san gimignano

Note to dad... pizza is good in Italy, but honestly it's been really good all over Europe if you go to an Italian restaurant. By the time I got to Italy, I only had 1 piece because I was so sick of it, but it was quite good. But its hard to make a bad pizza.

The next morning, I decided to take a tour of the chianti region in Italy, home of the famous chianti wine. The really sweet hostel I was staying at (PLUS florence) offered cool tours and stuff every day. So, this is what I did. We took about an hour bus ride to the area, and had our first wine tasting at this little winery in the hills of Tuscany. We all sat under this terrace and homeboy the owner showed us the proper way to taste wine (hold it in your left, switch to the right, swirl it around, take a sniff, put a bit of it in your mouth and kind of wash it around some, then swallow). It was really awkward, but the wine was so much better after all the steps were taken, because it reaches all of the senses. We tried a white wine, a red wine, and 2 types of olive oil, both of which were amazing! I would have bought some except I am currently lugging around this giant suitcase with absolutely no more room inside of it. Two of the New York guys that were my roommates the previous night were on the tour, so I ended up hanging out with them again. We then drove to San Gimignano, a city made of towers from forever ago. We had another wine tasting, and walked around in the wine fields where the expert guy told us about their wine. It was so beautiful there, because you could see the rolling hills of Tuscany, as well as San Gimignano in the background. The top of the hill had a great view, and I took another picture of myself looking awkward in front of it (below). Not going to lie, but I am not a huge fan of these alone pictures. But it'd be even weirder to put a complete stranger in it with me, so what are you going to do.

We had lunch there outside in the winery, and we were served all types of bruchetta, as well as cheeses and fruits. It kind of felt like Macaroni Grill all over again, except this time no annoying manager telling me to push the appetizers and sell more bottled water. But the food was amazing. Especially the tomato bruchetta. After lunch, we went to visit San Gimignano, where we had ice cream and walked to the top of a tower for a pretty sweet view of the city. I hung out most of the day with these two Australian women-girls (at what age do you stop being 'girls'?) who were both traveling alone, so it was nice to see that I am not the only one traveling around Europe by myself. Then again, they were both like 30. Anway, the streets of the little town were really classically Italian, and I loved it, except for the 13513 tourists also enjoying this city as well. There must be no one in their actual hometown these days, because they are apparently all in Italy.

That night, I hung out with homeboy from New York again, and this time I actually started Dj'ing. I ended up being pretty good! We took turns mixing songs and cross-fading them etc. and the bartenders loved us so much that they wanted us to come back the next night again and they even put up fliers promoting us! Haha. Awkward. Especially since Nick (left in the picture below) gave me this horrible Dj name- Dj EG. Paha. Whatev. I took a picture of the fliers, but I don't think the picture uploaded. I will do it later if I remember. Still, though, it was so fun! I was like a legit Dj, and everyone thought we were like official and were asking us questions about drinks and making requests and everything! Perhaps I have found my new calling.