Back to Blogging!

Sorry for the pause in blogs, as a lot has happened since the famous Waffle Sandwich. We went from Florence, to Venice, and are now in Rome where we just experienced a thunderstorm complete with hail. It was awesome. Not only that, but we are hoping and praying that we can get out of Europe on Wednesday and get back home. Unless you live under a rock, there is an Icelandic volcano which erupted about a week ago and has completely grounded planes in and out of London's Heathrow airport, which of course is where are scheduled to fly to from Rome and fly out of to Seattle....so maybe we will get to see London for a few days before we head home (hoping not, but if so, oh well). Here are some pics from the last few days:

View from of a typical "Chianti Classico" Region vineyard.

Rach enter's the cellar underneath the castle at the Castello di Monsanto winery in Tuscany. Happy Birthday Babe!

We each did one of the large barrels before leaving. And then we forgot who we were for 3 days.

View from the lawn of the castle...below the ground is the cellar containing all the reserve bottles.

Some of the reserves in the cellar beneath the castle. Yes, they do clean off the bottles if you purchase them. 

2nd winery of the day. Solitione. Small, family run winery. They spoke very little English and did not know the Balzarini's (big name drop)

Tasting at Castello di Monsanto in "Chianti Classico" region in Tuscany. It should only be about 2014 by the time our bottles arrive at home, so they should be well aged.

One of the amazing sites on the road through the Tuscan countryside.

Florence was beautiful and we had a fantastic 3 nights there. Rachel's birthday was on the 15th, so we went into the countryside to try wine. We went to 2 different wineries in the region and also had lunch next to a 600 year old monestary, which was awesome. Our English speaking private tour guide Silvia was a blast and helped fill us in on everything from how to speak Italian and pronounce certain words, to  Italian automakers to Mussolini. If you are ever heading into Florence and want to do a tour of wine country that is worth it, check out Le Baccanti Tours at www.lebaccanti.com. 

We followed up the tour with a run along the Arno river which splits Florence right down the middle and then ended up at Nove for dinner, which apparently is a hot-spot for the well heeled swingers in Florence. Very entertaining people watching and very good food. We split the steak Florentine, which was about the size of half a cow. It seriously looked like the steak John Candy ripped in "The Great Outdoors". If you haven't seen it, Google it. Also talked to a guy and his daughter at the restaurant who were from Staten Island. Well, Mr. Staten Island was on the train today from Florence to Rome...and sat directly next to Rachel. Totally random.

We also have seen the same couple on every train we have been on. We finally talked to them and they are from Houston, but after talking to them I thought they were from Boredomville, USA.  

Anyways, hoping to get out of here on Wednesday! More to come....