Chianti

From Pisa, I caught the train to Florence which, as usual, was tourist hell.  I  know we all love our own tourist trips but it's very hard to love the others doing the same thing.  I stayed in Florence just long enough to take one photo

and get on a bus out into the country.  This is where I ended up

 
and this is what the countryside around there looks like by day

 and by night

I was staying in the youth hostel, not the place with the infinity pool but I did go there for a free wine tasting.  Well it was only free if you didn't buy anything at the end which, given the wines they had for us to taste,  was virtually impossible

One day, I went on a long bike ride with some others from the hostel up and down hills and through vineyards.  Around every curve in the road was another beautiful view

These are my cycling buddies, Charlie, Kalkidan, Mercia and Christine

and here is me, talking while the photo was being taken

and standing in a vineyard.  Don't I look at home there?

Somewhere near this vineyard and in front of the hill,  completely hidden from view

was this, a perfectly private, perfectly safe, perfectly perfect lake

And where were we that day?  Somewhere near here