TOSCANA

Tuscany. I don't even know where to begin. Other than the fact that I fell in love with everything. Especially the wine. And the food.

When we arrived in Milan we quickly jumped on a train to Florence to get to our apartment that we were staying in through Air Bnb. When we arrived, it was about 11 pm, but our lovely host insisted that we eat with her, since we hadn't yet. She made us Tuscan pasta with pesto and wine, and it was delicious. She was such a wonderful host and supplied us maps and guides along with what she thought we should do in our short time in Florence.

The next morning we got an early start and headed to the Uffizi Gallery, a must see while in Florence. We of course had to stop for a typical Italian breakfast, espresso (the strongest I've ever had. I loved it so much I bought an espresso maker and some coffee to take home) and a croissant. At the gallery, we had to wait in line for a while, but it wasn't nearly as bad as we had heard it can be in the middle of June since it was so early, but when inside, we got to see some very famous paintings by Boticelli, da Vinci, Michelangelo, and many more. My favorite was The Birth of Venus or "Venus in the half shell". I quickly learned that Florence was synonymous with the Renaissance, so there was art to be appreciated everywhere.


Our first views of Florence.


The very famous Birth of Venus by Botticelli.


At the Uffizi Gallery.


At the Uffizi Gallery.




Michelangelo's David, in the square next to the Uffizi.

After the Uffizi, we headed to the main square to see the Duomo. Holy cow. It was huge and beautiful and unlike any cathedral I had ever seen before. We looked like typical tourists walking around with our headphones listening to Rick Steves podcasts but it was worth it. We learned a lot about the Uffizi from him and also the Duomo. The only thing we missed in Florence, was the Galleria dell' Accademia, but with a two-hour wait in the middle of the afternoon, we figured seeing the replica of Michelangelo's famous David, was good enough. We had the best day just wandering around Florence, taking in the art and the history, and enjoying my first day in Italy. This was one stop that Thea had never been before as well, so she was really enjoying it too. She said that Florence was way better than Rome.


First views of the Duomo.




View from the top of the bell tower.




View from the top of the dome.






I guess if you're going to eat gelato in the morning, just get coffee flavored!


Lunch in Florence.

Thanks to our Air Bnb host, we found an off the beaten path park over looking the city and had some wonderful views and saw a beautiful, less crowded, church. We took in the views and then had a delicious Italian dinner in the center of Florence. After dinner and a liter of wine and free limoncello, we discovered some live music on our walk home, and I'll never forget that cover band that played Wish You Here by Pink Floyd while I sat right on the river in the center of Florence and drank a glass of Tuscan wine (I think my nostalgia for Italy has already set in about two days later :)).


View of the city from Piazza di Michelanglo.




Dinner in Florence. I had fresh pasta with tartufi sauce. Delicious!


And a liter of house wine of course!

The next morning we got up early, headed to the bus station and caught our bus to San Gimignano. After being a little lost around the train station the night before, we figured out the area and had no problems otherwise. So we headed to San Gimignano, one of my favorite stops in our week in Italy. San Gimignano is this tiny, medieval, walled in Tuscan town surrounded by vineyards. I have heard my mom talk about how much she misses Tuscany these past two years and I finally understand why. It's not just the wine and the food, but the views are absolutely breathtaking.


The Tuscan hills.




The main square in San Gimignano.





Thea and I found a cheap hotel on Air Bnb again and it happened to be right in the city center, one block from the Duomo and the town square. It was a beautiful room and the hotel had once been a family home, and it was built in 1200. We opened up our shutters and the windows and I felt like I was in a movie or something. Just the stone buildings, the window boxes with beautiful flowers, and the busy streets, it was seriously beautiful. We spent the rest of the day bouncing in between shops, we found a hiking path that went around the city walls and got away from the annoying tourists and had the most delicious lunch. We had bruschetta with the reddest tomatoes I've ever seen and a cheese plate. I think we ate pecorino everyday. I even managed to smuggle some through airport security, along with a few other questionable things. We also had a little wine tasting at lunch, but the best part was the view. We were sitting along the top of the hill and looking out over all the red-roofed buildings and over the vineyards in the country side. It was beautiful.


