First week of Florence

So after writing about Rome, we noticed that we haven't really wrote a ton about our adventures in Florence. Or the past week that we have been here. haha. Our first week of school was so different then a typical A&M week, which is not a bad thing at all!! haha Our classes are very interactive and took multiple field trips around the city to places like gardens, palaces,and museums to help capture what Florence is all about. We love our photography teacher, Neri, who is a native Florentine and professional photographer. He is sailor at heart but has traveled worldwide for amazing photo shoots. He is teaching us how to use a manuel camera and really how to take a good picture. This past week we got to take lots of pictures and got critiqued to help us see how to make our work better. Our Culture & Style class is also pretty active and has made several trips out of the classroom and around town. We have learned lots of great tips about Florence, including they don't having salt in bread, pedestrians never have the right away, coffee is not a leisure activity, nothing can go in a to go cup, you get a coffee break at school, scooters rule the road, and you can drink wine whenever you want. We also go to go to a red wine tasting class on Tuesday. It was so cool to learn about the types of grapes and the regions of wine in Italy and try some different types of wine. We also got to make our own pizzas at this really really cute restaurant in Florence!! It was so good!! This past week we also got educated on another Florence staple, Tuscan wine or more specifically the Chianti region. After our red wine tasting class we got a taste and began to learn some about the amazing wines they have in Italy. Last Friday, instead of school we had a field trip for our class to Castello Vicchiomaggio which is a vineyard in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. We got to take a tour of the grounds, see how the vineyard runs, and oh ya try some great wine and Italian food! The vineyard was a lot of fun and beautiful to say the least and we even took home a souvenir wooden wine box from the caste, empty though, but will soon be filled. haha!