Chianti and Cinque Terre

The last two days of my life in Italy have been the most memorable. On Friday my roommates, Irum and Marie, and I went on a wine tasting tour of the Chianti region. The region consists of Florence and surrounding small towns. We bussed our way to a castle and vineyard outside of Greve, Italy. There we toured the castle and wine cellar. One barrel we were shown, approximately 20 feet in diameter, was over 100 years old. I had never toured a cellar, let alone been introduced to such a mammoth structure of booze. After the tour we had the fortunate opportunity to sample not one, but four wines. Three were samplings of their Chianti and the fourth was a pleasantly sweet dessert wine. Paired with the wines were salamis, the best I ever had, breads with olive oil, parmiggiano reggiano, that weird Italian bologna with the cubes of fat (mortadello?), and biscotti, which they don't actually call biscotti in Italy, for the dessert wine. All in all, a splendidly booze-soaked afternoon. I even met a beautiful Australian couple who were eager to let us in on some secrets of Italian wine tasting and cheese eating. A wonderful day. I must admit the booze hit me on the way home and a nice kitty kat nap soon followed. As for yesterday, I went to Cinque Terre with Irum and Natalie. Cinque Terre, translated five lands, is a gorgeous seaside area where tourists and Italians alike go to hike or simply stroll from one village to the next. The three of us woke up bright and early to catch the three hour train to the first village. We decided to stop outside the third village so we could attempt the shorter, hour and a half, hike to the next. Once we got to our destination, after a 400 step stairs finale, we had a filling lunch, accompanied with a well deserved Beck's and made our plans for the day. The nude beach we wanted to try out was closed for the day so we settled on a quick dip in the nearby rocky beach. Next we hopped on a train for the "better beach" in the touristy Monterossa. It truly was a better beach, aside from the £13 price tag for pool chairs and a better view. The water was dirtier, surprisingly, or not considering the beach's popularity. After a quick dip, Natalie and I got some beers and chatted it up while Irum, adventurous as she is, canoed on her own for an hour. A great day. Aside from this burn.