Catching Up: Part I

Ciao tutti!

My apologies for the delay in these posts. There’s been a whirlwind of commotion recently, starting with Andrew’s visit and ending with final papers, paintings, sketches, and exams. Andrew’s visit was absolutely wonderful and took both of us to some new and beautiful places–Bologna, Montalcino, Pienza, Sant’Anna in Comprena, and the Amalfi Coast. There are so many stories to be told from our time together, but since I’m drowning in paintings (I know, poor me) until next Monday when we have our art show, I will try my best to summarize in photo captions!

My first time up to Piazzale Michelangelo with Andrew! With a fresh baguette, a bit of taleggio (formaggio), strawberries, and lemon soda, Andrew and I passed the afternoon at Piazzale watching the sunset and catching up. After Piazzale, we had a lovely dinner at Cucina Casalinga–pollo e patate arrosti!


Sunset over the arno.


Stopped along the arno on the walk home to take some night photos of the most beautiful city in the world.

Thursday morning we rented a car (Andrew drove) and headed south! Our first stop was Montalcino, a hilltop town about an hour from Florence. Beautiful views, better food.


The homemade pasta with truffles (10 euro/14 dollars) in Montalcino was amazing, but Andrew’s chicken with Brunello (the wine of the region) sauce was one of the best meals I’ve had in Italy.

Our next stop was Sant’anna in Camprena, an agriturismo that was formerly a 15th century Benedictine monastery. 6 km from Pienza, Sant’anna in Camprena offers the most stunning views of Italy I’ve seen–nothing but rolling green hills and vineyards. We got in at around 4 to find that we made up 1/3 of the guests for the night–6 people in a place with 80 beds. We felt like royalty sitting in the garden watching the sunset, drinking wine made onsite, all completely alone. It was hands-down the best part of Andrew’s stay, and one of the best days I’ve had in Italy.


Sant’anna in Camprena. If this looks vaguely familiar to you, then you’ve probably seen The English Patient. Many of the scenes in the movie were filmed at Sant’anna in Camprena and, even cooler, we stayed in one of the main rooms that was featured in the film.

It really doesn’t get much better than this.

If only we could’ve spent all 11 days at Sant’anna…

Friday morning we made a quick stop in Pienza, where we had a wonderful dinner the night before, to explore a bit more of the tiny city. Pienza is famous for pecorino cheese (my favorite), so most of our exploring was food-related, but both of us fell in love with the city as a whole. Pienza definitely has a lot of character for such a little city and ah, the views!

After a 5 hour drive, we finally made it to Positano. As you can see, it was stunning. The weather was perfect and we had a lot of fun walking around on Saturday. Positano is famous for its enormous and delicious lemons, so we particularly enjoyed our fresh lemon granita (slushy). Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see too much of Postiano because by the time we arrived I was definitely at my sickest, but it was nice relaxing in such a beautiful place. Highlight: sharing a beach chair with Andrew, playing cribbage as the sun set over the cliffs.

Andrew’s visit ended with the last of three meals with my Italian family. (My host mom initially invited him to dinner for one night only, but after meeting him she kept inviting him back.) It made me so happy to enjoy a few meals with Andrew and my host family, and they really appreciated Andrew speaking to them in the Italian that he could remember (the rest of the time they spoke to him in English). As much as I enjoyed some time away, it always feels nice to return to my home here. The icing on the cake was to have Andrew “in casa”, too!

Bare with me, Part II of this post—a few of Andrew’s beautiful shots of Florence and pictures from our Bing Trip to Cinque Terre–will come soon. In the meantime, I’m onto my third painting (of 4) and am heading to Franco’s with his host-granddaughter, Gina, on Thursday to work on my last painting. I’m so excited to paint with someone who can actually clarify what I’m supposed to be doing and who also happens to be one of the coolest Italians I know.

I have a little over 2 weeks left here. How did that happen? I have a ton left to do for school, but I’m trying to remember to make the most of these last couple weeks–there’s still so much that I want to do and see. I really don’t want to leave this city. If there were a way for me to stay for another quarter, maybe even two more, I would do it in an instant.

The way things are looking now, if i want to see more of Florence AND pass my classes before I go, I will be getting very little sleep for the next two weeks. Oh well, I know it will be well worth it.

Baci,
Tessa