Eclipse & Steinar and Kuz take on Florence
August 7-August 16th
The next couple of days we spent sleeping and recovering from the very busy days in Rome, but that was the only slow part of the week! We spent blogging and enjoying the rooftop balcony before heading to Caffe Bellini for dinner. The last time we were here was the night we got engaged!
Tuesday started with an all you can drink pasta cooking class, and we enjoyed all of the instruction, food, and beverages during the class. We heading back to enjoy an afternoon watching the city from our balcony. Since this was our second pasta class we started to learn that they all do instruction veeeery differently. This one was much more in formal as we were instructed to chop the pasta with a spatula.
Wednesday was a very busy day as we headed out of the city for a full farm experience. We started the day meeting all of the animals - pigs, ducks, turtles, and cats. Then we headed down into the vineyard to see the grapes and taste what they were like off the vine. After that, we started the walk back to the cellar for a wine tasting and pairing which was incredible. We tried 6 wines and 5 of them were paired with wonderful snacks (olive and polenta, mini pizza, zucchini and pesto, and cheese with honey). The sampling was fantastic and after a quick break we headed into a pasta making class. This class had another very interesting (different?) process for pasta, but it ended up working out great in the end! That night we enjoyed the view from the balcony and planned how to see the eclipse the next night!
All of our planning flew out the window for the eclipse as storms started rolling through the area all afternoon. We really lucked out by being able to walk onto a crowded bridge before the eclipse started. The storm overhead had looped back around and it started pouring, so most people left and we were able to move into a prime spot during the rain. Thank goodness the clouds cleared just in time for us to see the eclipse right at sunset, before heading to get some gelato.
We had an early morning the next day as Haley had a 7am flight to catch, so Steinar made sure she made the flight and then hung out in Florence with Kuz for the next few days.
Steinar:
I had a quiet few days while Haley was back in the States! We’ve been in Florence for long enough at this point where we’ve seen all of the major sites, so I spent some time exploring some places off the beaten path.
Over the weekend I also had my annual fantasy football draft with my friends from home. The only negative about that was the draft starting at 3am Florence time :). It was still nice to be able to catch up with friends and sleep in late the next day.
Haley then came home late on Monday after a slightly delayed flight, just barely getting on the last tram into the city from the airport! I met her at the train station and we walked back just after midnight. I was feeling better than she was after her 25 hour travel day!
