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Newsletter Sign-Up I had a visitor!
Posted by Marykate Wihnyk
on Sunday, 18 March 2012
in Italy: Florence
Marykate Wihnyk
I am a student from Chapman University studying abroad in Florence. I will be sh
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Hello all!!! It has been a long time since my last post. Sorry about that! Things got busy here with midterms and what not.
This past weekend my dad visited! We had such a great time. He was here from Friday night until Tuesday morning and we did so much! We hit the major spots like the Duomo, saw the David, and the Ponte Vecchio. Of course I had to take him to all my favorite places to eat. I'm not lying when I tell you he ate pizza for basically every meal. His argument was that "we are in Italy! I have to eat pizza!" but I swear if we were in the middle of the Congo the man would find a way to have pizza for every meal.
On the Sunday he was here, we sort of spontaneously signed up for a Vespa tour of the Chianti countryside, complete with a tour of a winery and lunch. We weren't really sure what to expect. We showed up at the meeting spot at 9am on Sunday morning, where an older (and very attractive) man who looked like he was part of the CIA drove us to the place where the tour would start.
There were about 7 other people in van with us who we just figured were part of the same tour. When we got to the starting point they separated us from the other people. It turns out the other people were actually there to go on the bicycle version of the same tour. They all looked down their noses at the "lazy Vespa riders." My dad and I followed our tour guide over to where the Vespas were.
It turned out we were the only ones who had signed up for the Vespa tour that day! It was basically like a private tour! Andrea, our tour guide, gave us some quick lessons on the Vespa and off we went. Just so you all know, Andrea is a GUY. He told us all about how he has to explain to people all of the time that in Italy "Andrea" is for men and women. The poor guy told us about how when he emails someone they always think he is a girl because of his name!
Anyways, the Vespa riding was so fun but a lot harder than I thought it would be! The riding part wasn't too bad but the starting and stopping gave me a little trouble. During the ride we would stop at some scenic spots and Andrea would tell us about the area, the people who live there, the olive oil, and of course the wine! At one point we stopped at this old church. It was beautiful! Everything was going really great, my dad and I were getting along well with Andrea and he was telling us how great we were at driving the Vespas and how he has seen some pretty bad accidents in his day.
And then the incident happened.
We got back on our Vespas to leave the church and I sort of tripped a little as I was getting on. Well of course, with my luck, I did exactly what you are not suppose to do. I caught myself by grabbing on to the handle that you use to accelerate. The Vespa went flying forward with my barely on it. This wouldn't have been so bad except for that it was a Sunday and people were standing in groups waiting to go into church.
Me and my out of control Vespa went flying right for a group of poor, unsuspecting, older gentlemen! Right at the last second, right before I was about to end the life of a nice looking elderly man, I managed to shove my feet into the ground and squeeze the break. He jumped out of the way and there I was, sitting on my Vespa in the middle of a group of guys who had probably just been happily discussing the previous nights soccer match or the movie they had seen on Friday night with their wives.
Now they were scrambling and diving for their lives because of some clumsy American girl who didn't know how to operate a Vespa. Andrea just looked back at me, mouth agape, and then gunned it. I looked up at the guys, yelled "I'm so sorry!" and then followed Andrea as fast as my little Vespa could take me. I didn't even look back to see if my dad had better luck navigating through the church goers. It was every man for himself out there on the open road. I'm pretty sure I almost lost my life that day at least 5 times.
After the incident we met up with the bicyclers and also some horseback riders for a tour and lunch at the winery. It was beautiful and the food was great! The best part was that the bicycle tour, who had been previously very full of it and disapproving of our laziness, was so tired! It was very clear by the blue jeans that most of them were wearing that they did not expect a very tough ride. Boy were they wrong! There were so many hills I felt tired just riding my Vespa up them! These people were straight up struggling.
They looked at us, with regret and sorrow in their eyes, and begged us to switch with them. We jumped on our Vespas and never looked back. At one point we passed them, going up a huge hill, and I couldn't even look at them I felt so bad. It turned out that we made the right choice with the Vespas.
Over all my dad and I had a great time! It was nice to be able to show someone around Florence and feel a little bit like I was a local or something. I swear I must of gained ten pounds just in those few days. I think one day we had gelato like three times.
Anyways, now my mother is here visiting. She wants to rent a car, and drive aimlessly all around Italy. I want to sit on a beach and have a hot guy serve me ice cold drinks. We are compromising and driving along the coast. Wish us luck! Who knows what kind of trouble we will get ourselves into. I will let you all know how it went next week!
Ciao,
Marykate
P.s I will add photos when I have better access to wifi!
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