“Gelati for Breakfast” & Italian Spontaneity

It’s not every day that you meet one of your best friends on a street corner in Amsterdam…who comes from a bazillion miles from where you come from but who equally loves hanging out on canals, wearing sandals all day and can happily lay in the sun for hours on end. Yep I’m talking about my friend Courtney from Australia! We met while doing some street promoting in Amsterdam and we became good friends instantly (or friends at first sight as our Canadian friend described it). Seriously.

Within hours of meeting Court, she talked about how she was really craving a sunny holiday after spending over a year in Denmark and I talked about escaping anywhere to celebrate my forthcoming graduation from Grad school in Amsterdam. Within a couple of days we found a super promotion on Ryanair (as in 25 EUR round-trip total price!!) and together we flew off to Italy for 5 days. After first laying my eyes on Cinque Terre earlier in the summer with Christian, I knew we had to make a beeline straight towards the Ligurian coastline—so we did! And I think we set an all-time record for laying out and swimming for 10 hours straight on the rocks in front of Riomaggiore. 

Coincidentally Court’s dad was in Pisa for business so after spending a couple of days  in Cinque Terre, we hopped over to Pisa and San Gimignano. After eating gelato for breakfast, lunch and dinner, this spontaneous trip infamously became known as 'gelati for breakfast'.

It's pretty cool because Court will be one of my bridesmaids next year ;). Weird things happen on street corners in Amsterdam and it's happenings like this that makes me realize that while love is meant to be, sometimes friends are meant to be too! 

Well, it just so happens to be this little Aussie lady’s birthday this weekend. I’m sure if she was here we’d spend the day eating Indian food and sitting and laughing on a canal as we did before she left Amsterdam last year. Unfortunately several oceans and continents separate us at the moment. But I’m thinking about you! (Actually I'm probably gonna What's App you right now). 

Happy Birthday my friend! I miss you, you lil ‘roo ;).

Let’s take a trip down memory Italy lane!

(Christian was kinda creeped out that I escaped off to Italy with a friend I had just met…hahaha...he has since accepted my crazy antics.)

An Amazing Tuscan Villa and Daytrips in Chianti & Rome

Our villa rental in Tuscany was an absolute dream. My mom is an expert trip planner and found Casa Bella with a simple Google search. After considering so many villas available for rent, we chose Casa Bella because it looked so cozy, rustic and peaceful (the pool overlooking the vineyard may have played a part in this too!). Because we were visiting at the tail-end of offseason, the price per night was unbeatable—85 EUR a night for a villa that can sleep up to 14 people! Deal of the century….I mean even with just 5 of us, it was cheaper than what an average hostel-goer pays her night. On arrival we were greeted by Marzia, the owner, who left us all the information we could need about local towns, stores, markets and hidden villages. Then she handed over a box of soft, crumbly almond cookies covered in powdered sugar—my dad and I literally devoured the entire box.

We had views to the hills and vineyards in front of us and the tiny village of Toiano behind us. After our explorations throughout Tuscany, we spent a couple of nights wandering around the vineyards and exploring the tiny town at sunset. A couple of nights before we left, Marzia’s husband dropped off the most delicious homemade tiramisu I’d ever had (and I think that a few chocolate chunks on top of tiramisu is the secret!). Our stay at Casa Bella was perfect in every way.

