Everyone knows everyone... It is Italy, after all.

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Siena & Chianti

Filippo picked us up at 9AM this morning, well it was supposed to be 9AM. He did get to our hotel on time, but we were a bit late getting down to the lobby to meet him, and as he noticed breakfast was being served, he said, "Have a bite, no rush, you're on holiday!" in his thick Italian accent. He was starting to make up for nearly murdering me the other day...

Today, I sat in the front seat, which worked out much better! 😊 I only felt a little queazy once or twice, but nothing even comparable to last time. We drove to Siena, and saw another magnificent church. Apparently, there was a point where they attempted to build the largest church in the world, but again because of the soft soil, they realized that it woud collapse if they continued to build, and had to stop.

We did a lot of shopping today, again just little things. I'm finally starting to look at buying some souvenirs for my friends. It's hard, though, for packing purposes...

Then Filippo drove us to a Tuscan winery, in Chianti. The owners of the winery are good friends of his, and he gave us a full, private tour of the winery and told us how all the wine it is made, aged, and stored. We learned about the differences between many wines, and how there are different levels of wines regarding expense and regulations for how many liberties one may take in how the wine is made. We had a wonderful lunch at the winery, and sat for hours looking over the property of the winery and the endless hills of the countryside. We then had a tasting of various wines and balsamic vinegars. You wouldn't believe the process of even how they make balsamics. It's nearly as complicated and time consuming (I'm talking years here) as the wine. But it certainly was great quality. My dad doesn't even like vinegar, and even he admitted it was very, very good.

We bought six bottles of wine, one to have while we're still here, and one very small bottle of balsamic. At the end of the wine tasting, some people walked in that seemed to know the owners of the winery (everyone knows everyone... it is Italy after all), who were chocolate makers! They let us taste some of their bittersweet chocolate, which my Dad and I

loved

, who really like the high cocoa count chocolates. We have even arranged to order some things from them for Christmas and have it shipped to the U.S.

The drive back was very pleasant, and I have completely forgiven Filippo for trying to kill me. He is truly fantastic, and I'm so glad we found him. He is incredibly knowledgeable about so many fascinating things, and can certainly be entertaining. He seems to really know exactly what kind of time we were looking for and has been so accommodating and flexible. He is making our time here very enjoyable and the long car trips to where we want to visit completely worthwhile.

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Photos

Chianti winery
Balsamic tasting