Have Food, Will Travel!

Another week has come and gone. Pazzesco come il tempo vola (crazy how time flies)!

Last Wednesday I took a passeggiata (night walk) with my roommates to get gelato. I experimented and got Crema Lucca, which tasted like yellow cake with chocolate sauce dripped on top. I met a young blonde family of six, three girls, one boy from Palo Alto and it reminded me of my family traveling in Europe six years ago and it made me smile. A highlight of that night was meeting Norwegian students who were studying architecture. Siena is smaller, so it’s funny we did not see them out until their last two nights in town. I take for granted how easy it is to converse with people you speak the same language as.

Friday we had our first excursion to Pienza and Montalcino and then my friend Karly and I planned the rest of the weekend as follows; Bologna Saturday for the day, train to Florence for the night, and Lucca Sunday. Five towns in three days; you can sleep in back in America. To start we learned Pienza was built between 1459-62 and that it is named after Pope Pius II’s Papal name, Pienza. After our history lesson it was time for lunch and we were starving as we always are by mealtimes. However, it has become a running joke with my friends that our hunger never ceases here. For the good or bad, our newest motto is, “I could eat again.” I am sure it is just from all the walking we do, at least we tell ourselves that. It was defiantly worth the wait when we were served a three-course meal plus dessert at Terrazza del Chiostro.

Pastry dough filled with artichokes and tomatoes.

Crepe filled with ricotta and zucchini and roasted tomatoes.

Pan fried eggplant parmigiano with melted cheese and pomodoro sauce. Corn meal, squash muffin. Rosemary roasted potatoes and greens.

White chocolate mousse with warmed berries and pomegranate seeds. I was s-t-u-f-f-e-d.

Then we bused to Caseificio Pienza Solp (Pienza cheese factory) and the factory manager Riccardo gave us a tour of how pecorino cheese is made. We were laughing for quite a while at the sights of each other’s hairnets, ponchos, and booties we were required to wear.

Riccardo and the group.

At the end I thought it would be funny to video my friends and I dancing in our getups to (for those of you who do not know this song feel free to look it up), ‘Teach Me How To Dougie.’ Also, as we travel for the next two months, we plan to dance on trains and with people to this song. Goal: make the video go viral on YouTube.

Saturday more friends from the group decided to join Karly and me in Bologna. The city is much bigger than I expected because there is a university there and many students were out and about. For lunch I had tortellini with ricotta and spinach, divine of course. After lunch Karly and I split off to wander before catching our train to Florence. When we were sitting in a smaller piazza, a group of young people approached us. We were expecting the usual “Ciao Bella” in which we ignore sempre (always), but these students actually wanted to sit down and talk. So there I was sitting in a circle of people who became friends with each other on their study abroad group in Germany. They were from all over Italy, and Germany, but reunited for one of the girl’s graduations. It just goes to show you really do make lifelong friends through study abroad.

Florence was my first hostel experience and for it’s cleanliness and price I recommend it to all. When we got there another girl Kaela from our group had already checked into our mixed two-bunk room, and the guy from Argentina was already gone for the night. I decided to make my top bunk so I could crawl right into bed when I got home. I had a great meal (ravioli with walnut cream sauce) with our Wisconsin friend Paul who we met in Cinque Terre, and Karly’s friend Ali and her friend Lauren from Spain, followed by dancing with the rest of our guy friends who all study in Firenze. When Karly and I came back to the room at the end of the night Kaela was sound asleep in her bed, but when I looked to mine it was not empty – surprise someone was in it! The Argentinean had taken my made bed. THANKS stranger. And that is a downside of the hostel world.

Sunday was such a fun day. Side note when Italians exclaim over how “fun” something is they say instead, “yesterday’s bike ride was funny!” So my friends and I say, “this weekend was funny,” and the word has a double meaning for us now. Karly and I took the train from Firenze to Lucca, which was about two hours and I saw the man that gave me a ticket the weekend prior grrr. I did not forget to validate this time, but a German girl did not know you had to. We overheard her trying to speak English to the worker, and when we turned around to see if we could help he asked us to be the translators; that was a first.

When we arrived in Lucca we were ready to find our next yummy meal. There are a few shops on the main street leaving the station before you enter the walls into the town center. If ever in Lucca eat at a mom and pop ristorante called La Tana dell’ Orco! For the sandwich category, Lucca wins for best sandwich.

I ate the Panini Ingordo: baked ham, robiola, tuna sauce, egg, and mushroom sauce on focaccine. Karly got baked ham, caprino, and artichoke. We were in heaven. The older couple used Google translator to communicate with us and asked to be our friends on Facebook. I wish I was eating that sandwich right now...

Then we rented bikes for three euro and biked through the quaint streets and on top of the walls.

Karly and me.

"OOOOOOO!" Go Ducks!

Afterwards we walked to the food market where I bought sweet raisin bread similar to my grandma Madeline's stolen and I was flooded with memories for a moment.

We stopped to sit and people watch by a merry go around and antique fair. I loved taking in all the sights, mothers in stilettos, and sounds, which happened to be Mary Poppins and other American Disney music. What country am I in again? “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes. Lucca was laid back and molto enjoyable, a great way to round out the buys weekend.

Tuesday I took a two-hour walk with Meredith around the city wall and the views were spectacular!

I feel so fortunate to travel, but no matter where you are in the world you can find your own Eat, Pray, Love. Siena is my temporary home and I am easily mastering the food part. The Pray I could work on; I plan to attend Easter mass in a small beach town on the Amalfi coast this weekend. And Love, I may have to find a guy (preferably American) to like first☺. All in all, as overused as this phrase is now, these instructions are good for the soul.