A Very Wet and Rainy Walking Tour

So the village that was right by our hotel was called Tericciola. One day we decided to join the walking tour that took place each week for free. We met up with a group of Americans from our hotel and one Italian couple and it was a bit cloudy, but didn't really seem like it was going to rain, and even if it was Chris and I hadn't brought a single piece of rain gear or an umbrella. We waited patiently for Moira (the tour guide) while we took pictures of the view of the Tuscan hills from the parking lot. Moira was a bit late, but it is said that most Italians are not very prompt. Once she arrived she was greeted by many who knew her from other tours. We had met her on our private painting lesson. As she led us to our first stopping point we realized it was a bakery and Chris felt it was safer for him to stand outside due to his gluten allergy. I, unfortunately was bored by the history behind the bakery, so I zoned out and really don't remember much of what she said. At the next location we stood outside while she spoke of some dog statues that were outside of a building and a loud clap of thunder seemed to shake the ground. Moira looked up and spoke to the skies, "Please let us finish our tour" She said. We moved on to another outdoor location. This is one of the spots that I actually remember. She pointed at a white stone that was in a red brick wall. It was about 10 feet above my head and really stood out. She told us that there were gems like this all over Tuscany and that  the people found these Etruscan Artifacts and started to use them in their buildings. Because Tuscan buildings are protected, the Artifacts can't be removed and remain there. As we stood there, it started to rain, but luckily our next location was inside. It was another bakery and a very kind couple from new york, let us borrow their extra umbrella, which we were very thankful for because after the bakery the rain really started to come down.

As the rain poured onto the streets, we made our way down slippery stone steps to a tomb. We all climbed into what seemed like a cave made out of sand. It was dark inside, but the light from the entrance kept me calm and Moira turned on her phone flashlight to show us different parts of the tomb. The most interesting thing that I remember about the tomb, is that they were at some point used for cellars for wine and food and things like that because the temperature remained constant inside. They were also used to bury loved ones long ago, but they only had 6 models for figures to show who's grave it was and they would just pick the figure that matched the best. After the tomb, I think we headed straight to the end of the tour because it was still pouring and even with an umbrella, we were still soaking wet. Our last stop was a little restaurant where we got to taste some wine and have some meats and bread. The owners got Chris and I gf crackers to eat which was very nice of them. We only got to try one wine and then we decided to walk back to the car instead of eat lunch there because we just wanted to get back to the condo and get changed and just make some lunch there. It was so nice to be back and in dry clothes and then we spent some time relaxing and being warm. It was wonderful!

Cinque Terra (Five Lands)

At 7am on a bright and sunny Tuesday morning in Tuscany, we we headed out to drive to Cinque Terra for the day. I was beyond excited to be by the water. We had limited time that we would be near the coast while on this trip so I couldn't wait to see the ocean. It took us about two hours to drive to Spezzia which was the town where you can catch a boat to Cinque Terra. The neverlost device could not understand where the Spezzia port was, so we had it take us to the Spezzia city center. At first we were wondering if this would work. Once we got closer to the city center. We started to see signs for Porto, so we started to follow the signs. When we got close to the port, we tried to find somewhere to park. There seemed to be no parking places anywhere. We finally found a spot about a mile or so away from the Port. Once parked, we had to try and figure out he parking meeting in Italian and we were struggling, then a man came up and started to use the machine, so Chris asked, "Parle Inglese" Meaning, "Do you speak English?" The man responded in English and said "Yes, I speak English. Then he proceeded to help us understand the parking meter and pay for our car to be there all night long just in case. He said that his brother lives in the states so he has been there several times to visit him. He not only spoke very good English, but barely had an Italian accent.

