Hike, Eat, Repeat

Yes, it has been a week and a half since my last update, but life here has not been conducive for blogging. I haven’t taken many photos anyway, so it’s not like you’ve really been missing anything. Ha, well, I’ve been to a few churches (San Lorenzo and San Marco), the Palazzo Medici, and the Uffizi for a second time—this time with Samuele instead of Janet. So it’s been a great week and a half. The best day was, without question, Saturday, when Neil and I walked to Settignano from Fiesole, two small towns just outside of Florence. (You’ll remember the Fiesole ruins we’ve already visited.) It was a six-mile walk that was all uphill until the last mile that was TOTALLY downhill. But it was just a gorgeous day (though not a great one for photographs, because it was so bright) and we had a really great time. So without further ado, here is your weekly dosage of Italian vistas!

Just leaving Fiesole, you could see the snow-capped mountains. I have no idea which mountains these are, but that's definitely snow. This photo is also overlooking the site we were walking around last time we were in Fiesole.


And here's some houses right on the edge of town.


Because the road to Settignano is really for cars and not pediestriants, most of our walk looked like this. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic so we were free to amble along as we pleased.


All along the road were olive groves. Olive trees are really short, cute little plants, and in these groves they space them out, so there's something really adorable about them. You can see what I mean about it being a bad day for photos--the sun was so bright it overpowered everything. But I'm not complaining--it would have been really cold without it!


The Italians' low-maintenance, self-powered mowing machine. Really, their groves have nicely manicured lawns!


And their up-to-date irrigation system! This was a really tall fence enclosing this orchard, but I told Neil that I'd be over it faster than you can say Jack Robinson if a wild boar came crashing out of the woods to our left.


More road, fewer olives.


And a small campsite!


This isn't actually our road, but it's a nice survey of the flora of Tuscany:


This is the last little bit of road right before Settignano. This part of the walk was particularly nice because you can see Florence from the top of the hill.


And as a lovely finale, here's a picture of garbage! The owner of the grove strung up all this litter around the edges of his property to tell people not to throw it on his land. But Neil and I first thought they were just bad experimental art pieces. It would be helpful to know better Italian. (Oh well, we figured it out...)


When we finally arrived in Settignano (the walk really only lasted about an hour and a half), we found this little tiny restaurant with absolutely nobody inside. Neil had been there the week before with some other people and he loved it, so we went back. There was just one man there with his eight-year-old daughter. He did the cooking and the waiting, so you could tell it was a totally family-run place. We first ordered a salad with tomatoes, fresh (FRESH, FRESH) mozzarella, Greek olives and a vinegarette. The mozzarella was the best I’ve ever eaten. Ever! I can’t even describe it. The outside was a little thicker than the really soft inside, and it was really sweet. We also ordered a small flask of the house wine which meant about a glass and a half each. It was so incredibly strong I couldn’t believe it. We then ordered a cheese plate. Two of the harder cheeses (one was Romano, I forget what the other one was—it had a blue rind) came with honey on them. We also got four softer cheeses (Brie, Camembert, Asiago and yet another one I can’t remember) that you put this fig jam on. I was SO. GOOD. I could have eaten just a bowl full of the fig jam (with almonds in it!), but these cheeses were SO fresh and delicious. I’ve never really been all that enthusiastic about cheese, but I’m now a believer. I don’t think I’ll be able to face cheese when I get back to America because this stuff was incredible. We ended up paying about fifteen euro each, but it was so worth it. We walked to the bus stop, which was just a few paces away from the restaurant, but I couldn’t believe how drunk I’d gotten off that wine—and it was about one in the afternoon! I was so giggly from the amazing walk, the immaculate food and of course the wine that I’m sure we looked ridiculous on the bus. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Then on Sunday we decided to go to a restaurant called Danny Rock for another fifteen-euro meal. This place caters to American students, so they had hamburgers and fries. It was no cheese plate, but that was a great hamburger. It wasn’t the same as an American hamburger, but it really hit the spot. I refuse to go to the McDonalds’ here, so it was nice to get a hint of some really bad-for-you American food that I’ve been missing.

I guess this entry has been just food and hiking, but really, what else should there be in life? Well, I guess Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, so here’s Italy’s version of a loving greeting: