Venice, How I Love you!

On Thursday morning we got up early and headed to Venice. It was about a 4 hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was taking us across. We ho.pped in the car with a backpack filled with things for one night and turned on our Never Lost device. We weren't sure how long it was going to take us to get there, and we also weren't entirely sure what we were doing. We spent the morning chatting about different things, but as soon as we got close, Chris asked me to read an article that he had sent himself. It was basically about how to park outside of Venice. There were a few different options, the cheaper options were parking farther away and taking a longer shuttle ride, or you could park on land that was connected to Venice by a floating road. We decided to go the cheap route and followed the instructions in the article. When we found the parking lot that was mentioned, it was completely empty with no attendants. Chris got out of the car and tried to figure out what was going on, but all the signs were in Italian and it no one was around to ask. We decided to get back in the car and continue to drive down the road. We kept driving until we came up to a small pier that had a tiny little building. There was a man speaking to another group of people right ahead of us and he was speaking in Italian. I was a bit nervous, because I was so horrible with Italian and I was the one closest to the window he would be speaking to us in. I rolled down my window and he walked up to us and immediately said "Do you speak English?" and we were like "Yes, English". He spoke very fluently in English, though he did have a very thick accent. He told us we could park there for free and then they would shuttle us to Venice, then he showed us the pick up times for the next day, the latest one being at 5pm. He also helped us find our hotel on a map and then not too long after he finished talking to us, the shuttle was about to leave. We hopped on the shuttle boat and waited for about 10 minutes or so before it took off. We put away our maps and the shuttle times for the next day, just so we wouldn't get lost or miss our shuttle.

When we stepped off of the boat, I was immediately in love. The first thing I said when I took the first few buildings was "This is soo cool!" We walked along the cobble stone streets and wondered at the beautiful old buildings. They all seemed to be painted in yellows and pinks mostly. Since the canals replace roads, we were almost always in view of the water. On our way to find our hotel, we saw these taxi boats, and thought we might utilize those sometime. We wandered through different alleyways, and over little bridges in search of our hotel. When we finally found what we thought was our hotel, Chris walked in and asked them if they had an Amanda Olson who had reserved a room. They were having a tough time finding anything, so he offered his name as well. No such luck. Chris suggested that I look up the reservation and I had to remind him that we left my phone back at the hotel in case of pick pockets. He handed me his phone and I logged in to my email and found the reservation, I handed the phone to Chris and he walked up to the front desk and showed them. Apparently we were at the wrong Best Western. The concierge at the hotel pointed us in the right direction, they said we would have to get on line B to Santo Marco and get off and our hotel would be close by. I had seen these areas that almost looked like subway stations, but were boats instead of trains.So we had to find our ways to one of those stations. We ended up having to go over some bridges and around some walls. We found our way to one of the stations. We were a bit confused as to how to work the ticket machines and we heard a couple of people speaking English so I told Chris he should ask them. He walked up to them it seemed like they were on a father/daughter trip as the man looked like he was in his 70s and she looked like she was in her 50s. Chris asked the woman if she knew how to get tickets. She said that you can buy them on the boat and asked us to follow her and her Dad. We got on the next boat and bought tickets for the day from the guy on the boat. I'm not sure what to call his position, but basically he shouted out the next station we were coming up to as we arrived at it, and he opened the gates to let people on and off. He also sold tickets on the boat. It actually seemed like kind of a fun job, doubt it pays well, but still it looked kind of fun. Anyways, we basically had to take the boat to the end of the line. Once we made it to our stop, we got off and found our actual hotel. We checked in and brought our things to the room. Our room was tiny and the bed was ridiculously uncomfortable. We decided no to hang around for long. We hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was late afternoon so we had kind of missed the boat on that. We asked the hotel if there was anywhere that was open, they told us there were a lot of restaurants near by, but they were all closed. They mentioned there was a bar open right down the road so we headed over there. We decided to just get some snacks, we grabbed chips, ice cream, and drinks. Chris asked the bartender what they had to drink that was a typical local drink. The bartender, who spoke perfect English said that a Spritz was  their local drink. It is basically wine, liqueur, and soda water. Chris let the bartender pick his and I asked for something on the sweet side. Chris's came out red, and mine was orange. The bartender served us our snacks and drinks and while he was sweeping off the patio he was informing us on where to go in Venice and what restaurants to hit up. We both drank our spritz's and Chris liked mine better than his and decided he would get the same kind I got next time. After we finished our snacks, we tipped and thanked our waiter/bartender since he was all sorts of helpful and decided to get back on the boat subway thingy, and head back into the main part of town. Once we arrived back to the St Marks Square, we realized if we wanted to book any tours we would have to find the place quickly since they closed in about 20 minutes. We ran through Venice trying to find the place.