After we bid him goodbye, we walked to the port and I'm glad we took the route that we did because along the walk way there was a river that had tons and tons of fish in it. It was really neat. I took a few pictures before continuing one. We managed to make it to the port only getting directions once. We found the tourist area where we could buy tickets for the boat and for the first time in Italy, we ran in to some extremely rude people. When we first walked up to the counter we were completely ignored. Then when Chris said "Bonjourno, Parle Inglese" The man behind the counter rolled his eyes and pointed at the girl that was back there as well. She started yelling at him in Italian like she also did no want to help us. We bought our tickets and they told us where to go in the snottiest most stuck up way possible. It's hard to explain except to say that they both seemed like they had sticks up their butts. After we had our tickets in hand, we saw a little snack bar and decided to grab another coffee. Chris ordered himself an espresso and me a latte. Mine came in this really cool looking tall glass. We sat and drank our coffee and then saw that people were lining up to get on the boat so we prepared to get on as well. Chris had bought a book about Cinque Terra from one of the little shops at the port and we enjoyed reading through it after getting on the boat. The first part of the trip to the 5 villages was fine, but as we got closer the ocean got more choppy and I started to get a little sea sick. Once at the village we were dropped off at we decided to find a place to eat. Where the boat had dropped us off it was very busy and crowded so we decided to walk up the hill. Once at the top of the hill we found this little restaurant that was pirate themed. We were seated right away and the waiter spoke English so after we said that we were both Gluten Free, he basically picked our menu for us, We both had plates of thinly sliced fish that tasted like they had been smoked, there was no fishy taste at all which is my kind of fish. Afterwards he brought us a gluten free pesto pasta to share and then afterwards we had the best panna cotta I've ever had with a ton of seasonal fruits. It was amazingly delicious.

Before we left the restaurant I needed to use the restroom. Each restroom we ran into in Italy had more than one door. Often times there was a door for the sink area and another door for the toilet. I never understood what to do with the doors so I just shut the door to the toilet. I came out to wash my hands and heard some girls saying the word loca a whole lot, which means crazy in Italian. They than came and started doing their makeup in the mirror while I was washing my hands. It was very strange, but it did make me decided to close and lock both doors from then on.

We explored a bit more of that village and then decided to get back on the boat to go to the next village. We walked up to the representative and she said that the boats weren't running anymore due to bad seas. So we decided to take the train to the last villiage where they have the best beach. When entering the train area we saw signs everywhere to watch for pickpockets. There was a dirty old homeless guy who stunk really bad who was following us around and Chris and I were very weary of them and kept our eyes on him. Once on the train he sat a few rows ahead of us so we weren't too worried, but watched him as we left the train.

The last village was very cute. Chris and I wandered around and shopped and then ended up grabbing some gelato and then had a drink at a restaurant on the beach along with some snacks. We wandered around a bit longer and then decided to hop on the train and take it back to the Port in Spezzia. The train ride home was much less eventful which was kind of nice. Once we got back, we were a bit out of sorts since the train didn't really drop us right at he port. We asked a guy in a tourist shop for directions and he pointed us in the right direction and we eventually found our car. It was a fun day in Cinque Terra and we drove home after that and had a nice relaxing dinner in our condo.

The Mysterious Ghizzano Winery

So, in the afternoon after the cheese farm. We didn’t have anything scheduled, and I was okay with this, since I wanted to get some writing in and to enjoy just chilling for a bit. So Chris decided to go down to the lobby to hang out and I stayed in the hotel and pulled out my computer to start writing.Chris had tried to squeeze in another wine tour for the day, but the people at the front desk of the hotel had told us it wasn’t going to happen because the winery wouldn’t do a tour unless we had at least 4 people.  Well around 2:45, Chris came barreling through the door and stated that another couple signed up for the wine tour and that we had to leave. So we suddenly had plans. I was a bit frustrated, but got up and put away my computer and grabbed my things.

