To Miss...and Not to Miss

I love watching the sky go from this...

to this.

I also love having a camera that can capture it. *insert heavenly choir here*

You know, I’m going to seriously miss Florence. The Duomo, Sergio’s, Mercato Centrale. The internet here, on the other hand…not so much. I promise regular updates will happen as soon as I have internet that stays connected for longer than 20 seconds. [And oh, how I wish that were an exaggeration.]

Not too much has been going on since Wednesday. That evening was the Farewell Dinner from our school, Scuola Lorenzo de’ Medici. Now, I’ll be honest, where food is concerned the words “free” and “high quality” do not often go hand in hand. But I thought, “hey, I’m in Italy, how bad can it be?” Whoops. Silly Gilly.

It didn’t help that we got stuck at the forgotten table. I had to get up and ask our advisor to remind them to bring us bread. (C’mon, it’s me – I was getting my bread.) They did, but it made me question what country I was in – what is usually a beautiful basket of soft, crusty Tuscan bread came as a couple of semi-stale pieces of unpleasantly chewy sourdough and some completely stale breadsticks. At this point, a waiter came over and poured us all very large glasses of wine, for which we were all incredibly grateful. Perhaps the culinary highlight of the evening.

The first course arrived and I was skeptical, but still hopeful – wine will do that.

Penne in tomato sauce and a square of veggie lasagna.

Hmm, where to begin. The penne was…perfectly edible. It was just in basic tomato sauce with a pathetic-looking piece of basil thrown in there and sprinkled with some subpar parmesan. I like simple, and this was certainly no culinary challenge, but I enjoyed it mostly. The lasagna, however, I’m quite sure could have been served in any school cafeteria or hospital tray without a second thought. First of all, there were peas. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before or not, but I hate peas. No, that is not too strong a word. They mushy and unattractive and I truly cannot stand their “flavor” (if you can even call it that). I know many people are of the opposite opinion, and that’s perfectly fine. All the less for me to eat. ANYway, this was not a welcome addition to this limp, lukewarm square of overcooked noodles and cheap cheese. I will say that it had a kidney-like bean in it and I liked that, but the two beans my portion had did not make up for the overwhelming mediocrity of the dish. NEXT.

Chicken with tomato sauce, potatoes, and…peas.

I won’t comment further on the peas; suffice it to say, this course was already taken down a notch by their presence on my plate.

Ok, once again – what country am I in again? Whoever decided that throwing the extra tomato sauce from the penne on top of the chicken and calling it “Italian” has no business in the kitchen. It was, again, edible – the chicken was only mildly rubbery and the completely underseasoned tomatoes at least gave it an ounce of flavor. The potatoes were…well, potatoes. If they had screwed up pan-fried potatoes, I might have just left; but these were fine. I like potatoes. That’s what these were, and no more.

So at this point, I was holding on by a thread and praying for a big, decadent dessert. And then reality was served. In a paper cup.

Do you remember Hoodsies, those little ice cream cups made by Hood that you ate with a wooden stick and were served at basically every school event ever? Well, apparently they’re an international phenomenon.

Actually, this wasn’t bad. The chocolate was nice and cocoa-y and the vanilla was suuuper creamy. A little artificial tasting, but really pretty good.

Ok, I bashed this dinner pretty harshly. It is important to consider that they were cooking for a LOT of kids that had completely taken over their restaurant and all wanted their food “NOW.” So to an extent, mediocrity in a meal is to be expected. But even this was low. I mean, we’re in Italy – even a big ball of fresh mozzarella with some tomato would have been fine. This meal was not Italian. In fact, it reminds me of eating at school…perhaps it was meant to make us nostalgic and prepare us to go home? Yes. We’ll go with that.

Thursday and Friday were more or less uneventful. Took the written portion of my cooking final, and while every last bit of knowledge my brain could hold about antioxidants, homocysteine, and bread-making spilled out off my pen as fast as it could go, our teacher made us post-test snacks. We’re not talking milk and cookies, people. Toast with goat cheese and fresh pear drizzled with balsamic and sprinkled with nutmeg, followed by the most amazing shortbread cookies I have ever tasted with a chocolate sauce and a strawberry sauce for dipping. Have I mentioned I love this class? A million times? Make it a million and one. I love this class!!! [Sorry, no pictures – it was an eat-and-keep-writing situation!]

