Day 8 - Sienne and Tuscany

We spent the day driving through the Tuscan wine country and visiting Sienne, the age-old rival city of Florence. Sienne offers wonderful shopping, a slower pace and scenic, rolling country. 

We visited an old monastery called Mounte Olivio and hike around the olive groves. We visited Montalcino, famous for its fine Brunello wine. On the way back to Florence we drove part of the Black Rooster Route, up S222 and through the heart of the Chianti region. We passed through Castelina and Greve. The green hills terraced with grape vines or olive and over-looked by great walled towns and huge villas of old stone was some of the prettiest scenery we saw on the entire trip. There are so many back-country, winding roads that could be explored with more time. If only we had more time...

As we approached Florence and passed by the Piazzale di Michelangelo, we noticed that there was 7 or 8 hot-air balloons putting on a light show. We stopped and took some photos and enjoyed the unique show. We enjoyed a late dinner at a small spaghetteria and just made it back to the room before the penzione curfew of 12:30am.