The first stop on our tour was a small, walled-in medieval town called San Gimignano. It was a tiny town, so we only had about an hour there to explore on our own. Ivana and I went to a few lookout sites, where we got some great photos. We also talked to some other girls from our group who were about our age. Another “small world” story. The girls are teaching in England, but all graduated a year or two ago from George Washington. Ivana even knows one of the girls’ cousins. What are the odds?? Once we had taken pictures, gotten a cappuccino, and were ready to go, Ivana and I were the first ones back to the meeting point, where Stefano was waiting for us. Our love just grew stronger for him, as we found out he was an archeologist, studying for his PhD, speaks four languages, and can read Greek and Latin. Yes. Please.
The next stop was Siena. We had the option to either eat with the group (there were about 14 of us total, ranging in ages 22 to 60something), or we could go get lunch on our own. Ivana and I, knowing we would take the whole hour just finding a place to eat, decided to go with the group. We paid a set amount and got some salad, pasta, ham, cheese, and wine. The food was fine, but we were really happy that we ate with the group, as we made friends with them and I even got to speak Spanish with a couple from Chile. After lunch, we had a guided “hour and a half” tour of Siena. It ended up being just over half an hour, with the option to pay a few more euros and go into the cathedral. As Ivana and I had seen a lot of cathedrals and half of the stuff inside was covered up for Easter, we decided to skip out. We got gelato (obviously) and were delighted, as it was the number one gelato of the trip. After that, we went to the main Piazza del Campo, where we sat and I ended up taking a siesta in the sun (and got a lovely farmer’s tan). Then, we met with the group and got on the bus to Monteriggioni.
Before getting to the town, Stefano told us, “You all get half an hour in the town. I don’t give you half an hour because we must leave. I give you half an hour because after half an hour, you will be very bored.” Stefano wasn’t lying. There are about fifty inhabitants of this (again) walled-in medieval town. We covered the whole thing in about fifteen minutes and then had no idea what to do with ourselves, so we went back to wait at the bus.
Finally, the “best part” (as Stefano kept telling us) had arrived. We were heading out into the “shire,” also known as Chianti, to a winery. This winery was the most incredible winery I have ever been to…and I have been to my fair share. It had some beautiful views of Chianti and was an all-organic facility, making not only their own wine, but also balsamic vinegar, truffle oil, olive oil, different products from their flowers, and honey. After a brief tour of the balsamic and wine cellars, we went into the tasting room. We got to taste three different wines and try the oils and vinegars. For dessert, we even had vanilla ice cream with thirty-year old balsamic vinegar on top. Delicious.
Once back in Florence, the George Washington girls, a girl studying at Oxford, Ivana, and I all decided to go to dinner together. Oxford girl had been to a place the night before and said the food was great, so we followed her into the center, right next to the Duomo. Turns out Oxford girl was a little naïve. One should never eat in the tourist center. The wait staff was terribly rude (refusing to give us anything to drink when we asked for tap water), the food was pretty gross (truffle oil pasta…but there was definitely no truffle oil on it) and expensive, we had to pay a 4 euro cover charge each (usually it’s less that 2), and on top of that, after we paid, we had to ASK for our change and when they did bring it to us, they had shorted us five euros. We made a fuss, got our money, and left, swearing never to eat in a place like that again. We then showed our new friends where the “Jersey Shore” pizza place was, said goodbye to them there, then went back to our room where we fell asleep watching “I Am Legend.”
We had originally thought Monday would be another day trip somewhere, but we were tired and felt we had seen what we wanted of Tuscany. Instead, we decided to have a nice, relaxing day. After having breakfast, we walked through the outdoor market, and then went back to our Friday lunch spot where, again, we ate very well. The guys even remembered us and gave us limoncello shots at the end of the meal. How sweet. We then walked a bit, bought some Peronis, and headed back up to the overlook where we found a nice spot to sit for a while. We didn’t have a bottle opener, so we ended up asking another group of people, about our age, drinking beers near us to use theirs. Unfortunately they weren’t from a school in Virginia…no story there. We spent probably close to two hours just sitting and chatting in the sun. After that, we explored some churches and then headed back towards the center. We ate dinner at the place we had gotten pizza from when our sandwiches weren’t cutting it, but this time, we got calzones. They were amazing.
Tuesday morning, we had to wake up around 6.00am to get on the train at 6.55am to Bologna to catch a train to Verona. Exhausted, we got up and cleared out of our room. We got on the bus (luckily it was the high speed one…Italian equivalent to the Ave) and waited. We were delayed due to a “mechanical malfunction” (great), but finally were off about half an hour later. We were hungry and nervous we would miss our train to Verona. Luckily, the train had a café car, so after a pastry, we were just nervous. Apparently, the Italian gods were smiling on us. We got in Bologna with five minutes to go (originally should have been 40) until our Verona train would leave. The Verona train was not even close to as nice as the other train (this one smelled a bit like a bathroom), but we were just happy to be on our way.
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