Taste of Tuscany and Almafi Coast

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a long time since I've written, things have been kind-of crazy with midterms and traveling for the past week or so. A ton of stuff has happened in this past week-ish. Last weekend I went to Tuscany and this weekend that just passed I was in the Almafi Coast! Both trips were through a company called Bus2alps, they do all the scheduling and plan special events for us while on the trips so it relaxes some of the hassle during traveling.
The Tuscany trip was just for a day and it was called Taste of Tuscany. They took us to two wine tastings and showed us around a wine vineyard and a little town. I had to wake up at like 5am the day of to get to Termini (the train stations) and meet the group, then it was a 2 hour bus ride to Montepulcino. After what felt like the longest bus ride ever (and getting extremely car sick), we finally arrived in Montepulcino and went to a wine cellar called Citta' Sotterranea, which used to be a place where they tourtered people. So it was not only full with huge barrels of fermenting wine and aging foods like cheese and meats, but torture devices and tools too. Because our group was so large, the employees at the tasting barely gave us mouthfuls of their wine, and very small samples of there cheeses, meats, and breads. But what they did give us was pretty good. Next, we were allowed to walk around the little town, full of shops, small places to eat, and beautiful churches. But the best part was that I got to actually touch and be at the scene from one of the Twilight movies!!! In New Moon, the second movie of the four-part saga, Edward (the vampire) dumps Bella (his girlfriend) so she can have a better life. But he ends up thinking she's dead and he can't fathom living with knowing she's gone, so he plans this big reveal, to a huge crowd of people, that he is a vampire so the "rulers of the vampires" at the time will kill him. Anyway, Bella goes running across this huge mass of people and into Edward's arms so he won't show himself, which takes place in the exact spot that I was in!!!! SO I can say I've stood where Robert Pattinson (the actor who plays Edward) stood!!!! AHHH!!

There's the door! YAY!!!


--sorry for the preteen mood there, back to Maura--

After Montepulcino, we took an hour bus ride to Montalcino, where the vineyard was. We got off the bus and headed straight to a tour of the grounds. One of the employees took us around the entire property and explained and showed us the process of picking the grapes, to fermenting them, to adding flavors, then storing, and finally bottling the wine-- at least, I'm pretty sure that's the right process. Silly me, the only thing going through my head during the entire tour was how expensive the start-up costs and maintenance fees are for owning a vineyard were... I guess that's the SVC McKenna School of Business rubbing off on me... Along with the tour, we were able to try some of there wine, which was amazing, and soak up the views, which were even more amazing! Seriously, I couldn't have asked for better weather during the day, and the rain held off till the second we arrived back in Rome. But the wine at the second place was so much better than the first, maybe because it was an actual vineyard and not just a cellar- but who knows.

During the weekend that just passed, I took a trip to the Almafi Coast. And please, if you take any advice from me based on this entire trip, take this: GO TO THE ALMAFI COAST BEFORE YOU DIE. Seriously. You will know exactly what I'm talking about when you get there. The views are absolutely incredible and the weather is perfect. There is so much stuff to talk about that I'm gonna save it for my next post. It's super late here and I'm falling asleep! So I'll leave you with some pictures from this weekend, enjoy and goodnight!

Anacapri 

The Blue Grotto!

Capri

Positiano 

Private boat to cliff jumping and cave swimming :D 

Molte Benedizioni