Italia! Finalmente.

Today was the day that my body hated me. I put it through so much hell and so many hours of carrying 60 pound luggage on and off and on train cars, wheeling it through streets, throwing it around the airport and lugging it up seven flights of stairs to get to the hotel room we chose to stay at.
Honestly, I didn't even get to enjoy being in Florence until day two. But day one consisted of a fantastic meal that can not be forgotten. After getting poured on walking to find food, we stopped in a little Mexican bar and restaurant for some food and Sangria. I ordered the vegetarian platter with spicy rice. It came with tomato and cucumber salad, mushrooms, zucchini and beautiful sides of guacamole and salsa with chips. The perfect meal to satisfy an empty stomach. Next on the list was a walk around Florence to familiarize myself with the city and to stomach here and there to take pictures, but the best part was revisiting the gelaterias in the city and watching all the people walk with their cones piled high with multicolored gelato.

The next day was everything that I expected and more. Well, maybe everything that I wished it would be, especially after a day of 10 hours of traveling. A bus left from the train station in Florence to take us on a one day tour of Tuscany. We drove to Siena first, which was about an hour or more outside of Florence. There wasn't really much to see there, but there were a lot of beautiful buildings and piazzas to hang out in. The Church in the city was absolutely gorgeous!
After a few hours or roaming around the city, we hopped back on the bus to drive through the hills and vineyards of Tuscany. Everywhere I looked I would see the lush green pastures filled with grapes and olive trees. Everything I saw was postcard worthy. We got to an organic farm where we were having lunch. This place was unbelievable! There were acres and acres of vineyards, olive trees and farm land for the cattle. For lunch we had Tuscan bread with freshly made olive oil and homemade pasta with tomato sauce. A refreshing salad of lettuce and tomatoes came next made again with local olive oil. The others were served beef with a cream sauce for the pasta, but that wasn't going to go off too well for me. The meal was absolutely delicious and the scenery made it that much better, of course the red and white wines served with lunch helped as well. For dessert we had local dessert wine with almond biscotti. I was extremely impressed and couldn't wait to see what was next on the tour.

San Gimignano, known as the "manhattan" of historical times was quite the little hot spot of Tuscany. It had a skyline of towers and cute streets that had hidden shops and eateries along the way. Everywhere you looked there were perfect panoramic spots to take pictures of the valleys below. The town is home to the award winning best gelateria and the line wrapped all the way down the piazza. It looked delicious!

Our next ride took us through more Tuscan streets and we ended up in Pisa. I was there last year, but another visit couldn't hurt. I got to take more pictures and maneuver through the crowded streets. A great way to end a 12 hour tour of Tuscany. Vegetarian-friendly and breathtaking.