I think this is going to be the last travel post from Italy. You can find my post from Florence, here and my day in rome post, here.
The Chianti wine tasting tour was by far one of my favorite experiences from my trip to Florence. There are so many wine tours in Tuscany, but I’m convinced the chianti wine tasting tour I did was the best. When Livi’s parents visited her, they went on the same wine tour and they loved it.
The tour took us from Florence to Tuscany. You could do the wine tour in the morning or the afternoon. We booked the wine tour the day before, so we could only do the afternoon wine tour.
If you’re reading this, you may not know what Chianti means. A Chianti wine tasting tour means that the wine is produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany. Now that I’m back home, my Mom will only buy Chianti Classico wine. FYI, if there’s a rooster on your wine, it was produced in the Chianti region. You have the good stuff then.
It was disasterous trying to find the bus terminal in Florence. The way the GPS took us was not the main way people probably go. My Mom actually was hyperventaliting because she thought the area wasn’t safe (it was fine). We finally got there, in one piece. The bus is what took us to the Chianti wine tasting tour. It was a nice small tour bus and the ride there had amazing views.
Onto the wine tours
The Chianti wine tasting tour took us to two wineries. The first of the two wine tours took us down to the barrells. They showed us how the wine is fermated and aged. It was so cool, the pictures will be below.
After that, we headed to a tasting room. The best part…the olive oil. The olive oil is to DIE for, we loved it. My Mom and I brought olive oil home and we finished it in a few weeks. At the first wine tasting tour we tried three wines and two olive oils, so good!
The second chianti wine tasting tour took had the most INCREDIBLE views. We also met so many great people on the wine tour from all over the world.
We went into a tasting room and sat at a table. They brought out a cheese plate, it was again, incredible.
We were so tired after! Of course we still pulled through for another amazing Florence dinner.
More of these pictures with outfit details to come
Another travel blog post! This post will cover Florence.
Florence was my home base while in Italy. My best friend Livi traveled A LOT, but she lived and took classes in Florence. After being to Rome, I’m so happy she chose to study in Florence. Florence is INCREDIBLE. I have not a single bad thing to say about the city.
We did so many things in Florence. I was just content wondering the quaint city.
We stayed in an Airbnb for the first four nights and a hotel the last two nights. Since originally I was going with my roommate Cara, I had searched places with high ratings and with a low cost. We LOVED both places that we stayed.
The Airbnb didn’t have wifi, but it was suppose to. The host was apologetic so that was apperciated. Other then that, we enjoyed our stay. It was a very authentic space which my Mom and I apperciated. It was also a two minute walk from Livi’s apartment which was perfect.
Our Hotel, Hotel Rapallo, was an incredible boutique hotel. The hotel was a 10 minute walk from the train station, but a bit more of a hike to Livi’s apartment. We didn’t mind the distance to Livi’s apartment since we only stayed there for the last two nights of our trip. The hotel had complimentary breakfast, and our favorite, tea time. Tea time was from 5p.m to 11 p.m. and had little pastries, meats, cheese, tea and coffee. YUM.
Day one we got into Florence around 8:30 PM. This is after our long travel day with a 15 hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal. We were exhausted! Luckily, Livi pushed us to enjoy a true Italian dinner in Florence. The restaurant was the best introduction and welcome to the city.
Day two we just spent time walking around and getting to know the city. My Mom bought a plan with Verizon while we were abroad and it wasn’t working at first (ended up being the silliest mishap). Finally, we got the phone to work. At first, it was disasterous because her navigation wouldn’t work. Florence, and really everywhere we went, was really impossible to navigate without a working GPS.
Once the GPS started working we were good to go. On Day two, Livi took my Mom and I to this amazing panini place. All’Antico Vinaio was a 10/10. They’re GIANT and I had so much prosciutto in my panini. After that, my Mom and I went to the Gucci Gardens.
At night, Livi and I went to the Christmas market and walked around. It was similar to the Christmas market Bryant Park has around Christmas time.
Day three was more exploring of Florence. We shopped, ate and walked around. With ongoing rain, we stopped exploring for a little to get dry inside a local pub. This pub was great, but what was not so great was the “turkish” style toilet. Livi and I went to use the bathroom and thought we were in the mens bathroom. The “toilet” was a squared whole. We were confused and asked the waitress where the womens bathroom was. She said, “Oh that’s the womens bathroom. You have to squat, it’s turkish style.” We were hysterically laughing over this. It was unreal (I should’ve taken a picture).
