Siena, Pienza, & Montepulciano

Monday morning we explored Siena a little bit. After about 2 hours, we felt we'd seen the major sights and were ready to hit the road. This was one of those places we would've appreciated more with a tour guide. There's so much history there, but we were oblivious to most of it.

After Siena we drove about an hour to another old hill top village called Pienza. Once again, we were amazed at how authentic and old it seemed. We had just enough daylight left after Pienza to hit Montepulciano, yet another hilltop village. This one seemed a bit more modernized but still awesome with amazing views of the Tuscan landscape. Fun fact: this is the town where the climax of Twilight 2 (New Moon) was filmed.

The real fun on Monday happened when we tried to find our hotel. First, the GPS couldn't find the address. So we looked up a nearby street and used deductive reasoning to find the beautiful Tuscan villa. Spencer went to check if this was the right place, it wasn't. The man didn't speak any English, but luckily his wife did. She told us we needed to go down two streets, then turn right. So we passed a street, found a long driveway/street and turned right. This place looked much more promising though a bit shabbier. We were able to walk in the front door. On our right was a big room with a billiards table, on our left was a memo board and a hallway. So we started walking down the hallway because it looked like the best option. After a couple twists and turns, we came across two old men, one in a wheelchair, and another shuffling down the hall in his slippers. We awkwardly turned around and made our way back to the door with the slipper guys shuffling behind us. In the main entrance we looked around a little more for a reception desk. No luck, but the slipper guy did catch up to us and greeted us with a dentured grin. At this point we determined we were in an old folks home, not a hotel.

So we figured we needed to go one more street. Here we found a church, but I'd actually read that the hotel was in a monastery, there were lots of cars, and the name matched up perfectly. So we walked confidently to the front door where we heard...a church choir. Surely this couldn't be it either. But as we were walking back to the car, a sliding car gate opened. We thought this may be a sign and started walking inside it; this led us down a dark path in the shadow of a church. I felt like I was in Scooby Doo. The back of the church had more lights, but only one car and no other signs of life. So we booked it back to the car. We decided to drive up the road even further, but now we were on a one-way farm lane. I looked through my phone and realized I had a picture of the hotel…it WAS the church. We turned around, drove right up to the doors, and entered the church, determined to ask where the entrance to the hotel was. Unfortunately they were in the middle of some important looking rituals. We walked around the exterior a little more and found a doorbell; I pushed it and heard the guy in the speaker say "Whitney?" Apparently this was the place. He told us (in very broken English) to drive through the gate (so that WAS the right place). He came out and opened these double doors that looked like dungeon doors, not lobby doors, to let us in.

The hotel really was an old monastery and was super creepy. It was clean and comfy, it was just intimidating to walk into the long, stone, dark hallway (the lights flipped off after about 2 minutes). Once we'd gotten used to it, it wasn't as creepy but the whole place was freeeezing cold. We had a heater in our room but it didn't really do the job. I guess that's the problem with buildings made of stone, no insulation. Luckily we were supplied with extra blankets so we piled those on and made due. Neither of us slept great because it was just so cold. It was like camping when you wake up and your nose is all cold. Anyway, that place made for some great stories but we were happy to leave.

For dinner, we tried our TripAdvisor trick again, unfortunately both the restaurants with really good reviews were closed. So, we found another nearby place. The menu looked decent and we figured since we're out of touristville it has to be good. Wrong. It was disgusting. I gagged down most of my food, but Spencer could only get a couple bites of his down. The real bummer is our waitress didn't speak English, so how do you say "This is the worst food we've ever had, will you please bring us something different or give us a discount?" Neither of us wanted to. So we paid, left, and went to McDonalds. God bless America.

Pisa & San Gimigiano

Sunday, we got up and drove straight to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It really does lean, and a lot more than we had expected, it was pretty impressive. Something I didn't know is that the tower is actually a bell tower for the big cathedral right next to it. So, we also walked around the exterior of the cathedral and the baptistery, walked up the streets for a few minutes, then got back in the car. We'd had multiple people tell us Pisa doesn't have much to offer aside from the tower so we decided not to waste our time there.

We had to take our obligatory tourist picture in Pisa, but this meme is all too accurate for what everyone looks like there! Hahaha

Once we'd left Pisa we drove about an hour to a town called San Gimigiano. The town is an old medieval town with a big stone wall and watch towers surrounding it. We had to park outside the city walls because this was another city where the streets are only for local traffic. That worked fine for us because the streets were narrow and I'm pretty sure our "station wagon" (by Italian standards) never would've fit. The town has essentially been preserved in its original state so it just felt really authentically old and medieval. The town also sits atop a hill where we had great views of the Tuscan countryside. For lunch we had some really yummy bruschettas from a tiny little corner shop where one lady worked as waitress, bus boy, cook, and cashier. It was certainly one of our best meals in Italy!  It’s another one we dream of now that we're not there. After several hours wandering around the city, we drove to Siena where our hotel turned out to be a Best Western. 

San Gimigiano is called Tuscany's Manhattan because of the towers

For dinner, we decided to treat ourselves.  After all we'd been eating all those PB&J sandwiches and individual €1 slices of pizza everyday to save money for real Italian food, and Tuscany is the place for that! So, we got on TripAdvisor and found one of their top ranked places in Siena, pulled and the GPS and found the little place called Zest. At first, we thought it was closed because we couldn't see anybody in there and it's mostly lit by candles so it was pretty dark. But we walked in, had a really friendly (London born, English speaking) waiter. We went full out on this meal, and got an appetizer, which was a leek, caramelised onion and Gorgonzola tart. For our main courses, Spencer got homemade noodles with a tomato basil sauce and I had stuffed chicken with garlic mashed potatoes. We finished it off with a lemon tiramisu, which was also really yummy. Plus they kept bringing us fresh bread to dip in oil and vinegar. The crazy part is we paid less for that whole meal than we did for two crappy plates of pasta with 2 cans of coca cola in Venice on Christmas Eve!

Intuitive Eating

This started out as a project for school about something I could learn from my workplace.  When I started the assignment I hadn't found an RN job yet, so I looked to my experience as an LPN.  As an LPN, I had worked at Avalon Hills Eating Disorder Treatment Center.  Avalon used Intuitive Eating as the framework for their program. I'd never read the book while I worked there, but the topic intrigued me.  

The book also happened to fit perfectly into my life.  After returning from Europe, we were living in my in-laws basement, I was jobless, we didn't even have a car for a few weeks, and I was missing my exciting life in London.  Sitting in the basement all day, I'd feel restless, bored, and frustrated...this led to me eating my emotions then feeling even more upset with myself.  I knew I should go exercise and eat healthy but I just couldn't find the energy within myself.

I'm not going to claim this book has miraculously changed my life or helped me lose weight, but I LOVE what the authors have to say.  The book has helped me overcome some of my negative thoughts towards food and approach eating with more enthusiasm and self-control.  I think about whether I'm actually hungry before I eat and try to stop when I'm full.  Based on my own feelings and comments from some of my Facebook friends, I believe their program is the best way to approach eating.  Sure, diets will work for a little while and will make you feel better about yourself, but when they fail you'll end up feeling even worse about yourself and probably gaining back even more weight.  

Take a look at the slides below to find out what their book is all about.  I've only touched on the excellent material in their book which can be purchased at http://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Eating-Revolutionary-Program-Works/dp/0312321236 and is totally worth your money in my opinion!

Please comment on your own thoughts, personal experiences, suggestions, etc!!!