Hello. It's Me.

Hello.

It's me.

I've been wondering if after all these years...

omg.

I spent the long Thanksgiving weekend with Caitlin and Lucia belting out Adele songs while driving our tiny Fiat Panda through the Tuscan countryside.

Alas, this is how memories are made.

It's unlikely that I'll ever think of Adele again without remembering that weekend.

If you haven't heard enough of Adele lately, check her out with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots below.

Anywho, let's get to the rundown of our few days in the hill towns of Tuscany.

You might remember our driving adventures in Siena a few years back. I tried, thoroughly, to avoid reliving this situation during this trip. Caitlin and I had made these initials plans and Lucia, a Spanish teacher at ASM, decided to join us. I was thrilled. She's legally allowed to drive in Italy and was happy to be the main driver on the trip.

We all met in Florence and rented the car from there. We took off for San Gimignano, a town about an hour or so from Florence.

Piazza della Cisterna

View out over the countryside

After a nice lunch, we headed for Volterra, another nearby town. Some of the filming for New Moon, part of the Twilight series was done in Volterra (though most in Montepulciano) and I wanted to see it for myself!

But it was freezing!

Caitlin and Lucia all bundled up!

And after checking out the main square, we didn't stay for long!

We wandered to the edge of town before heading to our agriturismo and caught some great shots of the sunset.

We booked an apartment in an agriturismo in San Quirico d'Orcia.

We headed to a wine tasting the following morning at Avignonesi. On the way, we caught some shots of the countryside with the most amazing light.

This winery.

Simply stunning wines.

One of this winery's claims to fame is their Vin Santo. The grapes are aged for approximately 6 months before they are pressed. Then the wine will be aged in the barrel for over 10 years. These grapes won't be for sale as wine until at least 2028.

They produce both a red and white variety of Vin Santo.

The description of the Vin Santo process was incredible
and helps explain the especially high price!

These barrels are not moved once placed during the ten year process and they are not cleaned between batches. The 'mother yeast' that accumulates in the barrel is left to help develop and flavor each vintage.

They also produce some "regular" wine.

Time for the tasting!

We tasted four wines and then the Vin Santo, which has an extra fee to taste. We loved the Vin Santo and the last two reds that we tried.

Here's a little slo-mo action of the Vin Santo.

We bought some wine while we were there.

This amount of wine cost about 650 euro! Wowser.

But it is so delicious it was worth the splurge.

After a big wine breakfast, lunch was most definitely in order.

Traditional pici pasta with meat sauce

As we headed into Montepulciano, this walkway had a sign indicating that some Twilight part had been filmed here.

Montepulciano from a distance

It was so cold and windy we just couldn't bear to spend much time in the cute little towns.

We also spent a little time wandering San Quirico d'Orcia.

Then it was on to Montalcino to taste some Brunello. (Montalcino produces Brunello from the Sangiovese grapes, while Montepulciano produces Vino Nobile from the same grape. Learn more here.)

Caitlin time lapsed our entire time sitting in a little bar tasting two Brunellos.

Buying ceramics from this cute little Italian artisan

Montalcino in the distance

Bagno Vignoni- a nearby town

classic Tuscany.

Here's some traveler tips to help plan your own Tuscan hill town adventure.

We stayed at Antico Podere la Martinella. It was inexpensive, not in a major tourist thoroughfare, but still nearby a cute town with plenty of restaurant options. A car is necessary.

We ate at a couple of locally recommended places: Trattoria Osenna, L'officina (for great thin crust pizza), and Al Vecchio Forno.

Between Avignonesi and Montepulciano, we had lunch at Piccola Trattoria Guastini.

For wine tastings at Avignonesi, be sure to email in advance and make a reservation. Wine tastings and tours cost 15 euro per person and include tastings of four wines. An additional fee is charged to taste the Vin Santo, but it's waived if you purchase a bottle.

Found this amazing blog post about the area that you might also find useful.