We jumped into our little white fiat and headed over to the Winery using never lost. Unfortunately, Never lost  did not recognize the winery and was taking us to the very small village of Ghizzano. As we traveled around, the never lost ended up taking us on a very tiny winding, dirt road, that started to not seem like a road at all and seemed like it was getting smaller and smaller. I started to have a very real sensation that we were about to fall off a Tuscan hill and roll down through a winery. At this point I told Chris that I did NOT feel safe and that we needed to back up and go back the other way.  We slowly backed up and I pretty much thought we were going to die, but we didn’t, we made it safely to a clearing where we were able to turn around and regroup. My anxiety was spiking and we were already 30 minutes late for the wine tour, so I suggested we just go back to the hotel. However, Chris was determined to get to this wine tour. So he suggested that we put Ghizzano back into the never lost and see if we can find it and if we can’t we can head back to the hotel.  I agreed, as long as we didn’t had back towards the tiny, scary, winding dirt road. We ended up finding Ghizzano which is literally this super Tiny village. There are barely any buildings there. We found a place to park that almost didn’t seem like a legal place to park, and then we started wandering around looking for the winery. We walked up a very steep hill and started looking for signs. As we were searching we saw another couple that looked very obviously like tourists and Chris said “Bonjourno” to them to feel them out. When they responded back to us in the same accent as us, we started talking to them in English. Chris said “Are you guys here for a wine tour as well?” They responded “yes” and explained that they had been searching for an hour and that they had found the building that the address had lead them to, but it didn’t seem right. Well shortly after they showed us the door to the building they had found, a very young looking Italian women dressed in a short dress and black pants came out and greeted us. She seemed very surprised to see us, but welcomed us inside. We were very confused because every other winery we had been to had not been in a village, it had been in the middle of the country land. We walked in to this cool cellar like area, and there was a table set up for us with wine, and meats and cheeses. The tour guide explained to us that at Ghizzano they only keep two grape bunches on each vine because they feel that if you do this, the vine is concentrating all of it’s energy on making quality grapes out of those two bunches and not working hard to produce several grapes,  some bad and some good. She said that they do everything by hand to ensure the quality of the grapes and the wine. She showed us their cellar which was inside the same building and it was very dark in there and very medeval looking. It was pretty neat, but also kind a freaky at the same time. I keep thinking all of these old places are haunted, but I never really got that feeling when I was in any of the old building in Tuscany, maybe a little bit in Venice, but that’s another story for another day.

After she showed us the cellar she brought us the table that was all set up for us. We sat down with the other couple and the tour guide explained a little bit about each wine and told us which meat or cheese to try with it. It was the only time any of the wineries had done a food pairing. I mean, there was always food of some kind, but they never said, try this meat with this wine or this cheese with this wine.

The only thing that sticks in my head about the ghizzano wines was the fact that a woman from France had come along and said that she believed French Grapes would grow well in the Tuscany region. So she decided to prove it, so at the Ghizzano winery they have French grapes growing in their fields and they have a merlot mix that is made with French and Tuscan grapes and it was my favorite wine of the bunch, it was very tasty and smooth which is what I need in a wine. We bought the Merlot and the white wine from them even though their wines were more expensive than any of the wines we had seen thus far. 

After we purchased our wine, the tour guide told us she would have the gardens opened for us so we could go look around. She said there are two dogs there, but they are very kind and friendly. So we went an opened the gate to the gardens. They were very pretty and we said hello to the not so vicious guard dogs. After wandering through the gardens for a bit, we told the couple we were with that they should sign up for another winery that was close by called La Spinetta for Wednesday night and they agreed. 

So we hopped in the car and headed back, on the way we stopped for dinner at a restaurant called The Carlos and since we were early, as we often were for meals, we crossed the street and stopped in a clothing shop to look around for a while. Chris looked at some clearance suits and I looked at sweatshirts and other things. As I was shopping a woman who worked at the store came over and started talking at me in Italian and I quickly responded “Me despiacce, Non Copisco” Which means,  I’m  sorry, I don’t understand. She said “Ooh, and then kept talking to me in Italian, but was pointing at things to help me understand. I understood that she was pointing out the discounts on the clothing. We didn’t end up buying anything, but Chris considered coming back for a suit, but never did.

We walked back over to The Carlos and got seated in a part of the restaurant where it seemed they were seating all of the English speaking people because we were mostly surrounded. We had pasta with meat sauce, sea food, GF bread with olive oil and balsamic, French fries and salad and Chris ate some mushrooms. He said if I took a nibble he’d give me a 10 minute back massage and so I did, but still didn’t really like it, but it wasn’t bad. I have already cashed in my 10 minutes massage so it is time for a new bet! We had a lovely day. 

