Chianti.

On our second day in Florence, we hopped on a tour for an afternoon in Chianti. The stops included a couple medieval villages, including Monteriggioni, and a winery. Sant Appiano winery was centuries old, and produced Chianti Classico. We obviously has a wine tasting here, sampling two delicious Chianti Wines, a Super Tusan and a Rosato. It was Hunter's first tasting experience. Also, Mom got a small journal to start taking her own tasting notes!

Florence.

Florence has been my favorite city to visit so far. Full of tourists, everyone is so friendly and accommodating! You can get gelato or granita (my new favorite slushie) in just about every other shop--leather goods in the alternating ones. We spent one solid day exploring and making the rounds of the must-see sites, including David in the academia, il Duomo, etc. Our Florentine guide, Bernie, grew up in the area and went to the same high school that Galileo looked through telescopes and where da Vinci painted Mona Lisa! He was a proud alum. There are so many day trips you can take from Florence, and we chose an afternoon in Chianti and a bike day through the region the next two days. For dinner, we had one fun, casual night eating outside in a lively piazza, one salami and cheese night in the hotel before Hunter and I went bar crawling, and one 5 star (by the quality, not price) meal. I will never forget our food at Acqua al 2. A five pasta sampler, amazing Greek salad and the blueberry fillet will be hard to beat anywhere!

Party trick.

We toured one of Cortona’s most renowned wineries on Wednesday. Everything we have been learning in lectures finally clicked when we could see the vines, trellises, fermenting barrels, aging wines, etc. In addition to the detailed tour, we, of course, sampled the wine—including the sparkling! The owner, an attractive 30-year-old Italian (Momma Mia!), taught us a very valuable wine-opening technique…with a sword! A few in our group took turns opening the bottles. Stephanie can definitely claim the most dramatic opening.

Sangria.

Yes, that is 5 bottles of red wine, a variety of fruit and a splash of orange soda in a bucket in the woods. Like I have mentioned before, here in Cortona, we take our classroom wine lessons just about anywhere! We had a fun night in the park drinking Sangria and watching the sunset. Our plastic cups, blue bucket and 2 Euro wine may not scream classy, but with a view like we’ve got, you don’t need much else…

Class.

Typical classroom setting right? It is for us here in Cortona: fresh cheese, prosciutto, grilled eggplant and, of course, our delicious red wines. I can’t believe I’ve been brainwashed to think dark, stuffy classrooms are the norm for a good education! Each day we have a wine tasting where we identify characteristics of the wine and pair it with food.We’ve been learning so much about how to detect the aromas and tastes of wine. I can honestly say I love going to class! Plus, you will never find us complaining about homework—every night you can find my study-buddies and me brushing up on the previous class’s teachings. Cheers!