To keep things interesting, we decided to go to Fiesole for dinner. Fiesole is a hill town above Florence that was a big deal in the Etruscan age – they were actually more powerful than Florence. It’s a charming little town with incredible views. We have been, but none of us had eaten there—and you haven’t really been somewhere if you haven’t dined there, no?

We went to Ristorante Perseus, right in the central piazza. If the garlic cloves adorning every doorway didn’t make me love it, the plates did the trick:

I love restaurants with funky dishes. It’s just more fun to eat off fun plates! Oh, and check out the size of this pepper mill:

Holy whoa, this baby was longer than my arm! More fun décor J

Aside from the inevitable bread basket, they also brought a plate of flat bread-cracker-looking things:

Basically very flat focaccia, sprinkled with oregano and salt on top. YUM! They made for handy spoons for my meal:

Zuppa di gran farro – Spelt Soup!

I have had this a couple times before and have really liked it – this was no exception! A lovely drizzle of good olive oil with bread for soaking made this an absolutely delicious dish. Very soul-satisfying J And perfect for this ugly, damp, cold, un-May weather we’ve been suffering. Florence, we have one week left – get it together.

Friday we had planned to go to the beach in Cinque Terre, but the combination of dangerous-looking overcast skies and a very late night made those plans float away. No matter, we’re in Florence – there is always something to do! We took advantage of a free day to do some serious shopping. I got assorted presents, some jewelry, souvenir stuff that’s been on my list for ages, a watercolor print that I adore from a street artist, and a Moka coffee-maker. Mokas are an Italian household staple – it’s quite similar to a French press. You put water in the bottom part, then put ground coffee (we’ve been using espresso and I love it!) in a filter over the bottom part, and then screw on the top and put it over the stove to boil the water. It makes an amazing cup of coffee, and they are really affordable. I got one with polka dots ;) I can’t wait to use it at home!

I put my chef hat on and made the roomies homemade bean burgers for dinner! The basic recipe is from Kath Eats Real Food, my favorite food blogger and an all-around cool chica;) Click here for her recipe page. Basically, you take beans (like kidney or cannellini – higher liquid content is better) with some whole wheat flour, mash them together and add whatever seasonings you want. For mine, I added chopped tomatoes, fresh garlic, sage, oregano, S + P, and a little olive oil. Form a patty with your hands (take your rings off!) and throw it on a pan. Leave it for a couple minutes—resist the urge to poke & prod!—and flip it when you shake the pan and the burger moves. They usually end up a little mushy but I adore them. I think they liked it ;) I was supposed to make “fries” with the burgers with roasted potatoes, but I of course forgot to buy potatoes at the store. That made it considerably more difficult to make them. Oh well, the burgers were yummy! I was not in presence of mind and LuLu did not make an appearance.

Yup, the new camera has been christened – and it’s a girl! LuLu did accompany me on my Saturday adventure – San Gimignano, take 2! World Champion Gelato? Where do I sign?!!!

~Namaste~

Puffy Pizza and Planes

Gah, no update in so long! Didja miss me? Barcelona was SO FUN!!! But more on that later. When we last left Gillianasana...

I'll be honest, Thursday did not begin well. You may remember my Easter morning surprise when I woke up to find my face swollen to 10 times its normal size. I suspect it's either a reaction to Italian mosquitoes or something else like bed bugs....EW. Whatever it is, it got me again, and my eyes were swollen shut. As in, I could barely see to walk around the apartment. Thank goodness I had one Italian class left that I could miss. I have pictures...but I'll spare you. I'd hate to spoil anyone's appetite.

What upset me most about this little obstacle was that not only was today my last cooking class (*tear*), but it was the class focused on my true carb love, bread. And not just any bread....pizza dough!!!! Yes, today we made pizza from scratch. I was not about to miss this, swollen eyes or not. By the time class rolled around it had gone done a little, so I threw on my big sunglasses and was out the door. 

We all split up into 5 groups - 4 pizzas and 1 dessert. My group went with a veggie pizza - eggplant, zucchini, and mozzarella with garlic and tomato sauce. It was fantastically easy, too - my family better be ready for some pizza a la ME!

