American Holidays in Europe.

Today is the first time in 20 years that I have not been home for a holiday. 20 Easters, 4th of July's, and Christmas's, but only 19 Thanksgivings. Its a weird and empty feeling I'm not going to lie. Part of me want's to pretend its not really a holiday, just skip the day and make it up when I get home because Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been a family day for me. My mom makes orange cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then we are off to Grandma's house, or Dave and Roi's lake house for dinner. There is turkey and green bean casserole, mash potatoes and my grandma's stuffing that is legendary in our family. There is more food than we know what to do with and even when you take little baby portions on your plate you are stuffed by the end of the meal. Then we play games until we get hungry again around 8 or 9 pm and we have what ever left overs sound snacky and good. We play some more games before calling it quits and going to bed. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought about the fact that the day is about celebrating the blessings in our life with people we love regardless of how we are related or not. And seeing as I am in Europe on the trip of a life time with some truly amazing people, I have a lot to be thankful for, a lot to celebrate. So I don't need to skip the holiday and wait until I get home to celebrate (even if Zac and his roommates are going to make me Thanksgiving when I get home)
Since its not an Italian holiday, we technically did have to have class-and we did. We took a bus up to Poggio a Caiano, the Villa of Lorenzo di Medici. I had done my midterm project for Jodie's class on this villa so it was super cool to go and see in person. Its a beautiful grand house that was comishioned by Lorenzo, but was left un finished at the time of his early death. His son, Leo di Medici ended up finishing it (using the same architect, Sangallo) as a commemoration in memory of his father and in an effort to restore the golden age of Lorenzo. (The Medici got kicked out of Italy several times, but not under Lorenzo. Lorenzo was pretty popular.) Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures in side of the villa so you have to take my word for it how grand and splendid it was. And go see it for yourself when you come to Italy!

After Poggio a Caiano, we went to Tenuta di Capezzana for a guided tour of their historic wine cellars and their olive oil press. It is now currently olive oil season so we got to watch some of the olives being pressed and oil being bottled. Yes it smelled heavenly! And yes, the pictures you will see? The oil really is that green but that means that it good oil-oil that is healthy for you. We also learned today that the taste of the oil is all about the skin of the olive and when you have big huge meaty olives, the oil has little to no taste.

Next we toured the wine cellars. They took us through how they pick the grapes and dry them for 6 months on bamboo. Next the wine matures for 2 years in the barrel and a year or more in the bottle. Also, Tenuta di Capezzana is one of flour places in Tuscany that have wine surviving from before the second world war. This is because the owner of the vineyard at the time had 4 days notice before the Nazi's came and took over his winery (they liked to use wineries as head quarters. What ever wine they didn't drink they destroyed) The owner moved wines into one of the vaults and sealed the door behind a wall to hide it from the occupying Nazi's-and the whole town kept the secret saving the wine. Pretty neat peace of history of the place.

We then partook in a harvest feast in honor of Thanksgiving. Primi course was a bruschetta (prounounced bru-sketa, not bru-sheta) with beans and olive oil on one slice of bread and stewed cabbage on the other with a rosse. Very light and yummy. First course was a penne pasta in a a broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage sauce with a red wine. Simply heavenly. Second course was thinly sliced roast beef in a red wine gravy with roasted rosemary potatoes and stewed cabbage and another red wine. Divine. I was actually really okay not having turkey because the roast beef was just so good. For dessert we had an apple and orange pie like dessert and coffee. Yes. I drank a little shot of coffee and no I didn't hate it. Will I be jumping on the coffee band wagon anytime soon? Probably not, but its a start. I'm getting use to it so I don't hate it anymore. 

It was a really nice day-very low key. None of the tours were overly long and we were moving a lot so you didn't to terribly cold or too tired on your feet. It was a really nice way to celebrate how lucky I am to be here having the experiences that I am. Its a good way to get into a good mind set for exams (my Italian final is a week from today! And the week after that I have 2 ten page papers due, an art show and then I need to pack for my journey home.) It truly was a lovely day which I was blessed to have and I'm happy I got to celebrate how wonderful this trip and this past year have been in such a nice way.