You’re in a foreign country whose language you don’t speak. There’s a meet up place, but no else is there. A guy claims he’s your guide and leads you to a late model minivan with dents in it.
Would YOU get into the car and go?
This is the first of our Tuscan Farmhouse wine tasting and dinner stories.
Sometimes while on a journey, one begins to wonder what adventure is going to unfold before them. It can be learning something new, seeing something different, or wondering, “what have I gotten myself into?”
On this journey we find ourselves in Florence, Italy.
The Meet Up
Since Tuscany is close by and wine tasting is a passion of ours we chose to book a Tuscany style dinner with wine tasting. We chose a touring company that we had used in Spain and found to be reliable. Previously, the touring companies provided a predetermined location where we would meet. Ours was the McDonalds in accross the street from the train station in Florence.
Train station is on the left, bus lanes for tours on the right. Circled area is where we were told to meet up.
Typically you see others waiting for the same tour.
Tour buses begin arriving yet we haven’t noticed anyone that appears to be in charge. There’s no one else at the meet up location waiting.
We asked a few passersby if they are part of the wine tour. People we spoke to gave us some confused looks. We were unsure whether we were misunderstood due to the language barrier or were possibly at the incorrect location. Our departure time was quickly approaching and we hadn’t found anyone connected with the tour.
Finding the Tour Guide
All of a sudden we notice a gentleman at the front of one of the buses and ask if he he is the bus driver. He replies no. I mention that we are trying to find a wine tour that we had booked. He then says that he is the tour guide of our wine tour.
It turns out we were the only people booked for the tour and the car was parked “down the street”.
As we followed him to the car we arrived at a late model, poorly cared for minivan whose driver appeared disheveled and only spoke Italian. The vehicle wasn’t just parked on the street, it was parked in the travel lanes of the street itself.
Circled area at the bottom right was where our driver was “parked”.
Getting There
Not exactly what we expected for a tour. We settled into the van and our guide began to explain our tour. It has now dawned on me that we are in a stranger’s car, no outward signs that the tour guide is legitimate and we are driving out of the city to parts unknown in a foreign country.
As my imagination takes over I am wondering if our children have our itinerary. Hence, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
So…
Now we are on the road heading out of the congested city of Florence with commuters heading into the quiet countryside of Tuscany. Now I will admit that my nervousness began to dissipate as our tour guide began to tell us about our driver, the winery farmhouse we were headed to, and about the Tuscany region.
Our driver (do you know his name?) was not only our driver, but he was everything about the farmhouse and winery we were headed towards. He worked in the vineyard, he made the wines, he kept up the farmhouse, he made the food for all the guest at the farmhouse and cleaned up the kitchen at the end of the evening. And now here he was driving an hour into Florence to pick us up, then an hour back and then would have to do it all again after we were done. So I must admit, I was pretty impressed, but was especially even more by the time we had finished our evening.
As we were driving along, we made a little detour into a quaint little countryside village along the way. Here we discovered a little secret to traveling and staying in countryside locations. In this little village we picked up two other guys whom were traveling and staying at the farmhouse (as the farmhouse was, also, a bed and breakfast). Fortunately, these guys were from the United States so were able to talk to them as we traveled down the road.
Now for a little known secret…
When traveling in other countries and one wants to stay in the countryside, there’s a way that it can be done without renting a car. Owners of bed and breakfast locations will come and pick you up, then take you to their location.
This is how these guys traveled. Sometimes they stay in the larger cities, but they love to stay in the country side. And do this all without renting a car. So here we were picking up them so they could stay at the bed and breakfast.
Now as we are traveling along, we still aren’t sure about how many people will be at this wine tasting, dinner event. Maybe there are more people there. How far out are we in the country? All those questions will be answered soon enough. I did decide to ask these guys if they were also doing the wine tasting. They had not heard about it and were definitely interested in it there was room available to have them. The answer never came as we driving, so we still were not sure on what to expect.
After we journey down the road a while, the hillsides full of vineyards start to come more into view. I begin to wonder if any of these are where we headed. The road becomes little narrower and I know that we will soon be reaching our destination because at this point we are more on a one lane road. Finally, a quaint building shows up in front of us. We have arrived!
The Place
Our driver heads quickly into the farm house, the gentlemen disappear with the driver and our tour guide informs us that while he needs to go in and set things up, we are more than welcome to explore the outside countryside. So that is what we do. We look at valleys and hillsides filled with vines of grapes far off into the distance.
And wait for our Tuscany Farmhouse II – Wine Tasting and Dinner to begin.