Due to lack of wifi, this post is old: Today was a moving day because there were issues with our accommodations so we had to switch hotels. Our luggage was moved to Hotel Cordova. It is a step up from the last hotel since it has 2 starts versus the 1 at the other hotel, which is nice. Regrettably, this hotel also decided to make the whole bathroom the shower. In other words your shower is over the toilet and the drain is in the middle of the small bathroom floor. It is not an ideal situation since the whole floor and toilet gets wet, but we are learning to manage.
Our group then went to the piazza and took pictures of the cathedral Santa Maria de Fiore. It is a beautiful cathedral, but unfortunately we could only see the outside since they were holding mass for the locals. Next we traveled to Grom for the best gelato we have had yet. It is an all natural and no preservatives gelato that tasted delicious. I got myself a cone with the crème de grom (their specialty) and strawberry. I was in heaven after the first bite. After all of our tasty treats were gone, we all went back to cathedral to take more pictures. David and Carolyn then told us after 20 minutes that we needed to head to the bus station. Our next stop was an olive oil press out in the countryside.
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| angel on the cathedral |
Lucky for us, the press was at the top of a hill, so we got to walk up pretty high and for a long time. It was somewhat tiring, and was one of the first times I actually was sweating a decent amount. There were some pretty views of hills/countryside though from the top of the hill. After about a 20 to 30 minute walk, we all arrived at the olive oil press/production area. The owner of the business gave us a tour of the olive vineyard and the grape vineyards while explaining the process to make olive oil and wine. It was pretty interesting, but not the best part. The owner then led us into a quaint room that had tables set up for us to get a tasting. There were 3 types of olive oil to taste. I had no idea that there was such a difference between good and bad olive oil. Of course the owners stuff was the high end countryside version, while the others were the industrialized and store brand versions. Him and his wife then brought out bread and meat for us to eat with the delicious olive oil. After our visit was over, we all went back to the hotel, excited for the next day that was coming up, Rome.
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| view from the hill |
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| olive oil tasting |
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