We started with the basic bread recipe - flour, water, yeast, a little salt and a pinch of sugar. *Tip*: you always use half the amount of flour for the water. Like, if you have 300 grams of flour, you use 150 ml of water. You melt the yeast in the water first and add the pinch of sugar - the sugar helps activate the yeast to move things along quicker. Mix the flour and salt together and form what I call the flour volcano - bascially make a hole in the middle of the flour pile so the flour forms a kind of wall . Pour some of the water/yeast mixture into the hole and start gently working them together - we used a fork to do this, kind of making a whipping/beating motion. Eventually it will be juuust well-mixed enough to start kneading with your hands.  Add a little olive oil, white wine, and vinegar as you knead to keep the bread from drying out. After about 10 minutes, form the dough into a ball and make an X in the top; let it rest for about 2 more minutes, then work it a liiittle bit more, then reform the ball, remark the X, and let it rest again under a damp paper towel for about 10 minutes. When your 10 minutes are up, roll it out with a rolling pin on both sides - it will probably be a funky shape, not a perfect circle. Personally, I think that makes it more interesting. Just sayin.

For veggie pizzas, the veggies MUST be sauteed at least a little before being put on the pizza and baked. Veggies are mostly made of water, and if you throw em on there raw, they will release their water onto the pizza while baking and the end result is heavy and very hard to eat - no wimpy pizzas!!! We sauteed our eggplant and zucchini in some olive oil and garlic (hard to go wrong with that combo). For the sauce, we just used pureed tomatoes and heated it up, adding a little (what else?) olive oil. Ladel it in small amount in the middle of the rolled out pizza dough and swirl it around with the bottom of the ladel. Repeat this just until it's covered - don't oversauce! I promise, there will be enough, even if you like sauce. Just put the ladel down.

Add your sauteed veggies and cheeeeeeese:

And throw it in the oven for baby and me about 20 minutes-ish at 215 Celsius, about 415 degrees Fahrenheit. E voila!

Have you ever seen such a beautiful sight?

Ours was my favorite I think. The crust was the perfect thick/thinness, there was just enough sauce, not too much cheese and the veggies gave texture and taste that made this probably some of the best pizza ever.

Another group made a Margherita pizza, which is fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella. I liked it, but I think I prefer tomato sauce to straight tomatoes.

Then there was a [mostly] white pizza with mozzarella, parmesan, prosciutto and I believe mushrooms. I LOVE parmesan on pizza. It gives it such a good bite. This was probably my second fave.

The last group topped theirs with potatoes and rosemary. I liked it, but I didn't love it; the textures of the bread and potatoes didn't work as well together for me. I would rather have them separate, I suppose. 

We kept it simple with dessert - stuffed peaches. They're finally in season here, and they were cut open, de-pitted and stuffed with a mixture of chopped almonds, brown sugar, egg yolk, cocoa powder

It was a very tasty little bite. The peaches were a little too underripe I think, but the filling was AWESOME. Like a really good biscotti - crumbly, sweet, almondy. Would actually be really good on oatmeal, methinks...

And no pizza is complete without wine, right? A very light white. My puffy self was grateful.

[I kept my sunglasses on the entire class. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm insane. Don't care.]

After that, it was a mad rush to GET OUT of the house and get our butts to Barcelona!! My roommate from school is studying there this semester and I was soo excited to see her :) After that the day started getting better (even though the puffiness didn't fully reside until late the next day...eek). I won't go into details about the rest of my Thursday, because, um, OY VEH. 

Barcelona - get ready. The ladies of The Palace are coming.

~Namaste~

Deja Vino

Does this look familiar?

It turns out that my cooking class field trip to a wine tasting on a farm in Lucca was at the exact same farm that API took us for the olive oil tasting. I now know Fattoria Il Poggio quite well, I think!

Despite some of us from API feeling a little disappointed at not going somewhere new, the fact that we were here this time for a wine tasting did make a considerable difference in our second experience here. New tour guide, new sights...

A pine nut tree! Mmmm - a great addition to salads :)

See those odd-looking spindly stick cluster things? Those are what grow capers (those tiny, salty green balls that pack a wallop of flavor). Also good on salads :)

And of course, there were new tastes!

The white.

Very dry, but I really liked it - so much that a bottle came home with me!

The red.

Once this opened up, I really liked this too. In fact, I couldn't decide which I liked more, the white or the red! Brought a bottle of this home to, so the roomies may offer up their opinions!

