Italy Part 2!

After the stress and the beauty of Venice, when it was time to go to Florence I was slightly relieved.  Venice was a dream.  But I was exhausted at this point and I knew Florence would be a bit more relaxing.  I had already been to Florence with my high school and I LOVED it, so I had no doubt I would feel the same.  It didn't disappoint.  Florence is completely different than Venice.  It is gorgeous because it is so rich in culture and history.  Names I have been hearing ever since I was a little girl like Michelangelo and Galileo were buried there.  Churches that are older than my country still stand tall and beautiful.  You never get tired of it.  I did, however, get tired of the walking/climbing.  Since we didn't have a car, we would walk on average about 10 miles every day, and several of these miles were up a hill or up steps.  One of the days in Florence, we climbed the tour right next to the Duomo to get a magnificent view of the city.  It was breathtaking, literally (ba dum chee).  Over 400 steps and a dark, winding, slippery, deadly staircase later, we made it to the top and although I was panting like crazy, it was worth it.  I remembered in my political science class learning about how Machiavelli wrote about how in the times when republics were being formed, the cities' construction made it so everything sort of leads you to the city center.  From the top of the tower, that was easy to see it was the case here.  And then later that day, I got to see Machiavelli's grave.  Pretty insane...

It was hard to say goodbye to Florence, but I was dying to see Siena.  Before we left for our trip, everyone would ask where we were going, nod and smile at Venice and Florence, but then when we'd mention Siena, everyone beamed.  It did not disappoint.  We had 4 days in Siena, so there was plenty of time to explore.  The three cities gave us the perfect taste of Italy.  Venice, a dreamworld, Florence, a cultural/historical gold mine and Siena, the beautiful countryside of Tuscany.  Downtown Siena is still a major city, filled with shops and restaurants.  We took our time exploring the city, going to museums and churches and eating tons of gelato.  The duomo of Siena was actually probably my favorite cathedral I have ever seen.  It was gigantic and entirely underrated.  We listened to audio guides that told us about what all the symbols and architecture of the church meant.  We saw an old religious library, a crypt and even got another panoramic view of another gorgeous Italian city.  One of the nights, we got to see an Italian Opera.  The singers were magnificient.  Their voices were chilling.  Even though I had no idea what they were saying, it was impossible not to feel touched by the performance.  Surprisingly, I actually knew two of the songs.
Although Siena was great, there was one lapse in luck again.  We had ordered a hotel room for 2 people although there were three of us.  I volunteered to be the criminal, sneaking in and out of the hotel, trying not to get caught.  On the third day, we got a call in our hotel room.  It was the front desk, asking for their friend (me) to come to the front desk.  It was mortifying.  But the lady was nice and pretended like she didn't know I had been sneaking in and out for days, only making me rent a room for two nights.  It could have been worse.
Although all of Sienna was amazing, it wasn't until the last day that I fell in love.  We reserved 3 spots for a Tuscan wine tour.  IF YOU GO TO SIENA, DO THE TENULA TORCIANO WINE TOUR!!!!!!  It was incredible.  For 30 euros, we had a full day of being driven to 2 small villages with a tour guide who gave us so much interesting information we would have had no clue about otherwise.  We stopped at one of the Chianti vineyards and finally made our way to the wine tasting at a gorgeous wine cellar.  Just to get to one of those small villages would have cost 30 euros by taxi, and we got to see several, with a tour guide, finished with a wine tasting.  It was amazing.
When we got to the wine cellar, a dreamy Italian man named Lilo grabbed my hand and said "Ciao Princessa." I swooned.  Lilo was our guide for the evening, which made it hard to concentrate on the wine (sorry mom if you are reading this).  When we signed up for the tasting, we figured for the cheap price we would get to try 3, maybe 4 small glasses of wine.  That was not the case.  Giant wine glasses were filled with 9 different types of extremely expensive, delicious wine.  We were given cheese and salad and salami to taste with the wines.  Lilo taught us the proper way to drink wine and let us try their 30 year old balsamic vinegar, truffle olive oil and pepper olive oil.  It was all AMAZING.  I had to start dumping out my wine because I was starting to feel it and I didn't want to be drunk and not be able to appreciate the taste (although by the end of it, it is possible I was slightly intoxicated).  Lilo continued to charm us.  Despite the douchey, pompous American that was at the table with us who asked Lilo questions like "You say that this was aged 30 years but how do we know that is true" and his insane wife who made comments like "this cookie tastes like the Jewish cookies my mother was making when she died" it was one of the best nights of my life.
The entire trip was a dream.  The entire time it was happening, I already felt nostalgic because I knew how much I was going to miss it.  And I already do.  But I will be back.  It is my dream to take my parents someday.  So until next time, Ciao my dear Italia.