things i'm grateful for: road trip! (toscana)

before i begin let me apologize for the grainy quality of the photos.

i forgot to bring my camera charger during this trip.

so we were in one of the most beautiful places on earth and there was no decent camera to capture it!

i sulked for about five minutes.then i realized that what the hey, i will not be consumed with clicking my camera every other minute.

i will just absorb everything that my brain can hold.or so i thought.

tuscany is magical, and my mind cannot do magical.otherwise, it will go bonkers.

and can i please add (sour-graping aside - heh), that there is no way to capture the beauty of this place.it was beautiful beyond words and images.

i used our 2 mp handy camera to take photos.we had a lot of videos though!


first stop: chianti

chianti is a wine region, dotted with lovely hill-top towns, olive groves and vineyards.

second stop: radda in chianti

"radda in chianti is a beautiful medieval town enclosed in large defensive walls.located up on a hill between the valleys of arbia and pesa, it has ancient origins." (chianti.com)

radda details.

quaint.

mesmerizing chianti!

gorgeous - on the way to siena.

third stop: siena

some people think that siena is italy's loveliest medieval city.

it really is lovely.

palazzo publico and its tower torre del mangia.

inside the torre.

the shell-shaped central piazza known as il campo, world-reknown for its famous palio,a festival and horse race that takes place twice each summer.

fountain - with a thirsty pigeon.

majestic duomo - the cathedral of siena.it was intended to be the biggest cathedral in the world when it was built in the 12th century.

shops in siena.

beautiful siena!

last stop: montepulciano

montepulciano is a medieval and renaissance hill-top town in southern tuscany.it is also famous for its wine.

it is not as popular as san gimignano or cortona (where the movie "under the tuscan sun" was shot), but is just as stunning.

we sat on a bench behind this church and had a mini-picnic of salami and ham.

and we watched the sunset in montepulciano.

what an amazing view.

what a gift.

what a blessing to watch this unfold right before our eyes.

stunning montepulciano!

if there would be one place that i would want to keep on returning to, it would be tuscany.

like any other silly old fool, i fell head over heels in love with tuscany and my heart still yearns for it.

le sigh.

next...leonardo da vinci's birthplace!