The weekend in the outskirts of Tuscany

Friday morning, the group piled onto a bus on our way to Siena. We had the cutest little tour guide who gave such a beautiful history of this quaint town. We sat in the open square, eating Gelatto and watching people. It was a lovely afternoon.

We then went onto San Gimignano—a tiny walled in city on the hills of Tuscany. We saw vineyards and olive trees. When walking around in the city we passed little shops—the epitome of a town tucked away in the mountains.

The next day, some of us individually went to Pisa and Lucca. We went by train, which was a neat, yet, slightly stressful experience. When we got to Pisa it was a half hour walk to the leaning tower—trust me, there is nothing to do there besides taking corny pictures of you trying to hold up the tower.

After a lengthy photo shoot, we got back on the train and headed to Lucca—another city that sits on the outskirts of Florence, about an hour and a half away. Our Art history instructor gave us this great New York Time’s article about Lucca and how it is the Tuscan Food capital of the world. I wrote down numerous places to eat and when we arrived we found one almost immediately. Ristorante Giglio—with the most attractive waiter we’ve ever seen. Aside from drooling over him, we ate the best food we’ve had so far in Italy. I got a gnocchi dish with a crab sauce, while others tried stuffed ravioli and lamb.

The bread was so good because it was the only place in Tuscany that uses salt when making bread. We then walked around the city—it was unbelievable how picturesque it was. It was recommended to take a bike ride around the walls of the city so we found a place, Cicli, where they sold tandem bikes. Liz was my partner as we made the scenic, yet scary ride around the city. There were virtually no Americans here so we felt like we stood out with our loud laughter and goofy biking techniques, but the Italians were so much friendlier—they smiled as they walked their dogs through the trail.

It was just a perfect way to spend an afternoon. The sun was out, there was a lot of greenery…it was just lovely.