I put together a last minute gift guide for both woman and men because Christmas is quickly approaching. Almost all of these gifts can be found on Amazon, and all of them will definitely come in before Christmas.
Womens gift guide
Amazon surprisinly has a great selection of band and graphic t-shirts. I’d buy a L or XL for an oversized look.
homesick candles are rapidly growing in popularity. There are a bunch of scents of cities and things that can remind someone of home.
You can never go wrong with a Starbucks gift card for a girl on the go! For any adult, any gift card to a place someone loves is a great gift.
Joggers are the best comfy and cute piece of clothing. It makes for a great gift!
For anyone with an apple watch, bands are a great inexspensive and easy gift. This gold band is a little more dressier than the traditional soft band. For a working women or a future working women, this is a great pick!
Silky comfy pajamas are a great last minute gift. Everyone needs something to sleep in!
Barettes have been huge in 2019 (I’m hoping it stays that way in 2020). They’re inexpensive and a great accessory for anyone.
Joggers are a great gift for men and women. I found a pair that look similar to Jcrew joggers on Amazon. They’re half the price and will get here before the holiday.
For beer lovers, I found this beer subscription box. Each subscription says it’ll include, “12 full-sized bottles of hard-to-find, premium-quality craft beers from boutique breweries across the country. We feature two different breweries every month and two different beers from each brewery.”
Keeping with the beer lovers trend (because what guy doesn’t like beer?) This is a draft beer dispenser.
For those with an apple watch and looking for something a bit more professional to wear to work I found this apple watch band. You can find other colors too, but you can’t go wrong with brown leather.
Again, any gift card is great! I thought Chipotle was a good gift card for a meal on the go.
If you’re tired of your drink getting warm, Yeti has a steel colster that’ll keep your beer or any other canned beverage cold during the summer!
These posts aren’t going to be in any particular order, but since my fall semester has ended, I’m FINALLY getting around to Italy blog posts! I’ll do one large post going over all of my outfits from Italy after the travel posts.
It was such a great trip and I can’t wait to share all of my experiences and pictures with you..
So on this particular day we decided to take a day trip to Rome. Taking the train from Florence to Rome is super easy and quick.
Around 10a.m. we took a one hour train ride from Florence to Rome. We had about six hours in the city. Our first stop was a cathedral directly straight from the train station. Below are some pictures.
From there we stopped at a cute cafe, still very close to the train station. We all got mimosas and sandwiches and were able to sit outside, without rain. I say without rain because majority of our trip was spent outside in the rain. Italy’s winter is like a New Jersey’s fall, sometimes cloudy and rainy.
I was pretty committed to seeing ALL of Rome’s touristy spots in a few hours. If you’ve been to Rome I’m sure that sounds pretty insane…considering Vatican City is extremely far from the Colosseum. But, we did it all. I’m not much of a museum person, at all. I didn’t mind just seeing these tourist spots. I know if my Mom goes back she’d want to go inside some of these places, but with just a few hours, it was impossible to do a bunch of tours.
This past Monday was Big/Little reveal for my sorority at Quinnipiac, Kappa Alpha Theta.
Before I jump into the night of reveal I’m going to give you the details on the shirts I chose, in case you want them too!
Being a crazy planner, I ordered my shirts in the middle of September, to ENSURE they’d get here by reveal (Oct. 7). Sure enough, they came three days in advance. I suggest ordering sonner rather than later, so your family can have super fun shirts!
Etsy is a go too for personalized, unique pieces. Although, make sure you read reviews and order from a good shop! I ordered from RLittleCompany, they were great. I went with the Rolling Stones inspired shirts because they were so fun and different.
OK ONTO THE DAY OF REVEAL
I found out who my little was a week before reveal. I took to Facebook to make her an account of old embarissing pictures and attempted to make her wonder who I am. I remember being on the other side of things and just being so excited. I wanted my little to feel that same way.
So after a week of Facebook fun and sending her crafts (I struggled very much with the whole crafting aspect of this, lol) it was the Monday of reveal. WOOO!
I was so lucky my Big and Gbig could be there. They both graduated but are smarty pants in grad school. Luckily, they could make reveal!
After reveal and many pictures later, we went to Eli’s, a popular restaurant by Quinnipiac. We ordered a ton of appetizers and caught up with one another.
My big, Erica, choked on a chip. Yes, we were all concerned, but she was still talking!!?? She insists that when she went to get it up A FULL CHIP came out. Looking back, it’s so funny.
It was a great night, and I’m still feeling extra grateful Theta brought such beautiful people into my life.
