It’s a travel day, here in Italy. We left the house at about 8am and were picked up by a driver who took us to the Naples Airport, where our group headed their separate ways, with plans to meet up again in Split, Croatia in a week. We walked to the car rental pick up with our collection of grocery/shopping bags (still no luggage!!!) and had a relatively easy time getting our car. Although we do like to rent a car when we are traveling (it gives you more options for side trips and to change itineraries), the actual rental process can be a pain (language barriers, long lines, etc.)
We were on the road by 11am or so and found an outlet mall about an hour away. Low on clothes, we found a few items to tide us over, in the hopes that our luggage would be routed to Florence, where we could pick it up. After a little lunch at the “mall” we were back on the road on the way to our hotel in the small town of Castellina de Chianti, located in the wine region of Tuscany.
Our hotel, Locanda le Piazze, is out of the way, but stunning. Nestled on a hilltop, there are 360 views of vineyard and other, nearby villas and wineries. The rooms are spacious and comfortable. Everything is quite modern, but still has the Italian villa/country-house charm that you’d expect in this area. The staff was also super-friendly and helpful, even ironing a few items of clothing, before we headed out to dinner.
Friends of ours, Matt & Michelle Freitas, were on their honeymoon and only staying about 30 minutes away from us, so we had arranged to meet them for dinner several weeks ago. Since we had a car and they didn’t, we agreed to come to their hotel for dinner. The hotel, Belmond Castello di Casole, is actually an old, 10th century village that has been converted into a hotel/spa/restaurant/vineyard. We had dinner at the patio restaurant, including steak with truffle and fois gras, lasagna and a couple of great bottles of wine. Then it was back to the hotel to relax, get some rest up and get ready for tomorrow: Florence!