Addio, Tuscany, senza rancore

When Wordsworth penned his famous poem “The World is Too Much With Us” I think he was talking about the feeling that teachers get the night before the school year begins.  I’ve decided to take the denial path and recap some favorites of our recent trip to Ireland and Tuscany. 

It was all wonderful, every place we went. Ireland was beautiful to see, fun to interact with the locals, and so relaxing. Dingle was our group's favorite, for the scenery and the music. The weather there was ridiculous, but we were forewarned, expected nothing, and got very little in the way of decent weather.  Some days the sun did shine, and it was very pleasant. 

Italy was incredible, too, including the wonderful house we rented, which had several rooms to ramble through, lie down for a nap in, and 3 or 4 terraces to sit and read at, and view some beautiful scenery of olive groves, vineyards, and lots of green. 

If anyone is planning a trip to the Tuscany area, I would always tell them to not miss 3 places (in addition to Florence, which is most people’s reason for going).  (1) Greve, a charming small town that is the epicenter of Chianti country and has a wonderful buthcher shop that takes great pride in its offerings, (2) Siena, which we barely were able to explore in a day but were dazed by, and (3) Ravenna, which isn’t really in Tuscany (it’s in Emilia Romagna) but is an easy day trip.  Ravenna had fantastic food and gorgeous mosaics sprinkled around its charming village.

All good vacations must come to an end, unless you can figure out how to make vacationing your life, I guess.  We couldn’t, so we packed up reluctantly and drove to the airport. When we got to our gate, I noticed a long line and a shop stuffed with customers.  I’ve seen people intent on getting their duty free on before they hit the skies, but this level of clamor over, what else, the wines of Tuscany, was a sight to behold.  Actually, I hurried to get my bag and join the line, remembering how expensive bad wine costs in China, and how little good wine costs in Tuscany.  Mission accomplished.  It rested in the bag with the 3 triangles of parmigiano and the 2 huge hunks of pecorino and they made the trip quite well, except for the small mishap in the boarding line when our carry-on bag tipped over, with said bag attached and a breaking of glass occurred.  I rushed into emergency mode and hit the bathroom with my bag leaking the most delicious smelling wine ever.  Fortunately the wine bottles were bagged separately, so I just drained the bag, dried off the outside of the cheeses, which were securely wrapped, and away we went. 

We’re back now in the scorching heat of Suzhou, and went to a supermarket today to stock up, putting on our best faces while walking by the “cheese” selection, and focusing on the really excellent (and cheap) mushroom selection one can get here.  We are negotiating on when we should consume the wine and the cheese, but I don’t give either of them much of a chance of seeing cold weather.

WOOPS: I forgot to post some pictures from L'Accademia, perhaps the most famous of Florence's museums after the Uffizi.  Michaelango's David is the star of the show, and what a star.  It was show stopping, as were his other unfinished statues in the same wing.  The other art in the collection was interesting in that showed the clear progression of the Renaissance from century to century, but the reason people keep showing up in throngs is thanks to Michaelango. It was a wondrous sight.  Have a look HERE.