Here it is: The cold, hard evidence that Italy is pretty awesome.
{I apologize if these photos load slowly. Many of them have a lot of detail, and I couldn’t make them the optimum size for web without losing a ton of quality, so they’re larger than usual.}
My mom, my brother’s girlfriend Sammi, Mike and me: Waiting excitedly at the airport in Chicago for our flight to Rome.
Our teeny little Fiat {thanks, Mike, for getting us around safely…those Italian drivers be crayzay!}
On our way to the villa we rented in Montepulciano, we were treated to the most incredible Tuscan landscape on either side of the road.
We stopped off at the vineyard that my brother had been WWOOFing at for two months to pick him up. It was a 1,000 year old castle, nestled into a remote valley. Pre-tty awesome.
…But turns out that even castle-dwellers miss their girlfriends. It was pretty fun for them to be reunited.
Danny showed us around the castle and the grounds. It was incredible.
Danny spent much of his time at the vineyard in this enormous wine cellar, bottling and corking wine.
The olive grove, just up the hill from the castle, is where Danny would go to relax or read.
It was hard to leave. The owners of this place treated Danny so well. He cooked and ate every meal with them and they became very close in just two months.
That night, we made it to our villa after over 24 hours of travel, all together in one piece, and we immediately went to bed. The next morning we had a traditional European breakfast and started to plan our first full day in Italy!
To be continued…