23 Sabato

Today we took the trek up to Greve in the Chianti region of Tuscany for the weekly market as well as the wine and olive oil market store. I loved this little place. The bus ride was a bit ill in that the winding hills and quick turns made me sick. But, as soon as we got off the bus I fell in love. The people roaming around the market purchasing linens and food looked like a scene out of a movie. The fresh food smelled delicious and it was interesting to see a full roasted pig sitting on top of a food counter. Supposedly the pork sandwiches were delicious but I could not bring myself to eat one. I hope others enjoyed them. Claire tried her hand at bargaining down a price for two dresses but we had no luck. Instead we found others that cost less and purchased those. We meandered through the market and found some pretty linens for E1 a piece and bought a few of those as well. Then we split a mozarella and tomato panino while making our way to the wine store.

The wine store was my favorite experience! You purchase this little "debit card" and get a wine glass and walk throughout the store to decide which wines you want to try. You place your card into a slot and push a button and depending on the type of wine you choose it cost between .40E to 3E for a sample. My first try I accidently pressed the button twice for the most costly wine so quickly my card went from E10 to E4. However, this was okay with me because the first glass I drank (which was a full glass because of my button pushing error) was full bodied, tannic and delicious. I walked to all of the stations and checked out the "cheaper" samples. The cool thing about this place was that you had to put your card in to try samples of olive oils but it did not take anything off of it. So, I consumed a lot of bread and several different types of olive oil with my wine. I found the perfecto present for Steve while there and made my purchases. We were then piled back on the bus to head to, San Gimignano, another walled city like Lucca.

San Gimignano is a small town nestled on an incline. It is very pretty but felt a bit crowded for me. There were many tourists walking through the streets and the shops were higher priced. I had a little old Italian lady yell at me for waiting for Claire and Rhi to use the restroom. I am not sure if I told you yet, but here, you have to pay usually like .50E to use the public restrooms. If you go into a cafe or something of the like and purchase something then you can use their restroom for free. When we first got off the bus I had to go after drinking the wine in Greve so I paid. Claire and Rhi bought pastries in the shoppe and asked me to wait for them. SO, being the nice friend I am, I did and continued to look at the pastries while standing closer than the front door to the restroom. I guess she thought I was going to go as well and yelled and yelled at me in Italian and finally told me to go outside. I had orginally wanted to go back at the end of the day and purchase a pastry for dessert but after that I changed my mind. I understand this is a cultural thing, however, it upset me that she assummed I was going to be a rude American tourist and thus lost my business.

We walked through many shops there and one cool thing was there was a Torture Museum there with many artifacts from early times. I decided to go in there because when would I ever get the chance to go to a place like that again? The woman gave me the student discount, which was pretty fantastic, E3 off, and began my adventure. Wow, who thought of these things to torture suspected criminals? I mean, I know that the Papal society has driven many of the ideas in earlier times as well as the patriarchial society, but honestly, who, as an individual, comes up with these ideas? They were so awful. I cannot understand how anyone could create a device such as these and be the one to admister them to others. It was interesting because they showed many illustrations of these torture devices being used and many of the pictures were using naked women as the criminal. There was even a device called a "breast ripper" and it did exactly what it says. Imagine a handheld garden trowel (the three pronged tool) but larger and sharper. OUCH! I think I would punch someone in the face, in a bad way, if they even suggested this idea to me. They had a real life dungeon that was once used as well as something called a "diving chair" that people were chained to and dunked into a well sometimes for a whole day (continously) as the people in the town came and went. They also had remnants of an area where they "bricked" criminals into the wall (still alive) as a form of punishment. There was a skeleton left in one of someone that had been bricked in alive and eventually died from oxygen deprivation and starvation. It had an eerie feel overall and I was astonished to learn that people lived in apartments over this museum. I think this would be a place that "Ghost Hunters International" would investigate and have a lot of activity.

After the museum I was tired. I walked with a few women back down the winding street and jumped in and out of a few shops. We stopped in the large grocery store that was once run by the Communists and then boarded the bus to head back to Casa Cares. I dozed on the bus but woke myself several times due to my head banging against the window and bouncing down.

We are back now and it is almost time for dinner. I am pretty tired. But, I shall upload my pictures tonight if the internet stays pleasant. Ciao for now!