To the next venue

Florence is done. Well, not quite, as we only yesterday discovered the beauty of regional Tuscany, less than an hour from the tourist-drenched streets of Florence.

Anyhoo, after we last left you (with the seemingly unrepeatable miracle of being able to upload photos) we found a cool-looking bar at which to cool our heels. A highlight for me was the local dark ale, the name of which escapes me, but the highlight overall was discovering Veuve Cliquot was available by the glass. I lashed out on one for Bec who can probably never again drink that Aussie muck...(tongue in cheek).

On Saturday we had it in our heads that we were going on our long-planned cycling tour of Tuscany however plans were once again thwarted in that our booking was for one reason or another one week out. However it turned out the tour was overbooked Saturday and underbooked Sunday so we got an easy exchange. We spent the day instead being typical tourists - we climbed the cupola (the inner dome) of the Duomo which really was worth the wait despite my various rants about tourists and line ups, we walked around the entirety of the city seemingly looking for uniquely Tuscan places to eat and drink and ended up settling in the Santo Spirito area where we knocked over a local spumante and then had dinner at the Lonely Planet recommended Trattoria Casalinga. The recommendation is highly advocated - the food as well as the service seems totally genuine e.g. no quarter is given for tourists, the place was packed with locals and was absolutely bloody fabulous. Bec had a seafood anti pasto and the famed cured ham with rockmelon and I enjoyed what was easily one of my top 5 favourite ever steaks, in Florentine style which I think just means 'with salt, pepper and oil and perfectly cooked.' We also had to put to rest many of our preconceptions (read prejudices and stereotypes) about American tourists during this dinner as we got talking to a guy from Boston who just so happened to speak fluent Italian and helped us out with the waitress who, albeit highly efficient, was not at all interested in parla Inglese. We had a drink with Tony after for his troubles.

Yesterday we finally got to savour the sights and flavours of the real Tuscany on our bike tour. Two Italian-speaking Britons picked us up from Florence and drove - very fast - to a castillo in the heart of a small Tuscan town. The family owners of the castillo also produce wine and olive oil (supposedly a world-beating oil) and we got a view of the winery and oil press and a taste of the product, which was pretty damn good. Also of interest was the view from the peak of the tower which would have been amazing if not somewhat marred by clouds of flying ants choking the area.

The bike tour kicked off marvellously; virtually all down hill, surrounded by stunning green, rolling hills and vineyards, and ending with a fantastic lunch at a very traditional little trattoria. However, after lunch and several reds (of course the ANZACs at the table, aided by an ally in a young Canadian girl, had to polish off any remaining booze), the remainder of the trip was somewhat tougher. It contained one mammoth climb that Bec and I did attempt but ended up pushing our bikes a few hundred metres in. Fortunately the tour lads were prepared for this and 5 of us ended up panting in the back of a van for the rest of the uphill leg. Overall I'd say the day was one of the single best we've had and I'd recommend the tour to anyone coming to Tuscany. On that note, if anyone likes the idea of hiring a villa in Tuscany for a month sometime, let me know...Another fact worth mentioning about the tour was that Bec hadn't ridden a bike for at least two decades before yesterday and acquitted herself well despite much initial trepidation. She is now over her fear and cycling around Amsterdam now seems a vague possibility...well done to her.

Last night we were utterly stuffed from our efforts of the day and had a quiet dinner and a few drinks, somewhat ironically, at an Irish pub (admittedly this was mostly because we got a drinks discount from eating next door). We got more gelati before crashing out.

We are very soon to head off to Venice, so our next report will be from there. Ciao!