The wonderful thing about going to farms is that the wine they produce is always tasty and super cheap. I could so live on a Tuscan farm. The views alone would make it worth it.

The food was equally as delish. And there was plenty to be had! Before the standard wine tasting snacks were brought out (bread, olive oil, cheese, salamis), they served us fresh-made maccheroni pasta in meat sauce:

Now I am not much for meat sauce, but the amazingness that is fresh pasta pretty much balances out everything else. I can't even describe it; it's got the perfect texture and bite to it, and you can taste the how the egg, flour and water combine to produce such a wonderful thing. 

Just a note - you can buy fresh pasta in the States! It's usually in [one of] the freezer sections. If there's a specialty cheese aisle, it may be around there. It's not quite fresh off the slicer, but it's still far and beyond the dried stuff. Or you could get ambitious and make your own...*wink wink*

After this and some bread, delicious olives and pecorino (seriously, best cheese ever. and this is coming from someone who usually doesn't like cheese.), we had the traditional Tuscan dessert of cantuccini (basically little baby almond biscotti) dipped in Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine:

Last time I mentioned I didn't like their Vin Santo - it's suuuper strong! But today, I actually quite enjoyed my tiny sip. And it is nice with the cantucci. As they say, when in Rome Tuscany!

Despite it pouring down rain for most of the day, it was a really fun field trip. In fact, it's a little unreal to me that I went to a wine tasting on a Tuscan farm for SCHOOL. If this is a dream - don't wake me up!

~Namaste~

Roughing It

Ah, the weekend. What everyone looks forward to. This weekend was especially exciting though - for our last excursion, API took us to Siena and Perugia for a weekend of thorough relaxation. I would have to say this mission was most certainly accomplished.

We boarded the bus on Saturday morning  [for once not at the butt crack of dawn!] and headed to Siena, an idyllic Tuscan town a bit south of Florence. It is world-renowned for its natural beauty; in fact, if you google Tuscan landscapes, there's a pretty good chance that one of the first pictures to pop up will be in Siena. I gave Frida a firm talking to before we left - this was not the trip to be without a camera, and her best behavior was mandatory. She grudgingly complied.

Siena's Duomo.

Fun fact: The word 'duomo' has nothing to do with domes! It was taken from the German word for house and in Italy a "Duomo" is the "house of God", meaning it is the most important church in its city.

Siena and Florence were HUGE rivals, and Siena began constructing their Duomo with plans to make it greater than Brunelleschi's creation for Florence. They didn't succeed, but this is nevertheless an immensely impressive structure. Just look at the detail!

InTENSE.

Main piazza - can you see the seashell shape?

Siena is also known for its horse race, a tradition dating waaaaaay back that draws thousands upon thousands of people into this small city. Siena is divided into sections called contrade, and each contrada has its own symbol and horse. Most of the symbols represent strength, including a rhinoceros, a griffin, and the tower on top of the elephant that you see above^. A horse representing each contrada gathers in the main piazza and in 75 seconds, it's over and done with. The prize is pretty much the ability to say "hey, we won!", but the loyalty to one's contrada is fierce and quite endearing. Being the good little tourists that we are, we each bought a banner with the symbol of a different contrada on each.

I got the porcupine. Duh.

After our walking tour we went on a lunch-hunt. After a failed search for a recommended restaurant, we settled for another one, which turned out to be slightly mediocre, but fit the bill.

I was feelin the veggies today, and definitely made the right choices!

Melanzane alla griglia fatte in casa - Grilled eggplant made in-house

This was quite amazing, I will say. Very garlickly and tender. Perfect for this veggie-loving soul.

And bruschetta:

Certainly not the best I've had, but when in Italy it's hard to find "bad" bruschetta. Olive oil, bread, fresh basil + tomatoes. Simply amazing...or amazingly simple?

After doing some souvenir shopping, we made sure to get some of the Sienese specialty called panforte, a kind of sweet whose recipe dates back to the Middle Ages when it was eaten as a kind of "trail mix" for the Crusaders.

Panforte al cioccolato

It's a very dense mix of dried fruit, nuts (mostly almonds and pistachios), honey, and various spices. It was heavy on the cinnamon and cocoa - which I loved, and also on the orange rind - which I was not so much a fan of.Overall though, the cakey texture mixed with the variety of other textures and the complex flavors made this a very enjoyable treat for my tastebuds - those Crusaders had good taste!

