luna di miele part II

Ciao!

The next leg of our Italian tour was where the real adventure began! David had organized for us to rent a car and drive from Rome, well, the airport, to Siena in the heart of Tuscany! Renting/driving a car in Europe left me a little uneasy at first but with Steves, a detailed family Italy Atlas on loan, and the Italian maps for the GPS that David purchased (best investment ever) we were able to freely explore Italy as we pleased - on our own time and agenda. And David was a fantastic European driver even though I had calluses form on my right hand from gripping the car handle for 7 days straight. Overall, we visited 16 cities and towns that we actually got out of the car and walked around in. We saw Italy!

our fiat

this is why I was told only one carry on sized bag :)

ah, thank you.

we tried to take pictures of all the town signs we visited...

the steep view from calcata

we stumbled upon this terme - a natural mineral water bath - aka the community pool

next we twisted and turned to reach orvieto - a view from the distance

orvieto is known for their white wine

their beautiful cathedral - love the striped marble

and of course we ate A LOT of gelato - sometimes twice a day!

the gelato was pretty much amazing wherever we had it

after a long drive of navigating for me (I told david I didn't know I was coming on this honeymoon to "think") we found our agriturismo just outside of siena literally by the grace of god.
what is an agristurismo you ask? a glorified farmhouse bed and breakfast! there's more to it than that but you can google it yourself. in a nutshell, it was the best place we stayed and the only type of lodging I want to stay at on our next visit!

agriturismo marciano

beautiful and fragrant lavender

room 1 - we stayed in two different rooms because of other bookings

our tuscan view

the main house where guests could enjoy internet and tv if they so desired

best part of the agriturismo is that it includes food...and food and wine made from its farm to be exact. talk about fresh. our stay included homemade breakfast each morning and a family meal one evening cooked by nadia, one of the cheerful owners.

room 2 - so sweetly chosen by my husband because I love the color green

the weather throughout our entire trip was perfect...no need for air conditioning at the agriturismo as you could sleep with your windows open (and feel safe!) and let the cool country breeze flow through

the courtyard

We spent the next 4 nights and 5 days in Siena and each day went exploring to all the other picturesque Tuscan hill towns....