Rolling Hills of Tuscany

After the Amalfi Coast, Tuscany would be my next favorite part of Italy. The rolling green hills with the tall cypress trees and vineyards that go on for miles hold a certain charm that makes me think of Letters to Juliet and Under the Tuscan Sun.

I booked a tour with a great company in Florence, called Walkabout Florence. They're a relatively new company and offer some other good tours I would have enjoyed taking if we would have had the time. The price for the tour was awesome considering all that we did.

The day started off early and with a drive to our first stop, Siena. The city is beautifully medieval and the building tops were covered in flying bats, giving it the feel of an old city. To talk about this city would take a whole post so I'll give an overview.

We began with a walking tour with a local guide. Siena is broken up into 17 different neighborhoods and has an old medieval tradition of horse racing. The horse race is known as the Palio Horse Race and 10 of the neighborhoods race. When we arrived, the city was setting up for the race, as it was only a week away, set on July 2. The small square we were in quickly fills up with 40,000 people during the race and it only lasts about 75 seconds.



I loved when we got visit the Duomo there. It's smaller than the one in Florence but way more impressive on the inside. The city origionally planned to build a much bigger Duomo than the one in Florence but lacked the money. If you visit, you have to go into the Piccolomini Library. The library is full of frescoes and illuminated choir books by Umbrian Bernardino di Betto. The frescoes are all origional and none of them have been restored. It's stunning to see how vibrant the colors still are after so many centuries.





When we finished up, it was time for some much needed lunch. I knew we were going to head to a farm and try some wines, but I didn't know it would be so great! Upon arriving, we doned our whispers and took a short tour of this organic farm, Poggio Alloro. The farm makes their own organic pasta, sauce, wines, breads and olive oils. It was so tempting to pluck a grape from the vines in the vineyard, but I managed to show some restraint and wait until we got to try the fermented ones ;P.



I thought our wine samples would be just a swallow of wine to swish around in our mouths, but no. We got bottles of the stuff and I probably had six glasses of it until I cut myself off. My favorite wine was the Vernaccia Si San Gimignano. For the meal, we had bread, pasta, salad and cookies for dessert. The servers gave us an extremely strong dessert wine to dip the cookies in and I couldn't even finish it because the strength of the alcohol burned my tongue.



Once we finished our meal, we had about 10 more minutes at the farm and went to look at the beautiful vineyard views. From our terrace, you could see the farm's mile long vineyards and San Gimignano. I took a minute to collect my tipsy thoughts and layed down at a lounger near their pool. I got to admire the view and catch a few rays before leaving.

Since San Gimignano was so close, it took only 10 minutes to get there. After drinking so much, it's a bit daunting to hear that we can climb one of the few towers in the town or walk around to see the many scenic spots around it. Jeff and I were perfectly content with getting some of the "best gelato in the world" and relaxing in the cool shade of an alley way. If you visit San Gimignano and craving gelato, try Gelateria Dondoli. The gelateria offers many different and unique flavors of gelato along with the usual favorites. I got blackberry lavendar, raspberry rosemary and berry flavored and it was delicious. Lucky for us, the owner was there greeting everyone with such enthusiasm and kindness and took goofy pictures with us.



Finally, (what I origionally thought was going to be my favorite part of the day) we made our way to Pisa. It was great getting to see one of the major icons of the world and something everyone knows about. Jeff and I took our cheesy touristy photos and walked around to find a nice spot to sit down. After our busy day, we didn't feel like walking up Pisa or inside the cathedral or baptistry there. Instead, we layed in the shadows of the Cathedral and basked in the fact that we were sitting at one of the most popular destinations in Italy. Shortly after, it was time to leave and head back to Florence.





Jeff and I enjoyed our time so much on this tour and glad we did it. We certainly got to do way more than we would have on our own and learned so much. My favorite part of the day? Our meal at the gorgeous farm. Not only was the food and wine spectacular, but the scenery was the epitome of what you would imagine Tuscany to look like.