Soave

At 4 we all met down in the lobby, everyone looking quite dapper compared to our 'sleep as late as we can and roll out of bed and head downstairs for Tony's class.' We said hey to Marco (our favorite desk man) and headed to the bus. Our bus was great and it is also the bus we'll be taking for our group trips. Martin took us to a spot where we could see the entire city of Verona from above. It was beautiful to see our city from that view. We didn't have much time there but we now know how to get there on the city bus so we can go back. Martin gave us lots of history on the way there and I am looking forward to hearing more of his random knowledge when we travel to Munich and Salzberg in a few weeks.
When we arrived at the winery in Soave, we were greeted by Sara. She said we would have to bear with her, for her english was not very good. Let me tell you, if I could speak Italian half as good as she spoke English, I would be talking to every Italian and translating for the entire group. It was a very interesting tour. We learned that they export more wine than anywhere else in Europe. In Soave, they specialize in white wine, but because the are so huge, they have other wineries where red is produced. I especially liked how she told us about the sparkling wine. She said it is exactly how they make champagne in France.
After the tour, we were taken to a beautiful dinner and wine tasting. It is so far my favorite meal. We had this incredible pasta, veal, grilled veggies, and tons of appetizers. I like this one appetizer that was a crunchy, break stick type deal wrapped in very thin ham. (Uncle Kevin, shout out to you, you would have loved this. Think Nicole's asparagus wrapped in the bacon stuff, but instead of the healthy asparagus, bread. YUM) We tasted three different wines. A red, a white, and a desert wine. The red was my favorite, and here comes another shout out, Mom&Dad, I have 2 new bottles for your collection. The desert wine was good, but I could only take tiny, tiny sips because it was so sweet.
It was a great night and I enjoyed everyones company. It made me very excited for our group trips. Today, we had Tony's class, but he was nice and didn't start until 8:30 (those 30 minutes were greatly appreciated by everyone). We are going to do a trial run to the train station today in preparation for our trip to Lucca tomorrow. It will help us know where we are going tomorrow since we will be a little crunched for time. Here are a few pics, but check facebook for the entire collection.