This is a continuation of my travel series covering our Mediterranean cruise in July of 2010. See my Mediterranean Cruise Day 1 post for the introduction. At the end of this post, you’ll also find links to all days and ports of call of the cruise. Today focuses on our day in Livorno {to visit Tuscany} and each day this week we will cover each of our ports in Spain, Italy and France.
Day 7 Highlights:
- Visiting Volterra – where Twilight’s New Moon was filmed – this was actually a surprise
- The colorful sunflower fields
- The olive trees
- The rolling Tuscan hills
- Tenuta Torciano winery and restaurant
- Staying up until 4 a.m. with our dinner friends {what were we thinking?!?}
- Authentic Tuscan wine and food
- Lynne {dinner tablemate} telling me I was wholesome and pure….like Nabisco
- Some geography lessons to other members of our table
- Finally having toilet seats with lids!!
Another stop that wins first place! This rounded out our amazing tour of Italy. It was so great to see the resort side the first day, the Roman history the second day and then the Tuscan countryside this day. Granted, we missed out on Florence {which I heard was amazing} and Pisa but we had such an amazing time in the country. We were finally able to escape the crowds and some of the heat! Interestingly enough I started the day thinking that this was going to be boring compared to the other two amazing ports we had been to. Boy, was I wrong!
On the drive in, we saw thousands upon thousands of sunflowers, olive groves and grapevines mixed in with the rolling Tuscan hills.
Our first stop was Volterra. As we climbed the hill, I started to wonder if this is where New Moon was filmed. As we approached, I knew it was. And then I got really nervous as we entered the main square ~ it felt like Dakota Fanning was going to come find us and bring us underground to be eaten by the vampires! Volterra is a cliff top city that was a medieval fortress. The views are stunning and it was great to see some medieval architecture. This was such a quaint and safe little town {the population is 10,000 but felt like a tiny little village}.
Volterra is a cliff top city that was a medieval fortress. The views are stunning and it was great to see some medieval architecture. This was such a quaint and safe little town {the population is 10,000 but felt like a tiny little village}.
The town’s baptistery and chapel.
Walking the town’s streets to the Roman Theatre ruins.
The Roman Theatre ruins and the amazing views from the same lookout point. Thank heavens for telephoto lenses!
We then walked to a local alabaster shop and picked up some souvenirs {including a Twilight wine stopper – I couldn’t resist!}. We then had some free time to wander the streets of town.
Next stop was lunch, about an hour away near San Gimignano. This was by far the greatest event of the day and was the best meal of the trip. We went to a local winery and vineyard, Tenuta Torciano. The drive over was breathtaking.
We were laughing on the bus ride because our guide kept saying “Don’t be afraid of Luigi. He really does mean well” like he was scary or something. My husband and I were laughing hysterically the whole time at our animated host.
Luigi’s family has owned the winery and surrounding 450+ acres for the past 300 years. He does not sell his wine to grocery or liquor stores and only sells it to families directly. Here is Luigi and some guy I thought was beautiful and such a perfect looking Italian man {I am guessing it is his son or son-in-law}. The pictures are hard to see {I had to lighten them quite a bit to see their faces}, but trust me, he was stunning. Maybe it was the accent. They taught us how to properly “drink” wine including how to hold the glass, how to swirl it, sniff it, etc. It was such a fun experience.
Our lunch consisted of an appetizer with cheese, salami, crackers, chips and bread to try with the various wines they served us. Then we had a spinach and white bean mix that sounds odd but was truly delicious. Our main course was Luigi’s mother’s lasagna recipe and it was to die for. To top it off, they added truffle oil to the top for us to try {it is made by them} along with their balsamic vinegar which was SO amazing. Even though it was 56 Euros a bottle {probably close to $65 US dollars} we could not resist ordering some for them to ship back to us.
For dessert, we had a dessert wine with biscotti. Luigi asked for a female volunteer to help him out. We were with an older crowd on this excursion so I volunteered. He basically showed how to seduce a woman with this wine and biscotti. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Again, the pictures are hard to see but you get the point.
Me and my new boyfriend Luigi. I could definitely move to the Tuscan countryside with him {or maybe his son…}. I am pretty sure my teeth have a blue/purplish tint here from all the wine.
A few more parting shots of the amazing restaurant and grounds.
After lunch and more than our fair share of wine, we headed to San Gimignano. Driving to this town is amazing. Apparently the towers here inspired the Twin Towers in New York City. We were basically just given free time here to explore, shop and get Italian gelato for the last time. We bought five beautiful watercolors of the Tuscan countryside and some gelato because the heat started to show up again.
We slept again the whole bus ride home. Thank heavens. Little did we know we would be staying up until 4 a.m. Here is our nightly dinner photo along with the performance from the wait staff that night. We loved Charlton!
So, we ended up staying out until 4 a.m. this night. Thank heavens we didn’t have an excursion planned the next day or we literally would have gotten only two hours of sleep. We had so much fun with our “dinner group” and closed down our sky bar along with The Vault {which my husband and I hadn’t returned to since my brother’s “Johnny Rockets” incident on a Caribbean cruise on the same ship}. Such a fun night and it was worth the exhaustion the next day!
Check in tomorrow for our next stop: Villefranche, France!
To see the full trip be sure to check out any of the days on our trip by clicking the links below:
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