Italia Revisited Day 1

Buongiorno!

I was surprisingly organized with the packing for this trip and have learned from past trips to book my flights at any time but in the morning. After a brief jaunt to Chicago, a long layover, a longer flight to Frankfurt and a short flight to Florence later, I found myself reunited with Italy after a five-year hiatus. I met up with Nina in Frankfurt and it was good to share the rest of the trip with an old friend. We ordered two coffees and a croissant; however, despite Nina being fully fluent in German, we were served up two beers. Apparently this is standard fare. After a conversation I didn’t understand, the beers were exchanged for coffees.

We landed in Florence on the shortest runway I have encountered in my travels thus far. It required a full u-turn feet from the end of the tarmac to make it back to the gate. Thanks to Nina’s planning, a driver was waiting for us.   It was a tortuous, hilly drive to Tuscany. I tried to enjoy the beauty of it, but motion sickness quickly got the better of me. Tuscany is much like Indiana if you replace the oversized pick-up trucks with cars the size of my Golf, the flatness with unending, rolling hills, and cornfields with vineyards. On the drive we explained to the driver that we would be spending the next week riding our bikes and explained where we were headed. He laughed pretty hard and said what I think equated to “oh my God.” Then he explained that it’s hilly and hot, but you’ll be fine. We arrived at the hotel, a rustic, cute little stereotypical, but very Italian lodging. A hot shower was a much needed comfort after a long day of traveling.

Nina and I headed to the hotel restaurant, which was outdoors and overlooking a Tuscan hillside. We started off with cantaloupe melon balls with prosciutto, mozzarella with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, and bread with local olive oil. For dinner I had freshly made pasta in a black truffle butter sauce and Nina had homemade noodles with a wild boar ragu. Some local Chianti wine topped off the dinner perfectly. Time to go recover from the travel and jet lag.