Bread on Bread on Bread

We arrived in Florence Thursday afternoon, and took a bus through the countryside to the farm where we had a reservation. The scenery was mesmerizing, and got better and better as we drove on. The farm was like something from a movie! The building was based around the Church of San Michele built in 1160 AD, and the part that we stayed in was a refurbished convent. 55 acres of olive trees and wildflowers surrounded us as far as we could see.

When we got out of the car, we met four Aussies who were also staying there. Rachel did not make the greatest first impression as she quickly found out that if a boomerang is thrown straight, it does not come back and instead lands somewhere in tall grass where it can never be found again.

Anyway, the Aussies were really friendly! There was a young couple staying there, along with Danny (who was a few years older than us) and his dad. Danny had visited last year as a tourist and ended up working for the family and picking olives, so he decided to come back and help out this year with his dad. They were both chefs, so we were very pleased to find ourselves in this situation. Danny even took us on a walking tour of the property, which involved getting lost a few times and climbing over wild boar mud holes and through thorn bushes, but we survived and appreciated the adventure.

There was also another American staying at the house. Gretchen, a 60 year old with a very odd fashion sense, joined the rest of us for dinner. Any description we try to add will not do her justice, but she did inform us that night about when her water broke and she proceeded to drive herself to work while in labor and deal with customers while having contractions. She also asked us if there are any vegetables that are not vegetarian, and explained that she wishes a device existed to keep gelato cold so that you could transport it from place to place. During this conversation, she was wearing a Titanic shirt with British flag leggings and Converse sneakers made to look like the American flag.

We would also like to add that Gretchen was born in Ann Arbor.

Friday we woke up early and went into Florence to explore the city. After seeing the lines and the prices, we decided that the art museums were not worth it to us. (Our apologies to everyone who told us we had to go to these, but we have had our fill of art for a while.) Instead, we wandered around for the entire morning and took pictures of all of the beautiful churches. We even accidentally ended up in Mass at one point...oops.

For lunch, we had been tipped off about a sandwich shop in the middle of the city. Apparently it is very well-known and tourists flock there. The funny part is that there are two identical shops directly across the street from each other, but only one is advertised in tourist books. So the advertised one had an insane line, and the one across from it (where they literally carried the bread over from) was practically empty. We ended up getting the same sandwiches, which were the best we had ever had, without waiting in line!

We continued to wander through Florence and made our way up to Piazza del Michelangelo for a really nice view before heading back to the countryside. Upon returning, we ate another dinner with the others on the picnic table next to the hammock outside our door. Gretchen was dressed in head to toe leopard print this night.

On Saturday, we got to sleep in and spent the day with Danny so that he could give us cooking lessons. In the afternoon we made bread from scratch, which we had as a snack before our pasta for lunch. Gretchen popped in for a little while after announcing that she was very hungry, so she also ate some of the bread and pasta. Her outfit consisted of: a tie-dye shirt, bright red leggings, bright yellow socks with smiley faces on them pulled up high, and red/orange/yellow shoes. She wanted to contribute to the food, so she brought pasta sauce that had about 57 jalapeños in it. Unfortunately, nobody could stomach this (Colleen at least had the excuse that there was sausage in it) so Danny ended up having to bury it outside. For dinner, we made gnocchi from scratch and used the extra bread dough for a veggie pizza. Everything was delicious and we had a lot of fun learning how to make it all! We also got to try a few different kinds of local Chianti wine and prosecco with peaches. The night ended with some stargazing out in a clearing with Danny and his dad, who were very amused with all of the fireflies...apparently those don't exist in Australia.

Today we woke up early again to go into Florence so that we could catch our train to Venice. Neither of us is impressed with the communication of our next host, so we are considering being spontaneous and ending up somewhere unplanned for tonight and/or tomorrow night before we head to Interlaken, Switzerland on Tuesday. We will keep you posted!