Un Viaggio Italiano: San Gimignano Field Trip

As many of you already know, I am taking a class here called "Pairing Food and Wine," which in my opinion has been the most amazing and practical class during my time here in Italy. I've learned so much about wine, cooking, the Italian culture, and the history of food. In this class, we took two field trips: one to Perugia for the chocolate festival and another to San Gimignano for a wine tasting. Luckily, my roommate Lindsey and good friend Lauren are in the same class and we got to spend this lovely evening together.

San Gimignano is a tiny little Tuscan town an hour south of Florence. It produces some of the best wine and olive oil in the country, and it is also one of the prettiest Tuscan towns I have been to. We left Florence on a bus around 4PM and witnessed an extremely beautiful drive. Every time I've been on a bus ride, it's usually been on a highway (except for the Ireland day trip) and not through true countryside. I have seen Tuscan countryside, but nothing like this. There were mountains, hills, cute little cottages and fields of olive trees. Lindsey and I witnessed three beautiful brown horses galloping and playing across this fields and I thought I was going to cry! The sun was also setting at this time, creating beautiful hues of purple, pink, and blue shattered across the sky.

We arrived when the sun finally set and walked into this farm. The place was extremely cute and traditional. Our tour guides led us through a quick, 5 minute tour of the winery and where the barrels of wine were sitting to be aged. We then were led up to a big dining room to taste some wine and eat a "large snack." Our table was covered with olives, peppers, prosciutto, salami, ricotta and gorgonzola cheese, bread soaked in their olive oil, Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG wine, and Chianti DOCG wine. It was absolutely delicious, and the wine was wonderful. We enjoyed this lovely meal, errr "large snack," and that pretty much summed up the field trip. We got some explanations about the wine and olive oil, but I was too busy paying attention to my food. Go figure. After the dinner, we went into their shop and I bought some of the olive oil. Lindsey and I also bought the Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG wine for a family dinner...it only cost 5 euro! Unreal. I honestly wish we went a little earlier so we could actually see the town and farm during the day, but the experience was wonderful. After the shopping we walked around the farm a little bit, pet a cute dog, and then hopped on the bus back to Florence.

On another note, things have been well over here. My roommates and I have created a schedule (posted on the fridge) of everything we still have to do and when we are going to do it. It mostly consists of going out to eat and attending trivia nights at Finnegan's. Still no "L" word allowed, and we've created a Euro jar for every time we say it. We are going to use this money to buy a bottle of Prosecco or some kind of wonderful Italian wine. On Sunday we are going to a soccer game, Florentina vs. Rome!! Apparently this is supposed to be a big rivalry, so that should be exciting. We all have to study for finals and finish last minute papers, but our GASF (Give A Sh*t Factor) is slowly plummeting. Wish us all luck---we definitely need it!