On Sunday I said goodbye to everyone, and we made our way to Tuscany. On our drive from Perugia to Siena I went off the beaten path a little and we drove through the rolling hills of the region.
After our tour of the scenic rout we ended up in Siena and we began our celebration for Niki's birthday. We had a nice lunch and then we walked around the city until we found a cool spot to settle, enjoy a bottle Asti, and give Niki some of her gifts.
After a bit, we went off to explore the city some more and do some shopping. We were able to see the major sites and snag some cool stuff at the shops before we set off to near by Colle di Val d'Elsa to check into our hotel and find a place for dinner.
After searching the city for what seemed like forever, we found a great place for Niki's birthday dinner. The three of us had a great meal and tons of wine before we headed back to the hotel and rested up for our journey to Chianti the next day.
On Monday, we awoke early and drove to the Chiati wine region which was about a half a hour from the hotel. We spent the entire day drinking great wines, checking out beautiful scenery and zooming around winding dirt roads from one winery to the next with my mother cursing my name in the back of the car because of my "poor" driving style.
At the last winery that we hit, upon hearing our plans for the next day, Joe,the gentleman who was serving us, recommended that we stop into his girlfriends restaurant in Montechiello. We thanked him, got directions and then headed back to hotel to grab some dinner and get some sleep.
We got up on Tuesday and set off to the Val d'Orcia region for our final full day in Italy. Our first stop was the quaint town of Pienza to see the sites and do some shopping. Once the shops began to close for the lunch break, we headed over to near by Montechiello to grab some great food at La Porta, Joe's girlfriends restaurant. After our meal we walked around the charming town for a half hour or so, and then we made our way to Montalcino.
We toured the city for awhile, drinking some great Brunello and finishing our shopping and sight seeing before we went back to the hotel to repack our bags and figure out where the hell we were going to put all of the bottles of wine and olive that we had bought(14 total). We had one last great meal and then got directions to the Rome airport from the front desk before going to bed. Ultimately, this would be our down fall.
We awoke at a quarter to six on Wednesday in order to make our 11:55 flight from Rome to Newark. Normal travel time if you take the A1 superstrada from Siena to Rome is 2 and a half hours. The front desk clerk gave us alternative directions in hopes of avoiding possible traffic, and told us that this way takes the same amount of time. I still have anger towards this man,and some day he will feel my wrath.
To make a long story short we missed our flight. After getting lost for 15 minutes and realizing that we weren't even close to Rome I drove that poor little Panda as fast as she would go until we reached the airport.It had taken us over 4 hours to get to Rome. With an hour to go we returned the rental car, and frantically sprinted through the airport until we reached Al'Italia. With all of these bags strapped to me, and pushing a cart full of bags, I was sweating like a beast. With 48 minutes before our flight leaves we found the first Al'Italia representative that we could. We asked where we could find our check in. She asked what time our flight left. Upon our 11:55 response she looked at her watch and shook her head. "I'm sorry" she said,"All gates are closed an hour before that flight leaves."
My heart sank.It was a big mess after that. Despite missing the flight, we were still able to get home safe, and on the same day. Niki would later say that our airport adventure made her feel like we were on the "Amazing Race".
Aside from our last struggles to catch our flight, the trip as a whole was really amazing and beautiful and it was a great way to end my adventure in Italy.
