Hippogriff sighting in Tuscany!!

Since I wrote last I had the privilege of going on a complimentary Tuscan excursion...courtesy's of Study Abroad Italy...which in reality I probably paid for in my program fees, but lets face it it's a lot more fun to imagine that it's free!! 
The trip started on Friday with a trip to a seaside village called Talamone after about a three hour drive from Florence and checking into the hotel.  Now before I get to far into telling you about what we did over the weekend, I want to explain the title.  On the way to Talamone after we checked in, we drove past a house with a balcony that had a large stuffed animal on it...life sized you could even say.  On closer inspection, I saw that it looked exactly like a stuffed hippogriff right down to the horse body, wings and curved beak!! It was crazy!! I was only able to get a blurred pic, but here's the evidence!

Our program guide Allessandra was kind enough to get us some free gelato to tide us over till dinner when we arrived! Maria and I decided to hike up to the castle that was there since we had about an hour and a half to kill, the view was incredible from up there! Of course I had to take a classic Titanic pose...haha

That night it was on the itinerary to have a "typical Italian meal"...so ya we're expecting some pasta, maybe some bread with olive oil, possibly tiramisu...but what we ended up getting was a FIVE COURSE MEAL!! It was delicious! 

Day two was started early with a short bus ride to a Archaeological site that was right near the beach we were going to be spending the rest of the day at.  We arrived there around 10:30 and took a tour of the tombs that had been left behind by an old old Etruscan tribe.  It was actually really interesting because we learned that the only reason the tombs were preserved for so long was because the Etruscans were some of the earliest producers of iron weapons. Unfortunately, the Etruscans had no way of heating the iron hot enough that it would melt, they could only get it hot enough to melt off the excess sludge and then be moldable.  When the armies in Rome learned about the value of these weapons the Etruscans had to produce more and more of them to the point that the excess sludge started to be of some inconvenience.  So they decided to start dumping the sludge on top of their tombs so that they would be protected forever.  However, in World War One, the soldiers discovered that the sludge still contained up to 60 percent of iron and started digging it up.  About 7-8 meters after they started digging, they discovered the tombs buried underneath.  Since then all the sludge has been cleared out, but the ground there is still shiny and glimmering from the leftover iron fragments to this day!! Here is a pic of the biggest tomb we saw...

   

After a day at the beach, we made our way back to the hotel before heading out to our second dinner of the trip.  After a little freshening up, Maria and I decided to take a look in the little store next to the hotel where guess what I found?!? A STRAIGHTENER!! That's right, my hair is finally going to look normal again!! I was so excited, I haven't been able to find one in Florence that wasn't sold in a hair salon and was ridiculously expensive!!! I'm not gonna lie, getting that hair straightener definitely put me in a good mood for the rest of the night and while dinner and our nice walk around the Porto Santo Stefano was great, it was even more amazing because I was so glad I could finally straighten  my hair!! In fact...here is a funny pic that Maria and I took during dinner haha

Sunday was probably my favorite day of them all, we spent the whole afternoon at this villa that was converted into an inn, organic farm, and restaurant.  This place was seriously beautiful, and exactly the type of place I would love to own someday.  They grow all their own grapes organically and then produce them in the wine cellar that we got to tour, which they also hold meetings in.  Apparently even though the rooms of the cellar are not that large they have a system that hooks up all the sound to each room so that they can essentially incorporate one large 350 person meeting.  Being the HRA dork that I am I found this all wildly interesting and started asking about occupancy and rooms and stuff (in case you were wondering they have 21 rooms and three apartments that are offsite that can hold up to 60 people :) )  They also had a chapel onsite as well as a spa...it was truly a beautiful place.

    

While we were there we also got to see the villa's organically raised cattle being rounded up and hog-tied by their butterie (what the Italians call cowboys).  This was pretty cool, however definitely the part that was the most fun was when they let us ride the horses!! So guess I can cross "Ride and Italian Horse" off my bucket list now! haha

On the agenda for this weekend is Sicily!! Maria and I are flying into Palermo on Friday and getting back on Sunday and we're super excited to eat CANOLI!!! I'll let you know how it is :) I miss everyone so much but it is so great here! I even gutted fish in my cooking class this week, another first for me! haha, if you want to look at more pictures of my trip you're always welcome to visit my facebook, but until next time!!