell'Accademia which is where Michelangelo's David is located.  This was really awesome because this statue is huge and the pictures you have seen probably do not do it justice.  Mike (that what I like to call Michelangelo) put so much detail into this statue that you can even se veins in his arms and wrinkles in his hands.  His eyes look so real that you think its going to come to life.  It was realy really cool. 

Next weekend I am going to Venice and maybe Cinque Terre (the five towns).  Im pretty pumped about this and it should be a good trip.  Until then, ciao!