Wine and MEATBALLS!

“It’s like an angel pissing on your tongue” – that is what the Dutch say when something tastes good. In case you were wondering.

Amsterdam was a huge, and very pleasant, surprise for me. While I had heard about the coffee shops that sell pot (because that is all anyone ever says about it) I had no idea that it was an adorable place with canals and bridges and beautiful brick buildings everywhere. Like taking the best of Boston and San Francisco and combining it into this quaint city with a fun atmosphere about it. I went in picturing a dirty druggy town. They DO have public, exposed urinals in the middle of everything (we were alarmed at first) but otherwise so cute.

And EVERYONE bikes there. My first two hours I kept walking in the bike lanes on accident because they are everywhere and the packs of bikers would yell at me or furiously ding their little bells until I moved. We finally rented bikes and cruised the city ourselves, yelling at stupid tourists that got in our lanes. (Okay so we actually cruised the city in complete disarray causing near-accidents with cars and bikers because we had no idea where we were going or what lanes belonged to us). So fun.

And we learned that pancakes are the staple of the Dutch diet. Pancakes with cheese, pancakes with butter … even pancake sushi. You name it, stick it in a pancake and they'll eat it.

The Red Light District was … incredibly disturbing. The end.

Monday morning we left Amsterdam …… and 1 subway stop, 3 train transfers, 1 flight, 1 bus and a pack mule later we arrived in Montepulciano, Italy. Words can’t describe this city. Medieval meets wine country meets the most gorgeous scenery you can imagine. We walked in to our apartment, and the view from the window looked fake. Something you see in a movie … or heaven. We headed straight for the nearest Italian restaurant and (language barrier) ordered a bottle of wine each, and just basked in the fact that we are here.

Side note: For all of you Twilight fans, the second movie in the series (New Moon) was filmed here just a few weeks ago. The scene where she follows him to Italy and runs through the fountain … it was all steps from where we are staying! We have seen photos of them in restaurants and shops. I care about these things. I should also mention that I saw the new Harry Potter movie opening night in Paris. I’m not ashamed.

We remain here for another week and then head to this lovely place that my dad sponsored a room for us for the night of my birthday, as a gift while I'm out here. THANK YOU!! – From Cassie and Danielle

http://www.residenzadarte.com/borgo_eng.html

Val, look familiar? ;)

Hope everyone’s summer is going well! Ciào!