Drinking Wine in Montepulciano

I am happy to say, now that we are on the train to Venice , that Montepulciano was worth it. Yesterday I wasn't sure. This was the one leg of the trip that rested greatly on timing of others, as we were only there one night, and was very stressful for me. Our train was delayed 40min so we missed the bus connection to Montepulciano. We had to wait 1.5hr for the next one. Also we moved out of a tourist part of Italy so less people spoke English. Fortunately once we arrived it was great. The place we stayed was so quaint and had a balcony that overlooked the rolling hills of Tuscany. Montepulciano itself is quite small, and we wandered around the town in no time at all. It is less of a place to see tourist sites and more of a place to experience. It is known for its wine, which they give you samples of in many of the stores. You could literally start at the top of the hill and be stumbling by the bottom with all the samples of wine. The pizza we ate was the best so far and we discovered a red wine we both love. Its Brunello di Montalcino and its known worldwide as one of the best wines. The Rosso di Montalcino is made of the same grapes but aged less and is also great (and less expensive). I loved the small Italian town feel, even with the language barrier. The view from our balcony was so incredible that we decided to watch the sunset from there with some of the worlds best wine. It was such a relaxing moment together which we needed since we've been traveling for two weeks now and needed a second wind.

We ate breakfast at our hotel before we packed up. Because the town is so small you really only need 24hr to see it, but if we were to come again I would stay longer to visit nearby towns in the Tuscany region. Fortunately we found out where and when to catch the bus the night before so we were stress free! Our train was a few minutes late but it is a nice day so we did not mind sitting outside. This train ride is beautiful and I can not believe we are in Venice tonight.

The view from our balcony

Love everything about this quaint town

Some of the worlds best wine. 

That is a wine dispenser, like a pop dispenser but for wine!

Loving this trip together!

When in Rome...

I felt like I was in a movie the whole time we were in Rome. First of all we took a bus from the airport to the train station, which is close to our hostel. We had our own room at the hostel and the Italian architecture (giant doors and windows overlooking the street) was the first thing that made me feel like we were in a movie. With the whole day ahead of us, we set out to explore. We knew we wanted to do some tours the next day, so we went to places we wanted to see on our own. We obviously had to stop for real Italian gelato as we walked around and saw some of Rome's magnificent buildings. We saw many basilicas (cathedrals) including one with the most incredible organ called Basilica Di Santa Maria Degli Angeli. I wonder that if you grow up here, you don't appreciate the history and magnificence of the city you live in. Eating dinner made me feel, again, like I was in a movie scene. A restaurant on a street in Italy, eating the best pizza, make friends and someone tried to sell me roses. Seeing the historical sites from a distance got us really excited for then next day.

We woke up to pouring rain. Luckily we are from Vancouver so the rain could not scare us away. For the first time, we were thankful for the people try to sell us things on the corners. With our new cheap umbrella, we walked to the Colosseum. We made an impromptu decision to pay for the tour to learn the actual history and we do not regret it one bit! Jordan said he found it more interesting than the pyramids and it is now on his 7 Wonders of the World list. They ended up not charging us for the tour, only the entrance ticket, which we are thankful for because after that we headed to the Vatican and it cost us a pretty penny. We both agree that we would have regretted not doing the tour of the Vatican museum, Sistine chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. It was so breathtaking and I recommend everyone see it. Take a tour, you learn so much about the history of Rome and its change from pagan religions to Christianity and so much more. It was quite an long tour so after we stopped to eat before we went to our next site. We ended the day with a look at the Pantheon and Roman Forum. We were fascinated and didn't realize how influential ancient Rome was and is to the building blocks of modern civilization. On our walk home we stopped to get gelato and picked up the coolest picture book comparing present Rome to what it would have looked like in the past.

This morning we went to our favorite coffee place before packing up our bags and heading to our next Italian destination. We both really enjoyed Rome and the movie we felt we were in. We are so thankful that we have the opportunity to travel and expand our way of thinking at the ages we are. We have met some really interesting people and are so blessed to be traveling the World. I have so many pictures it was hard to choose, even with all the rain. I only wish we were allowed to take pictures in the Sistine chapel.

View from the place were staying

Perfect Rome

 

Exploring Basilicas 

Gelato, Pizza and Wine!

Rainy day and the Colosseum

The Vatican

So many sites to see in Rome, fortunately the rain stopped for a bit.

Living on the edge - Santorini

We landed in Santorini Wednesday night and were greeted by a taxi service to our hotel, ONIRO Suites, which is just outside of Fira. The hotel is more like a villa on a cliff, overlooking the beautiful Santorini bay. It was as good thing we hired the hotel taxi or we would not have found our place walking through the  path along the cliff. Our room was incredible, it had a cave like feel and we had a private jacuzzi on our deck overlooking the sea.

We woke up the next morning to the most amazing view I have ever seen. It actually looked like a postcard. George, who was the worker who ran the villas while we were there, brought us breakfast and coffee to have on our deck. We love George. He was so helpful and fun and really made our stay enjoyable. After we enjoyed our breakfast, we started on our exploration of Santorini. It hard to describe the way it looked. Once we walked down the stairs of our villa, we were on a path that wanders between all the white and blue building and overlooks the Aegean sea. You can see cruise ships docked in the bay as people come to shore on smaller boats. It is the perfect place to take pictures. It is about a 25 minute walk from where we are to the center of Fira, but when you are walking on this path, time goes so quickly.

