While in Firenze I have been lucky to find many new friends and have spent many fun nights hanging out and getting to know a little about where each one is from. Megan hails from the motherland of England, while Apryl is a hilarious Aussie, Frederike is from Germany, and Rachel is a fellow American from Seattle. These girls are all so much fun and fantastic in their own way and are helping me to feel more at home in this beautiful Tuscan city. A company known as "Florence for Fun" runs tours and vacation trips for students and young people here in town, and offers day trips to many famous sites around Tuscany. One such trip goes to the coastal towns of Cinque Terra perched high atop precariously ledges between mountains on one side and the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean lapping at their other. I had the pleasure of visiting these five towns on my last trip to Italy, but was still excited about the possibility to visit them again. Apryl and I had decided that we would make the trip and that it would be a great opportunity to get to know each other better and have one last weekend of sun and sand before the winter came to Italy. We spent the week leading up to the trip keeping a watchfull eye on the weather and quietly hoping for a blazing heat wave to roll in. Sadly our hopes were slowly eroded when we began to see pictures of rain and floods striking the coast. Massive devastation hit the town of Manarolo when a mudslide barreled down its historic main avenue and washed much of the town into the sea. I'm sure many of these pictures never made it to the States, but were morning, afternoon, and evening news here in Europe. Needless to say our trip was canceled just a day before we were to leave, but were lucky to reschedule a different trip through Chianti and its world renown wine country full of beautiful vineyards and old Etruscan hilltop towns. I was actually not so disappointed and looked forward to a relaxing day of hiking and breaks filled with delicious vino. Apryl and myself also hoped that this would be an opportunity to find more guys living in Florence that we could all hang out with and give me some relief from all the estrogen floating around when we hang out. The day started with a bus ride through the amazingly picturesque scenery of rolling wheat fields and the changing fall foliage of grape vines splashed with yellows/"gold", oranges, and reds.
When we arrived into the little town where we were to begin our hike the air was crisp and the sun was warm on our sleepy faces. The hike was dotted with old villas, ruins of Etruscan temples, and even a small reliquary dedicated to a Catholic saint who brought faith to the region and discovered a small spring where he performed baptisms. For lunch we stopped in a small town where a wine maker and vineyard owner opened both his home and his wine to us. Lunch was very relaxed and full of information about the Chianti region and its many wine producers. After probably 3 hours of wining an dining we had to leave and catch our bus back to Firenze, but not before a toast of grappa and a heartfelt good-by by the owner and his family. This trip will for sure be a highlight in the memories I make here in Italy, and was a fantastic way to enjoy the fall season as well as the company of a new and now even closer friend.
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