Selfie out the window of our hotel.


The patio at our hotel.


Wine tasting for lunch! And a view!




Pecorino cheese changed my life.


Bruschetta!





That night was foodie heaven. I'm not joking I'll dream about this meal for the rest of my life. Our hotel manager recommended us to a restaurant called Peruca. So we grabbed the last reservation, freshened up and headed to dinner. Right before, we popped into a little shop that had the best Tuscan goods, and the ever so sweet young Italian man of course let us try the best cheeses, spreads and olive oils from the area. I got a peppercini spread to go with cheese and some fresh pasta. He even wanted us to add him on Facebook in case we couldn't remember what to pair cheese to pair it with, haha. Of course he greeted us two blondes with "Ciao, bellas". But after that, we headed to dinner. To start, we of course had a bottle of house red wine, a Chianti Colli Senesi. Chianti is the major wine region in Tuscany, so the Chianti wine is the specialty here. It of course was wonderful and we drank the bottle because it should never be wasted. This restaurant was really fancy, but totally worth it. We had Crostini Toscane, which is a local delicacy and chicken liver pate, but it was really good, and not as gross as it sounds. Now for my favorite part: Italians normally do a first and second course, the first being pasta and the second being a meat dish, and since that's a lot of food, Thea and I normally split the two. So for our first, we had the Holy Grail of all pastas. Hand made ravioli, stuffed with pears and pine nuts, with pecorino cheese sauce. OH MY GOD. The pears were sweet and paired perfectly with the cheese sauce and I'm not a food critic so I actually have no idea what I'm talking about but I know that it was the best thing I've ever tasted. For our second, we had a pork loin, wrapped in bacon, with a gorgonzola cheese sauce. Amazing. Perfect. Everything.







After a typical two-hour Italian dinner, we cracked open the bottle of red wine we had bought earlier in the day, skyped mom, and then headed to the town square for the world's best gelato. Literally, the world's best, like awards and everything. The flavors were out of this world. I had rosemary raspberry and blackberry lavender and Thea had champelmo (pink grapefruit champagne) and vernaccia (the special white wine made in San Gimignano). Best gelato I've ever tasted.


The gelato world champion.

After about 6 pm, when all the day trip buses go back to Florence, the town got so quiet and it was wonderful to see without all of the tourists. Most people just take a day trip from Florence, rather than stay in San Gimignano. So we sat in the middle of the town square, which was earlier packed with people, with about 10 others and listen to some live music and ate our gelato and drank wine. It was a perfect night.

Early the next morning we headed to Siena, another small Tuscan city and spent the day wandering around. Siena has one of the prettiest cathedrals I've ever seen. That afternoon, we went to wine school. It was so much fun, I think it was one of my favorites from the trip as well. If I didn't care for Siena as much as San Gimignano (there were millions of tourists and the town wasn't as quaint and cute), this made up for it. This woman had a little shop and in the back room a classroom with a projector and everything. We learned a little about the history of wine, and then started tasting. We started with Vernnacia di San Gimignano, a wine only made in San Gimignano, which is a really good, easy drinking white wine. I'm also not a wine expert so some of the things that you're supposed to taste and smell were completely over my head but it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot! After that we tasted Chianti Classico, a very popular Tuscan wine that's a dry red wine and good for pairing with food. Then we tasted Vino mobile di Montepulcino, another very good red wine, and Brunello di Montalcino, which is quite expensive but very good and should be aged for 10 to 40 years! Finally we had some Vin Santo, a sweet dessert wine. The class was really interesting and a lot of fun. After 5 glasses of wine Thea and I were ready for dinner. After dinner we had a gelato and sat in the Piazza del Campo, one of the prettiest squares in Italy.


Piazza del Campo.




The beautiful duomo in Siena.














Wine school! Figured I should learn something before my 21st birthday!




The Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.


Stopped for aperitivi in Siena, free appetizer buffet with a drink. Thea and I had Aperol Spritz's.



NEXT STOP: My birthday weekend in the Cinque Terre!