Under the Tuscan Sun, On the Tuscan Road

This weekend was a wonderful combo of good food, wine and riding. I need to be significantly better in the language by Tuesday (going out with a friend who doesn't speak English), so I need to not be blogging and spend as much time as possible studying. Right, I know this is a losing proposition, but I gotta try!

Today was a fabulous ride to Toscana & Lake Trasimeno.This is a ride I've been itching to go on, but wasn't sure of the backroads to take to the lake. It's immense and gorgeous, Wiki it, I didn't take any pictures. I was too engrossed in trying to eat crackers smothered in honey (not easy to do cleanly, let me tell you!)

The red line is the route. Awesome that without bike lanes anywhere in this country, we can pedal two abreast and cars don't have a problem with it. Motorcycles sometimes lose patience, but they figure out a way around us. I rode with the same group of guys as last Sunday. They're so much fun! Daniele was racing a Gran Fondo, so it missed the dynamic he brings to it, but definitely a great group of guys. They keep a very constant pace (though they don't sprint for town signs of which there are many) and it's really a good time out there on the road. Total: 115 km, 4 1/2 hrs. It's not enough, I want to do a Gran Fondo next weekend and they are typically ~140 km in length. Sounds like I need a license, so tomorrow I'll do a little research on that.

On the good food front: one of my roommates had a dinner party Friday night and she made pasta with a bunch of spinach and veggies to go on top. There was a Northern Italian, two British girls, my two roommates and a guy from Brazil. I'm really enjoying the cross-pollination of countries and the discussions surrounding languages and cultures.

Yesterday, my other roommate, her boyfriend and I went to a wine tasting. It was full of Umbrian wines from various vineyards throughout the region & in a lovely courtyard area. 7 euros bought us all you can drink vino and a nice wine glasss...for yesterday and today. Totally unreal. A very small wine tasting back home would cost $30 U.S. and only last a short time.

After enough wine to get my roommate and I a bit tipsy, we came home to eat. She made zucchini risotto. Seriously amazing risotto! My roommates like to cook. I do the dishes. Seems like a fair trade.

Today after the ride, I returned to the wine tasting and stayed for more hours than I like to admit. Met up with a few other students learning Italian and we tried all of the wines we didn't try yesterday (okay, not all, that's not humanly possible). After that, I high-tailed it to church. Thank goodness for the late Sunday mass.

Off to study Italian and doing some homework (we haven't been assigned anything prior to now). Hope you all have a good week!!!