Florence - ’The David’ and a Tuscan road trip.

Today was the first time of the holiday that we had booked guided tours. We resorted to a guided tour of the Accademia (to see David) as we couldn't be bothered waiting in line! We also wanted to see a bit of Tuscany as we had done the city of Florence to death.  

Our 1 hr guided tour of the Accademia covered a mere 100 metres! They know how to stretch it out in order to charge you more euros. That being said, our tour guide Daniela was really interesting, and we have a new found knowledge of Michelangelo and his sculptures. There was about 30min of Daniela talking before we got to see 'the David' as she called it. It truly was spectacular, even for Mick who had seen 'the David' only 6 yrs ago. Mick also enjoyed people being caught taking pictures, the security guards would force them to delete the photo, and then kick them out too! Very entertaining. After the tour we then spent another hour walking around the Accademia looking at more paintings of Madonnas and Child. In one room we counted at least 6!

We then had a bite to eat at a cafe. Mick has been holding a Lasagne competition where he rates the Lasagne of each restaurant. Surprisingly, this cafe in the middle of the tourist area has top billing so far. 

As we were getting dressed that morning, it was overcast and cold, so we opted for long pants and long sleeves. However by lunchtime it was so hot that we went clothes shopping to buy shorts and t-shirts so that we would be comfortable traipsing along the Tuscan hillsides.

The first stop of our tour was a winery at Poeggi Morello, were we tasted some Spumante and other nice red wines (nice, but not so nice that Mick wanted to add them to our collection). As part of the tasting we had some balsamic vinegar dribbled over pecorino cheese - sounds strange, but it was delicious. They also tried to sell us some 20yr old balsamic vinegar which they said could be put over ice cream - we'll take their word on that one. During our wine tasting, the heavens opened and the temperature dropped dramatically.

The weather hadn't improved  by the time we reached our second stop Castellina, a medieval village; so we had to walk through this quaint little village in the rain. Our clothes shopping went to waste, we were freezing in our new outfits (but we did look good)!

Our third and final stop was at Monteriggioni, which was a fort with 14 towers and a medieval town inside. Here we were to have a wine and olive oil tasting. The tasting was delayed, so we got to spend more time in the rain (in our summer outfits). Damian's shoes were by now totally saturated and he had to wring out his socks! We squelched our way around the town and into a tiny quaint church to try and beat the rain.

The olive oil tasting was peculiar, we had a small cup of extra virgin olive oil which we sipped. The olive oil was very spicy, making everyone cough and splutter. Never again will Mick sip olive oil, it goes perfectly well on bread...

We left Monteriggioni and headed back Florence which was a perfect opportunity for a quick nap. For dinner we went back to ReMatto - the owner was happy to see us, and we were happy to be having some awesome food again. In case you were wondering, Damian decided not to go for the liver on toast again.