Day 7: West Coast of Italy

Last night we left Castiglione del Lago with happy stomachs and drove to Firenze for a quick day in touristville. While we meandered through the streets for only three hours while James and Dan took the time to solve a pressing problem that has not been resolved since we got here. They have been toting their bikes on the top of the car in 2 boxes. However, due to the summer rain storms here, the boxes have been slowly disintegrating. They had planned on purchasing a bike rack on their first day in Milan but failed to do so. So, two days ago when the boxes would surely crumble, they took them out, assembled them and laid them on the top of the car with the box underneath to prevent scratching the car’s hood. This has been how they have remained since. So, off the boys went while we descended upon the city. The afternoon started out well, but Marc had been sick for two days and could not handle the heat. I took him to sit in a hotel while the rest of the group continued to explore the city. I figured that this would be best as I had seen Firenze multiple times while some of the group had never been to Italy. Nonetheless, Marc ‘s fever skyrocketed while we were sitting there. We were two hours by car from the coast, where we were staying for the night and I could not contact other members of the group. So, we ended up checking him into the hotel room for the afternoon until 6, when we had agreed to meet for dinner.

At six, Dan and James came back with no bike rack (it was a Sunday, of course nothing would be open) while the rest of the group had visited some key landmarks of the city. I, too, eventually was able to venture into the city where I meandered up and down the side streets, as far from the tourists as possible. The time alone was truly revitalizing. I met up with the group minus a sleeping Marc at six where we grabbed a quick pizza before waking up our friend and heading toward the coast. So, that was my third experience of Firenze.

After a two hour drive, we arrived in San Vincenzo which is a coastal town where we visited two wineries, Ornellaia and Petra. That night, we stayed in a pretty cool hostel. It was on the top of a hill and used to be the base for a mining company. When we drove up to it, the windows were illuminated and could be seen from the base of the mountain, pretty creepy. We made jokes about 'what if that were where we would stay' and so it turns out, it was. Overall, the place was pretty comfortable, but breakfasts served here are pretty small-- a piece of bread and a coffee. This is good, though because we tend to eat large lunches and then smaller dinners.