Tuscany, Italy: Part 1

Tuscany is exactly as beautiful as you’d expect and so incredibly relaxing! We drove a couple hours south from La Spezia, Italy to a town in Tuscany near San Gimignano. Shelly found this awesome ‘agriturismo’ which is a B&B on a working farm. In this case, it was also a vineyard and winery with a restaurant as the bottom floor. This place is ridiculously picturesque. It is high up in the rolling hills with vineyards and olive groves for as far as the eye can see. Before we arrived, we were originally planning to stay just one night, but once we saw the gorgeous views and talked to the great people working there (a family in the 3rd generation of owning/running the property), we decided to commit to staying a full five nights! We bargained with the owner a bit and feel like we got a great deal: five nights for the price of four J

The dinners at this place are family style. Each table fits up to 8 people and they assign each room to certain seats at a table. We’ve gone to dinner two nights so far and have been lucky enough to sit next to people that speak English. Well technically we switched the room card on the tables one of the nights so we could sit with a North Carolina couple we shared wine, a sunset, and great conversation with the night before. The first night we sat next to an Austrian couple which was cool because we plan to go to Austria next so they were giving us great suggestions on where to go and even told us to look them up when we got there so we could meet up. Didn’t get their number unfortunately, so if you’re out there and reading this, let us know!! J. The second night we sat next to two American couples that were hilarious. We had fun chatting about everyone’s travel experiences and where everyone was off to next. Good times with good people. ‘Nuff said.

For our first full day in Tuscany, we drove an hour to Siena, an old town known for its historical buildings and rich history. After we parked we weren’t sure exactly where were supposed to walk to get to the main square, so we just started walking uphill toward the towers and ended up taking a small side street (more like an alley) and came to a point where the street was blocked off. We could hear people on the other side of the rail so we lifted up the stroller over the railing and that’s when we realized that we were standing on the front stage of a church that was set up in the middle of the street. It had everything you’d have inside of a church, just literally in the middle of the street. Once we realized what was going on and saw that everyone was giving us the stink eye, we walked down the aisle to pass everyone as quickly as possible and flee the scene…but not before we turned and took a picture of course. We then found a nice café and sat down to have a cappuccino to soak in the town and the ambiance for a bit.

Once we got to the main square we noticed a bunch of tents set up with teenagers dressed in white doctor coats. It turns out they are medical students who were doing an event to teach kids about what doctors do. Each kid was allowed to pick out one stuffed animal from a table and would then be led through a series of tents to learn how to do ‘doctor stuff’ like listen to the animals heartbeat, give it medicine, etc. It took Tyson like 20 minutes to decide which stuffed animal he wanted because he like them all. The lucky teenager who got assigned to Tyson got to hold him the entire time and try to convince him which animal was best so he’d make a decision. Even as we walked away with his toy (a stuffed dog of course) he was still pointing back at the table wanting to choose another. We stayed there for about 30 minutes and let the kids take over. They were amazing with him and he was laughing up a storm the entire time. He really got a kick out of giving his dog a fake shot in the butt.

We then found a little place to eat lunch at that was next to a big old church. Tyson was getting tired of sitting in his stroller so we let him roam around the area as we watched and ate. A store owner came out of his shop and entertained him while we finished eating. We left Siena shortly after lunch so we could get back to the room in time for Tyson’s midday nap then spent the rest of the day playing outside and enjoying the view. We went down to the pool area which was down the hill a little bit and a young German couple sat down next to us. The woman was probably 4 months pregnant and was holding a German baby name book. It was fun to watch another couple go through what I’m sure every soon to be parents do and say random names and wait for the other to respond. Even more fun when you’re watching someone do it in a language you don’t know but feel like you know exactly what they’re saying based on their faces and tone of their responses. Very cute.

Today ended up being QUITE an eventful day! We planned a 10 km walking tour that was supposed to take 3 hours. We met the tour guide at the entrance of an old, historic city that was 20 minutes from our B&B. We thought we would be walking through the old city, but instead we immediately started walking the opposite direction. He explained to us that this was actually a tour of the countryside where he’d explain the area (where he happened to grow up) then we’d go into the old town and learn more about it. That sounded exciting so off we went. Little did we know, we’d literally be going over the river and through the woods (but not to grandmother’s house). We just kept walking and walking, up steep hills and down steep hills, through random properties following every changing trails. The information and views were great, but he didn’t understand English that well which made for some interesting conversations. We’d ask a question and he’d act like he understood then answer a completely different question (Ex: Q: We heard you also do night tours, how is that different than the day tour? A: Ahh, yes yes, the land changes through the seasons, in winter it changes colors to…in summer…etc, etc.) He ended up being a good guy…but we just couldn’t help but wonder where the heck this guy was taking us and when/if we were going to turn around to go back to the town. There was just no end in sight. It was pretty warm and shade was sparse so we were using an umbrella to block the sun for Tyson in the stroller the entire time. He did great and enjoyed all the animals and flowers/plants we passed throughout the tour.

We came to a point when the guide said that we have 1 more mile to go and it was all uphill. We were about ready to be done with the tour at that point and I think he saw that in our eyes. Then all of a sudden a car slowly drives by us and our guide stops him to ask if he’d drive us all back to the starting point of the tour. The guide said it was his friend and we were so exhausted that we were happy to take a ride with him. The driver took us to where we wanted to go and we all got out of the car. He drove away and not 10 seconds later we realized that we left our camera in his car!!! We asked the tour guide if he could call his friend and ask him to turn around and all the sudden he could barely speak English. He tried to explain to us that by ‘friend of his’ he really didn’t know the guy and definitely didn’t know his name or have his number. Our stomach’s dropped because a lot of our Tuscany pictures are on there and plus it was a fairly decent camera. Our guide then told us that he knows the family of the driver who lives in a small town we’d passed on our walk. So he suggested we all jump in our car and drive over to the family’s house.

The town that the family lived in was actually converted into an agriturismo and the buildings dated back to the early 1200s. The guide talked to a nice lady named Marinella for about 15 minutes while we sat in the car anxiously waiting to hear the fate of our camera. He came back and said that the driver’s name is Mario and he is out of town for the night and will be back tomorrow. Mario doesn’t have a cell phone but his dad has one. Marinella promised to call Mario’s dad who would (somehow) relay the message to his son that the (dumb American) tourists he was nice enough to give a lift that day left their camera in the back seat of his car and he’d have to get it back to Marinella ASAP. Marinella suggested that we come by at 6pm tomorrow to get an update. We’re thinking that there’s about a 5% chance that we’ll ever see that camera again, but we have high hopes and are hoping for the best…