Greve, Chianti and San Gimignano- Saturday, May 28, 2016

The Winery in Greve

Traveling through Tuscany

Today we voyaged out to Greve. The views along the roadside were stunning during our bus ride from Casa Cares. There were olive trees galore in the fields. The curves roads lead us to a small town named Greve where we walked through a huge outdoor market. This is where we bought everything from clothes, jewelry, fresh produce, and street foods. I picked up a pearl necklace for 5 Euros. They passed the scratch test so I am sure they are one step up from Mardis Gras beads. Greve also has a wine tasting store where you can try all the local flavors from the Tuscany region. Although it was 11 in the morning, we stopped there to find our favorite local flavors and buy some wine for the evenings at Casa Cares.



Governors  State University in Italy 

Then we got back in the bus and headed to San Gimignano. This is where I enjoyed my first Italian pizza. The fist one was a disaster and word on the street was that good pizzas don't exist in Italy. This pizza tasted amazing! Dr. Michel ordered bruschetta fantasy for an appetizer and that was a cross cultural experience to say the least. It came with three pieces of thinly sliced bruschetta bread. One had the traditional tomatoes. The other had a mix of cooked vegetables and the last one had a black bean hummus look to it. After eating the mystery bruschetta we found out it was spleen smeared on top of the bread. That's right, spleen; an organ meat. We laughed as the waiter tried to describe what we were eating by swiping the side of her abdomen with her finger. Needless to say, two vegetarians broke their diet this afternoon by eating smeared spleen on their bruschetta.


After lunch people strolled the streets of San Gimignano and went to the torture museums, shopping, and ate more gelato. There was also a tower that some students climbed to the top of. This was a short stop but was a nice way of getting acquainted with all that Tuscany has to offer.




Eating Pizza in San Gimignano with our new friend Lisa from New Orleans

Mindy Eastling