14

Proof that I drove a scooter. This was my lesson.

Monday night, my Italian professor had arranged a olive oil/balsamic vinegar tasting at this place. Eight of us from my class went (half the class). It was so much fun. That's all of us, with my professor (the woman) in the back, and the man who led the tasting next to her. We're in the basement of the building, which was actually part of a prison that held...Machiavelli, I believe. The room was the guard-room, and is connected to the rest of the prison rooms with tunnels. They have a couple pieces of 13th century rock still visible, not that you can see in the picture.

We tried two different balsamic vinegars first - one aged eight years and one aged ten. Both were beyond delicious. Especially with lots of amazing parmesan cheese. And bread. They also gave us a really nice olive oil. Then it turned into more of a wine tasting (but we're supposed to say that my professor didn't also organize that). We had a white and two reds (one a Chianti of course). There was also food: prosciutto and salami for every except the vegetarians. We were given caprese and some fried things. I'll admit that I did try both the prosciutto and salami though. I'm making my way back into meat very slowly. The whole tasting was a blast though. There was another group of students with us, from William and Mary and they were a lot of fun. It was nice because the owner spoke in Italian to us, but a woman would translate for the other group, so we could actually make sure we understood correctly.

Other than that, not very much exciting. Six of us went out last night, but the bar we wanted to visit was apparently too girlie for the boys, so we picked up a bottle of limoncello instead and went back to the hotel for a while. All I can say is that it is truly terrible when hot. After that we went out again to an Irish pub, and wandered around for a bit. Nothing particularly exciting.