Sonya Wilson's Blog

While I was in Florence, I took a couple day trips.  The first was to

which was only an hour train ride from Florence.  It was strangely disorienting climbing an ascending staircase tilted on a plane by about 5 degrees, and you can see by the pattern of wear on the marble steps that I’m not the only one who felt that way.

My most exciting trip was a tour in of the region of Chianti, which is in Tuscany, on a scooter.  I went with a group of five plus a guide, who I had to myself on the scooter portion since everyone else was riding horses.  I’ve never ridden a scooter except for two laps around the parking lot of building 409 in which I almost ran into Professor Bazilevs…so this was definitely fun.  And the scenery was amazing.  The region of Chianti is well-known for its wine, and vineyards were abundant.

Grapevines in the Chianti region

Grapevines with Cypress trees in the background

Cypress trees

Me on a scooter, which is called a "vespa" (literally means "wasp")

Vespa tour

Dwelling in Chianti region

Green lake by restaurant in Chianti

Dessert with tour group

Wine tasting at Castello di Monteriggioni in Tuscany

I took a couple buses south back to fly out of Rome (the Milan airport, being farther north, was more susceptible to closure due to volcanic ash), and I stopped in Siena long enough to take a few photos.

Siena with Duomo (Catedrale di Santa Maria) and bell tower in the background

Cypress trees and bell tower in Siena

I then hopped back on the bus to Rome, not sure if my plane would be cancelled, half-hoping it would, as I was rather loathe to leave Italy, and here I was going back to Rome!!  I could almost taste the wind as I imagined another exhilarating ride on the back of a motorcycle in crazy Rome traffic…

…but my plane ended up taking off, a couple hours late, and I was on my way to Spain, about to try my tongue with my first experience of speaking Spanish to Spaniards in Spain and to test my tastebuds and try “tapas”…

This entry was posted on May 11, 2010 at 2:25 am and is filed under Travel. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.