Now, prepare to be jealous. The main event of the day was a trip to a thermal spa, located in the Rapolano area just outside of Siena. This area is located above thermal waters that have been enriched by the minerals of the soil deep within the earth. The Etruscans discovered that the minerals in the water were amazingly beneficial for the body both inside and out, helping everything from smoothing skin to cleansing the internal organs. There are many spas in this area that have tapped into the thermal waters and constructed pools for people to sit in and soak up the minerals to receive their many health benefits. 

Oh man, this was incredible. The water was like a warm, comforting bath, and it was so relaxing to just sit and soak and chat for a couple hours. I left feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and all-around happy.

Rough weekend so far, no?

After our perfectly lovely afternoon at the spa, we went to our hotel - the Grand Hotel Boston! They must have known I was coming (well, me and the hundred other kids with API from Mass...). In case we hadn't been pampered enough just yet, API had planned a four-course dinner for us at the hotel. It was nothing more than your average hotel food, but we were excited for a free meal and to be waited on regardless!

They even had menus on the table for us:

The obligatory bread and wine:

First antipasto: CHEESE!

The upper one was tomino, a very soft creamy cheese that is exactly like brie in its consistency but has none of brie's pungency. I enjoyed it, but it paled in comparison to this guy:

Maybe I was just starving, maybe I don't eat fresh mozzarella plain often enough, but this tasted absolutely incredible. Soft, milky, with a rich mouth-feel but a light flavor. This was the most delicious bite of the entire meal.

Second antipasto: Fritture

This was an assortment of fried veggies and rice balls. I took a taste, but nothing more. When I was on my weight-loss diet, I completely cut out all things fried and ever since then, I can't eat it without getting horribly sick. I can't ever taste what has actually been fried, it all tastes like the same cheap, greasy lump to me. I also think I've developed a conditioned taste aversion - I immediately connect the taste of deep-fried food to the unbearable nausea that I'm always stuck with after, and I just can't do it. Alas and alack, I simply cannot appreciate it. Perhaps some day...

First primi: Zuppa di verdure - Vegetable soup

Well, the name pretty much says it all. Soup of vegetables. It was a bit too salty, and not much more impressive than something that I can get out of a can. But, I'm always happy to have some fresh vegetables, and it was perfectly edible - just nothing more.

Second primi: Lasagna vegetariana

Apparently this hotel defines 'vegetarian lasagna' as regular ol' lasagna without the ground meat; the only vegetables in here were the tomatoes in the sauce. It had a hint of what I thought was nutmeg, and I did appreciate that surprisingly little tough of sweetness. The crunchy outer noodles were also a nice contrast to the soft, melty middle. Not bad, just unremarkable. I probably ate about 3/4 of it.

Secondi: Roasted Chicken

This was actually pretty decent. Very simple salt+pepper+rosemary seasoning (although a little too heavy on the salt). Too much dark meat for my taste, and I will admit for the amount of work that goes into picking the meat of the bone, the acutal amount of edible chicken I was left with was not worth it. But, I enjoyed the few bites I had. Again, nothing special. It did get me excited for summer at home though - my dad makes a mean lemon-pepper bbq chicken!

Dessert

You know me; this was what I was waiting for. Unfortunately, it followed suite with the previous courses in its overwhelming mediocrity. It was kind of like a tiramisu cake; something like angel food cake with a whipped topping drizzled with a coffee-chocolate sauce and a light chocolate cream layer. The cake was only slightly better than tasteless, and the filling was more like a pastry cream with a hint of cocoa than a chocolate filling which I found disappointing. The whipped topping was like Cool Whip in texture (thankfully without the artificial chemically taste) with a coffee-cocoa drizzle that was clearly trying to imitate tiramisu, My main complaint is WHY did they not just make tiramisu (very hard to screw up) instead of producing this subpar impostor? But, it was dessert, and I of course had no problem lapping it up within minutes.

Ok, I kind of bashed the dinner a little bit; but I promise, it was a truly wonderful evening! It was the perfect end to a long, luxurious day and the company of my sweet roommates made the dinner a success. We had laughter, wine, and plenty to talk about - luckily for me, they like talking about food, so we discussed the dinner as we ate!

