We left Florence yesterday (9-22), picked up our rental car and headed out to the Chianti region of Italy. We spent most of the day driving and stopping at little towns along the way - lunch in Greve. We also stopped at the wine museum & tasting room in Greve (although the museum part was relatively small and insignificant). They had over 150 wines to taste, and dispensed them in a sort of wine vending machine, where you would buy a tasting card for a certain amount of money, chose the wine that you wanted to taste, and pushed a button right above it to dispense the wine out of a little fountain. It is a little difficult to explain, but it was really cool (we should have taken a picture).
After Greve, we went to our Agritourismo, which is absolutely wonderful. That being said, we were very lucky that we actually got there. We actually found the winery associated with the B&B fairly easily, but no one was there at all. We looked just about everywhere we could to find someone until we went to the kitchen of the restaurant there to ask one of the cooks what to do. Of course, he didn,t speak any english, so it wasn't much help, but at least he knew that we were there for the B&B. Just as we were about to leave (as our rented cell phone didn't get service there), we saw a lady chasing after us. It turns out that the cook left a message on her phone saying that some people were looking for her, and she checked her message after she had just gotten back from harvesting the grapes. As luck would have it, she got the reservation wrong and thought that we were coming in the next day, so if she wouldn't have caught us then, we would have been out of luck altogether last night. Anyway, everything got settled, and we love staying there (we will post more pictures later).
We spent most of today visiting different Tuscan Hill towns. Starting with San Gimignano, then to Volterra, and then fiinishing up right now in Siena. Everything was beuatiful and looked just like you would expect a Tuscan hill town to look. It was very cool to see these places, portrayed in so many movies and pictures, in person - they are really as beautiful as you would expect.
This may be our only post from Tuscany, as we have to drive several km to get to an internet cafè, but we should have wifi at the place where we are staying in Venice, so we should be able to make them fairly regularly again soon. Hope all is going well on your end.
-Kris & Leah
Day 6, Tuscany (outside of Siena). This is the Agritourismo we are staying at.
It is so beautiful here...we are still in awe. Waiting for someone to tell us they made a mistake
and we need to move down the street...2 pools, amazing views!
Day 6 - Florence, rubbing il porcellino for good luck! Right in front of our hotel.
Day 5 - Florence, top of Duomo looking over Florence
Day 4 - Florence, Ponte Vecchio bridge
Day 5 - Florence, top of Duomo looking over Florence
Day 4 - Florence, Ponte Vecchio bridge
3 comments:
Kris and Leah, I don't think you are going to Venice - I can't remember, but if you are, there is something you should try to see. I was reading my Wall Street Journal yesterday and in the "Pursuits" section was an article on a Renaissance painter named Tintoretto. He painted "Crucifixion" in 1565 on the back wall of the boardroom of the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. It is supposed to be one of the best works of religious painting (if not THE best) in the world. According to the article, El Greco once called it the greatest painting in the world. Here is a website - www.scuolagrandesan-rocco.it . Miss you! Enjoy yourselves.
Correction: take the "dash" out of the web address I gave you in the comment before.
jennifer -
we will check it out and see if we can make it.
thanks,
Kris & Leah
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