Under the Tuscan Sun

Mustafi, the cab driver who took me to the Seven Bridges Hotel from the airport when I first arrived in Amsterdam, was scheduled to pick me up at 9:30am this morning to take me back to Schiphol. Breakfast would arrive at 9am, so I knew that I had to wake up early if I wanted to get my last run in before it was time to leave. When I woke up at 7:30am, the sun was already out, so I didn’t have any excuse. Wanting to take in the sights and sounds of the city one last time, I got ready and headed in the direction of Vondelpark… or so I thought. I ended up making the wrong turn on Prisengracht and went towards Amstel. I quickly backtracked but didn’t get to VondelPark until I was already 15 minutes into my run. I wasn’t able to run the entire park, but did end up with a nice canal house tour on today’s route before I arrived back to the hotel. After Pierre delivered my final breakfast, I quickly checked out because Mustafi had arrived early. Thankfully, he and Gunter (the other owner) carried both of my bags up the steep stairs and into the taxi.
For the first time during my European trip, I did not have to go through Customs coming to or from Amsterdam, nor did anyone stamp my passport either coming or going. I was hoping that I could fill my passport with stamps from every country that I visit, but unfortunately that won’t be the case. My flight to Milan was smooth and quick. I made it to the gate with over an hour and a half to spare until my connecting flight to Florence. After unsuccessfully trying to access the airport’s Wi Fi Network, I saw Alex coming down the escalator towards our gate. I met Alex during our freshman year at USD and we have remained close friends ever since. Our trips to Lake Havasu, Cabo San Lucas, Madrid, and Napa Valley have resulted in some of my fondest memories. The last time we saw each other was this past Christmas when he and Ken stopped over on their way to Kauai to party on Oahu for just one night. We were both looking forward to meeting up in Italy and exploring Tuscany together.
Having time to kill before our next flight, we found a pizzeria and enjoyed our first real Italian pizza and caprese salad for lunch. Even the airport pizza in Italy is yummy! After a short hop over to Florence, we disembarked off of the plane, down the tarmac, and loaded onto a bus where we successfully picked up all of our bags. Thankfully, Alex took care of the car rental arrangements and he even made sure to obtain an international driver’s license before he left San Diego. Although the attendant directed us to Stall 90 (where an Alfa Romeo was parked), reality soon kicked in when we matched the license plate numbers to the key chain. The only two requirements were cold-blowing A/C and space enough to fit all of our baggage, and our car was equipped with both. Giulio, owner of La Limonaia (where we will be staying for the next week), gave us directions to the B&B from Firenze airport. It took us about 45 minutes due to a couple of wrong turns, but for the most part, our first drive through the Tuscan Hills was a success with one minor exception. We both neglected to see the large rock at the base of the narrow entrance to the back road down to our hotel. The screeching sound gave us a good indication that our rental car did not go unscathed.
La Limonaia is atop the Tuscan village of Bagno a Ripoli. It sits on over 2 acres of land and there are two rooms, which share a common living area. The kitchen and breakfast area is next door to our room, and the adjacent courtyard boasts olive trees, grape vines, and is everything that I pictured a Tuscan villa to be. Giulio was there to greet us and take our bags up to the room. Luckily for us, Alex and I have the entire B&B to ourselves during our weeklong stay. Once we settled in, Giulio invited us into the dining area where we feasted on local Italian cheese, cherry tomatoes, locally-made olive oil, fresh fennel salami, bread, and of course red wine. The most delicious and unique part of the antipasti that he served us was his friend’s homemade truffle honey, which he poured over the cheese. The pungent truffle flavor combined with the sweet honey and richness of the cheese paired unbelievably well with the red wine. There are many reasons why I love Italy…the food and wine top the list.
Alex was running on 2 hours of sleep for the past 30 hours, so we debated as to whether we were going to call it a night, or if we were going to power thru. We decided on the latter after Giulio showed us how easy it would be to take Bus 33 into Florence. We left at 8:30p and 15 minutes later we were dropped off at the most famous bridge in Florence, the Ponte Vecchio. Having no plan, we spent an hour admiring the sun as it was setting over the Ponte Vecchio. We met a couple from the Netherlands who we chatted with while trading off the “hi, I don’t know you, but can you please take our picture” exchange typical of all vacations abroad. It was getting close to European dinner time, so we found a quaint restaurant with outdoor seating and shared four antipasti dishes (bruschetta - the Italian cherry tomatoes are bright red, firm, yet sweet and the extra virgin olive oil is unlike any in the US; fritto misto mare - fried calamari, shrimp, fish; risotto with asparagus; and tagliatelle con porcini mushrooms). OMG! The food was incredible. On our way home (after a short stop at the gelateria for Alex), we met an Italian-Canadian family who had been vacationing in Italy for 3-1/2 weeks. Their story was not unlike the stories of other families that I have met along my journey thus far. I look forward to having a family of my own someday to travel with and discover previously unvisited countries and learn about different cultures around the world. We arrived at the Bagno A Ripoli bus top little after 11:30pm. On the short ride back to the hotel, I couldn’t help but think of all the fun we were going to have exploring the Tuscan countryside.

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