Wine tasting and fútbol!

In the Chianti region of Tuscany on a winery tour

See the little patch of red in the distance?  That is a field of Merlot grapes :)

Aging the Chianti

Fiorentina vs. Atalanta game! Florence won 4-1

Sweet scarves to represent our city!

This past weekend was our last weekend in Florence and it was very bittersweet.  We had an amazing time exploring the city more in depth and not venturing too far away.  Friday was a low key day filled with market shopping, cooking dinner with roommates and enjoying some vino!  I was able to skype with Chrissy to catch up on things back in Michigan which also made my day.  We went to bed semi-early to gear up for the events on Saturday.

We booked a wine tour through a local company where we hiked through the Chianti region of Tuscany.  We met a lot of great people and tasted a lot of fantastic wine.  The vineyard we went to is a family owned and operated business run right out of their villa. The produce approximately 80,000 bottles of wine per year and they also make olive oil.  The villa was adorable and we spent most of our time in the dining room around a huge table, enjoyed a family style lunch, tasted 3 wines, a dessert wine and grappa, all while the fireplace was burning in the background.  It couldn't have been a more perfect day..  and I now have a bottle of wine and olive oil to enjoy once I return to Milwaukee!

After arriving back at the apartment that evening, I decided I needed to work on my design charette which is due on Thursday.  I decided upon a site, program and theme to use in the design process and created some preliminary floor plans.  Now that I had actually taken the time to do some homework, Laura and I went out to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls we had met at the wine tasting.  The Italian nightlife was fun and it was great to meet a lot of new people who are all here studying as well.  Before we went out... I caught Sarah on skype and talked to everyone celebrating our family Christmas back in Wisco!  It was fun to see everyone having a blast and hanging out like we do every year, but also made me excited to be with family for the holidays!  Just under a month until I'll be back. Where has the time gone?!

Sunday was a day where one of my long time dreams came true.  I had been wanting to go to a European soccer game the entire time I have been here and finally... This was the day! We bought tickets to the Fiorentina vs. Atalanta game.  We walked to the stadium which was about a 30 minute walk from our apartment and purchased a scarf to show our support for Florence.  We won the game 4-1 and it was fun to see the reaction of all the fans!  When we would score, the fans would hold their scarves above their head, making the stands full of the team colors and logo. So much fun!  Oh yeah... there were more students behind us at the game and they happened to be from Michigan.  It's always great to meet other people from your home state!

Well the fútbol game was a success and so was skyping the Packer game courtesy of Sarah.  I love when they play at noon!  It usually means I am able to watch it since it's at 7:00 our time here.  During the game I worked on my project some more and made some progress... which was absolutely necessary.  Thank goodness we squeaked by with a win... It was a tough game to watch for awhile! 

Tomorrow we head to Siena and San Gimignano... Hope the rain holds off!