Do you have a favorite Tuscan hill town? Please share!

It's Just Like Riding a Bike

Italy being the good Catholic country that it is meant that last weekend was a long one for us! For the first time since moving here, some friends and I decided to rent a car and drive to an agriturismo outside of Siena. You can learn more about agriturismi by clicking on the embedded link, but generally it's a small, family owned farm that allows guests to come and stay on the property. But, more on the agriturismo in a minute...other exciting parts of this adventure must be detailed first.

Love this city.

Awhile back, Caitlin, Grace, Katie and I started discussing the possibility of this trip. I found the place to stay and Caitlin said she'd take care of renting a car. I said, "Great! I don't want any part of driving, so have at it!"

Fast forward to last Thursday night. I get a text message that says, "No automatics available, so we got a manual car." This is probably a good time to mention that the girls that rented the car do not have any experience driving stick shift cars. How they drove it home that night is beyond me.

Friday morning, three of us met at the car and packed it up and were prepared to head to Opera to pick up Katie. And, then, we stalled, a time or two or three or more! I lost count!! We finally got going, only to be told by a nice Italian man when stalled at a green light, "Metti la prima! Vai!" (basically, put it in first and you go!) Yes, we know that.  Somehow we made it to Opera, picked up Katie and her full mug of tea, and began our road trip.

Caitlin, pre-stalling, Friday morning

A few more stalls later and Katie's mug was no longer full. And, me, the one who didn't want anything to do with the driving, found herself behind the wheel. (Once in a blue moon, like 18 years ago, I was the proud driver of a bare bones Toyota Tercel 5 speed.)

There was a ton of traffic headed out of town, so instead of taking about 4 hours to get to Siena, it took more like 6. We had plans to meet up with my landlord's (Luisa) family to pick olives, but arrived too late to actually pick anything. But, we did arrive in time for the sunset and a lovely time with Luisa and her family. Her parents are just about the cutest people ever.

sunset in Tuscany
view from just outside of Vescovado di Murlo

We headed to Siena for dinner and I was thankfully smart enough not to drive up a huge hill that would have lead into the city. We took a recommendation from a friend of Grace and we enjoyed plenty of freshly made pasta and delicious food.

Our agriturismo was great. It only allowed for a handful of people to stay there, was clean and inviting, and had some amazing homemade bread (among other things) for breakfast.

the view from our room

The next day we taxied back to Siena to spend the day in the town. It's such a beautiful place. We spent our time in the Duomo and then went to an exhibit of photography by Steve McCurry, the photographer made famous for his Afghan girl with the mysterious eyes back in the day. We had sandwiches from a crazy meat shop (boar salami) and dined on them in the middle of Piazza del Campo. It was another one of those moments where I was reminded how the life I'm able to live seems so surreal.

Christmas "balls" were for sale in many shops.
I'm kinda obsessed with this photo.

Siena is probably most famous for it's twice yearly horse race, the Palio. The 17 different neighborhoods, known individually as a contrada (plural- contrade), each have a representative compete in the July and August race. The race takes place right in the heart of the city, in front of the city hall and around Piazza del Campo. Last year I read an amazing book called The Daughter of Siena by Marina Fiorato that had a fictional palio set in the early days of the race as a focus of its plot. It might be a good one to pick up if you're interested in learning more.

handpainted bells, decorated in the colors of different contrade

We had made arrangements to have dinner at the agriturismo that night. The owner gave us a tour of the wine tanks and barrels and talked to us about their wine production each year before dinner. Joining us that night were two American couples and one Italian couple. Dinner was really good and served family style so it was nice to have this experience and share it with others.

family style.

We topped off the night with a few competitive rounds of Sequence, a game that no one except Grace has ever heard of. But, we loved it and I can't wait to play some more!

Sequence. Have you ever played?

Some other great pics from the weekend...

olives in Tuscany

the horse hooks used to hold-- you guessed it-- the horses!

Siena's Duomo

City Hall and the Tower