the best of tuscany.

yesterday i traveled south to the "best of tuscany," four stand out spots in all of the region. our first stop was the ancient city of montepulciano, where we had our very own wine tasting in the quaintest town i've ever come across. it's exactly the place you visualize when you think of italy: winding streets, magical alley ways, and cats everywhere. (okay, so i wasn't expecting the cats, but they added to the appeal!)  being the set of the volturi portion of new moon, we retraced the exact route that alice and bella took in the yellow lamborghini, and then the route that bella ran up to piazza grande to stop edward from exposing his vampire self in the sunlight. turning that last corner to see palazzo commale (the clock tour) was a moment i'll never forget. the tour group that i was with was so amazing that they planned our arrival to the piazza to be at exactly noon, the same time in the book/movie that edward steps out into the light. the little hand struck twelve, and the tower bells rang. i got chills. it was seriously the coolest. thing. ever.

this is the hall of palazzo comalle where ed and bells shared their first kiss once he realized she was indeed alive. i wanted to touch every wall. or maybe reenact. 

this is one of the cats we came across. he tried to bite my friend hilary.

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then, we headed to a cheese farm on a private villa. we ate homemade pasta, some yummy pecorino and ricotta cheese, and even got to watch the cheese making process. Then, everyone held the baby sheep. It was awesome. 

then we moseyed on over to montalcino. the ride there was probably the 20 prettiest minutes my eyes had ever witnessed. my sister couldn't have said it better, "it looks like a screensaver." rolling hill after rolling hill, the brightest shade of green you could envision, each hill adorned with beautiful cypresses. these hills went on for miles, with castles at the end of our vantage points. we felt water from a natural hot spring, took photos of the breathtaking landscape, and smiled, a lot. 


the last leg of our trip was my second favorite part of the day, next to the new moon stuff (still dying). we visited a wine cellar where a little italian man named mario explained the wine making process to us, in italian of course. i understood some of it, but mostly just enjoyed his cuteness and top hat. we then filled a room with long tables where we tasted about five different wines, each aged differently. mario's wife served us bread and prosciutto, and we "cheersed" to our wonderful day in italy. the day ended with the showing of one of my favorite movies on the bus, love acutally. i had a moment with the tour guide because he said it's one of his favorite movies too. oh, and during our morning ride, we watched new moon. seriously one of the best days, ever. 

here's mario.

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and some other fav's from the day...

xo, m.