Before I even begin, I’d like to say this entry describes my favorite day thus far in Europe and one of my most favorite/ BEST days of my entire life. No exaggeration.
Florence is really Americanized as a lot of people study abroad there and is very touristy. As a result, there are tons of English speaking people and not as much Italian culture. We decided to escape a bit. We considered doing some wine tasting for some delicious Chianti wine. The best decision ended up to rent Vespas for the day!
As we left our hostel, we invited some of our Cinque Terre friends to join us. Some decided to head to other parts of Italy, but a whole bunch of us still went to rent the Vespas. We also met up with a girl named Rachell and her roommate, both from Cal Poly and studying in Florence. We all headed over to the scooter rental, had a few challenges finding the random warehouse, and walked a lot. In Italy, red numbers mean that a location is a business. Black numbers mean that the location is a residence. So the numbers aren’t chronological, so obviously 33 would be next to 70.
The scooter gentleman was a bit grumpy because some American boys had crashed his vespa the day before. He charged them about 1500 euros (2,200 some bucks… about the price to buy a cheap or used vespa I believe). So he had enough vespas for 3 of us and a 6000cc motorcycle for Jason to ride. Jason, one of our friends from Australia, actually had the same model motorcycle back home, otherwise there is no way he could have learned to drive and control it that day.
When we finally rented the scooters, we all had to promise we had driven a vespa before. Which was true for some, except for in my case when I learned how to drive it through the city of Florence. Which is, by the way, one of the busiest, most chaotic driving cities that I’ve ever experienced. And Italians, like all European drivers, are terrible! So I was scared out of my mind, but once I got the hang of it, it was AMAZING!! I was also really stoked about my protective gear… AKA my POWERPUFF GIRLS helmet!!
When we first got out of the city, we hit a series of really windy, twisty, and narrow country roads. It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but once we got the jist of it, it was really great!! Then all of a sudden, after our scooters climbed a few great hills, we looked over and had an entire panoramic view of the city of Florence tucked into wine country and beautiful rolling hills.
All of us were awestruck at once and let out hollers and hoots of excitement. The 4 of us were like a little pack of Harley motorcycle men rolling through the countryside having a blast. Eventually I handed over the driving privileges to Rachell and tagged onto Nick’s vespa. I actually liked this a lot because I could enjoy the countryside scenery to the fullest. We had a blast on the trip, singing songs at the top of our lungs over the sound of the wind and into the countryside. I’ve never felt so free with the wind blowing against us and the countryside disappearing beside us.
We stopped in a vineyard to take a few photos until an Italian lady yelled at us in Italian to leave her land. It was there in this vineyard that the concept of city life and the hustle and bustle of reality melted away. The vast countryside encompassed the entire expanse of my vision. For miles and miles around was just the beauty of Tuscany. A better treat was that November was about to hit (it was Halloween, October 31st) and the leaves had just begun to change. Reds, yellows, and baby hits of green leaves were on the horizon softly touching the baby blue skies and big fluffy clouds. The scenery was unbelievable and something that I will never. Ever. Ever. Forget.
After our first stop, we headed off to San Gimignano, a medieval fortress town in the middle of Tuscany. I got to ride with Jason on his motorcycle. It was such a thrill!! It went SO much faster than a vespa and was so agile. We would lean and move with the bike, feeling completely free. I was a bit scared because the bike would accelerate so quickly, but it was still a blast. We passed a whole bunch of really small trucks chugging along with giant milk jugs in the back of their wagons. It really was the countryside, that’s for sure.
On the way, we passed tons of signs saying EMPOLI this way. I really wanted to go there, but who knows what was there, except for my people of course. But we didn’t go there. We finally got to San Gimignano, and we were all actually really cold because of the wind chill and the sun beginning to disappear. It was about 3 o’clock. Once in the town, I found a bakery that made 5 different kinds of marzipan cookies and 3 types of marzipan cakes. It was a really hard decision picking which ones to get, so I got wayyy more than one kind. J I loved the town because it literally felt like we went back a few hundred years and were hanging out in the Renaissance era. We saw a couple finishing their wedding at the church, which was really beautiful. Then we all went to this giant well ( I would have liked to get water out personally), but instead opted for a photo session to remember the medieval town.
Then we realized that we needed to hustle back into the city to return our bikes before close. We had gotten a special deal if we came back early, so off we went. I’m not sure why we decided to head back a different route, but we did. And we got really really lost. There are dozens of traffic circles in all the little Italian towns with arrows pointing to different towns. So we followed lots of arrows, turned around a bunch, and watched the sunset go down. Once we almost got on the “motorway” AKA the highway- as in vespas on a highway. Dangerous. Don’t worry, this never happened!! We encountered a spectacular sunset which is pretty much only in our memories as none of us could take photos. But it was unbelievable and almost too beautiful for words. But as the sun disappeared, so did our warmth, and we were all freezing and shaking cold. The Aussi boys were only wearing shorts so that was insane. We passed by real Harley biker men who were wearing full leather suits for warmth and protection and asked us (through hand motion since we don’t speak Italian) if we were freezing. Yes. We were freezing and all huddled against our Vespa buddies for any source of warmth! Me and Nick were chattering and Julie couldn’t feel her hands—but it was still a great drive back… until we got into the city. It was traffic hour and we were pretty lost. We spent so much time learning how to get out of the city that we didn’t really ask how to get back in. We had a few maneuverability issues, one way street issues, and driving on sidewalk scenarios, but don’t fear- we made it back in 1 piece. We even figured out how to fill up gas in Italy (a tricky scenario). Once back, the man who owned the shop was so happy! And Rachell said she’d recommend it to all her friends in Florence, so we was even more happy.
Then we had the most delicious hot chocolate of all time. The hot choco in Italy (and Prague too as we’d find out soon) is more like a bar of Hershey’s chocolate melted with a bit of milk. Pure Chocolate deliciousness and warmth.
Then we headed to Rachell’s apartment for some homemade gnocchi pesto and other pastas, bruchetta, salads, and that delicious Chianti wine. Our aussi friend made tiramisu from scratch. I watched him do it… it was yummy! We topped off the evening with the world’s greatest gelato, walked around the city, and officially declared it one of the greatest days of all time. Unanimous vote. Loved it so much that I’m actually smiling from ear to ear right now!
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