Day FouR (June 12)

Today was an adventure, but not like every other day.

When we woke up at around eight in the morning, we had another simple breakfast including toast, jelly and a choice of a beverage. As we travel through parts of Italy, we have to move hotels along the way. We moved from our first one, Hotel Esperanza to Hotel Cordova in another part of Florence (Firenze). After loading, our group gathered our cameras and headed to a famous gelato area where we saw how it was mad and some of the secret ingredients that they used. We were able to try some of the gelato, and I ordered the famous Crème de Grom and Chocolate. It was delicious!

This is a picture of the gelateria where we tried some very tasty flavors. 

After we finished eating the amazing gelato, we headed over to the area with the Cathedral and the Dome, also known as the Common Place. We had a National Geographic On-Assignment Project where we were told to go and capture many different angles of the famous buildings around the area. We stayed there for about twenty or thirty minutes, and then we headed over to catch a bus to somewhere very fascinating. 

This is a picture of one of the unique angles that I captures during my On-Assignment. 

This is another picture of one of the unique angles that I captures during my On-Assignment.

This is a picture of the GIANT Cathedral located in the Common Place.

Massimo, another National Geographic leader took us to an amazing place, an Olive Oil Producing Area. It was so neat to see all of the Olive Trees and Grape Vines as well. Not only did they make olive oil and wine, but also honey and spiced bell peppers. Yum!

To get to the large area of land, we had to walk up a road that was about a 45-minute walk. It was a workout! When we reached number thirteen on the road signs, we were there. The smell that came from the area was unbelievable, the gardening was fantastic, and the hills and mountains were a sight to see. We met the owner of the olive oil production and he told us a little about what he does and what it takes to maintain good products to use for the oils and wines. 

After hearing about all of the interesting things that he had to say about the vineyards and trees, we had an opportunity to taste the oil, but not the wine. It was so good! I have never had such goof of olive oil in my entire life. We got to try the olive oil with many different kinds of little appetizers, including bread with tomato, bread with peppers, bread with just olive oil, and bred with salami and ham. 

We ended the day with great Italian food, what a great way to end!