San Gimignano and Wine Harvest

 So it has been a while since I last posted but here are a few things that happened last week! We went to San Gimignano on Wednesday as a class and it was a great city. It was about a 2 hour bus ride through the heart of Tuscany where the fields are covered with agricultural products. Lots and lots of wine! The city is know for having a lot of towers that were built during the medieval times. At one point there were 70 total towers which would have made this city the ancient NYC. Now there are about 14 towers which were visible throughout the city!

 My friends and I at the center of the town which was a large piazza surrounded by shops (the best gelato in Italy so far...my profile picture on facebook is from there) and restaurants. 

 This was an image of the piazza in front of the main church of the city. 

 This church had incredible frescos that covered the church showing the stages of Jesus' life.

 We climbed to the top of the main bell tower. There were definitely a lot of stairs and once we got to the top we had to basically climb under a small opening to get on top of the tower.

 View of the city from the top of the tower!

 Other view of the city with the countryside in the background. 

 Door inside of the tower. Had to include a door!

 So the rest we spent the rest of the afternoon in San Gimignano sketching and watercoloring and then we came back and had class on Thursday. On Friday a couple of my friends and I got to go on a grape harvest. We woke up super early Friday morning and then were picked up and taken to the vineyard at about 7:30. We spent the whole morning until noon picking grapes for this wonderful Italian family. In the morning it was super nice and cool. It was such an awesome experience to picking grapes in Tuscany but I am not going to lie after 4 hours, I was pretty ready to quit and start drinking the wine. haha. We were taken to lunch which was good, kind of not what we were expecting but we were provided with plenty of wine and beer. After a 2 hour lunch we were taken back to pick for 3 more hours. The afternoon was much better and much more enjoyable! We picked merlot grapes in the morning and then shiraz grapes in the afternoon. The shiraz grapes were much larger and didn't require half of the bending down. As you can probably tell I am not a big fan of manual labor. But this was definitely worth it!

 Me with the grapes in the morning!

 Merlot grapes...they were delicious!

 A couple of us a the vineyard

 Amanda and I probably filled at least 10 of these buckets on Friday. There were 27 students there that day and at the end of the day they told us that we picked a little more than 13,000 lbs of grapes! It was crazy.

 End of the day, we were worn out! They took us back to the winery cellar where the fermentation takes place and had amazing appetizers and wine for us. They also gave us each 2 bottles of "thank you" wine for all of the work that we did. I am saving one to drink with all of you when I get home!

The shiraz grape rows! We had an awesome day and it was well worth the labor. What an awesome experience!

On Saturday we just hung out in CF and relaxed. This morning I went to mass at the church across from our school and it was beautiful. I could really feel my dad with me and it was such a great feeling to remember that I was in Italy. Life couldn't get better!

Off to Rome on Tuesday and then the Amalfi coast on Friday. :)