fh_trips | Castello di Casole [Monday Evening, October 14, 2013]

Entry tags:

fall break 2013: tuscany

Castello di Casole [Monday Evening, October 14, 2013]

The sun had fallen behind the horizon, but the lights around the estate were still on and its staff was still ready to look after your every whim - within reason. Here's your chance to dash back into town for a good party, or relax out in your room before you go to bed.

[ Rooms | Restaurants & Bar | Estate Activities | Pisa | OOC ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pisa's pretty small for a city, but it has a fairly big college, so there's bound to be some ~~trouble~~ fun to be had. You can also go get your picture taken by the leaning tower, though it's closed for tours once the sun sets.

Head for restaurants known as osterias: basic, welcoming taverns that serve palatable wine and back it up with tasty and filling food. The cuisine in Pisa tends to change with the seasons. The Florentine steak and Tuscan hare are particular favorites, as is boar stew. To do things like the locals, make sure to begin a meal with a ‘primo piatto’ of fish soup or a ‘ribollita’, a thick soup containing beans, vegetables and cabbage. Predictably, the caliber of the wine matches that of the food, and since there’s also wonderful olive oil, cheeses, and cookies on offer, any meal is sure to continue well into the dessert stages. After all, in Pisa (as in Italy as a whole) a meal is a long, drawn-out, and almost sacred, ritual.

It seemed like today was the day for eating, apparently. Well, eating and drinking since the restaurant he'd chosen was bringing him wine by the bottle.

He wasn't going to argue. He was going to kick back and drink wine and try and paint himself as a connoisseur. He was not a connoisseur. But, he liked alcohol.

The Lungarni district and the streets around Piazza Garibaldi are the best places to get an evening started. Budget-friendly, and with a vibrant, friendly atmosphere, the majority of people studying in Pisa both live and go out here, and there are plenty of good bars. There's a cluster of chic (and pricier) cafés on Borgo Stretto ideal for a quiet drink before heading to the river banks for some dinner and wine. Alternatively, the Piazza Cairoli is home to a couple of even classier cocktail dispensing establishments full of locals.

For those looking for a proper night out, the bars and club are, while few and far between, filled with a surprisingly energetic scene. Many of the larger pubs turn into mini clubs as the night wears on, and the friendly locals will be happy to point you in the direction of the best action.

Gert wasn't much of a drinker and she really wasn't much of a bar-goer, but international travel was about trying new things, right?

Except she hated this a little bit. It was loud and dark and her drink tasted gross, and she had to use the light from her cell phone to read the novel she'd brought with her just in case. But, hey, she was drinking and hanging out in a public place!

Cade had been tipped off to this place by the brunette hanging on him and he laughed when he saw Gert there too. "Very social of you," he teased.

"Yeah, well, I never finished the book I started at the strip club," Gert replied.

It was a new book. Still, though.

"How many phone numbers've you got so far?" she asked, turning her book over in her lap to look up at him. She was genuinely curious.

"A dozen or so," Cade said, signalling for a drink. "Need something to drink too?"

"Yeah, okay," Gert said after a slight pause, because who turned down a free drink? She wasn't stupid. "What do you recommend? And that's a lot. Congrats."

Edited 2013-10-14 20:09 (UTC)

"You want something sweet or sour?" Cade asked. "Something that doesn't taste too much like booze?"

"You know, I would have thought so, but I tried one of those cocktails with fruit slices earlier and it was terrible," Gert complained. "Maybe something that comes with fewer gratuitious drink umbrellas is more my speed."

"Try a whiskey sour," he said. "It doesn't taste like candy, but it doesn't taste like a shot either. Plus it comes with a cherry."

He ordered two.

"Two bonus points right there," Gert noted. "And it doesn't even have the words 'sex' or 'passion' in the name."

She approved.

"Well, that's your first mistake," Cade said. "Those are for really amateur drinkers."

Gert raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure I am an amateur drinker."

Well. Point.

"Yeah, but you don't want them to know that," Cade said.

"You don't think the fact that I'm reading a book at a bar gave it away?"

"Well, it probably didn't help," Cade replied. "Stop that."

"Well, now I'm talking to a guy who's gotten a dozen girls' numbers tonight," Gert mused, tapping her chin in fake-thought. "I don't know if that helps my bar cred or not."

"It definitely helps," said Cade, always modest.

"Because all the girls you talk to are cool, veteran drinkers."

This was her doubtful face.

"Pretty much," Cade said.

Or at least most of the girls were veterans at hanging out in seedy bars. Cade had the best taste in girls.

"Uh huh."

Gert's eyebrows were so being raised right now.

"Well," she decided, turning to the glasses on the bar, "to your discerning taste."

Or something.

Cade held his up. "Hopefully this is more interesting than your book."

Foucault was having the time of his fuzzy life in the hotel gardens, and Cecil had been assured he wouldn't be eaten or anything, so he had headed out for the lights and bustle of Pisa. It was sort of fun, but he was somewhat hampered by the fact he still looked fourteen.

Not to mention the only Italian he knew were the names of some foods and a couple phrases Big Rico used when he was in a really bad mood. He had a feeling he probably shouldn't say those to anyone here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Castello di Casole [Monday Evening, October 14, 2013]

Adventures Away From The Estate: Pisa

Eating

Re: Eating

Carousing

A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

Re: A Bar on the Piazza Cairoli

no subject