Honeymoon in Tuscany

This past weekend I went to Tuscany with my friend, Julia, on what was practically a honeymoon since we went just us two! I should tell of how we first met. I was walking through Piazza Maggiore with my girlfriends this past summer, eating gelato and talking. Up pops this girl, excaiming, "You speak English!" She's from Baltimore and had just gotten to Bologna and needed some advice on finding an apartment. Well that was Julia and we've all been friends ever since!

The weather here has been quite ugly this week, and Tuscany was even worse. It was cold and rainy the whole time. We made the best of it, however, and spent our time strolling, eating, and sleeping. It was a very relaxing weekend. Siena is beautiful.

Some of the highlights of Siena were the Cathedral, the Piazza, and meeting up with my friend Giuliana who was also there for the weekend.

We also took a day trip to Perugia. We had an amazing meal there of spinach gnocchi baked in the oven with tomato sauce. Mmmm.

The best part of that day was wandering the small alleys...they are all so cute! It's exciting to know that around every corner there will something new and even more beautiful! In the afternoon it got so cold it started snowing...which I could hardly even believe. It was cool though. We just ducked in for some tea and hot chocolate and then made our way back to Siena.

There's a special pasta that's particular to Siena called Pici. It's kinda like spaghetti but SO much thicker. We made a point of buying some before we left, and the guy we bought from was so sweet, offering cooking suggestions and telling us about Chianti.

The only time the weather cleared up a bit was the morning we went to climb the tower, most fortunately. We took a ton of photos to justify the price of the ticket!

I'm pleased to say that the photos don't even do it justice. Tuscany is totally what it's cracked up to be.