La Dolce Vita

A Toast to Tuscany

The girls and Cosimo

My wine and olive oil purchase 

This trip isn’t just about me exploring churches, vineyards, and museums. It’s social as well. In fact, I feel like this trip is more of a social thing than anything else. I’m with 70 kids this week, and I’m probably closest to 11 of these girls. I have an amazing professor who knows how to provide the perfect balance between class information and fun. I’m constantly interacting with people whether it’s fellow students, my professor, my program coordinator, the bus drivers, the hotel receptionists, the gelato guy, the pizza dude, waiters and waitresses, etc. Italy is a historical and cultural place. I think that this week’s purpose is to really explore the cultural side of Italy more than just the historical/sightseeing side. After all, my course this week is titled “Cultural Introduction to Italy.” I have several assignments this week. I have to keep a journal and record my thoughts/perceptions of what I see during our activities each day. I also have to write a paper covering six main topics we’ve been learning about this week: Food, Wine, Fashion/Style, Lifestyle, Architecture, and History. (I think that’s right). My professor doesn’t want us to just write about what we do each day, but think and write about how those experiences affected us. It’s an emotional thing. Every student here will perceive the same activity during the day in a different way. We all come from different religious backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, countries, schools, etc. Also, we all probably signed up for this study abroad program with our own personal incentive/reason. It’s interesting to watch how customs can be so different from one country to the next and even from one group of people to the next. For example, in my group of 70 students, we have about 12 high school students. There’s a difference in experience right there. Then we have a group of California Tech, a group from New York, and several students from Mexico, Croatia, and Turkey. Lots of differences and these differences are beyond the clothes we wear and the color of our skin. We speak different languages. We live differently. On top of these differences within all the students, there are the obvious differences between Italians and ourselves. Wednesday, our main activity of the day was doing to a Vineyard in Bolgheri, Italy. The name of the Vineyard is Tenuta Di Vaira. Just from a first glance, I could already see that this Vineyard was much smaller than those in the U.S. It was also family run – and run by only a few people. However, this Vineyard produces some of the best wine in world – not to mention all of Italy. It’s true to say that big things come in small practices. Bigger isn’t always better. Italians definitely know how to appreciate the little things that we Americans take for granted. I see how Americans are so impatient while Italians are laid back and never in a rush. Italians are never punctual except for business occasions. Italians eat several meals throughout the day including mid-morning and late afternoon social snacks. (I can’t remember the word that is used for these). In Italy, wine is always paired with food. Italians do not drink with the Italian of getting drunk or even just to drink. Drinking wine is a social thing. A glass or two and they know when to stop. Italians think that getting drunk is disgusting because it suggests something about the person. If one can’t control their alcohol intake, how can anyone expect them to be able to control themselves at all? It’s a sign of age/maturity. Don’t get me wrong, Italians love their wine and they appreciate it. They observe the color, the smell, and of course the taste. There’s a beauty behind it. Every wine tastes different depending on the reason and type of grape that is used. The water of the region overwhelming affects the taste. When we toured the Vineyard/Winery, we also had our own wine tasting. However, we did not sit at a bar and samples while some guy tells us about the wine. Instead, we sat outside and sampled wine with an entire meal. Cheeses, bruschetta, and pasta pair well with White Wine. Rich, hearty foods like Meat are paired with Red Wine.  Everything was so fresh. The wine was incredible. I personally preferred the White Wines. I bought a bottle of White Wine to take home as well as a bottle of homemade olive oil from the Vineyard as well. OLIVE OIL HERE IS AMAZING! I cannot stress that enough.  After the Vineyard, we drove to our next destination and new hotel in Cinquale, Italy. This is the hotel we will be at for the next four days.  We had dinner on our own Wednesday night. We were starving at 7 o’clock, but of course no restaurants were open since Italians start eating at 8:30 – 9:00 every night. Dinners last approximately two hours. We finally found a pizzeria and my veggie pizza was delicious! It had a super think crust which I loved. We went to The Beach Club late that night. We arrived at 12:30 and were expecting to just have a couple of drinks beside the beach while wearing shorts and a cute top. We were not expecting to arrive there and find 100 people already there, most of whom were dressed up like they were going to the Oscars. There was even a guest list at the entrance which of course we were not on. However, 10 euros later, we were inside ordering our free drink that was included in the entrance fee. Immediately, it was obvious: Everyone was staring at us. The guys were the most handsome guys I’ve ever seen in my life. They were dressed up (which was so odd to see since I’m used to the awkward fratty look). While the guys were gawking at us (which was super weird since we were sweating and smelled disgusting) the other girls were giving us death stares and obviously commenting on our “American style…and ways.” Next thing I noticed: people were dancing. Guys and girls were dancing. And guys were actually dancing. However, guys and girls weren’t really touching. There was NO grinding. Whoa. We were a few years younger than most at this club, but that was the least obvious of the differences. We definitely had an experience that night. Between the mix of Italian and American music….. and the Italian guys…. It was a wild night J That’s all I’m going to say about that haha. Italians know how to drink and party; they are just a little classier about it. They've got it right.