You can't say you've seen Italy if you haven't been to the vineyards of Tuscany...today seemed like a great day to get our wine buzz on. Everyone said we should go on an organized tour to Chianti but we have discovered we aren't really fans of overpriced tours where we are stuck with a group of potential dudders all day (anti-social of us, we know, but we didn't want any debbies raining on our Italian vino parade). We decided to ditch our backpacks at the hostel luggage room for the day and attempt to get a bus to the region and attempt to find wine...I mean how hard could it be? This was agreed upon as a pretty stupid idea by everyone we came across as reservations are usually needed for tastings and the Chianti region is pretty large and not very pedestrian friendly. We ignored everyone and stuck with our plan but decided we would need a hearty breakfast to fuel for this day. If you are ever in Florence go to the Cafe Deluxe. We had the most amazing eggs benadict with huge coffees - not a big deal to all you at home walking around with your venti lattes, but Italy is a fan of the tiny espresso and has refused to allow a single Starbucks in the country as it is apparently a commercialized rip off of Italian coffee bars. Some of The Beatles greatest tunes played loudly as we ordered from our cheerful Italiano server and enjoyed our amazing breakfasts, happy as clams (why do people say that? Flashback to all-nighter in the library with Tori and Chelsea when this question led to a very strange clam discussion). We were in in this great happy cafe in a city that is at the top of both of our lists for it's beauty, charisma, history, and vibe - this was just one of those moments of true elation where we dug our lives more than we can explain. Dear Jenny and Kelly, when you are old fogies reading this to remember this experience, remind yourselves how important these tiny moments of friendship and bonding and simplicity are! They can be found in every day as long as you seek them out!Anyway, got lost in the moment for a second, back to the main point, we got bus tickets to Chianti and took in the amazing scenery...well Kelly did while Jenny took a nap, she has become a serious master of passing out on any public transportation vehicle, not sure if this is motion sickness or exhaustion but she always misses the most epic landscapes in favor of a little shut eye. We got off the bus full of locals and walked to a cafe where the barista said he had a friend who worked at Castello di Verrazzano, located on a hilltop in the Chianti Classico area. The castle's high position over the Greve valley was once of strategic-military importance and was an etruscan then a roman settlement before becoming the property of the Verrazzano family in the VIIth century (Giovanni Verrazzano is credited with discovering NY) Winemaking here is said to date back to 1150. History lesson over....
Unable to contact his friend he was happy to point us in the right direction. A a nice very italian romance novel cover bus driver took us there for free and we ended at the bottom of the enormous hill that the castle sat on. Here was a a small building for wine tasting where a scary school teacher type Italian woman told us we could basically do whatever we wanted and the castle was up. She wasnt kidding when she said up...holy walk. We really shouldnt be phased after Cinque Terre but this was pretty far, probably 30 minutes straight up hill, but the views of Tuscany were worth the climb. We followed the noise of wine buzzed laughter into a room in the castle and were so sad to find that they were just closing. A nice lady working there looked a little shocked when we said we had walked from the bottom and arranges a special last minute tasting for us with their classic chianti wine, port and almond biscotti while she told us about wines and history - we cannot thank her enough! This was such a wonderful experience!We were apparently there at the perfect time to see the Italian owner of the vinyard and castle cut loose as he took paintings off the wall and posed in pictures with the last lingering guests before switching shirts with one guest wearing a grape covered hawaiian shirt. He tried pretty hard to convince kelly to swap shirts with him as well...but she was definitely not on their wine level and politely said no thank you.
We were offered rides down the hill but preferred to walk and admire the insane views again before getting on our bus back to Florence. We managed a speedy backpack pick up and train station paninis to go before getting on our 8:10 train at 8:08, perfect timing! We were heading to Rome not really knowing what to expect except a big city with big history, especially as it often gets mixed reviews from visitors. We arrive in Roma at night to find what seemed to be an outdoor homeless shelter, complete with drunken prostitutes, lining the train station wall. Cities always give a better first impression when you arrive in daylight. We were so happy to get to our quiet peaceful apartment at B&B Wow Roma. The family owned little place was so nice and relaxing! The owners are amazingly kind. It felt so nice to be away from what we now call "mega hostels" and have a little place of our very own as a home base in Rome. We slept like babies :)
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