It is quite an eye opener navigating through the Naples train station and thankfully our guide at least pointed the way for us. One must understand that you must wait just before your train arrives for the platform to be announced. Once it is, you should not wait as passengers dismembark and then you embark immediately. The train arrived on schedule and departed on schedule unlike some stories we had heard about Italian trains never being on time. But our italo.com train came through for us.

The train whips us at 250km an hour! If you want to take a photograph you must be quick about it.

After 3 hours, we are finally under the Tuscan sun! It is very hot in Florence. We only have a few hours before taking the bus to the airport to get our rental cars. Using bagbnb.com , we reserved ahead our bag drop off at nearby hotel Boccaccio (only 200 metres outside) so that we can do a little exploring of the city. The Duomo is overwhelmed with tourists lined up to get an inside look at the museum and the Dumo itself.

Alas time does not permit us to stay long, so we opt for a leisure lunch right in the piazza and people watch.

We opted to rent a car at the airport instead of the city itself as you need to be very careful driving out of this area known as the ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato). If you do not have the permit and enter streets marked with these signs, you will get an unpleasant surprise a few months later at home in the form of a 100 Euros charge on your credit card for each time you have driven in the zone.

It is easy to catch the “Vola in bus” shuttle at 6 Euros or 10 Euros return that takes you to the airport and then to the car rental agency. 

After an hour’s drive we arrive at our country house at Borgo Villa Certano, and are met by Graciela who greets us warmly. Only about 10 minutes from Siena, the house is amongst vineyards and olive trees, offering peace and serenity and not to mention a sensational view of the Tuscan countryside.

It is fall now here as well, so the grapes have been harvested already but the olives are still maturing until November and December. 

The iconic tall cypress trees line many gravel roads leading to villas or farms creating a painter’s masterpiece.

In the morning from our window, a gentle fog rises from the valleys as the sun rises.

Our plans for the next few days include Siena, Volterra, San Gimignano and Montepulciano.

But for now, it’s vino and antipasti to fortify us for the next days ahead.