A Lovely Morning at the Cheese Farm

Just down the road from our hotel there was this little cheese farm and it was one of the tours the hotel offered. So we signed up for it and walked down the road for about 5 minutes and found the farm. At first we weren't positive we were in the right place, but then Chris saw people waving to us so we walked in. At first the farm seemed very small, but it actually was a decent size. They house over 40 cows there and there were several medieval cottage like structures on the land. We met a few of the others that were on our tour, they were from the UK. Our tour guide was this tiny little woman named Elena, She was adorable. She had a bow in her hair and was wearing the cutest sparkly pumps as she showed us this farm. Elena didn't speak perfect English so she would occasionally pause or try to get us to help her come up with the words in English, but for the most part we understood her. We learned that the farm is over 500 years old and their family bought the farm 20 years ago. Elena has lived on the farm with her family for that amount of time and she is also a natural medicine doctor. One of the first parts of the farm that she took us to had chickens, baby cows, and my new favorite dog breed the Volpino Italiano. One of the baby calves loved Chris and stood very close to him for the amount of time we were standing there. After that she walked us around to different parts of the farm and showed us a medieval cellar, and her gorgeous bedroom.

After the tour of the farm, we were brought to the little cheese shop where we figured the tour was ending and they wanted us to buy their cheese, but no, that was not the case. Off to the side of the cheese shop, there was a table set up with a table cloth and more than enough chairs for the 6 of us. along with a massive plate of fresh cheese and fresh vegetables with olive oil in the middle. There was also two pitchers of wine on the table. I took the wine thinking it was fresh grape juice, but it wasn't and it was very bitter wine. Chris drank it though, he'll basically drink any wine. We started to nibble on cheese and drinking water and wine when suddenly Elena stopped by to tell us that she was bringing out pasta next. She brought the pasta out and this was after we had already filled up on pasta and cheese. She kept asking us all to eat more and Chris and I were like, we can't eat the pasta, we are gluten free or sanza gluteni. She looked at us with a very concerned look and she said "I'm so sorry, I didn't know." She rushed out of the room with a very upset look on her face and when she returned she brought us rice crackers and olive tampenade along with a bowl of corn. We weren't expecting anything and it was so nice of her. We fully enjoyed the olive tampenade and the corn and more cheese. Then she brought out the fresh grape juice. The grape juice was right down my alley, it was delicious and I drank quite a bit of it.

As we sat around and chatted, the grandmother of Elena came and talked to us, but she didn't speak any English so she literally sat with us at the table and just talked Italian at us. We understood bits and pieces and tried communicating with pictures and numbers, but it didn't really workout so well. She ended up pointing at a painting and trying to explain the painting to us and it's importance and we only understood bits and pieces of that as well. The cheese maker also came in and started talking italian at us, which we understood nothing, and then Elena came back in and helped translate back and forth a little bit.

We felt so entirely spoiled by this little cheese farm and the family and what I like to call the "Tuscan Charm". Everyone in Tuscany was so warm and wanted to get to know you, like really get to know you and understand your life. After we all decided as a group that we were done. We all started to stand up and decide what we were going to buy. The group from the UK went first. They bought some balsamic, some cheese, and some Olive oil and they all said goodbye to us with hugs. Then we handed our stuff to Elena and after we purchased our honey, jam, balsamic, and olive tampenade. Elena came around from the other side of the counter and told us that she truly wishes the very best for us and our relationship and our life, to be honest it was so touching that I almost started to cry. Elena gave us both a hug and we were on our way. I'll never forget that lovely morning on the cheese farm.

