Breakfast at the Anglo American hotel in Firenze, drive to the HGV ‘Borgo alle Vigne’ resort in Tuscany, lunch in town (Selvatelle), groceries at the Conad (yes that is really the name of the store), spritzes at the pool.
Ciao Firenze
Our swanky hotel had a wonderful breakfast buffet with fresh pastries and passable (although very greasy) bacon. Checked out, walked to the Avis that was about 5-10 minute walk from the hotel. They gave us a bright red Fiat 500, just like we ordered, a tiny little Italian car.
Google maps initially told us the trip was going to take 45 minutes, but it ended up taking close to two hours to get to the resort. I think the 45 minutes is highway miles, we were routed through a fantastic scenic route through the Italian country side. The Fiat is a fun little car that handles surprisingly well, although lacking some serious zip. I guess we’ll just have to take it easy. We pulled into the resort around noon-ish
Borgo alle Vigne
The last turn from the town of Selvatelle, the road winds up the hillside towards the resort. As you turn into the property, there is a black wrought iron gate that opens to a small parking area. The property itself is very small with a handful of small buildings and a larger building that has the reception at ground level and guest units one level up. A white gravel footpath leads down the hill, and it feels like it is designed to fill you with anticipation of all the relaxation ahead as you walk down the path.
Our room was not yet ready, so we drove into town to get some lunch and groceries for the room. The resort guy (we are calling him ‘Italian Oscar’ because he looks like our Spanish friend Oscar) recommended a local restaurant called ‘Carlo’ where they apparently have really good pizza. Funny because when we walked in, the first thing they said was ‘no pizza for lunch’. We had some sort of charcuterie plate and ice cold beers, and it was a very tasty lunch.
The grocery store is called ‘Conad’ and it is a good size supermarket. Sara was very excited to FINALLY go into an Italian store, she’d been wanting to do this ever since we got to Italy. Got some basic supplies, most importantly Spritz ingredients.
The DeNiros
As we were checking into the resort, there was a group of 5 Americans ahead of us. One of the ladies had a big Patriots (the football team) tattoo on her leg, and for whatever reason I remembered that I had seen that tattoo when they walked by the place where we were having drinks in Florence. I mentioned something about seeing them in Florence, and we chatted for a while at the reception. Went our different ways, and ran into them at the lunch restaurant. Went our own way again and ran into them again at the grocery store. Ran into them again at the resort pool. Seems like we are having the same vacation here, and because one of them reminded Sara of Robert DeNiro, we are now calling them ‘the DeNiros’.
Spritzes at the Pool
We settled into our rooms and filled our hydro flask with Aperol Spritz and went down to the pool. The water in the pool was nice and cool, and as the air was cooling down we spent a wonderful evening in Tuscany while enjoying a phenomenal view.
The plan for tomorrow is to stay at the resort and just relax.