Under the Tuscan Clouds: Part Uno

Oh man.  I've been a neglectful blogger yet again.  As always I have a pretty valid excuse; December was cray cray with the travel/visitors!  There were literally only 7 days in December when we weren't traveling or hosting.  I'm gonna start backwards, skip over Christmas for now, and tell you all about our New Year's Tuscan vacation.  Our Tuscan adventure began in Florence where we stayed for one night before heading off to our main base - Brenna.

December 29th & 30th: Florence & Brenna

Florence

I know Florence is famous for its art museums, but sadly we didn't get a chance to visit any.  Our train arrived late Sunday afternoon, and after grabbing a bite to eat and walking around, I proceeded to give into my Christmas exhaustion and passed out at 7PM leaving Kevin to a lonely dinner with just himself and his Florentine steak.  Poor Kevin. The next morning we had to check out and couldn't leave Mya at the front desk along with our bags (What that's not cool?  What if we just put her in her carrier? Then she's just another bag.  No...OK), so there went our chance to explore the museums. Next time.  We did, however, seize the opportunity to check out the amazing architecture and views that Florence has to offer.  Such as...

Cool bridges,

the Duomo,

the men of Florence,

and city views.

Brenna

After soaking in these breathtaking cityscapes, we picked up our rental car and made the drive over to Brenna, a tiny village about 40 miles from Florence and 8 miles from Siena.   As the title of this post suggests the weather wasn't typical Tuscan sunshine.  Unfortunately it was typical poopy Swiss weather, wet and gray, with maybe at best an hour of sunshine splashed between the gloom.  So as we pulled into this tiny tiny medieval village, with nothing but gray skies as far as the eye can see, we passed by a super creepy abandoned barn....Walker territory for sure (side note - during the holidays we binge-watched all 4 seasons of The Walking Dead).  I turned to Kevin and said, "Ummm why are we staying in this village no one has heard of, that may or may not be crawling with Walkers?"  Silly me to doubt him.  Kevin had booked us an apartment in the most charming 15th century villa, Villa Agostino, complete with our very own wood burning fireplace.  Aww, so romantic.  Brenna was also a convenient base to check out the other Tuscan towns that made up our trip - Chianti, Volterra, Siena, Montepulciano, and Pienza.

After stocking up our kitchen with food (half of which we wouldn't end up eating) and chowing down on pizza at Brenna's one and only restaurant, we spent the evening watching The Walking Dead by the fire that only took 2 hours to light.  The next day was New Year's Eve, when we visited a Chianti vineyard, spent the evening dodging vampires in Volterra (home to the Volturi of the Twilight series), and  brought in the New Year back in Brenna.  To be continued...