Day Six: The Winery

Howdy!

Today was a long but rewarding day in the heart of Tuscany. Early this morning we woke up and prepared ourselves for a trip to Ricardo Papini's winery. It is located on the outskirts of Castiglion Fiorentino. Unfortunately for us, our only mode of transportation was our already tired legs. Casting all weariness aside, we packed our bags and headed out for a 2 mile hike up and down the ever rolling hills of the Italian countryside. The intense heat was yet another wonderful factor that played into our long journey. Thankfully, we were supplied with spritzer squirt guns to help cool us off. For some reason, the Italians have a street named Peter Pan, which we followed until we arrived at our final destination.

Ricardo Papini's family has been in the winery and olive oil industry for roughly 4 generations. Ricardo is a friendly looking man somewhere in his mid 30s, and he proceeded to guide us through the fundamental elements of his business. First, we spent some time outdoors, where we observed the immature olive trees and grape vines. We learned that it takes ten kilos of olives to make one bottle of olive oil, but only one kilo of grapes to make a bottle of wine. This is because the grapes have so much more juice. Then we headed inside for a tour of the machinery used to create Ricardo's products.

Finally, it was time for the part we had all been waiting for... wine tasting! Five different types of wine were brought out, along with some really tasty antipasti. We had white wine, Rosato (a pinkish wine), a red wine, a medley, and a dessert wine. Don't worry parents, we all made it home safely, albeit with a couple of laughs along the way.

A couple of hours later we were all feeling refreshed, and we were ready to soak up what our guest speaker had to share with us. We had the pleasure of spending nearly two hours with Mr. Lee Walker, former president of Dell Computers and graduate of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 1963. The 6' 9" Mr. Walker spent the majority of his time discussing with us the events in his life that mattered most to him. He told us how an aggie mentor helped guide him to attending business school and motivated him for a life long love of world travelling. The most important advice that he gave us was to follow our curiousity and imagination rather than letting money dictate our future actions. Finally, he encouraged us create lasting relationships with our professors to develop great mentors of our own.

After a short break, which was crammed with ping pong and Risiko (the Italian version of Risk), it was time for another Italian lesson with Rosella. We learned many useful terms for our trip to Florence in the morning, such as "Ho caldo," which means "It's pretty freaking hot!" and "troppo caro!" which translates to, "Quit trying to rip me off!" This was much needed, as it is crucial we do not let our friends spend way too much money... again ("10 euros for a print? Really Kevin?!?") (He later redeemed himself by haggling his way to two more prints for 5 euro).

Dinner time finally arrived. We had bread, a delicious pasta, and pork with a white cream gravy. We wrapped up the night with a dance show from Mouhyemen Khan and a trip to the gelato shop.

Until next time, this is Cody and Nathan saying, "you stay classy USA."