Tuscany Wine Tasting + Florence

We went to FLORENCE for the weekend to spend time with Betsy and Jessie and try our first ever wine tour. The tour took place in the hills of Chianti, Italy at Castello di Verrazzano. (http://www.verrazzano.com/en/programmes-wine-tours/)

We started our adventure with a 1-hour bus ride through beautiful Tuscany. Made friends with the bus driver and had him help us figure out when to exit. The bus dropped us of into what seems like the middle of nowhere and found a little house of the side of the road with a sign “wine tour”. We went inside and asked, what we thought was a sweet little old lady, where we go for the wine tour. She replies “just up the hill!!” with a smirk on her face. We began our trek up a vertical hill through a vineyard… 10 minutes into the walk we begin to realize that the so called "short walk" is actually a trek up a mountain…no wonder she was laughing.

After seeing 2 cars pass, and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, we decided that the next car we see is getting the thumbs up (aka…hitch hiking is our only hope). 45 minutes into this rainy hike (we forgot to tell you its foggy so their isn’t much of a scenery to enjoy) we see our new best friends driving our way. We flag them down and asked if they are heading to the wine tour. This nice family from Pennsylvania with a son our age at Notre Dame University, told us that they were headed there, and invited us to cram into their rental car. Our sweaty bodies gladly accepted and drove 2 minute around the bend, to finally make it to the wine tour. Go figure.

We arrived at the tour and got into our groups- three different couples in the group told us “We couldn’t believe you girls were walking when we passed you!!” Little did they know, it wasn’t by choice… We started the tour of the Verrazzano Vineyard. Exploring through room after room of ageing wine, stacks of bottles dating all the way back to 1960s, and their home-grown wild boar meat hung out to dry, we were ready to have a few “drinks”.

There were 2 tables for the group, all the adults sat at one table, and we sat at the other…who wouldn’t want to sit with us? We were then joined by a nice couple from Memphis. The wife Diane might as well have been traveling with us!! While her husband was the wine expert, she sat and gossiped with us about her fun college stories, shopping in Paris, and our favorite TV shows.

Back to the tour….we were first served 3 different types of their classic Chianti wines. Then we were each presented with the biggest platter of food, or as they would like to call it “a light snack”. We also got biscottis to dip into their dessert wine, along with a “shot” of alcohol, which we compare to the strongest form of alcohol we have ever had.

As we were leaving, a nice couple from our group offered to drive us back down. We quickly accepted. The bus ride back seemed to go much faster, maybe because we attempted to speak Italian with the bus driver the whole time.

We made it back to Florence in time for some naps and then more exploring throughout the city. Thanks to Annie Narzisi, she typed out a awesome list of places to see, eat, and do, we defiantly experienced Florence that weekend. Our favorite place being Dante’s, where all you pay for is your meal and then you get a max of 5 free bottles of wine per table. Talk about a DEAL!! We saw the most famous square is Piazza della Signoria, The Duomo (cathedral), the Baptistery of John the Baptist, The Campinile, bell tower, in Piazza del Duomo, The Ponte Vecchio (old bridge), and many other things... We Loved it there!!

The italy gang :)