Day Tripping Away: Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lucca

This past week I bought my first pair of leather boots at the San Lorenzo market for 40 euros. I was really proud of myself! I like them a lot but am worried the cobblestone streets will ruin them before Minnesota winters do.

This past weekend I went to Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa and Lucca. I loved all of them! Siena and San Gimignano are known for really excellent wine, wild boar, saffron and truffles (mushroom truffles). Thought about bringing my mom home something but I couldn't find much around that would be transportable. And affordable...

In Siena I had Spaghetti Carbonara which is pasta in a egg sauce, so good. There were these rice dessert balls, started with an f...and now I am blanking out but they were deilcious! And only 4 for 1 euro, so cheap. My friend and I split them then later had to go back and get our own. I believe they were a traditional food for Siena. Really really tasty. They sell them in the middle of one of their main Piazzas where they do a famous horse race every summer. I also had some incredible cinnamon, chocolate and dried fruit gelato in San Gimignano. I think the woman said it was a type of cake they make locally.

Two of my room mates and I all cooked dinner together also this weekend which was fun. They are both in sororities so they do not do much cooking. They try really hard to experiment in the kitchen and they are always so sweet to me when I cook for them. They are amazed by the littlest things and always so complimentary. I should give my mom major props for showing me how to use a stove. We made gnocchi with sausage, red peppers and spicy tomato sauce. It was so delicious, I was proud of our team work. I am going through a huge spicy faze right now. I put hot sauce on every sandwich I get at the deli. Earlier when I first got here I was addicted to pesto on everything. Last night my room  mates and I made spicy shrimp linguine, it was so awesome. We had wine and stayed in and talked, those have been some of my favorite nights here! 

Out of all the cities I enjoyed Pisa the least. Some parts were cute but the river was really dirty and their was not much to look at (Florence's Arno is way better!).  We had to get a picture at the leaning tower though, of course. It was really funny to see everyone pretending to push it over all around. Both San Gimignano and Lucca were cities where cars are not able to drive down the streets. In Lucca everyone rides bikes inside the city walls. We had a group of 3 and the bikes required 2 people so we decided just to walk around instead of bike. I went with my room mates Lauren and Blaire and we all loved the city so much. It was so cute, so many little restaurants, cafes and boutiques. Everyone seemed to know each other and were really friendly. I would suggest to anyone to make sure to see Lucca at least during the same day as Pisa.

Kenzie Smith, Anna Czech and some of their St. Louis University Madrid friends came to Florence on Sunday and Monday of this week. Sunday was rainy and they seemed tired from their Rome travels (I feel their pain) so we took it easy on Sunday. Monday was beautiful and they got to see Piazza Michelangelo, San Lorenzo Market, The Duomo and other sites around Florence. We had dinner at Il Gatto E La Volpe which was so good, and I made sure to bring them to a favorite pastry shop of mine as well as an amazing sandwich shop called the Green Salami (Salameria Verde).
Mom and Dad we will be going there for lunch, it is so delicious and cheap! Definitely a mom and pop/hole in the wall kind of place.

I think the girls enjoyed San Lorenzo Market the most. Except we experienced a very bad run in with a vendor who was not happen when we asked for ten after he said fifteen. He screamed at us to leave and shouted other mean things. I am hoping  won't have to see him again...some people are just not very nice! We were really surprised because even though Florentines (he may have not been Italian) have the coldest personalities, I have never seen anything like that before. Oh well, we could've given him business!

Next weekend I am going to visit one of my dad's cousins named Caesare in Prato. Prato is a city I hear about often and very close to Florence. His cousin Frank from Genoa is picking me up and bringing me there to visit. Next weekend I am spending Friday in Prato and Saturday in Florence and then I head off to Venice for a day trip on Sunday. I am not going with any friends but with a student travel program so this might be interesting! But I wanted to travel alone somehow and this will halfway give me the chance. Venice has it's Carnivale where everyone wears masks. I am really excited!