The weather was absolutely amazing the entire time we were there. We had to buy extra sunscreen and fortunately avoided any sunburns. The rest of the first day was spent exploring, taking pictures and eating great food. We splurged a little on food but it there were so many Greek tavernas they were hard to pass up. We definitely walked it off either way. On our walk home we passes by a man with a crippled leg. Jordan felt that we should pray for him and give him some money. The man really was touched and thankful. That night we ate dinner where we could watch the sun set and were blown away again by the beauty of creation.

Friday morning we walked to Fira, where the cruise ships docked and waited to meet up with my mom, and dad, who happened to be on a cruise ship that stopped in Santorini. We joined them for breakfast on the ship and gorged on the endless fruit and mimosas in their private cabana. After, we all headed to shore and took the gondola back up to the top of the cliff. We wandered through the market and picked up a souvenir for Braeden before we walked the beautiful path back to our place. We relaxed on the deck in the sun for a few hours and ate lunch with my parents until they went back to the ship. After they left we went on a hunt for an ATV. We rented it for 24hr for only $30. And when we brought it back they would dive us to the airport for $10 which was significantly cheaper than any taxi service. We drove for an hour or so before we stopped for dinner and I loved it! Sure I was terrified at first and there are basically no rules of the road but it prepared me for the next day of driving around on it.

Yesterday we woke up and had breakfasts on the deck again. We packed up most of our stuff and George, being the wonderful guy he is, told us to keep our stuff there until we left at 6pm because the room was empty that day. So we hopped on the ATV and drove to Oia on the other side of the island. Jordan was right, there is something surreal about driving that ATV on a cliff with the sea on either side of you. It was such an incredible experience and adrenaline rush. The rules of driving in Santorini are 'If you are bigger, you win' 'If you go faster, you whip past' and their slogan on signs 'I love life, I drive safe'. I can not wait to do that again. After we drove back we went to our villa and sat in the sun for an hour before we dropped off the ATV and got a ride the airport. We had our first flight delay (1hr) and landed in Athens for our overnight layover before heading to Rome. Good thing we booked the airport hotel as we were only in Athens 8hrs.

We are now on the plane and excited for a new county. Because Greece is hard to get to and the ferries shut down last week, this is our 4th plane within Greece. Milan -> Athens, Athens -> Santorini, Santorini -> Athens, Athens -> Rome and I just want to say I would totally recommend Aegean Air to anyone. For the price it is, you get incredible service and they have been very reliable. We are about to land now.... hello Italy!

View from our room

View from our room

Exploring Santorini

Going to dinner

Visit with mom and dad!

Rented an ATV

Driving the ATV!

My view from the ATV

Ancient Athens

We arrived in Athens at noon on Tuesday and took the metro to our hotel in the heart of Athens. We were upgraded at our hotel as they were out of the rooms we played for. We got a mezzanine with two floors and two decks that looked out at the Acropolis. I wish I could describe how awestruck we were when looking at  something so ancient and that we've only read in textbooks. We took full advantage of the view, when we got back from our adventures that night, we spent time just being on the deck. 

After we got settled in we just walked through the crazy Athens streets, being careful not be a target of pickpockets. We found an authentic Greek restaurant for dinner and had one of our best meals so far. It is safe to say that North American Greek food will never be good enough. We wandered around central Athens and picked up a few souvenirs from the small boutiques. Jordan asked me how I though of it and I said it was exactly how I pictures Greece would be. The smells, the sights, the people and the life really was the perfect Greece picture, Athens was even less dirty than I though.  We walked around, trying to get a grasp of the city, before we did an audio tour the next day.  We found a great gelato place and ate it as we walked the markets. It was so sunny and one of the store owners told us it wasn't usually this nice until a month later. As we fell asleep we could see the lit up Acropolis.

Wednesday we packed up our room and ate at the buffet in our hotel before we went to learn about Ancient Athens. Our hotel had a complimentary bag hold so we could leave our bags there until we left that evening. For a tour of Athens we did the Rick Steves audio tour. Jordan and I 100% recommend doing your own audio tours. Rick Steves are free to download and walki-talki tours are about $6. Both totally worth it and personally I think are the best way to tour a city. Its basically a one on one tour, where you can stop to eat, drink or wander around whenever you want. 

Now Wednesday was a bit of a problem initially. It turns out that May 1st is the day where Greece has a giant petition every year in Syntagma Square, right near our hotel. The city strikes against the government, which meant that many things were shut down. This included the Acropolis and our ferry to Santorini. Fortunately, we were able to book a flight and get a refund on our ferry, but the metro to the airport was shut down because of the strike. We didn't want to spend $45 on a taxi so thank God there was ONE bus that wasn't shut down. So we were able to catch our flight, but before that, we did our tour. We started in Syntagma square where our tour began and learnt about the history of kings and parliament, communism and democracy. We walked all around Athens learning about Cathedrals and different religions that have dominated Athens. We saw many ancient ruins that have been around since 300 B.C. and learnt who was the ruler when it was built and the significance. It was truly hard to wrap your mind and around. The tour included a history of the Acropolis and even though it wasn't open, brought us around the back side of it for an incredible view and walk through an old part of Greece with the coolest feel. 

Athens was everything that I wanted it to be and Jordan had his view of Athens completely changed. He was here once before and found the people rude and the city dirty but this trip he really loved the people and the city. We can not wait to experience Santorini.

View from our room

View from our room

Exploring Athens

Shopping for souvenirs

The city

Our view of the Acropolis at night

The protest in Syntagma Square

Authentic Greek food

Tour of Athens