Liberation Day Weekend

Friday I took a Tuscan Cooking Class- it was great! I learned to make some great soup, great appetizers, excellent Tuscan pork and potatoes, and of course a great cake for dessert! I ate SO much! But then I thought, hey, I better cap of the day at my favorite Florentine restaurant! So- last meal at the great Club Paradiso, though I will be returning to say goodbye to Andrea and Manuella, the great owners of the place!

Saturday we had a tour of the Chianti wine country! We went to a small villagey type place and sat for about 4 hours, drinking wine and eating- it was more like a food tasting! We had a great time, and we learned a bit about chianti wines too! That night we went to an Orthodox Sadir, which is the service to begin Passover, the Jewish holiday. That was SO cool because we were with such an international group of people- sitting across from a French guy and surrounded by people from all across the world, including Israel!

Sunday we day tripped to Pompeii. This is a big deal because Pompeii is not really your average day trip- it’s really a 2 or 3 day trip, but we conquered it! Naples, the nearest main train station, is about 3.5 hours away on the fastest trains- we went 3.5 hours there, and 5 hours back- so needless to say the travel alone was exhausting! But the actual experience of seeing pompeii was great. I suppose it was different from what I expected- not that I knew what to expect. I think when I imagined it in my head it was all covered in black ash and you walked around on these two thousand year old lava flows. It wasn’t like that. That would have been cool, but the way it was made it even better because not only was it fascinating, but it was also beautiful! There was so much green ivy and beautiful scenery there- and really interesting to see these building with the paintings on the walls, the amphitheater, the forum- so neat! And in the background loomed Mount Vesuvius... pretty sinister looking guy!

So... we made the treck back, it all worked out, and we even got some fresh squeezed Naples orange juice slushy after we ‘did’ Pompeii! It was a great trip! There are pictures up on the photo album, so don’t be shy- go and check ‘er out!