Excursion to Fiesole

On Fridays I don’t have class!!! This is to give students the opportunity to travel and explore. So what did I do on my first Friday...no I didn’t sleep in, I signed up for a trip to Fiesole.  I was getting confident in my directions and knowing my way around the city, so I accidentally left my map at home.  We had planned to meet for coffee and a pastry before walking to the bus station, this is where I realized I had forgot my map.  We didn’t have enough time to go back and get the map.  So I said, “I can wing it, I’m good at this direction stuff” Famous last words! 

Florence has a river flowing through the middle of town so there are about 7 bridges that connect you to the other side of the city.  I was sure that the map had told me to go down to the 5th bridge take a left and go straight for awhile and I would arrive at the bus station. (FYI I had been by the bus station earlier in the week when walking to the real estate office to set up our WIFI (Which they said could take up to 10 days) So once again I was confident with my skills.  HAHA!

Sorry for all the stories inside stories. I guess that’s what you get when you don’t blog for days...

So, we had about 5 mins to be at the bus station and I realized that it was the 4th bridge and not the 5th bridge.  I admitted my mistake to my fellow travelers and started lightly jogging to the West.  We made it just in time, only a little sweaty and out of breath.  Once on the bus we took it about 20 minutes outside of the city of Florence to Fiesole.

Fiesole is a province of Florence, which is in the region of Tuscany.  Fiesole is like being in the clouds and you get to look down on Florence. It is known as a famously scenic height above Florence.  It was founded around the 9th-8th century BC.  And you can tell this by the remnants of etruscan walls, roman baths and the still standing roman theatre.  A very neat archeological site.

At the very top of the town there was a Benedictine Abby, with monks and everything :) We also visited the cathedral of Fiesole, which contains the shrine of St. Romulus and the shrine of St. Donatus of Fiesole.

Maybe best part of the whole day was brunch.  It seemed that we walked halfway back down the hill before we reached the restaurant and by that time I was dying of hunger.  Kaitlin and I could only think of American brunch and fast food places, for example IHOP, Village Inn, Chicken Buffet (Ashley & Court you know what I am talking about!) Pancakes and French Toast.  It made us about 10 times more hungry. 

But we were very wrong about brunch in Italy.  We sat down with drinks already on the table: orange juice, water and coke.  There was salad, cheese and cold meats also already on the table.  I was filling up my plate thinking we are only going to get a little salad and a piece of lunch meat. BOY WAS I WRONG! (2nd time that day)

We were served:
Egg Casserole with bacon (thick sliced bacon)
Warm Bread
Scrambled Eggs (I’m assuming fresh farm eggs)
Lasagna
Roast Beef (tender and so flavorful)
Bruschetta
More Warm Bread
Refills of juice
Breakfast casserole with eggplant and croissants

& then they took are plates away and gave us clean plates (very full at this point)

Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake (Always room for dessert)
And lastly Fresh Fruit on Ice

My table ate and cleaned off every single plate of food that they brought us.

Advice: Set at the skinny girl table, they have leftover food. :)