Finally!   Finally I have dug my way through the thousands of images I shot in Tuscany!   Knowing that I wanted to do a lot of shooting, I decided to only take my digital cameras.  While I love & adore shooting film, I try to be aware of each shutter click.  Because, well, it’s wicked expensive.  Thought I would be a bit easier on myself and let my fingers click away.  And I’m pretty happy with the outcome!

My aunt rented an amazing house just outside of Cortona, a sweet little town on the side of a mountain.  It’s where Under the Tuscan Sun was actually filmed!  It was absolutely gorgeous, so, well, Italian!   All about the food, the wine and the people!  It was everything that I hoped it would be!  What we were not expecting, was the heat.  It.was.so.hot.  Sweltering.  Unbearable.  We made up for it with copious amounts of prosecco and dips into the pool!

So, this is the first round of images from our fabulous trip, the little towns of Tuscany!

Chris & I actually flew into Rome, and took a train into the city.  When we were there in December I fell in love with the Trastevere neighborhood.  We had just missed dinner at La Gensola, a little restaurant in the neighborhood, so it was high on my list to return.  So.Good.  So.Fresh.  So. Delicious!  Go, eat all of the fish.  All of it.

So, I left my camera in the hotel room the one night we were in town.  That’s it on Rome.  Just the train/drive into the city.  Blargh, that’s so boring!

In the morning we rented a car and drove out to Tuscany.  This is the view from our house.   Nothing… just stars, sky & fields.

And this, this is Cortona.

We drove over to Siena.  And I have a lot of thoughts about Siena.  If you are in Florence, and don’t want to rent a car, take the train to Siena.  It’s cute, it’s Tuscan, and it’s very different from Florence.  BUT, if you have a car, and can go to any of the little towns in Tuscany, avoid Siena with all you have.  For a small town in Tuscany, it’s pretty big, it’s touristy and not so much authentic.

If you have a car, go to Montepulciano.  My husband still cannot say this word.  At this point, I think he thinks it’s just funny to add other letters.  But this town, this town is fantastic.  And produces some of the best wine in the region.  Well, my favorite at least!  We didn’t go to Montalcino on this trip, but we went in December and it’s just as fantastic!   Some of the best views we saw in all of Tuscany were in Montalcino.

Arezzo has a more medieval feel… we didn’t spend much time here, but it’s super tiny and very nice.