97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

As Tara, Steve, Chris and I entered the province of Toscana it wasn’t the beautiful countryside or the endless windy roads lined with vineyards that caught our eye. It was instead the site of a 50cc engine truck with only three wheels barreling up the hill that was barely big enough to fit a two year old in, but somehow two men older than dirt where crammed inside this tiny box of a vehicle. And the second thing we noticed wasn’t the gorgeous walled towns perched on the hilltops, but it was the number of stray cats taking over the area. So the game began – what are there more of in Tuscany? Geezer Cruisers or Feral Gatos. Tara and Steve were “Team Geezer Cruiser” and Chris and I “Tem Feral Gatos”. The rules were that the cruiser had to be in motion with a geezer at the wheel. And if TWO geezers were cruising, then double points. The rules for cat counting are pretty straight forward – no counting the same cats twice, and no walking around with pockets filled of tuna to attract all the strays. So, who do you think won???

Okay, and now for some of the more typical Tuscan wonders…

We had rented a villa in one of the old walled towns known as Certaldo Alto. If you have been to any old town built before cars then you must know how steep and tiny and impassable most of the streets are. Well, our GPS certainly hadn’t been to a medieval town before… It was trying to lead us straight up a “street” that looked to be a 75 degree incline and ended at a brick wall. So we tried to call the villa owner who didn’t speak enough English to understand our troubles in getting there. After driving around trying to find a different route up to this older part of town, we took Tomtom’s advice and drove up this ridiculous street. I really thought the car was going to flip head over tail, but we somehow made it up to the top, only to find that it did indeed end at a brick wall. So now we had to back down the street halfway and try to make a 90 degree turn onto a dirt path that looked like it could get us there (it had a few stairs at the end, but we figured we could make it over the stairs). Our troubles had just begun. Remember that our car is stick shift, and that we are on a wet cobblestone path, and Chris is trying to get the car into gear and make a turn without slipping down the street and off a hill to the side. To try and make the car lighter we all bailed out and left Chris to save the day. After getting the front lodged up on a brick wall and nearly taking out some poor old man’s shrubs, we turned around and went back down the hill. The story ends with us successfully finding another street that we had originally thought was blocked off for construction, but did drive around the Men at Work and made it to Certaldo Alto. It was a charming town to stroll around, but after one night realized that there wasn’t much happening in Certaldo. So on Sunday we began to explore the surrounding area. The first stop was San Gimignano, which none of us could seem to figure out the pronunciation, so it turned at to be known as San Jimmyjimmyjimmy for the rest of the week. We started right in on getting done what we came to do this week – drink wine. There was a wine museum up on the top of the hill in the town and they held a tasting of 6 local wines – we all enjoyed the local white and the Tenute Niccolai Sangiovese.

Monday we piled into the car and headed to the Cinque Terre region – five fishing villages on the Mediterranean Coast that are linked by a dramatically beautiful walking path. We lucked out with the weather and were actually hot in only tee shirts throughout the 8 kilometers we hiked. We began our hike in Rio Maggiore and continued on to Manarola, Corniglia, and Vernazza. It was getting late and we were too tired to go on, so never made it to the fifth village – Monterosso. After the gorgeous hike (which provided some good feral gato sightings) we took off for Pisa to see its Leaning Tower. Word to the wise – don’t go at night. To our disappointment, they didn’t have the Tower lit up, so we took a quick look and had a nice dinner of Leaning Pasta instead.

The town of Certaldo is conveniently located on the train line that got you to Siena and Florence in both under an hour, so we hopped on the train to Siena on Tuesday. Siena is a lovely city to wander around and get yourself lost on the small cobblestone streets. Since most of the shops close at lunch, we had a wonderful meal in Siena and then visited the Duomo and chilled out in the main Piazza del Campo.

We decided to devote Wednesday and Thursday to wine – Chianti and Brunello. I think we all agree that it was much more fun to visit the wineries that maybe didn’t have the best wine, but had a little old couple running the place and so excited to have visitors interested in their passion. The best was a man dressed in a blue onesie and camouflage hat that warmly welcomed us inside and poured overflowing glasses of his table wines. We bought some bottles of Chianti from him and then ordered up his olive oil as well – he went in the back, got a huge empty glass bottle and poured fresh olive oil into it right there for us. It was so green and fresh looking – we can’t wait to get home to drink, I mean, eat it 

Friday rounded out a great week with a trip to Florence. We got a little distracted by the fantastic street markets in Florence on our way to sight seeing, so maybe didn’t see as much as we planned. But after some much enjoyed shopping we did see the Duomo, climbed the Bell Tower, walked across the Ponte Vecchio, and of course, saw the David. That night we cooked a feast and drank too much wine celebrating Tara and Steve’s ENGAGEMENT! Congratulations to them and we are so happy we got to share it with you!

And a shout goes out to Sarah, and her sister – that one’s for you Steve.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We love and miss you all! Enjoy the pictures:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183925983/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152
Sorry if some of these are out of order!

And here is T&S version of things:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=1789kypm.ayd1kfcq&Uy=mfgo1c&Ux=0

- Chris and Taice

P.S. Geezers rule Tuscany. 26 to 22. Good job T and S!