Falling in Love with Tuscany

Where we ended up staying for Florence ended up being about an hour away, so we decided to stay in the Tuscany area where our hostel was located and explore the area and boy was that the right choice.

Day 19

We let outselves be lazy this morning. We took our time getting out of bed and going to get breakfast from the grocery store. When we were finished eating we said goodbye to Maggie and Kelsey as they were going to be leaving that day and we would not see them go. We then headed out on the open road. We walked along a path for a while figuring that we would see the wine tasting place in about a half hour, that was not the case we came upon it in about 5 mins. It was about 11:30 in the morning and we did not want to taste wine that early, so we continued on our way with the intention of stopping in later when we were walking back. We walked along this path for a while just taking in the breathtaking views of rolling hills and vineyards. About 30mins later we came upon a town and we walked through it. There was not much to see until we came upon a a steep inclined cobblestone street. We walked through it and did not realize that at the time it was the medieval village that we were going through. We walked through it and admired the streets and how ancient it looked. 

We found a church and went inside because we heard organ music, no one was there though. Spooky. We did see that there was a a corpse enshrined that was from 1200. Whoa that is an old body. The view from outside the church was magnificent.

 After we walked into a square

 and just sat under the shade and appreciated the view. 

We walked down some and came across a grocery store, but opted not to get lunch just yet. We instead continued walking down a path, just to see where it led. We came across a field of wheat and had a little of a "Gladiator" moment when we tried to walk along the field while touching the wheat. It did not go as perfectly as the movie scene, but it was still pretty cool. We then found that the road just stopped, so we turned around and headed back. By the time we got back to the grocery store it had closed for fiesta. We went back to the square to rest as most of the path that we had just walked had been in the sun and we had done it during the midday heat. I ended up falling asleep on the bench for about 45 mins. We then realized that the town with the steep cobblestoned streets had in fact been the medieval village and so we walked through again making sure that we didn't miss anything. 

We then headed back and on our way saw where the free wine tasting was. We went inside to inquire whether we could come on Sunday as today we were hot sweaty and had not had lunch (not a good combination). We were told to come the next day at 4. We went back to the hostel and had a hodge podge of a meal while I wrote and read and K looked things for Nice and Barcelona. 

We than had dinner in the common room while watching the game and got to talking to some of the people. I had a really good conversation with a girl named Chelsea and we probably talked for two or three hours straight, which was just really nice. I even had someone to geek out about Game of Thrones to (the book not the tv show). We hung out in the common room and just talked to different people until we were ready to go to bed. 

Then I had a 45 minute conversation with an older Austrailian lady, Jane, that was staying in the dorms. We just talked and talked until late and then we realized we should probably finish up getting ready and go to bed. But it was a really nice conversation. 

Day 20

We woke up and went and bought breakfast for today and Monday and got dinner for tonight.  Then just had a relaxing day, K read and watched tv. I worked on my Venice blog. We went it to lunch at a restaurant in the square. 

My pasta was amazing.

We wanted to go to the gelato place that was really good, but it was closed. Oh well. We got gelato from a different place in the square and then walked back to the hostel. 

On the way we went back to the bluff we saw the first night and saw it during the day. It was nice, but it was really hot so we went back to the hostel. I worked on my blog some more and then Jane came by and I had a conversation with her. We then just hung out with other hostel mates, until I realized that I needed to get ready to go to the wine tasting. 

We ended up going with a group from the hostel and having a really good time. The man that did our tasting was very engaging and charismatic. We tried foods, sauces, and different wines. It was quite an experience. K and I ended up buying a bottle of white wine to have with our dinner. 

We went back to the hostel and packed up our stuff. We then hung out with the people there. We had some good discussions and then K and I decided to had dinner and hang out some more.

Then we went to bed kind of early as we had to get up early the next day to get to Florence and start our 9 hour travel to make it to Nice. 

Well, I will let you know how Nice was in a different post. Until next time.

Much Love, 

Taylor