Wine Tasting, Fiorentina, and Carnevale

Saturday morning, I pulled myself out of bed and headed to the train station to meet up with some people from my school for lunch and wine tasting. Once the whole group arrived we got on a bus that took us an hour outside of Florence to Castello del Trebbio. We took a public bus so there weren't enough seats on the bus for all of us. So I, along with 6 of my classmates, sat on the floor of the bus all the way to the winery. It wasn't terribly uncomfortable but I don't recommend it.
I stepped off the bus and into a fairy tale. The first thing I saw was the beautiful hillside, the vineyards, and the olive trees. The winery is a small castle and is gorgeous. The building itself used to be the home of the Pazzi family. The Pazzi family are famous for their plot to kill the Medici brothers in 1478. Only one brother was killed and in retaliation for his brother's murder, the surviving brother took away this castle and killed the remaining members of the Pazzi family excluding his sister's husband.
Our guide Todd took us into the wine cellars and told us about the history of the home and wine and olive oil making. We left the cellars and entered the courtyard to have lunch. We had a full Italian lunch while wine tasting. Through out lunch we tasted 3 wines, each one was better than the last.

Olivia and I

After our delicious lunch, Todd led us on a small tour of the winery grounds. He explained how they tend to their vineyards and olive trees. It was very interesting. We had free time and I walked down to a look out point before lounging on the grass until the bus arrived with a few friends. One of them made me a flower crown. I wore it all the way home. And I actually had a seat on the bus this time.
I got home with a few hours to spare before heading to a Fiorentina game! Fiorentina is Florence's futbol team. My roommates and I headed to meet one of our school's staff members that was going to lead us to the stadium. We thought we were running late but when we showed up, only students were there. No staff member. All of us were confused. Afraid we would be late to the game, we all made our own way there. The walk there was long but we finally made it and just in time for kick off. I thought it was going to be freezing cold but it thankfully wasn't.
The first half, no one scored till the last few minutes. Fiorentina scored with a few minutes to spare. They scored twice in the second half bringing the score to 3-0. The last goal was amazing!! Fiorentina brought the ball all the way down to Udinese goal and kicked it to the top left corner. Udinese's defender jumped up to block the ball and it bounced off his back into the goal. It was glorious to witness!

Erinn and I :)

Sunday, Erinn and I were on to our next adventure! We met at the train station to catch our bus to Viareggio for Carnevale. We got on the bus and the only seats left were in the very last row right by the window. We took our seats and talked and laughed the whole way to Viareggio. I'm so lucky to have met her and become as close as we have these past two weeks. Our classmates ask us how long we've known each other and they are all surprised when we say we met the day we arrived in Florence. Our bus ride was just over an hour. Once we were given our tickets to Carnevale, we could do whatever we wanted until 6pm.

I want to go back to Viareggio just for this

Before entering the festival, Erinn, Erin (yes there are two different Erin's who spell it differently), Jamie, Kailee, Megan, and I went to a restaurant recommended by Marta. While waiting in line to order, Marta walked in to eat there as well. I got seafood pasta and it was delicious!! After our meal, we walked to the beach before entering the festival.

One of my favorite floats

Carnevale di Viareggio was absolutely amazing!! Each float was mind-blowing and handmade. There were many political floats and many about Trump. This was different than any festival or parade I've ever been to. You could walk in the street with the floats and there was confetti everywhere! Erinn (my roommate Erinn) and I bought two bags of confetti and threw most of it at each other. We were only able to stay for 3 hours but it was 3 glorious hours!

Erinn and I post confetti throwing

Erinn and I slept the whole way back to Florence. Once we arrived we went to our friend Katie's house for dinner and a few fun card games. It was a great way to end the evening.
Today I woke up with one of the worst colds I have ever gotten. I started to get ready for school and felt worse and worse by the minute. I changed back into my pjs, emailed my teacher to tell her I would not be in class, and got back in bed. I was really hoping that the cold that is going around my school would skip me but alas, I was wrong. Now I'm sitting in my living room, wide awake at 1:25am because between when I went to sleep last night and when I went back to bed early this morning I slept about 13 hours.