Under the Tuscan Sun - Tuscany, Italy - Day 6

And we're off to the country! Using Vrbo.com ("vacation rental by owner") we were able to find a very convenient and affordable rental out in the Tuscan countryside, but only 5 kilometers from Florence. It is actually a very large apartment within a huge villa but since we're not a family or large group we wouldn't  need a six-bedroom villa anyway. We were scheduled to check-in around 1:00 on Saturday so after checking out of our attic in Florence we took a bus to the airport, a shuttle to the rental cars and were finally on our way to nine days of peace in the country...peace induced by lots of wine.

The drive to the villa was rather easy as RCP has a fabulous navigation program in his phone that proved better than Garmin and Google Maps, except that the computer has a bit of trouble with the Italian accent and pronunciation of things. Regardless, we didn't get stuck going in circles on any round-abouts.

Although we've only seen a very small part of Tuscany on the drive from Florence to the villa, what we've seen is absolutely beautiful. The most gorgeously green rolling hills with the most pleasantly colored stuccoed villas tucked in neatly amongst the vineyards and olive groves. The roads are narrow and steep as they wind up through the hills and once you are at the top you can see forever. Tuscany is absolutely gorgeous and now I know why people fall in love with it. We have nine days here so we plan to see it all!

Trying to fit the luggage.

Across the street from our villa.

Looking for our hosts.

Living like a local for the next week.

Out our front door.

Yard out in front of the house...would be great for parties!!
We've determined that if they cut down the trees in the distance they'd have an amazing view,
but I wonder why they don't want to.

Looks a little like home :)

Let me show you around.....

Quaint but charming and completely equipped with everything we might need...

Just enough for the two of us...

I love the armoire...

The bed and pillows are fantastic.

I can't get over the roses here. They're huge and all of them smell like heaven.

We plan on trying to eat a few meals at home and needed to stock the kitchen so we went to the town of
Impruneta which is very famous for its terra cota pottery.

Love this.

Dinner of meats, cheeses and a bowl of bread soup made by the owners out in our courtyard.
A great start to our nine days in Tuscany!

And this is Nora, the overweight dachshund...
probably for reasons such as this, guests feeding her salami.

After dinner we took a walk around the "neighborhood".

Rich stopped to smell the roses....

...and watched the sun set.