Under the Tuscan Sun

Well, I got to spend a glorious 4 days in the beautiful region of Tuscany in France. My time there began with spending 2 nights in Florence. After arriving from Pisa, I jumped on the bus and headed up to the camping village I was staying at. As I got off, I hear someone yelling my name. Now, the number of people I know over here in Italy is very limited, so it kinda startled me. I turned around and it was this girl named Carly who I had met at the last hostel I was at. It was nice to see a familiar face. I got checked in and then we went and grabbed a really yummy dinner before heading into town to walk around for the evening. The camping ground we were staying at was really nice because it was set up on this hill overlooking the entire city of Florence, but it was only a 15 minute walk into town.

There are these camping villages called Plus Camping all over Italy and they are the cheapest things around and for the most part they are great. The only thing that is kinda a bummer is that the house tents, which is where I have been staying since I do not have my own tent, have no electricity. It is just a hard wood floor with 2 or 3 beds in it and a heavy duty tent over it, but it works for $12 a night.

I spent an entire day walking around Florence taking in the city and looking at all of the buildings there. They do have some nice ones. Unfortunately, the museums were all on strike the day I was there, so I did not get to go in any and I was bummed that I missed the David, but that will have to be on my next trip.

Aftere Florence, I headed about a half an hour away to a town called Figline. A couple of girls that I had met had recommened this place. It is another one of the Plus Camping Villages, but it is the nicest one and it is truly like a resort. They have 3 pools, a waterslide, horseback riding, 5 restaurants, a gelato store, a supermarket, a spa, a gym, and they organize excursions too. It was great. It is set up in the hills surrounded by greenery and it is just beautiful. The first day I arrived, I got there in the afternoon so I did not do too much. The following day, I went into town to the famers market and then that afternoon did one of their tours. It was a bus tour through the region of Chianti, up in the hills of Tuscany. There were amazing views of the countryside, vineyards, and olive groves. We went to a winery where they told us about making wine and showed us around, including the cellar downstairs, then we did a bit of wine tasting. On the way back, we stopped in one of the small towns up there. The whole region is jsut stunning and gorgeous. Words really cannot describe the beauty of it!