Morning brings my favorite part of staying in hotels: the free breakfast. Most important meal of day, right?

Tea, yogurt, muesli, a roll [which went uneaten], and MELON! If you had only seen my face when I saw that platter piled with infinite melon...like a kid on Christmas morning. I am a full-on melon addict, and could (and when I'm at school, do) eat it every day and never get sick of it. I must have gone back 4 or five times, probably at least half a melon's worth! It was exactly what I wanted after that heavy meal the night before. I'm so excited for summer fruits!!!

After breakfast we boarded the bus and zoomed off to...

PERUGIA!

We entered the city through what was the residential area of the city in the Middle Ages. It was a huge labyrinth of arches where people used to live under one big roof, and was really cool to see.

I was too amused with this scene: the escalator leading down into the medieval residences. I am endlessly fascinated by past-meets-present collisions! *NERDALERT*

Perugia is located in the region of Umbria, just under Tuscany, known as the "Green Heart of Italy."

Give you one guess why:

Those Etruscans looooved their aqueducts!

There were these little yellow flowers sprouting up out of the most random spots! Frida thought it was poetic.

Ca-RAZY church!

If 'Perugia' sounds familiar to you, it might be because it is the birthplace of the chocolate company Perugina. They produce Bacio (literally, 'kiss' - we have Hershey's, Italy has Perugina!). A Bacio is a dark chocolate shell with a chocolate truffle filling dotted with chopped hazelnut and one whole hazelnut in the middle! Don't worry, I have pictures coming tomorrow...patience, grasshopper.

This was our non-negotiable first stop.

Perugia is also home to one of the world's most famous chocolate festivals! Every October, thousands of people flood the streets - they say you can smell chocolate everywhere! Fall Break trip to Italy, anyone?

LOOK at the Hedgehog cakes!!! Iwantonenow.

You may have noticed a key element missing from our trip so far...

GELATO! We quickly made up for its absence.

Raspberry + Bacio, because, well, when in Rome Perugia!

After a walking tour and an espresso in the sun, we were off to today's main event: a wine tasting in Chianti!

Like I said...rough weekend.

It took place at Castillo di Verrazzano, as in the Verrazzano who discovered New York. I guess it's not too surprising that his family has a castle, huh? We were welcomed by the owner, who was a very charming Italian man. He may have been a little too charming, because I couldn't even dislike him despite the fact that I was absolutely green with jealousy over his "house":

And I thought I had it rough.

He talked for a while about how wonderful it is to walk around a vineyard and take in every sight and smell it has to offer, because then when you taste its wine, you can appreciate it all the more. You can taste the cherries from the cherry tree, and the lemons growing on the lemon trees. Wine is not for "getting drunk"; as he said, a baby could get drunk! Wine is about respect. AMEN! To be honest, I only really like wine when I sip it slowly and only have a couple small glasses; I find I get bored with the flavor and forget to really 'taste' it if I just mindlessly pour and drink. And that takes all the fun away!

We proceeded with a tour of the castle & its cellars:

Their reserve bottles - check out that layer of dust!

We were all ushered in to a big room for the sit-down tasting. Just as I had hoped, the owner walked us through the first sip, explaining how to hold the glass, look at the color, check the alcohol content, and even how to smell it correctly! What I learned in Italy...

We started with a simple table wine, red of course:

Then proceeded to the Chianti Classico - this was my favorite:

What a fox, that Verrazzano.

Just like the other tastings, we were served lots of "snacks" with the wine that turned into a perfect dinner! Tuscan bread, olive oil, toasted garlic bread (my favorite), salami and prosciutto, pecorino (my love!), salad, white beans...the works. Oh, but I was happy.

We also got to taste one of the Reserve wines; I could definitely taste the difference in its age and quality, but to be honest, it wasn't my favorite. It was too strong for my underdeveloped palate ;) But it was such a fun experience!

We ended with the traditional cantucci (Tuscan biscotti) to dip in Vin Santo, the classic dessert wine.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. I liked this vin santo better than the last I had - less strong/bitter. I really like the two together! Really, I just love cantucci. A lot.

Before we left this beautiful trip behind and traveled back to the semi-reality of Florence, I took some pics of the castle's "back yard":

Now that's rough.

~Namaste~