As awesome as Rome was, I couldn't wait to hit the road and get to our next destination, Tuscany. I'd dreamed of going ever since our Italy trip a few years ago. At that time, as we drove our rental car from Cinque Terre to Parma, we passed, briefly, through the Northern tip of Tuscany and it was one of the most beautiful places I'd seen. Oh, yeah, and the wine. I couldn't wait to drink the wine!
Before Pete bravely drove our rental car from Termini Station in Rome, we spent a few more hours wandering Rome's medieval streets. There was a dome that we could see from our rooftop terrace so we went in search of the accompanying church. It took two beautiful church visits before we found it. The Italians know how to do churches right!
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| Last morning on Campo di Fiori |
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| One of the domes. |
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| Picking up provisions for our road trip. |
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| Fountain time outside of the Palazzo Farnese |
On our road trip North, we had time to stop in one hill top town and picked Montepulciano, mostly for the wine. The views weren't bad either! We approached the town square and Jude spotted two local girls doing cartwheels. He headed straight for them and tried his best cartwheel (actually a downward dog!). So cute!
We stopped in two tasting rooms to try the wine and ended the day with two bottles of Noble de Monepulciano wine. This detail will be important in a moment. Yummy, yummy wine and really cool, old cellars built into the hills.
So... about the wine. We had 10 minutes left in our drive to our Agriturismo in Tuscany. Someone was driving the rental car (I won't name names :)) and we didn't have enough momentum to make it up a sharp hairpin turn. The car stalled and began rolling down the hill and off the side of the road. Ruh Roh. Our attempts to rev the engine and push the car out were in vain. As we were trying this, numerous locals were driving by asking us (in Italian of course) if we needed any help. One local stopped his car in the middle of the road (ignoring harassing calls by other cars trying to get by) and assessed our situation. As he was doing this, another local with an SUV drove by and the two of them had a conversation that we didn't understand. We were told 5 minutes and waited for the SUV to return with a tow rope. The two men took charge, rigging our car up and jumping behind the wheel to drive out of the ditch. Hip Hip Hurrah! As a small gesture of thanks, we parted with our wine, one to each local despite their protestations. Not an ideal situation, but a really great intro to the laid back, friendly nature of Tuscany!
