Florence, Day 2
FREE DAY IN FLORENCE CAN I GET A “SAY WHAAAAT?!”
This entire trip, we’ve been getting up anywhere between 7:30 and 8:00am, so it was nice when we got the chance to sleep in until 9. We woke up and Beth, Em, and I got breakfast at the hostel and departed for the day. Our master plan for our free day in Florence was to somehow, one way or another, was to get onto a Vespa tour. Obviously, we achieved that goal…but it was quite the journey to get there.
We were very upset after we visited two different excursion offices and were turned away both times. However, after an iced coffee and some retail therapy, we found a place online that ran sunset Vespa tours in the Chianti region. I know what you’re thinking…three people find a Vespa tour online and just go for it??? No worries…we checked reviews and went to their physical office – all clear. In fact, the girl who worked at the front desk grew up in the Philly area and studied communications at The University of Pittsburgh. Talk about a small world…
On our way to that office, we happened to pass a vintage store. I had always dreamed that I’d find a second hand store in Europe, but I had heard that there were few. My heart is sad that we only had about five minutes to spend in there; it was hands down the best vintage store I have ever been in. Em managed to find an adorable shirt right off the rack and bought it (and I supported that decision).
After meeting the former Pitt student, who moved to Italy and learned the entire language (fluently) four years ago, we stopped to find some lunch. Per her recommendation, we went to a restaurant called I Ghibellini. Once we looked at the menu, it became clear to us: we needed to order a famous Florentine steak. Florence is famous for its mega-sized steaks that cost at least €50. These steaks can also weigh like two pounds…
Between three people, it was the perfect amount. However, I’d like to take this time to give a shoutout to some recent Italia travelers – Tim and Jess. They traveled to Italy last month, and had a run-in with one of the famous Florentine steaks, in the fashion of Tim ordering one for himself not knowing the size, then proceeding to finish it himself. Not all heroes wear capes, y’all. Anyways – S/O to you guys!
Here’s a picture of our steak. It’s traditionally served rare, which made me very happy (thanks to Mom for cooking steak the right way. Yes, I said it), so it’s pretty rare. Beth normally orders steak medium-well, but said she may have to reconsider that after eating this (my job here is done). It was without a doubt the best steak I have ever had in my entire life. It’s going to be hard for me to go back to “steakhouse” steaks in the US. And with me, Em, and Beth tackling that puppy, it was gone in under 30 minutes.
The Vespa Tour
After we finished with dinner, we went back to the tour office and loaded up into the van with our guide, Leo. We drove about 20 minutes out of the city through beautiful mountain ranges and quaint little towns. We arrived at Castello del Trebbio, an ancient castle turned winery and olive oil refinery. Already, we were taken back by the beautiful view…this is the part of Italy that I so desperately wanted to experience but haven’t really gotten to. It was so quiet, and we could see miles of land just from where we were. There’s nothing like mountains and rolling hills.
When reading the description of the excursion, we saw that there was going to be a wine tasting, but we had no idea how extensive it actually was. Beth and I both agreed that we had the best wine of our lives in that little room overlooking the acres of vineyards. The comedic aspect of this is that neither of us have any sort of extensive experience with wine…at all. Drinking wine is an entirely new concept to me, so getting to taste bunches of different kinds in Italy has been pretty cool. They also served amazing cheese, salami, olive oil on bread, and bruschetta.
After the wine tasting (we didn’t have that much), we went for a tour of the wine cellar, which was amazing and kept making us think we were in the second Parent Trap movie when Dennis Quaid’s character pulls out the old wine from his wedding with Natasha Richardson’s character…so good.
We saw the big barrels, the traditional terracotta ones, and also TONS of aging wine. There was a shelf from the 70s sitting there – covered in dust. The whole wine making process is pretty fascinating, if you ask me, and getting to see and hear just how much work they put into it now, every day, was so interesting. They also showed us where they make the olive oil. They actually wake up, pick olives all morning, then they have extra virgin olive oil by the late afternoon.
We finished up the tour of the wine cellar and got to take some pictures before it was time to hop onto the Vespas. I am not kidding when I say this…the view from this mountain literally helped me breathe better. There’s gotta be science behind that, right?
So the next two hours of my life was a dream…or at least I am convinced it was. We drove our vespas all throughout the mountains, and the sun was shining so beautifully across the mountains. Operating a Vespa was just SO MUCH FUN. Talk about breathing better…I felt like I had all of the oxygen in the world available to me while I was on my little green moped. We rode up the mountain following our guide, Leo. We had some pretty cool people on the tour with us: a mother/daughter duo from Australia and two best friends from Florida. There were only seven of us, so it was easy to stay together as a pack.
Our first stop was at a little overlook where we took some pictures of the scenery and, of course, us on the Vespas.
We continued along with our tour, and my heart was beating fast but was also so happy. We went up and over little hills, around some bends, and through an adorably quaint little town. After we passed the town, we made it to the top point of our journey and the sun was shining so beautifully over everything, including the little castle where we started! I included a bunch of pictures to show just how beautifully the clouds and light shifted just in the 20 minutes we were standing there. Remember that you can click on any of them to make them bigger!
And here are some more pictures of us, all of which were taken on Emily’s phone, either by her our Leo:
Our way back down to our starting point was just as fun as our trip up, even though it was sad coming to a close. We packed away the Vespas and headed back to the city of Florence, where we said goodbye to Leo and our other four friends we had spent the last four hours with.
The three of us talked about the Vespas for the rest of the night, before all deciding it was time to retreat for the night. As per usual, I’m up pretty late writing this blog. But I don’t mind, because I like writing it all down when it’s still fresh in my mind. These blogs are really helping me be more mindful about the happenings of my days, and they’ve proven to be rather therapeutic.
I talked to my mom for about an hour tonight, which was lovely (first time having a long conversation since I left!), and now I’m listening to James Taylor’s greatest hits album as I can feel myself gliding through the mountains of Tuscany like I was just eight hours ago.
Tomorrow, early morning, we leave for Venice. We’ll only have an afternoon there, but I’m still excited to see the city of bridges. Stay tuned for more adventures!
Peace + love,
Carrie