Italy-October 2016

Tuscany/Florence/Venice/Rome

After several delayed and missed flights we finally arrived late in the day in Rome.  Picking up our rental car we were off for the Tuscany region and our stay at Il Borro Winery owned by Salvatore Ferragamo’s family.  Luckily, we brought our GPS because we sure needed it to find this hidden gem in the late-night hours.  We had booked the trip on Travelzoo, thinking we booked a hotel room at the winery, to our surprise it was a 3 bedroom stand-alone farmhouse on the estate with a swimming pool. What a fantastic surprise, even a bottle of wine was waiting for us.  The Il Borro estate offers cooking classes, wine tasting, truffle hunting and a spa.  We indulged in the wine tasting and the cellar was fantastic.  We took day trips around Tuscany, stopping and checking out the villages along the way and hitting any wineries that were open for tasting.  One of the wineries we happened upon was I Selvatici Winery, where we meet the owner Di Giuseppe E Fausto Sala, and what an interesting guy and so friendly. Giuseppe liked to talk about the USA as he had been here many times, he even mentioned he was friends with Big Ben Roethlisberger whose family had a place nearby to his. We did a day trip to Florence to shop, even though it was a rainy day we managed to buy a few things.  We also headed to Venice by train to do some site seeing for a few days.  We found a centrally located hotel near St. Marks Square.  And, of course did all the tourist things; gondola ride and checked out Murano and Burano.  We wondered all around Venice, getting lost on the many little streets (if you call them streets) and ate delicious food along the way.  When our week was up, we headed back to Rome for a couple days before heading home.  We made our way to the Coliseum, Trevia Fountain and the Vatican. I would suggest you find the wineries in Tuscany that offer lodging and immerse yourself in their culture, you won’t be sorry.  Bucket list memory for sure.