Luckily by the time our hotel's lovely free happy hour arrived at 6:30, their bags were just making their way to the hotel in time for them to freshen up for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Dante's. We all had amazing pasta dishes with red wine and bread, but after dinner we called it an early night because we had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning for our tour of Tuscany!
First let me start off by saying what a great hotel they are staying at. Free happy hour a night, huge breakfast with cappuccinos, tons of free movies, very nice rooms, free wifi with a computer in the room to use, and a very very helpful staff to make any sort of reservations you need. We have been spoiled. But moving on, Saturday we woke up at the crack of dawn to make our "Best of Tuscany" guided tour trip which includes two wine tastings, 3 towns and a tour of the Brunello winery. It was the best tour I have experienced so far! We had so much fun, the day was packed. There was only about 15 people in our group so it was a great size, and the first town we arrived at was Montepulciano. If you have seen New Moon, or like Twilight at ALL, this is where all of the "Volturi" scene was filmed at the end of New Moon. Yes. I stood where Edward/Rob stood. The Doorway. The elevator. The building. It was so cool! My mom and I were a little excited if you can't tell. They even played the New Moon movie on the bus ride up - ha! But this was definitely not all there was to the town (as excited as I was). It is a beautiful hill town with much to explore, including one of the oldest wineries. Here we also had a wine tasting at a local winery (not the oldest one) where we tasted 3 types of Montepulciano wines with bread and olive oil in a cellar. It was also 10:30 in the morning. Welcome to Italy! We stayed and explored the town for a few hours after and eventually made it back to the bus to head to Pienza. Pienza was smaller than Montepulciano and offered a cheese tasting, which I took no part in. I don't like cheese. And the smell of the great Italian cheeses almost made me sick on the spot, so I have to say I passed on this little tasting, but my mom and aunt enjoyed it!
First wine tasting
New Moon!!
After Pienza we were supposed to head straight to the Brunello winery, but since our old yet enthusiastic tour guide Francesco said we had 30 extra minutes, he wanted to take us to his favorite Tuscan church. It was beautiful. We drove for 20 minutes into the Tuscan hills which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, nothing but scenery around, and then there it was! A huge white church in the middle of the countryside. What a bonus! The only downside was it had gotten very cold, almost rainy. But we got to go inside a look around for a bit before heading to the Brunello winery. This is where the fun really began. Brunello wine is prided as the best, or one of the best, in Italy, and most of it is pretty expensive. Lucky for us, the very old owner, Mario, loved our group and all of the blondes, and we earned some special treatment! We began with a tour showing how the wine is made and stored, and what goes into making Brunello wine. Then we were taken down to a room with a long dinning table for our testing. Between wines we had never ending meats, cheeses, bread and oil, and we enjoyed glasses of the three wines we were mean't to taste. But no! Mario loved us all, and at this point everyone had been drinking all day and we were all in a great mood, so he brought us another wine to taste! Enough? No! Free grappa shots for everyone! (Grappa is somewhere around 60% alcohol). The end? NO! Another wine to taste for everyone! At this point, everyone was taking silly pictures and Francesco reminded us that we were about 40 minutes past when we were supposed to head back to Florence, so we should leave this kind family and their winery... but not before they handed out the ordering forms for wine. And it was delicious so we all bought some. What a great day!
Church in the middle of the country
Brunello tasting!!
The next day I took my mom and aunt around to my favorite cafe, the San Lorenzo leather market and church, and a visit to the exhibition visiting of Dali, Picasso and Miro. We then hit up happy hour at the hotel, and went to dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel where Maddy met up with us to eat. The restaurant was not the best and over priced, so we decided to stick with my favorite places from now on. But overall, a very good day!
Mom and I in front of Duomo
Today we visited Assisi, which is in the region of Umbria, not Toscana. I had been but they had not, and sadly there was pretty much an arctic wind all day, but we did not let it ruin our day! It actually turned out to be my aunts favorite small town we visited, and if you haven't been there you should visit it sometime! It's beautiful, and the church of St. Francis is still my favorite. We had a great lunch at a cute restaurant and went about visiting churches and ruins without other tourists getting in the way - we were some of the only few there. The whole town along with the surrounding country is breathtaking and fun to explore. I love Assisi, so I'm glad they did too!
Last, when we returned to Florence, we realized my camera had vanished. I am still very upset about this!! I'll have to get another soon. I'm so mad! We have no clue where it could have gone, and I was never irresponsible about my things, so I think it evaporated. Whatever the case, I'm down one camera and will have to go buy a new one. Awweessommee. :(
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