Empty glasses... empty bottle?

Villa Murray

Wednesday: Laura and Mike arrived in Florence by train and it was such a welcome relief to have then in Florence! The entire drive from Genova to Florence I was driving and Josh was on conference calls... I couldn't do anything but watch the road. I didn't have anyone to talk to and I wasn't even able to listen to the radio! Not exactly the most exciting drive. Even though it was beautiful, it felt like the drive up to Detroit Lakes. I was so happy to see them! We drove out to our B&B (Villa Murray) and went out to dinner.






I have to tell you about the drive to Villa Murray! The villa is only about 10  minutes south of Florence, but somehow we took a wrong a turn. Tutti (the GPS) said to go right... but Josh told me to go left. Well, I couldn't decide because Tutti is not always right, so at the last minute I went left and followed Josh's instructions. This was not the best idea! We ended up going through an old mideival town and the buildings were so close that the car barely fit between them!!! When driving through the town you honk your horn so people coming the other direction know to wait for you. We had to tuck in the side view mirrors and Mike had to walk in front of the car directing me because the road was so tight. The parking assist on the Opel was going nuts! Seriously, we had about an inch of clearance on either side of the car at one point! This was not a happy time for me and I had a minor break down because I didn't want to ruin the rental car. Luckily, we got through it without any scrapes :)

Marco at Cinque di Vino

Once we got to the driveway for the villa we realized it was a poorly kept gravel road that is a switchback... There were lots of bumps and hairpin turns, and I had to gun it a couple of times to get around those turns! If anyone was standing behind the car I'm sure they would have been sprayed with gravel! By the time we arrived I needed a cocktail! My nerves were pretty shot.

seriously- the steak was amazing!

We were greeted by our hostess, Silvia, and offered tea and coffee. We sat with her for a while talking and learning about Florence before dinner. She recommended a restaurant for us for dinner that we already had a reservation for- Cinque di Vino. It was about 10 minutes from our B&B and we were so excited to get food! Marco (the owner) was helping us and he was fantastic. He is also the head chef. We started with a MONSTER appetizer with about five different things, then we had our main course. Mike ordered the bistecca (which is steak, but his was breaded and fried- seriously one of the best steaks I've ever had!), my mezzaluna was fantastic and Josh and Laura's plates were good as well. We definitely enjoyed our dinner here! After we stuffed ourselves we had some limoncello. Marco left the bottle on the table... and there wasn't much left so we finished it. A few minutes later he stopped by and plunked a brand new frozen bottle on the table and said "empty glasses... empty bottle, you need a new bottle!" He cracked it open and poured another round for us. Wow, it was good! But there was no way we were going to finish that! So we graciously declined anymore and ended our dinner, but not before we could get a picture with him! This was a great kick off to our time in Tuscany!

the second bottle...

Next stop: Montereggioni, Siena, and some wine tasting