So this morning, Justine and I walked to school and while she was in her morning class I stopped in my favorite caffe to have breakfast and finish my homework from the weekend. As I sat in the caffe I realized how lucky I was to have such a cute little spot so close to school that spoke english and genuinely loved having american students come eat there! The place was full of students all working or simply enjoying the morning. It was a very refreshing way to spend my morning! I was able to finish my homework, work on pictures for my photography class, and people watch as the Italians were heading to work. The pace of life is much slower and people take their time so even on a Monday morning when it should be dreary and depressing, it was amazing to get to relax and start my week on a good note. When Justine was done with class we found our way to the shopping street near school so that she could get shoes that she has been wanting from H&M. While we were walking there we discovered more bakeries, restaurants, and little shops that we are very excited to explore in our other free time from class. After getting her shoes, we found our way back to a restaurant that a girl in our program recommended for lunch because they have a very wide range of a menu. Here I got pizza and she got spaghetti and we sat there and were able to talk for a while before heading back for our classes at 1! I then had class straight from 1-5:40! In Italian I feel like I am learning a lot and am excited when I am able to use it. The Italians really appreciate when we try to speak to them in Italian, but most often times they respond in English because they know that it is easiest. After class ended we had a wine tasting to go to with one of our directors for the program, Marco. Marco is basically our uncle on the trip... we call him our uncle because we pretend like we are the nieces and nephews who he has to look after for the summer because we are constantly asking him millions of questions and he is super sassy and pretends to get annoyed with us but he even tells us he is kidding because he actually does love us like family! Anyway... Marco has been to wine school and studied wine for three years and is basically an expert -- at least compared to us. He taught us more in depth what we learned at the winery that we visited in Chianti. When we look at the color of the wine he said that when it is on the scale from a purple color to ruby red that it is still a very young wine. Most of them are still like two years old from what is printed on the bottle. However, if it is a garnet red then it is ready to drink (this is usually four years old. If the wine is what they call orange (like a brick's color) then the wine is very old, or it is a sweet wine. We learned that no wine is technically sweet... it is only sweet if it says on the bottle and in that case it is a dessert wine. However, all wines are fruity. When you swirl the glass you can see the "legs" of the wine running down. If the legs are close together and very thick then it is what we call a deeper or thicker wine. It is the wine that has the most distinct flavors rather than being what we think of as fruity wine. The ticker the legs then the more that it is going to dry out your mouth though. This is why dry red wines are most often paired with steak -- the steak has so much juice that it replenishes your mouth. The different flavors of wine come from the vine and the region that the vine is in! Basically if I was analyzing the wines that mom says are her favorites, she would like wine that has a garnet color with very thick legs! Additionally, before smelling and tasting the wine you swirl it to get air into it so that you get the more distinct flavors of the wine. This is similar to the action of decanting the wine! It was so fascinating! I cannot wait for Marco to teach us more! It honestly makes everyone appreciate the extremities of the wine much more and helps us to understand the culture that we are so fortunate to live in!