One of the best things to do in central Italy is most certainly wine-tasting. After Adventurous Kate raved about her wine-tasting escapades in Umbria a few weeks ago, I knew we just had to take part in a tasting of both wine and Italian delicacies. Vineyards are everywhere in Italy and wine-tasting possibilities are endless. Although we were a little bit too far from Umbria where Kate got her drink on, I got in touch with Krista, who’s a fellow American (from So Cal like me!) living in Florence with her Italian man, for some recommendations a bit closer to our gorgeous villa, one of which was Castello di Verrazzanno in the Chianti region. Once we entered Chianti, I thought this is obviously wine country, vineyards were as far as the eye can see—up hills, down hills, amassing landscapes and between villas—it was a beautiful sight and Verrazzano was quite the treat! After a quick tour around the place we got to taste 4-6 different wines paired with crunchy bread drowned in olive oil, salt and pepper, cured meats of all kinds and fresh Italian cheeses with a hint of crema di balsalmico. After an experience like this, I’m definitely looking forward to enjoying another bottle of Chianti ASAP :). The only thing I would change about the tour is to ask Verrazzanno to scale the tour groups down a notch—30 people in a wine cellar is a bit too close for comfort! Although, I loved the wine, the food and especially the views.

It was a sad day when we left our gorgeous Casa Bella, we could have easily stayed another week and I would love to go back! Our flight back to Amsterdam left from Rome at the crack of dawn a day later so we decided to squeeze in a quick day-trip. I had been to Rome on my first trip to Europe and loved it—c’mon it’s Rome! My mom and Christian’s dad were excited to see the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel and my dad was itching to get a few more bites of gelato before heading back to Holland :). Rome is big and crazy and it’s ancient beauty is really a feast for the eyes. What amazes me so much about Rome is how the city is riddled with ancient ruins, columns and temples. You can walk down the street, look to your left and oh look…ancient ruins! Seriously everywhere. I love how intermingled modern and ancient life is and in between there are winding alleyways lit with lanterns and strewn with outdoor terraces. One day in Rome is exhausting but we managed to squeeze in the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican (we bought tickets online and completely bypassed the line! Score!), the Colloseum and the taxi driver gave us a whirl around the old city before we returned to our hotel. And my dad ofcourse got his one last gelato :).

Hills & Villages of Tuscany

Of the places I’ve been to since I moved to Amsterdam almost 4 years ago, Italy most certainly takes the cake on the most visited. Budget flights and sweet opportunities always meant jetsetting off to Italy was a great idea—weekends in Venice with Christian then with my mom, renting a villa in Tuscany with Christian’s friends, spending 10 days all over Italy with my best friend and revisiting Cinque Terre twice in one summer. So it was no surprise that when my parents said they wanted to relax, drink wine and visit medieval villages, I had one place in mind: TUSCANY! Once we arrived my dad said he already loved it (although I’m sure the roadside stop for a coffee and him receiving a rich chocolatey-espresso-whipped cream cup of deliciousness instead could have done the trick too…or maybe it was the fresh ham-cheese-focaccia panini…then he ordered a second panini!). About a 2 hour drive south of Pisa, we zigzagged our way through old country roads and vineyards to a villa we rented for the week—Casa Bella. It was a beautiful brick abode with a pool overlooking a vineyard--we couldn’t believe our eyes when we arrived, it was gorgeous! But more on the villa later.

The best way to see Tuscany is to rent a car and just drive in any direction—everything is beautiful in Tuscany. After my mom whipped up breakfast from the local market, we hit the road towards San Gimignano and Volterra. Both places were exactly what my mom wanted—medieval walkways and churches, old town squares and breathtaking scenery in every direction. Although it was the drive between San Gimignano and Volterra that had us pulling over every 5 minutes for a photo-op! For 3 days we piled in the car and whirled around the area, passing through the green hills of Montalcino, admiring the cypress-tree lined hills between Asciano and Siena, finding what-seemed-to-be the hidden abbey of San Galgano and stopping for lunches of cacio e pepe (spaghetti with cheese and pepper), bruschetta, tagliatelle con verdure verdi (tagliatelle with fresh vegetables) and trofie con pancetta e carciofi (trofie with pancetta and artichokes). As if we didn’t have enough delicious food from our explorations around Tuscany, it seemed too good to be true when the owners of the villa dropped off a big homemade bowl of Tiramisu that night…well played Italians, well played!

{San Gimignano}

{Hills between San Gimignano & Volterra}

{Volterra}

{Abbey of San Galgano}