When we finally found the place, it was a building that really didn't have any markings on it, but Chris rang the doorbell and they let us in and we had to walk up a winding staircase to get to the tiny tour guide office. We got in and we booked some walking tours for the next day. I had wanted to do a picture tour where you dress up in costumes and they take pictures of you around Venice, but they required at least 4 people for that so we weren't able to book that, I was super bummed. After we were all booked and paid for, we used their bathroom, which was a mess and very strange looking.

We decided to wander around Venice a bit and look at some of the shops. I wanted to find Chris a ring that fit him better, I had seen some earlier when we were trying to find the tour guide place, but I couldn't find my way back to that shop. After shopping, we decided to see if we could find the restaurant that the bartender had told us about. On our way, we had a waiter stop us and offer us 10% off if we ate at his restaurant and he would feed us right away, since dinner was about an hour away, we considered this offer. It turned out that the restaurant we were looking for was just down the road and they weren't open until 7pm, so we decided to go with the first restaurant. The waiter seated us right away and we had our pick of where to sit as not a soul was in the restaurant at that time. Chris chose a table that was outside. I immediately noticed that we were in the ugliest place in Venice. The walls were gross and dirty and there was nothing pretty about the spot we chose. We ate dinner, which wasn't that great in my opinion. Chris drank an entire bottle of wine by himself and ate most of the food. A man came while we were waiting for our bill and forced a rose into my hand trying to coax Chris to buy it for me. I don't really like flowers that aren't either in a pot or in the ground because the joy of them only lasts so long and then they die, so I really didn't want the rose, but the man was so pushy and Chris and been drinking so he bought it for me. Unfortunately, when we left the restaurant, I left the rose there by accident, so I enjoyed it for only a very small amount of time. After we left the restaurant, I was hankering for some panna cotta. We started to wander the streets of Venice in search of panna cotta for dessert. We kept checking menus as we walked by and finally we found a place that had it on the menu. When a waiter came over, Chris said, do you have panna cotta? And the waiter replied "Yes" and so Chris said great, a table for two please." The waiter looked at him, confused and said "Just Panna Cotta?" Chris replied "Yes" The waiter shook his head and said, "Just a second" He disappeared inside the building and came out a few seconds later to say that he would seat us in 5 minutes. We said "Are you sure?" and he said "Yes, just give me 5 minutes". After less than 5 minutes had passed he sat us next to an English couple. We ordered our panna cotta and decaf coffee and lemonciello. The Panna cotta was okay, but nothing compared to the amazing stuff we had in Cinque Terre. Chris started to chat with the British man next to him and we started to chat with the two of them. They were so fun. They were leaving on a cruise of the Greek Islands the next day. They were telling us about their children and grand children, and talking about the different stages of life, especially after they heard that we were just married. The woman, whose name was Cristine, but went by Cris, told me that children are a must and they change you life, but for the better. She was very convincing. We chatted about all sorts of things and the British man, whom we cannot re-call the name of, kept buying us more Lemonciello, I think he bought us 6 in total. Cris said that on her honeymoon she stole things from the places they stayed at as a memory of their trip, and she felt I needed to steal the Lemonciello glass. She was hiding it for me in her lap right before we all left and her husband was like, "We are not stealing a glass". I agreed, I'm not really one for stealing, I don't like getting in trouble, besides my mother in law bought us very similar glasses to the ones we used that night when we returned. So it all worked out. Cris was quite the character! We spoke about the people who were coming over from Syria and how the English weren't ready to take them in, and the husband told us about his travels to the US and how he felt that there were two kinds of Americans, those who travel and those who don't. He said he feels like the we have all we could every want in our country without ever leaving it so he feels that is why some Americans don't travel. I thought that was an interesting theory and Cris said that she felt that we were lucky to have everything we could ever want or need within our own country. I guess I never really thought of it that way, which is why I feel the need to travel! We left them to get ready for their cruise and headed back to our hotel. It was far later than we thought and the boat subway thingys weren't running very often and both Chris and I had to pee very badly. It was one of those moments where I wished I were a guy. Anyways, so we eventually found our way back to the hotel, when we got up to our room, we realized that we needed to put the key in to the lights to get them to work. Once we did, they kept shutting of and making the room pitch black. This was freaking me out especially while I was trying to go to the bathroom. Once finished, I came out and started to troubleshoot the light situation. I figured out that the card was in upside down and once I put it in correctly, the lights stayed on. As I got ready for bed, I searched the room for bugs as I always do, in any room and found two giant Daddy Longlegs in both corners on either side of the bed on the ceiling. I pointed them out to drunk Chris who at first didn't seem like he was willing to kill them for me. Well then he realized he was married to me and better help me out. Unfortunately his drunk self isn't the greatest bug killer and he missed both spiders, he had to smack at them both several times and they both fell to the ground, but only one of the bodies was found. Because of this my sleep was very broken, I woke up every hour or so checking to make sure where wasn't a spider in my face. It was a fun night!

