Sunday 6.24.07

On Sunday, we went to Chianti, the region famous for Chianti wine. This town is the only place that specializes in Chianti because it is the only place that the grapes used in Chianti are grown. First we stopped in a museum of geography, I think. It had the history of the landscape of the Tuscan state. I didn’t understand anything the guide was saying, so I just walked around and read the English translations under the photos. Afterwards, we went to a sculpture garden nearby. It had sculptures created by artists from around the world. The artists incorporated nature into all the pieces and they each had a story.

After the sculpture garden, we went to a vineyard and saw where Chianti grapes are grown, processed and transformed into wine. The barrels are beyond huge. The wine is stored for up to 6 months or more after being bottled. It was very interesting to see the inside of the winery. The room where they bottle the wine reminded me of the opening scene of Laverne and Shirley (at the brewery).

After seeing the bottling room, we got to sample some Chianti and have some food. Most of the food was good, but it was a little salty or oily or in some cases, both. That seems to be the trend in Italy. The chianti was ok, but I’m not a wine drinker. Everyone else seemed to really like it. We were given four samples, but I didn’t really like any of them.

After we got home, Tiffany and I set out to find the local Kingdom Hall. We go the information to take the bus, but we didn’t really know where we were going. On the way, we saw some witnesses under a tent with literature. We introduced ourselves and managed to ask if the kingdom hall we were heading for was the closest one. They told us that it was and we went on our way. Well, the bus time we had was wrong, so we started to walk home. On the way back, I decided to tell the witnesses that the bus time we had was wrong. I can only say that Holy Spirit directed me to do that because, the first time we talked to them, they didn’t understand English and we could barely speak Italian to them. This time, two sisters who speak English were under the tent and we explained our situation to them. Then one of the brothers said that he would take us the kingdom hall. So Jehovah made it so we could go to the meeting.

At the meeting, we said hi to a few people and eventually one of the brothers found someone who speaks English to come over and talk to us. Her name is Chicita and she is Australian. She decided to come to Italy to learn Italian a year ago and she decided to stay to live. Here in Italy, she teaches English at a local school. She’s also learning French at the same time.

We asked her about getting the bus home after the meeting and she told us that the buses don’t run that late at night. So she arranged for us to get a ride home. Before we left, she told us about the book study and that the congregations would be at the district convention on the weekend. We’re not going, but it was good to know so that we didn’t show up to an empty kingdom hall.