In spite of all my doubts, Valentine's Day turned out to be pretty great after all. The goodness began with dinner last night, which turned out to be the best dinner I've ever had in my life! We began with a bottle of white wine then ordered our first and second courses with a bottle of Chianti. My
first course was ravioli filled with goat cheese in an orange sauce with tomatoes. It was the best ravioli I've ever had, and I really want to learn to make goat cheese when I raise goats someday so I can make something like that. All of the food here is just so fresh and authentic, I don't know how I am going to react when I go back to eating preserved and processed foods in America. My second course last night was a fillet-mignon with a sauce made from fresh grapes, and I also had a side of fresh grilled zucchini, eggplant, and red pepper. The beef was definitely rare, but ever since I've been here I've discovered that's the way I like it. It would be illegal in American restaurants to serve beef as rare as they serve it here, but I think the texture and flavor are so much better when it is served this way. So when I go back to America people will probably look at me like I'm crazy when I eat my bloody steaks. Also, after all that food last night, we still had dessert. I had almond biscotti that came with a dessert liqueur to dip it in. It was pretty good, but I couldn't bring myself to drink the liqueur afterwards, which is what Bob said I was supposed to do, so Ashley drank it for me. Then we finished the meal with limoncello as an after dinner drink. So I must say I was slightly tipsy after drinking about four glasses of wine and the limoncello with my meal, but all-in-all it was a great meal!
Today we were going to go to Bologna, so we went to the train station around 11 a.m. to figure everything out. This was all of our first times figuring out how to buy a train ticket and board a train on our own, so it was a bit frustrating and confusing. To begin with, we couldn't find any local trains to Bologna, and the only ones we could find were expensive EuroStar trains. So on the spot we just decided to go to Pisa instead. A one way ticket to Pisa is about 5 euros, and it takes about an hour to get there, so it is a nice place to go for a day trip. We finally figured out how to buy our ticket and found our train and boarded. However, none of us realized that we had to validate our ticket before we boarded the train, so the conductor got a little angry with us. Overall though he seemed to be fairly understanding, he just wanted to make sure that next time we validated our ticket, which is understandable because otherwise we could use it again without charge. So the train was a live and learn type experience. Once we got to Pisa everything was very easy to figure out. We stopped at the tourism office and got a map, and we made our way on the ever-so-common tourist pilgrimage to the leaning tower. And, sadly enough, we did cave and take the obligatory tourist pictures of us holding up the tower. Other than the tower and the cathedral there is not much else to see in Pisa, so we found a place to eat a late lunch and then went back to the station and bought tickets back. The ride back was much less stressful than the ride there, as we actually sort of, kind of knew what we were doing. So now I'm done for the day, exhausted, but glad to say that it was a happy Valentine's Day. Oh, and I did receive two Valentines: a poem from Eldon and a rose from Bob (well, he doesn't say it's from him, but all of us girls got one, and the note is in his handwriting).
first course was ravioli filled with goat cheese in an orange sauce with tomatoes. It was the best ravioli I've ever had, and I really want to learn to make goat cheese when I raise goats someday so I can make something like that. All of the food here is just so fresh and authentic, I don't know how I am going to react when I go back to eating preserved and processed foods in America. My second course last night was a fillet-mignon with a sauce made from fresh grapes, and I also had a side of fresh grilled zucchini, eggplant, and red pepper. The beef was definitely rare, but ever since I've been here I've discovered that's the way I like it. It would be illegal in American restaurants to serve beef as rare as they serve it here, but I think the texture and flavor are so much better when it is served this way. So when I go back to America people will probably look at me like I'm crazy when I eat my bloody steaks. Also, after all that food last night, we still had dessert. I had almond biscotti that came with a dessert liqueur to dip it in. It was pretty good, but I couldn't bring myself to drink the liqueur afterwards, which is what Bob said I was supposed to do, so Ashley drank it for me. Then we finished the meal with limoncello as an after dinner drink. So I must say I was slightly tipsy after drinking about four glasses of wine and the limoncello with my meal, but all-in-all it was a great meal!Today we were going to go to Bologna, so we went to the train station around 11 a.m. to figure everything out. This was all of our first times figuring out how to buy a train ticket and board a train on our own, so it was a bit frustrating and confusing. To begin with, we couldn't find any local trains to Bologna, and the only ones we could find were expensive EuroStar trains. So on the spot we just decided to go to Pisa instead. A one way ticket to Pisa is about 5 euros, and it takes about an hour to get there, so it is a nice place to go for a day trip. We finally figured out how to buy our ticket and found our train and boarded. However, none of us realized that we had to validate our ticket before we boarded the train, so the conductor got a little angry with us. Overall though he seemed to be fairly understanding, he just wanted to make sure that next time we validated our ticket, which is understandable because otherwise we could use it again without charge. So the train was a live and learn type experience. Once we got to Pisa everything was very easy to figure out. We stopped at the tourism office and got a map, and we made our way on the ever-so-common tourist pilgrimage to the leaning tower. And, sadly enough, we did cave and take the obligatory tourist pictures of us holding up the tower. Other than the tower and the cathedral there is not much else to see in Pisa, so we found a place to eat a late lunch and then went back to the station and bought tickets back. The ride back was much less stressful than the ride there, as we actually sort of, kind of knew what we were doing. So now I'm done for the day, exhausted, but glad to say that it was a happy Valentine's Day. Oh, and I did receive two Valentines: a poem from Eldon and a rose from Bob (well, he doesn't say it's from him, but all of us girls got one, and the note is in his handwriting).
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