The next day we packed up our stuff, checked out of the hotel and then left our back pack with the front desk so we could explore a bit more before our boat taxi picked us up. We had a lovely free breakfast at the hotel with mini jams, and GF rice cakes, fruit, eggs, and meat, and of course coffee. After our tummies were full, we hopped back on the boat and found our way to where we were able to meet our tour guide for the walking tours. We toured Saint Mark's Square and St. Mark's Basilica. Both were interesting and beautiful, but I was far more interested in our second tour, which was of he Doge's palace. We got tons of pictures of both places and a few videos. It was so interesting to learn about the Doge and how he was only the face of the government and had no real power. He was able to live at the palace with his wife and was the doge for life.

After the tour we decided to do a canal tour and Chris was trying to get us on our own canal for a romantic ride, however, the canals were crazy busy and there was a group of four that was trying to find two more people to ride with them to make it cheaper. I told Chris that I was fine with sharing. I mean it would have been nice to have our own ride, but seriously, they were so busy. We ended up sharing the ride with some young guys from Brazil and a girl who didn't talk to us much. They spoke English so we got to know them a little bit. We all took turns taking pictures of each other while our Gondola driver spoke in Italian to someone on his cell phone. The other people in our boat kept moving, it was making me nervous, and at the same time that I almost said something, the Gondola guy yelled at them and told them to stop moving for just one second. He was very rude and I did not like him at all. But the Gondola ride was still nice and we got lots of great photos. After the ride we needed to get back to the hotel to grab Chris's Backpack and then head over to catch our taxi back to the main land. Unfortunately we were running late. The worst part of Venice was Chris pushing my physical limits to try and make it to the damn taxi. Well we definitely missed it and once to the pick up point I decided to sit for a while to catch my breath.

After my breath was completely caught up, we took it nice and slow to the bus station where we were able to get tickets, we had to stand the whole way, but we made it back to the first parking lot we had stopped at. Then we got to walk for a mile to get back to our car. We were very happy to see our car and even happier to see our condo and for some bug free sleep in a comfy bed. Regardless of our hardships, I loved Venice and will go back before it goes under water.

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!

Moira and the Almost Famous Painter

We met Moira outside of the lobby of our hotel after a nice lazy morning in our condo. Moira introduced herself and said that the painter was already waiting for us at the winery where we would be having our lesson. We hopped in our little, white Fiat and followed Moira to the Winery. The funny thing was that we realized that we had already been  to that winery the day before. We had seen an open sign and had gone in for a tasting and a tour. We showed up and the painter came and introduced himself and Moira translated for him as he talked to us. He wanted us to pick a spot and then we would paint any view that we wanted to. I have been obsessed with the beauty of the Tuscan Hills, so I chose a spot where we had a great view of the Tuscan hills and Chris decided to paint the winery area which was called Castle Vecchio. I am not a painter and I had Moira tell the artist Leopoldo that, so that he wasn't expecting anything great. Leopoldo spoke through Moira and gave us some pointers as we went. First we started to sketch, and I started by sketching in the hills and then added in some random trees, roads, and wind mills in the background. I though I might be putting in too much details for a beginner painter, but I figured I'd try. I was told that the trees that were far away were too big, so I kept had to make them smaller and smaller. Then he taught us how to make it look like there are rocks in the hills, which I picked up pretty well. Chris of course became an expert painter on his first try, He is so smart he is good at EVERYTHING!! After we finished our paintings and got very sunburned, Moira led us to a table that was set up right outside of the winery that had meat and cheese and wine on it. We drank wine and ate cheese and meat and chatted with Moira for quite a while. It was really nice and we were very surprised as to how long Moira stayed and chatted with us. We gave her a tip and we ended up buying the Rose wine from the winery since I was really enjoying it while we were talking. The winery reopened while we were there and we all went inside and I decided I needed to try a shot of grappa, without knowing what it was. It is apparently hard liquor made from grapes and it was very strong and since Chris was the driver, I couldn't pass it off on him. I finally finished it and then Chris and I decided to head off after we said goodbye to Moira.

After our painting extravaganza we decided to head straight to Monteregionni which is an old medeval village surrounded by a wall. We still hadn't learned our lesson about the Italians eating lunch at 12 and dinner at 7, so we decided we would grab a snack at the walled village. Once we got there at about 4pm or so, There were no restaurants open for food. We ended up getting some chips and some meat and water even though what we really wanted was something more substantial.

Monteregionni is a very cool place, the roads are all cobblestone and when up on the wall you can see an amazing view of the Tuscan hills. The walled city was attached many times and was only every taken over once. They still use the city for visitors and for a medeval festival where people come dressed in medeval garb. It was very cool! After we explored, we decided to head back to our condo to make dinner since we knew we could make something gluten free and weren't sure about the restaurants there.