tuscany

If you haven’t noticed yet, Steve and I love Italy. The food, the wine, the culture – what’s not to love? This weekend’s trip only made us love it more! We road-tripped through the Tuscan countryside, stopping at small towns and wineries along the way, and ended the trip with a visit to Florence and a quick stop in Pisa.

We flew in on Thursday night, grabbed our rental car, and started our drive through Tuscany early on Friday morning. The first stop was San Gimignano, which is a small, medieval hilltop town. We took a walk around the city, grabbed some coffee and admired the history.

San Gimignano

Then it was time to wine taste! We went to the region of Montalcino, which is best known for its Brunello wine (made from Sangiovese grapes). We hadn’t tried this variety of wine before, but we loved it! I’ll definitely be looking out for it at Binny’s when we get back to Chicago. We went to two wineries in Montalcino – Castello Banfi and Poggio Antico.

Tasting at Castello Banfi

My favorite part of this trip (besides the wine) were the rolling hills! Endless vineyards and nothing but green.

Castello Banfi

Views of Montalcino

Tasting at Poggio Antico

Poggio Antico was our favorite winery we stopped at. If you find yourself in Montalcino – go here!

Never a shortage of cypress trees in view in Tuscany.

How pretty!

After the tastings, we went to Pienza where we spent our first night. We stayed at a bed & breakfast just outside the main town. The host was the sweetest Italian woman, who wanted to know everything about us. We spent a while chatting with her and learning all about her farm and the history of her home. We also had breakfast overlooking the rolling hills of Tuscany. Doesn’t get much better than that!

Breakfast was served right outside our room

Views of the city of Pienza from our villa!

Chickens were on sight for fresh eggs in the morning.

More cypress trees lining the driveway.

This is a new kind of pasta that we tried – called ‘pici’, which is a thicker spaghetti made with only flour and water. We had ours with truffles. Yum!

Pienza region views

Steve and Pinuccia, the owner of the B&B we stayed at

The main house of the B&B. I love the brick buildings in Tuscany!

The next morning, we drove to Siena, which is another small town in central Italy. We checked out the Duomo (church), hung out in the main square, and ate pizza!

Duomo di Siena (the Siena Cathedral)

Duomo di Siena

Piazza del Campo in Siena. It is shaped like a shell, but hard to see in this photo.

Every year there is a horse race hosted in this square called the Palio di Siena. Hard to picture this being large enough for it, but it is a popular event!

Piazza del Campo

Typical lunch for us in Italy

The Siena ‘skyline’

After Siena, we drove around the Chianti region, stopping at a few wineries for tastings. Then we went to our hotel, which was a winery as well! We were the only people staying there that night, so we had the entire place to ourselves. We drank wine overlooking the hills and had an amazing dinner!

Driving through the Radda in Chianti region

Radda in Chianti

Wine tasting day #2

We sat at this table at our hotel and drank delicious Chianti wine made by the winery we stayed at. It was such a memorable night!

On day 3, we went to Florence. We spent the entire day wandering around, admiring the churches, and trying to dodge the crowds. Florence is beautiful, but there are SO many tourists, it can be difficult to manage! And like the rest of the trip, we also focused on eating as much pasta and pizza as possible!

Florence has so many unique and beautiful churches – this one is Santa Maria Novella

This is the main church in Florence – Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore

There is never a bad time to stop for a beer

Piazza della Republica

We didn’t have time to visit the museum where Michelangelo’s David statue is held, so we checked out this replica instead.

Basilica di Santa Croce

The Arno river

The bridge in the distance is called Ponte Vecchio – it is lined the whole way with high end jewelry stores.

Views from Piazzale Michelangelo

You can really tell how large the main church is when you have a view from afar!

Abbazia di San Miniato al Monte

Palazzo Vecchio

There is art everywhere in Florence. I read that approximately 1/3 of the world’s most important pieces are here in Florence! This picture was just from the street, but I thought that was an interesting fact!

The biggest gelato cones we could get on our last night in Italy!

Finally, we made a stop in Pisa. We were flying out of Pisa airport… I couldn’t go to Pisa and not see the leaning tower, so we made a quick stop to grab lunch and take a few photos before hopping on our flight home!