January 14th: Trip to the Chianti and wolf sighting

Photo taken by Teague 

Now that we’ve gone on our first excursion I finally have something interesting to write about. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been doing tons of stuff but that past few days have been devoted mostly to orientation programs and tours, today we experienced the Chianti.  The vineyard we visited is part of an ancient estate where Giovani de Verrazzano (the explorer who discovered the bay of New York) was born. The vineyard was once part of an Etruscan settlement and still employs ancient wine making techniques.

Chianti (thanks for the camera dad)

The bus ride to the Chianti was the most nauseating experience of my entire life, due to the windiness of the roads, the emptiness of my stomach and the stuffiness of the bus air. I was literally repeating to myself: “don’t throw up don’t throw up…” over and over in my head. My overwhelming desire to not vomit in front of a a large group of people saved me, however, some poor kid did puke on the bus.

Anyways, the bus ride was well worth the views of the Tuscan country side, which were refreshing after several days in the crowded city. The rolling hills, covered with olive trees and grape vines were almost too beautiful to appear real. We got off the buses and were met by the owner of the vineyard who gave a dynamic and impassioned speech about his belief in the holiness of wine. He explained that so many people put their lives and their wine on a time line—feeling that wine should only be enjoyed at certain predetermined times. He feels that you should just drink the wine!

We toured the wine cellar then filed into the beautiful dining room, from which we had a view of the pristine country side. We sat at circular tables and were immediately served several types of wine. The owner explained to us how to determine the relative age of the wine, and how to swill and properly taste the wine. Then, servers began to bring out bread, olive oil, pasta with red sauce, more bread, salami, prosciutto, more bread, roasted vegetables,  beans, chickpeas, pecorino cheese, more wine, and finally biscotti. Yes I ate some of the prosciutto, but only a little bit and I meticulously picked out the fat. My mom would have yelled at me. The food was AMAZING. I kept marveling at how happy I was that in contrast with last semester, which I spent slaving over homework and worrying about grades, my only objective for this day was to save enough room in my stomach for each course and enjoy delicious wine. The meal lasted for at least 2 hours as we enjoyed course after course of food and bottle after bottle of wine. I will never forget this meal.

After returning to our apartment Jules (my roommate) and I took our daily 4 hour nap from 6 to 10 pm, then ventured out into the city center for dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant and bar called Eby’s and upon entering the owner, an Albert Einstein look-alike, presented us with a shot of alcohol mixed with fresh fruit and then pointed us upstairs to the small dining room. After sitting down I immediately realized that the large dog sitting across from me, next to his owner was NOT a dog but a wolf. And yes I am sure because I study wolves and I love them. It was three feet away from me and I was transfixed by it for the entire meal. At one point, it stood up and began to sniff the chips on the table, so its owner pulled on his leash and told him to sit down, the wolf responded by looking at the owner with the most intelligence I’ve ever seen in an animal’s face as if to say, “oh ok”, and layed back down on the ground. Multiple people walked by and no one seemed to be surprised by the animal aside from Jules and I. Go figure, it’s Italy. 

This was the wolf sitting in front of me at dinner. It was enormous-- his back was taller than the table. (Photo credit to Jules)