The Terricciola Wine Festival

We woke up relatively early so we could have time to eat a little breakfast before we headed out to the shuttle for the Tericciola Wine Festival Winery tour. We were told over and over again by the hotel that the bus would be showing up to the show store near by our hotel where there is a giant boot at 10am that morning. We gathered our things and drove over to the parking lot where the giant boot was. Literally this is a giant boot, it's at least 10 times bigger than the two of us put together if you can envision that. We waited a while and then when there was still no bus at about 10 minutes after 10am, we started to ask around as more people showed up to catch the shuttle. We chatted with a few people to see if they were also waiting for this shuttle and they were, so we waited for a while longer and then decided as a group that we would head to Terricciola and see if we could catch the bus there. We started driving through the city and the roads were very small and some were blocked off for the festival. At the first site of a parking area, we stopped and by some luck we drove by the bus as it was picking up part of the group that had been waiting at the boot. We decided to follow the bus to the first winery. Once we got there we decided to taste some wine quick and then planned on following the bus to the next winery as well. We got to the second winery and they had a tiny little tasting room that tons of people were squeezing into. The family that owned the winery was there serving beans with olive oil and wine. The beans with Olive oil was very good and I would have never thought to have Olive Oil with only beans. It was simple, yet tasty. We tried their wine and I wasn't really a fan, so we bought Olive oil and Chris bought a bottle of wine. We hopped back in the car and no more buses were running so we decided to meet up with Liz and Thomas and make a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off wine and then head out to lunch. I can't remember the name of the place they took us, but we decided to car pool. The restaurant was relatively close to where we were staying and Liz an Thomas had tried it before and said it was great! I got my first taste of true Italian pasta with bolognese sauce and it was amazingly good! Chris had his first taste of Chinguale which is Italian for Wild Boar. They said it was very good! I tried a bite, but felt that the meat was too chewy. Liz and Thomas very kindly paid for our lunch as a honeymoon present. It was very nice of them and probably one of the better meals that we had.

After lunch we headed back to the boot as there was supposed to be a bus leaving from there to go to the wine festival in Terricciola and take us around to more of the wine vineyards. When we arrived we did see a bus there, so we went and asked the driver where he was going and he did not speak any English, so he kept shaking his head. Then I heard him say "Terricciola?" and someone responded "Yes". So at that point we all assumed we were on the right bus. The bus sat there for another 10 minutes or so. We spent time chatting with Liz and Thomas during that time.

So, we thought we were on the right bus right? Wrong. This bus wasn't going to vineyards it was just a shuttle to take us into Terriciola for the wine festival. Once there we asked around to see if we could figure out where the bus that would take us to vineyards was, but no one was really giving us a good answer because we couldn't find anyone who knew anything that spoke English so we just started walking into town. Once there we saw several white tables being set up with men dressed in white shirts, bow ties, and vests that were getting ready to serve wine. We decided that there was plenty of wine to taste at the festival so we decided to stay instead of searching for the winery bus. We spoke to a man who was setting up to sell glasses and he said that we purchase glasses and a little shoulder bag for your glass and then chips for paying for tastings. We all bought glasses and about 20 chips each, which we were glad we did, because we found out later that some wines costed more than one chip to taste.

We started at the white tables to taste wine and there was a beautiful view of the Tuscan Hills from that area, so Liz grabbed us a table and we sat and chatted and sampled wine. It was really fun and then we met a few more people who spoke English who also chatted with us for a while. After a bit, we decided to keep walking into the area that was called "The Garden" It was an area that was surrounded by a fence, there were some restaurants in there as well as more lovely views and of course, more wines to taste. We all grabbed more wine and shortly after a drum line parade started coming through the gates with people dressed in medieval clothing. It was very cool! After the parade we decided to use up the rest of our chips and to find a place to have dinner. We talked to the restaurant owner in the garden to see if we could eat there, but then we found out hat they didn't have anything gluten free. So after we finished our wine, we started to head to where the shuttle was supposed to pick us back up and bring us back to the boot so we could pick up our car. As we walked back we saw a vendor selling clothing on the side of the road. So we stopped and Chris bought me a two sweaters and a pair of black pants. After our mini shopping excursion, we continued to where the shuttle was and it was there when we arrived. We double checked with the driver that he was going back to the boot, and he was so we all shouted out a hooray and got onto the bus.

This time it truly did take us where we wanted to go and where we expected to go. We invited Liz and Thomas over to our condo for dinner and wine and we had a great time with them chatting and talking a bit of politics. It was great to meet some good people in Italy!