May 4 : San Gimignano

This was the day trip we had signed up for with our hostel, 'The Grape Escape'. Since we weren't going to be able to visit any museums, discovering the Tuscan region was a good alternative. We all met at 9:30 at the reception and headed for our bus. We took an hour long ride winding through Tuscan hills and vineyards and learned about the Chianti "Black rooster" and other small facts about the region. We arrived first at the first wine and olive oil tasting, Tenuta Torciano. It was a really cool, out-of-a-movie setting. We tasted 4 wines and 2 olive oils. We then headed to Pietraserena Winery where we were shown how the wine is made and were given a glass of their white wine. 

As a group we ate lunch in the owners garden surrounded by Tuscan hills and olive trees. At lunch we were served two more bottles of wine (per table) - red and rose. Conor was drawn to the wine store and emerged carrying their white sparkling and Merlot, both have to consumed before the end of our trip...

We boarded the bus again and headed towards San Gimignano, a romanti fortified town that sits atop a Tuscan hill. We were given an hour and a half to look around so we headed first to a torture museum. After a lovely twenty minutes we emerged happier that we grew up in the twentieth century. We walked a little and found the highest FREE tower to climb that still offered exceptional views of Tuscany. It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL region. It is easy to see how it inspired so much art and culture. We ate some "World Champion" gelato (seriously), took some photos of Piazza della Cisterna and headed back to the bus to head back to Florence.

The day was exceptional and could not have gone better. It was a sunny day and was a definite highlight of the trip so far.

When we arrived in Florence we changed and headed out for dinner. Conor was told about a restaurant "Trattoria 4 Leoni" by someone who bought wine from him in Halifax. Determined we went looking for it. We made a pit-stop along the way to buy reactine for Conor and anti-itch for me, as I had been literally devoured in Venice. Dinner was fantastic as we shared the typical Tuscan dish, Biftecca - a 1.2kg T-bone steak... Fantastic. It is however served rare and I am pretty sure the heart was still beating...

After dinner we took a walk along the Arno and took some stunning photos. We were tempted to go to Piazzale Michaelangelo to climb the tower, but decided against it. Instead we walked through Piazza della Signoria and experienced a Florentine music performer before heading back to our hostel. We booked our stay in Siena and were headed to "Camping Siena Colleverde" the next day. It is safe to say we both thoroughly enjoyed PLUS Florence and would recommend it to anyone.