LIVE your LIFE: Under the Tuscan Sun (July 6)

I am sitting on a train.

That’s the punchline.

Now let me start at the beginning again.

After my 2 hours of sleep, I woke up at 6 and got ready for the day. We left for the train station and got a quick breakfast. We weren’t exactly sure where the buses would be, so we left some time open in case we couldn’t find them. Luckily we found them pretty fast! We never actually paid for the tour tickets- we just reserved them online. Since we didn’t have a printer, I brought my iPhone and brought up the ticket confirmation on the screen. There was a line in front of the bus, so I got in it. When it wasn’t moving, I asked the gentleman in a bright orange vest (who was helping other people) where we were supposed to go for the Best of Tuscany tour. He didn’t speak any English. After about 10 minutes of gesturing and pointing, a kind woman walked up to me and said that she didn’t think the people in front of me were in line for that bus, but just gathered there waiting for another bus. They had $9 tickets for a city bus. Ours were much more, for the tour bus. For a second, I freaked out because I thought we had to already pay! The only phrase the Italian man could speak in English was “give me your ticket,” which didn’t go over well when I pointed to my iPhone screen. Thank you, kind woman! We jumped onto the bus and made our way to the back where we barely found 6 seats near each other.

And we were off! Our tour guide was Sandra, and she was the best! First, we drove to Siena. However, Siena wasn’t the first highlight! The beautiful countryside was AMAZING. I could not stop staring out my window! Sunflowers, fields, rows of green plants—so pretty! We finally got to Siena, and had a guided tour. Sandra had a microphone, and we all had mini radios and headphones so we could lag behind (for pictures in my case) and still hear what she had to say. It was so pretty! One of the streets running through Siena was the second oldest in Italy. Guess where it led to….Rome, of course! All roads lead to Rome! At the end of the walking tour, we got to see the cathedral. Inside, our knees and shoulders had to be covered. My covering garments were in the bus since I didn’t know we’d be going in, so they gave us these tissue-paper/thin fabric white sheets that we had to cover with. I was lookin’ my best! It was gorgeous inside. I’ll post pictures when I can! After that, we got some free time. We walked around and went into some shops, then met at the bell tower. The horse races actually JUST happened, so they were hosing off all of the sand. I would really like to see them sometime! (Syd? Trip to Siena sometime?) :)

We left Siena and made our way through more beautiful Tuscan countryside to a privately owned family farm/vineyard/winery called Fattoria Poggio Alloro. We had a nice tour of the vineyard, wine-making, and cows (so cute!...but they were for eating). I made sure to be very nice to the cows since their lives were coming to an end. They liked posing for my pictures. :) We then went to lunch. It was AMAZING! We got a four-course meal, each with a different wine to taste. They taught us to taste the wine correctly. My first officially wine tasting, and I’m not even 21! :) First, we got some bread with oil and vinegar to dip it in. As always, I couldn’t resist it! With the bread, we got white wine- Vernaccia. Then we got pasta with meat sauce, and sheep-cheese to sprinkle on top. Mom, Dad, believe it—I ate sheep-cheese! It had an interesting taste. It was a little bit like parmasean, but definitely a little more bitter….. (inside family joke!). But really. ;) With that we got a red wine- Chianti. That was my favorite! Then we got some prosciutto and some more sheep cheese, and a Cabernet red wine. It wasn’t my favorite. Finally, we got some biscotti for dessert with sherry. We thought that was it…but THEN! Since it was Michelle’s birthday, they brought amazing chocolate mousse out just for the six of us! Everyone else was SO jealous and starting thinking of things they needed chocolate mousse for—we heard some “It’s my anniversary next week!” and “It was my birthday two weeks ago!” comments coming from around the lunch area. The dessert was a perfect end to an amazing lunch! We got to take some pictures with the beautiful countryside and vineyard, then got back on the bus to continue the day.

Next stop: San Gimignano. None of us had heard of it, but we were sure it was pretty if they were taking us there! We got a little tour, then had a good amount of free time for shopping. Side note: I had been carrying my camera around my neck all the time, everywhere I went, snapping away as expected, but at a few points I felt a little uncomfortable as a young woman with an expensive camera around my neck. My camera bag is a little big and heavy especially in the hot weather, so I was looking for something small I could slip it into. In San Gimignano, I got a real leather sidebag that is perfect! It is a great little bag for little necessities like hand sanitizer, chapstick, and maps, and doubles as a perfect discrete camera bag! My camera fits perfectly. It wasn’t cheap, but I thought it was a good investment. It is something I can use anywhere I go. It is simple, black, and will go with anything! Plus, it is very soft. The unfortunate side of this is that the younger the cow, the softer the leather. The older the cow, the tougher the leather. My soft bag meant calf. :( However, the cow was already being used for meat, and I just visited the cows and gave them some lovin’, so that was my justification. It’s my first and only leather possession! We walked around San Gimignano a little more, then it was time to get back on the bus. Can you guess how we got back to the bus, just knowing our history? Yes, we RAN. Sprinted, actually. Luckily we weren’t the only ones! Some other people on the tour were running right along with us. :) All the cutest shops were right on the outsides, so they caught you when you were trying to leave!

We made our way from San Gimignano to….PISA! I have always been wanting to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and I finally got to! Our bus parked, and we took a cute trolley to the center of Pisa. We found out that the trolley is the second-most photographed thing in Pisa, the first being the leaning tower! We had about an hour of free time, so we spent the whole time taking pictures. I got a good workout from jumping, trying to take a kicking picture! We all took turns taking the typical pictures- pushing, hugging, holding up. Then we took a group picture and headed back! We found out that there are actuall 8 leaning buildings in Pisa, the leaning tower is just the most popular.

We got back to the train station at about 8:30 and got ready to buy tickets to get us from Florence to Rome to Civitavecchia. This is where I’m going to leave off…you have to wait for my next blog to find out about our train situation!