Under the Tuscan Sun

Wednesday: (Just so you know, it was me that wrote the last one, sorry about that. Just messing around, and we didn't really have time or energy to write anything for a few days)

We packed up and headed to the beautiful Tuscan region. Here we discovered they built their cities on hilltops in order to protect the cities from invading Barbarians. Papa had us take part in some wine tasting at Chianti Valley. The lady explained how they harvested and stored the wine for fermentation. Which was great but everyone was looking forward to the tasting part. She also explained about the government control of some of their wine products and the vigorous process they had to go through. The vineyards were in a beautiful area so it was hard to limit the photo-taking!

They gave us a surprising amount of wine to taste - more than the usual mouthful. We sampled three red wines - a gov. controlled wine, a "super tuscan", and an aged wine (about 35 years). The last one tasted so strong! Poor Belle wasn't able to finish hers. So I helped her out ;-)

The next villiage was surrounded by stunning scenery as well. San Gimignano is known for their towers. Unfortunately only 14 remain. After sampling some of the tasty gelato (choc chip and raspberry), we made our way up the top of one of these huge things. 218 steps later (plus the ones leading up to the ticket office...) we gasped and clawed up the metal ladder but it was worth it. The view was incredible. Belle freaked me out by sitting on the edge for a photo.

Papa took us out for a little bit of Tuscan culture this evening. He described it as a 'wedding feast'. We had a lively DJ who loved to dance and say "look at moi" without actually doing anything. He taught us some awesome dance moves! Belle and I had a go at dancing. Apparently we did okay but some of the ladies there really took the cake and stole the show.

Love Bek and Belle.