Countryside

Today we have decided to visit the wine region of Chianti region. We were in this area before, but this time we are going to visit some towns we missed last time. It is just very pretty driving around here. Unfortunately it is raining a bit today, so didn’t turn out to be the best day.

This scale is on the street that we normally parked our car on, no way was I stepping on it

Congestion ahead sign

We had a great visit in the town of Monteriggioni. Parking is right as you get to the entrance of the city, there are about 20 free parking spots, hundreds of paid spots. Lots of free parking available today. The town is from the 1200’s and there is a nice wall that of course is closed on Tuesdays. Tourist information, closed on Tuesdays. Today is Tuesday. But we did find a fantastic little restaurant that was open on Tuesdays and had a very nice lunch. Had some delicious pecorino cheese with honey, very yummy. It was raining even harder after lunch, so a little disappointing. 

Monteriggioni

We did walk the outside of the wall, some very pretty views 

Monteriggioni - very cute village, wish it would have stopped raining

Lots of free parking available

We moved on driving through the Crete Senesi region which we both really enjoyed. Lots of barren areas here, with driveways lined with Cypress. We hadn't been to this area before

Stopped for many pictures along the road today, so many pretty spots. 

We then drove thru the Chianti region but the rain did not cooperate much.

Stopped at a vineyard wine tasting where I took advantage of a 20 minute driving nap/break while Andre went in for wine tasting. He came out with a bottle of wine for later so all is good. 

Big mess up on the way home and ended up in Florence during rush hour. It was awful, but we survived so all is good. 

Walked around town again tonight, lots of Christmas decorations are lit up, we hadn’t noticed them lit at the beginning of the week. Found a little bit of a new section in town with a Ferris wheel, not sure if it runs during the winter, but pretty quiet back there.

 After supper we went to a ice cream shop where they had lemons and Italian fruit stuffed with ice cream, we have had these in Spain before and loved them.

Tuesday - 5800 steps