Under the Tuscan Sun

For the most part we don't buy tours. If it's Tuesday it must be Belgium is not our cup of tea. We usually prefer to explore, get the feel of the place, the people, the culture by walking around on our on, living the cafe life and seeing the sights that either are very important to us or those we are able to visit without too much hassle. Traveling to another city alone is an education and an adventure/exploration so for the most part (and thanks to guidebooks and the Internet) we don't feel the need to join a group and follow the umbrella yielding guide to tell you about stuff as you bypass other stuff. What we usually do is take a day trip here or there, usually on the train, from whatever major city we are staying at. Florence affords a good number of day trips, Siena, Bologna, Cinque Terre, Pisa....But lo and behold, while researching our options we found this funky little tour! And no matter how much we kept looking at other options, we just kept giggling and going back. So we booked our first tour!

A car picked us up at our B & B and drove us to the train station, which was chaotic at best. There were a couple of groups because there were two tours meeting there. We piled into two vans and drove out of Florence for about an hour into Siena to the very industrial looking garage where we picked up our vintage 1960's Fiat.

I We chose the orange one! and everyone wondered if Frank would fit in it. Yes he did.

Driving was a whole other story since the gas pedal was size of a postage stamp and the gears were a bit .....shall I say, archaic. But off we went with our convoy of 6 including the tour guide, Stefano.

I will finally be going to Tuscany! We drive into the Siena province and right smack into Chianti and stop for a rest (after all that crazy driving) at Castellina in Chianti, the picture perfect Tuscan town.

After 45 minutes and the purchase of a lovely linen tablecloth we move on. Next stop,

Poggio Amorelli vineyard, a family owned organic vineyard where after a great tour of the cellars,

we will be having lunch in the terrace along with the Vespa tour.

Lunch includes a wine tasting where they open six bottles including a marvelous super Tuscan of which they only have four bottles left. We feel special. After lunch we walk along the very ready for harvest grapes,

and admire the beautiful Tuscan countryside

from our tiny little car.

And then we go,

Four our last night in beautiful Florence,

and our first ever, really awesome tour.