We started our Italy trip in Venice and then headed to Rome! We left Rome and rented a car to take a drive through Tuscany up to Florence and finally Milan, making a few stops along the way.
We hopped in our rented Fiat Panda and headed out of Rome! Driving around was nice and the scenery was beautiful! We drove up and down and all around! We stopped about an hour north of Rome as this neat little town called Orvieto which was on top of a cliff! We weren’t able to get any pictures, because you couldn’t really see it from the ground, but it was pretty cool! We took the funicular to the top, walked around the little square, toured the cathedral and then we were off again!
No big deal, just driving up to a 12th Century castle!
We stopped in to visit the Brioli castle and winery in the Chianti region. The castle dates back to the middle ages and passed into control of the Ricasoli in 1141 and has been in held in the same family ever since! In fact, they still live there and you can see their kid’s play-yard while walking around the ramparts!
It is the oldest winery in Italy and the fourth longest-lived company in the world in that’s been open in the same place! We toured around the castle and grounds, and of course did the wine tasting at the nearby tasting room! We tried some fantastic wine there and the woman running the tasting was amazingly knowledgeable and helpful!
We met some fellow tourist from DC and we took each other’s photos at the castle!
Later that day we continued our drive up to Florence to stay the night. Florence was pretty cool, I wish we had stayed there an extra day! I was most excited to see the Cathedral with the famous dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi! The church was built over the course of a couple hundred years with an opening for the dome, which had not yet been created! Brunelleschi took over this task and designed the dome, which was the first Renaissance dome and a model for other similar buildings.
At this point in the trip my blow dryer wasn’t working, and the blow dryer in the hotel in Florence didn’t work, either, so I had to brave dinner with wet hair. No matter though! We enjoyed walking around Florence, seeing the dome and having a delicious Tuscan meal!
The next morning we left early so we could make it to the Ferrari museum right when they opened. My husband wanted to be the first people in and we were successful!
I won’t share every car picture we took, but I will say I think this was my husband’s favorite part of the trip! We walked through the whole museum, twice, before heading off for the airport in Milan!
And that brings us to the end of the trip! If you stuck with me this long, thanks for reading all about it! Next week, due to popular demand, I’ll post about the food and some of the drinks we had on our trip and that will be my last Italy post, at least until we go again! Ciao!
