Firenze (Florence)

On our fourth day, we decided to drive to Florence, which is the biggest and most well known city in Tuscany. The drive took about 45 minutes. This city has so much history in it, evident by all the beautiful architecture and art that we saw. We started off by crossing the Ponte Veccio bridge over the Arno River into the heart of the city. On the bridge, there were a ton of jewelry stores, which were really expensive!

Our first stop was the Piazza del Duomo. The cathedral was beautiful with a huge Heaven and Hell fresco on the ceiling of the Duomo. We took the climb up the 463 steps to the top of the Duomo, and walked around the top of the inside of the dome to see the fresco up close. About halfway up the steps, it got a lot narrower and steeper. The hallways we were climbing through were getting smaller and smaller, the higher we went up. Finally we made it to the top! At the top you could go outside and walk around the top of the dome. From up there, we could see all of Florence! Cara got scared of the height and wouldn't get too close to the edge. After walking around the outside, we began our journey back down, but first we went back inside to the top level of walking space around the inside of the dome. From here, you could reach up and actually touch the fresco. Although our legs were sore after climbing back down, it was well worth it to see the view of the city from high above and see the fresco inside up close.

After this, we were a little worn out and decided to find somewhere to eat. We found a little restaurant and shared a sausage and onion pizza. All of the food we’ve had in Italy has been delicious. we're glad we walked up 463 steps, because we are sure going to need the exercise to work off all of the food we’ve been eating. After lunch, we met back up with Cara's parents and went to the Galleria dell ‘Accademia, most known for Michaelangelo's David. We then entered a hall where you can see some of the "rough drafts" Michelangelo did of the David, and then, there it was. He was 17 feet tall and all marble. The detail of the statue was amazing. You weren’t allowed to take pictures, but Jamie is sneaky and managed to take a couple. After the Galleria dell ‘Accademia, we walked around Florence and looked at the many markets. At one point we ran into our friend Delany randomly walking on the street. We then met back up with Cara's aunt and uncle for some drinks and appetizers at a restaurant overlooking the Arno River. After leaving Florence, we stopped at a little bar in our town, Castellina, called Bar Italia, for a few bottles of wine, then called it a night.

Brolio Castle and Badia A Coltibuono Winery

Our first full day in Tuscany, we set off to explore the region. The six of us crammed into the car, and uncle Dan handled the windy mountain roads like a champ. Our first stop was the Castle Brolio, where we walked around the castle and the gardens and read a little of the history of it all. The grounds were so beautiful. There was a little church and underneath the church was a crypt where the family was buried dating back from the 1800s until 2009. The castle had a great view of the Tuscany region. Tuscany is well known for its wine and from the top of the castle you could see grape farms and olive farms for miles.

After eating lunch at a restaurant on the castle grounds, we went to Badia A Coltibuono, a winery, for a tour and tasting. These grounds used to be a monastery which housed monks for many years. We took a tour of the house, which is now a winery and bed and breakfast. After the tour we enjoyed sampling two of their wines - Chianti Classico and Reserva. We decided to make dinner that night back at the villa. We made spaghetti, although it wasn’t as good as the rest of the pasta we had been eating. Cara's parents and aunt and uncle made a platter of meats, cheeses, bread, and fruits, which we enjoyed as well.

Siena

We woke up early, saying goodbye to Rome until June 13th, and hopped on a train to Siena. Cara's parents and aunt and uncle were waiting for us at the train station and the 6 of crammed into their tiny car. We walked around Siena, enjoying the city. Especially beautiful was the Piazza del Campo. It was a large plaza with a clock tower and shops surrounding it. From there, Jamie, Cara's dad and uncle went to see the Cathedral of Siena while Cara, her mom and aunt decided to head to a little café, Cava De’ Noveschi, to have a glass of wine. Our one glass of wine turned into a bottle and our waiter brought out 6 different plates of appetizers - for free!

After our afternoon cocktails, we drove from Siena to Castellina in Chianti, which is the town where our villa was. We walked around the streets of Castellina and found a little restaurant to eat dinner. Again, our dinner was delicious! Jamie had pasta with wild boar meat sauce and Cara had a caprese salad. The table also shared an appetizer of cured meats from the region, like salami, ham and capicola, and a variety of cheeses. We’ve come to find out that this is a very typical appetizer in Italy. After dinner we went back to our villa and hung out around a big table outside and enjoyed some Chianti Classico wine from the region we were in.

Rome pt. 1

After flying for almost 9 hours, we finally landed in Madrid, Spain. We went through customs where Cara got her first stamp in her passport. From Madrid we flew to Rome where we spent the night at a place called Baltic Hotel. Our hotel room was really small! There was basically just enough room for our bed and our luggage on the floor. We decided to have a nice first dinner so we ate at a place we looked up near our hotel called Ristorante La Pentolaccia. The food was delicious! We each ordered different pasta dishes and shared a caprese tower salad (mozzarella, eggplant and tomatoes). After dinner we took a walk back to our hotel and then went to bed since we had an early train to Siena the next day.

Blogging our trip

We meant to set this blog up before we left the states, but now that we are done with the Italian leg of our trip, we figured this would be a good time to start our blog. We are one week into our 24 day trip and we will start from the beginning:

This is us in Miami International Airport ready to start our trip: