Now that the weather has finally (HOPEFULLY) decided to cooperate and participate in the season; we have been able to do more outdoor exploring.
The past few weeks have been a mixture of venturing into the pouring rain in the City Center for a dinner or drink and hiding in the confines of our apartment safely out of the harm of the treacherous weather outside.
Saturday: My friend Georgette found a special AEGEE trip (for students abroad) which we were welcomed to participate in. The itinerary included a day on the beach in Bibbona where I acquired the initiation sunburn that I seem to get every year at the first sign of summer. I guess we really are Irish/English… and I spent all these years making others believe that I was sun-tolerant, I guess it’s time to face the truth now.
We spent a few hours just basking in the sun and made one small attempt the test the waters, and our toes told us that the water was not quite ready for us yet! Maybe next time Medi, maybe next time.
After we headed toward Bolgheri to a famous vineyard, Guado al Melo, where we learned all about the wine fermentation process and sampled some wines and treats from Tuscany. We discovered that one of the wine pourers was quite generous, while the other was quite stingy and seeing that we didn’t have anywhere to be, we drifted to the generous. What’s the point of being stingy, really?
Last, we hiked the hill that is the town of Bogheri and once reaching the top and snapping some photos of the view; where I also found pictured orange and then discovered it was not actually growing there, we headed into the shade of the nearby bar patio and retired with a glass of Prosecco. If that’s not La Dolce Vita I don’t know what is.
I paid for the sunburn later.
Prosecco.
Sunday: Originally the plan was to attend the Sagra in a town that I cannot pronounce or remember and eat too much Tortelli and Cinghiale (wild boar) but when Lorenzo’s BFF Lorenzo (who will forever be known as Corti in all my blogs and conversations) told us he was not impressed we decided to fly by the seat of our pants and see where we landed. That was Monteriggioni; the town featured in Assassin’s Creed (I learned this in the car on the way there, I had no previous knowledge). So, 45 minutes later we walked through the gates of yet another Tuscan town. We found the least touristy looking restaurant and sat down. One hour later we were confronted with a big bill and not so satisfied with our choice, better luck next time.
After lunch we stepped out into the… RAIN! WTF Tuscany, it’s not funny anymore… it’s JUNE!!! Land of summer sun my ass. The cloud of doom seemed to be lurking over this little walled city and was completely surrounded by blue skies to bathe the neighboring countryside in sunshine. Ugh. I got a lot of shit for wearing flip flops but I’m sorry even in “rainy” Seattle I would have been wearing them for the last month problem free. I’m starting to not believe all the hype about these
Mediterranean summers.
Anyway, we grabbed a gelato and huddled under an archway and when there was a sign of stopping we jumped the chance to explore. We opted out of the Weapons Museum which was one room full of medieval weapons that you could pay E3.50 to see. Instead we each handed over E1 to “walk on the wall”. You can see from my photos that although the walkway was about 50 ft long, the views were great and we took advantage of the photo opps.
Then the rain started again, and this time it felt more like hail. We decided the little town of Monteriggioni was seen and ran for the car.
Things are looking up today, for the weather that is… we’ll see if this one pans out.
