Chianti!

Today I had a field trip to the Chianti wine region of Italy, just 50 minutes from Florence, and I have to say it was absolutely breathtaking. We got to walk through the countryside for hours on end just taking in the beautiful sights of the grapes in the vineyards, the landscape, and the hills surrounding us. We had a personalized tour through a famous castle owned by a nutty Count, where we got to sample wines made in the castle firsthand! I was certainly at home! And the house was in itself a living relic...I saw and touched first-edition books of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, Don Quixote's novels, and I even saw a Mark Twain's personally hand-written autograph in a copy of The Prince & The Pauper. He knew the great-grandmother of the Count who lives there!

The wine and the history I learned about today was fantastic. I really loved Chianti, it is definitely one of the best parts of Italy I've seen to date, even though I've only traveled a little bit so far. This coming weekend, on Friday, I head for Paris and then London the weekend after that. I'm going to be traveling on weekends a lot more now...in just a few short weeks I'll get to see another beautiful part of Italy, Siena! I'm really falling into a nice groove here in Florence...taking in all the art, reading in my favorite park almost daily that overlooks the Arno river, and eating tons of course. I'm taking in all of the city!

Ciao per ora! :)