SOCIAL MEDIA

Friday, September 20, 2019

#6 Tuscany, Italy


my time UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN 







Oh, Italy... you just keep serving me views like no other, and it will never. get. old!! I just finished traveling throughout Italy, and out of all the places I went, this one tops the list. Tuscany, especially the places we went, just embodies the feeling and vibes of Italy. 


Its the countless hills and valleys of green and the vineyards on every corner and the classic architecture of the houses that get me (I could go on and on and on). I was extra prepared for this trip after I read through blogs and watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" about 143 times, meaning I was on the lookout for a home to buy and an Italian man to meet up with in Amalfi for a good time. Although none of that happened (it's okay, I am over it), I am prepared to give you allllll the good deets about our few days in Tuscany. So here we gooooo. ***Italian music plays***


Pienza
We arrived by train in Florence pretty early. So, as we preferred, most of the views we got to see were because we rented a car from Florence and drove it through some pretty astonishing towns and cities. What is better than a road trip in flipping Tuscany!!? 

I did not drive because I didn't get an international license before I left the States, but I highly recommend doing so (it is so simple YOU CAN DO IT, unless you are like super young than never mind) and driving a rental car to travel through Tuscany. Let me note that driving in Italy is a little different everywhere. Most of the time in comparison to the U.S. it is a lot more defensive, a little wild, and dangerous, but driving through Tuscany is somewhat of an exception to this. Since roads are a lot more nature-minded (might have just made that word up) and widespread, it is way more chill than any of the other driving I have seen in Italy. My sister in law, who traveled with me, drove for us, and I think it ended up being a lot more successful than she was prepared for as well. 


We drove to Pienza first, which I believe is right next to Siena. After we arrived at our cute little quirky bed and breakfast, featuring another view that could not be better from our room window, we took a cat nap and then popped up to explore the square. We stayed at Piccolo Hotel La Valle, Pienza which was perfectly postioned from everything we explored for the day, and we didn't need to use the car to get anywhere! There we found stoned buildings and endless boutiques full of handmade dishes, clothing, jewelry, and art! 




The view from the square was of course gorgeous. There are always beautiful hills and vineyards to look at.
The view right outside of our hotel window. I would be morning person if I woke up to this everyday.
We hit golden hour on this breathtaking edge of the square with (you guessed it) more phenomenal views and watched the sunset on the horizon. so. darn. pretty, ya'll.


Just a taste of what all these cute houses looked like in the village. This one had less greenery than most did too!


This is an iPhone shot my sister-in-law took. I feel like it really captures the streets the most. It's such an authentic and breathtaking place to explore.



San Gimignano
The next morning we picked ourselves up back in our ugly rental car and drove to our next location for our wine tasting. Since we woke up so late we decided to go straight to the wine tasting to give us extra time in case we got lost and take extra pictures if we decided to veer away for a bit. Too bad it wasn't enough time... well... we got very lost. But, before we did we came across this gigantic field of sunflowers, and I have never seene anything so beautiful. It was SO large and beautiful. WHO DOESNT LOVE SUNFLOWERS?! We got to take pictures there and I even literally ran through the field. I was living my fairytale dream, and it was magic. On another note, I'm sure the wine tasting we were supposed to go to would have been great, but we ended up driving for about an extra two hours essentially between two locations that were nowhere near where we needed to be (THANK YOU SIRI AND GOOGLE). Sooo, we ended going to our hotel first because we were drenched in sweat. Let me also add the heat was legit and it hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit that day. Anyways, I will leave out the bad details of this new hotel to spare you some negativity, but I feel I should inform everyone that the experience was not incredible as far as our room quality went. I will say the staff was very sweet and was more than happy to help schedule us a last minute wine tasting with another company only five minutes away. So in that sense, the hotel was super helpful. They also gave us a map of the town, informed us about close by areas to visit, and explained how we could get to the square by foot which is what we ultimately decided to do. This square was very similar to the one in Pienza, but it felt bigger, and there were a lot more little nooks and caves of rock to explore as well. There were also more churches and a lot of the buildings that were on different levels of hills so it was an exercise and brand new exploration in one package. By the end of the day, however, I think we were both satisfied and happy with our day. This tends to be a pattern on our trip (haha). We also found a spot thanks to our hotel to make up our wine tasting where this woman just gave us each three full glasses of wine and an entire plate each of appetizers. Needless to say, I was chill that we skipped out on our last wine tasting.



Remember that one time I told you we found a sunflower field and took pics? Well no one asked but here you go.

Yes, this is me running through a field of sunflowers, and yes it was everything I thought it would be and more.
 The views never end dudes. Just drop all your stuff and go to friggin Tuscany already, okay?



 This is the town center where all the people always seem to be just chillin.
Ok quick story; we thought this was just so pretty so I insisted we climb down and walk through the entire trail to see where it leads. It was very far, and it got scary man. We ended up having to climb back up a very long and steep way, so that was a blast. I have the best ideas.
I just felt this picture needed to be here. This is my face after I finished the wine tasting. It was great.


NOTICE to all my people who are reading right now: you are the best. AND I have good news. I took the least amount of pictures out of all the places I went in Tuscany, meaning that you have a crapload of pictures and stories coming at you in all of my new entries. I hope you enjoy my not-so-professional way of writing because it is the only way I know how to bust out a whole entry for you. If you feel inclined than by all means sign for my email subscription so you are able to get noticed of any new articles published to my blog!

I would love it if you would follow me on instagram to stay up to date on my travel in real time!!
I would also love it if you checked out my vlog on youtube of my entire Italian summer!

xoxo, Carly Grace

Post a Comment