Day Trips in Florence

(April 7 – April 8)

Castello Del Trebbio and the Tuscan countryside

Matt and I

Self explanatory

The Siblings at the second vinyard

Family time drinking wine

Bottle of wine from the second vinyard

Family Shot

Wine vines (say that 5 times fast)

The Group gathered at Castello Del Trebbio

Kevin and I in Castello del Trebbio

The Piazza in Siena

Siena

Siena group

Siena Duomo

View from the rooftop

Storytime atop the tower

The beginning of the sunset

Liam and I (the sun was in my eyes...I swear I'm not that creepy)

Siena rooftops

Not only did Florence provide us with a beautiful city to reside in and explore, it also served as a great launching point for a pair of day trips that we took: one to the small town city Siena, and another to Chianti country for a wine tour.

First things first, I’ll discuss with you the trip to Siena. As I stated in my last blog, on our third day in Florence, we spent the morning in a museum and then half the group divided and headed out to Siena for the afternoon – not really knowing what to expect of the small city. In retrospect I suppose that my lack of expectations played into my greater appreciation for the tiny jewel in the Tuscan countryside.

Siena was about an hour and a half (2 hours with the rail traffic) from Florence, and about 15 of us headed out to see it. After taking an event-filled, accidental trip around the city via bus, (one where I got to test a bit of my Italian) we headed in through the opposite side of the city wall.

Our first stop once we were inside the city walls was the center of town, Il Campo. We arrived in the warm afternoon sun and spent the first hour in the city just relaxing and eating lunch on the brown stone piazza. After relaxing and taking a group photo we made our way over to tour some of the city.

The warm sun beating off the narrow back alleys creates the aura of small town Italy that is something that can rarely be described and really only felt. Once we finished in the Campo, we made our way from the campo to the Duomo. We bought a ticket which gave us access to the Duomo, the Crypts, the Baptismal, and the Museum. After spending a significant amount of time in the cathedral, which was checkered black and white – it reminded me of the Genova Cathedral – we headed into the museum. Our time in the museum was relatively swift, as we shuffled from room to room. However, the highlight of our trip was following the museum experience.

At the tail end of the museum was a large vantage point which provided spectacular views out of the Siena roof tops. We sat in the sunset’s rays for nearly an hour enjoying each other’s company sharing laughs and stories and watching the Italian countryside lit up by the orange solar rays. Our trip to Siena finished with an interesting finale which was marked by our decision to “walk back” – the train station is harder to reach than we imagined – and the two hour ride back provided a much needed rest after a long day of sightseeing.

The day after Siena, the Loyola Crew (my family included) set out on the annual Chianti wine tour. Our tour bus, was guided through the Italian countryside by our infamous long-haired tour guide Todd Bolton – who provided us with an array of knowledge not only about the history of Italy and the process of wine making, but more interestingly about the very aspects of Italian wine that we would be experiencing in the Tuscan region.

Our trip included two wine and olive oil producers and a stop in between for lunch. We learned about the many qualities of the Italian wine and about the history of the wineries in which they were produced. The first stop at Castello del Trebbio, which was originally an outpost for the Pazzi family who were the nobles that were the major rival for the Medici family in Florence who periodically attempted to dethrone the Medicis – even taking an attempt to kill off the Medici bloodline while the Medici brothers were receiving the Eucharist at mass.

The second vineyard was a much smaller family owned place in which we were able to get a behind the scenes look at both the process of growing the grapes, wine making, and wine storage. The little place we visited had a great selection which Todd Bolton navigated us through with care. The wine tour was an enjoyable and relaxing activity for the group and proved to be one of our most cherished moments from the trip – I mean what’s not to like about being picked up and dropped off at fancy wineries for free?

However, the day after the wine tour, we boarded a bus and headed south of Florence to the capital city Rome. Unfortunately the end our time in Florence also bid the end of my time with my family, who I was sad to see go – though don’t feel too bad for them, they spent 12 days traveling through Italy also!