Wine Tasting, Vineyards, and Switzerland, OH MY!

So here we are onto week three in Italia already! Crazy stuff. I’m definitely here now. It’s for sure hit me. And I love it. This past week has been absolutely amazing, we went to so many places including... Siena on Tuesday the 3rd, Wine tasting at the local Agroturismo followed by a hike to an old castle on the 4^th, pizza making at a local family house on the 5^th, Pienza (the “heart” of Tuscany where we saw this really cool old house where Pope Pius the II lived), and Montepulciano (where part of the Twilight movies were filmed and we had our second wine tasting) on the 6th, and then this weekend my group went to Piedimulera in northern Italy with Lago Maggiore and then Switzerland. It was a jam-packed week full of lots of travel and excitement.

One of my favorite parts of this week was wine tasting in the local Agriturismo because not only did we get to try their products, but we actually got to walk around the vineyard and see exactly how everything was grown, as well as made in the cellar. But not only was this place a vineyard, but a bed and breakfast, local garden, olive oil producer, restaurant, and more. Needless to say these people surely had their hands full and a bunch of us aspiring event planners were questioning weather they had any openings for event coordination positions. J

Also, this week in northern Italy I got to visit the most beautiful little Island I have ever seen. There was a mansion on the island that we got to take a tour of, and let me just say that it left me speechless and there are really no words to fully describe what I saw. The rooms were so detailed and elegant; the whole time I just imagined myself there hundreds of years ago at an elegant ball. It was break taking along with the views from each room. As if it couldn't get any better, the tour ended at the back of the house where it let out into a massive garden. The time and effort that must have been and is still being put into making these gardens so fragrant and extraordinary is something I cannot imagine, but am definitely thankful for.

Church update: still have yet to go to mass in Italia and that has definitely brought me down some, but to give Italy the benefit of the doubt it was my fault I did not attend mass this week due to spending all day Sunday traveling on the bus from Switzerland to Italy. I am not exactly proud of this, and am hoping to find mass this Sunday in Sorrento. Also, this week we are going to the Vatican and I can hardly contain my excitement. I have been waiting to go here all my life. J

Week two was definitely one for the books and I am excited to head off to ROME tomorrow morning!!!

Ciao, 

Katrina Zekulin