Toscana

My first trip to Italy far exceeded my expectations. Every beautiful romanticized thought I ever had of the place was brought to light on my first independent travel of the second semester, as I ventured into the land of the wine: Tuscany. The Alitalia flight landed in Florence on Friday night, pulling into the airport about fifteen minutes late (already so Italian). My friends and I shuffled outside and got into the first taxi we saw. We decided last minute to stay in a hotel in Florence that night, as we didn't want to drive 45 minutes in a cab with a random Italian man at 11pm to the small village of Impruneta, where we'd be staying.
The next morning we ventured into the center of the city and got a sneak preview of the city of Florence, which is where I'll be traveling to this Saturday with my class!
After trying to figure out the bus system for about an hour, we finally purchased our bus tickets for only 4 euros! As the bus wove through the sunny hills our excitement escalated — it was even more beautiful than we had imagined. The rolling green hills were dusted with a copper light and dotted with army-green olive trees. We whizzed by houses made of stone and vineyards that stretched for miles. My friends and I filled the bus with chatter and giggles the whole way there. Finally, we dismounted into the most adorable town in the world. Ancient Italian grandmas and grandpas roamed the streets, dribbling out bits of random phrases and gestures to no one in particular. Serious, adorable little things they were. I couldn't help but smile every time an old man with a walker trotted past me, staring at my blonde hair, American aviators, and purple suitcase with confusion.

We decided to go to the little market that rested in the center of Impruneta, next to the church. Needless to say, we bought four bags of groceries which totaled about 12 euros. We were pleased.

After fishing around for a taxi or bus (something!) for the next two hours, we finally found the bus stop. We mounted the bus, only to find the driver was the exact same guy from our bus ride from Florence to Impruneta! I couldn't find my ticket from earlier, so I waved a 20 euro bill at him. He glanced at it for a second, then carelessly waved me into the bus with resignation—one of the most Italian things ever, and a stark contrast to the rule-abiding Swiss.
When we settled into the little cottage of ours, we were endlessly content. We had our cheese, our salami and our berries, and we feasted like queens.

the walk to the cottage

we stayed in the little house on the right

Later that afternoon, we met Marco, who owned a winery on the property. He very graciously gave us a wine tour for free, and let us sample some of his wines, olive oils, and vinegar. I actually knew a lot less than I thought.

The special company Marco orders the wooden barrels from—the woods have a special tannin in them. 

I liked the full-bodied wine on the right the most (plus, it was delicious when mixed with the dark chocolate you can see on the plate to the left)

That night we had a nice little girls night. We watched movies, sipped on some of the wine we purchased from Marco, and made a delicious dinner: pasta with pesto, steamed broccoli and green beans, strawberries, cheese and pears.

It was overall a great first encounter with Italy, and I cannot wait to go back in three days!