Italy – Wine and Diamonds!

At the very end of October I had an opportunity for a quick getaway to somewhere in Europe! I had a free weekend with no weddings and my girlfriend Katie was in Germany for work so we were planning to meet in London then head off somewhere for 5 days, but where??

We quickly narrowed in on Florence Italy but not finding convenient flights figured we would fly in and out of Bologna then take the 30min train ride to Florence, this gave us an opportunity to explore a bit of Bologna also. With a little more than a week before the trip we finally booked hotels and did some last minute research…

I agonised over what camera gear to pack and finally settled on a very minimalist approach which when travelling with non-photographers is usually the best idea to keep the best balance!

 

We arrived in the beautiful city of Bologna  one of the oldest in Italy it’s not on many tourist maps so we really liked the fact that it felt very local. It’s always great to get a little bit off the beaten path.

By the next morning we arrived at the beautiful Torres di Bellosguardo Hotel set high above the beautiful city of Florence!

The weather in general sucked, it was overcast and grey with pretty consistent drizzle. I guess that’s always a risk when visiting in late October. A fair trade though given that the city was relatively quiet so we avoided the massive mobs of tourists typically found in the summer months! Even with the weather far from ideal I was blown away buy the city, around every corner was beautiful architecture, centuries-old buildings and priceless, timeless art and history. 

One of the must-do’s for us was a wine tour! We quickly found a highly recommended tour online and at the last minute signed up, we were not disappointed at all, it was brilliant and Angie our tour guide was great. We visited the Castello di Gabbiano winery first then finished up at the Bartolini Baldelli Estate for more amazing wine! If you are ever in the area it’s not to be missed. A great day with several bottles to go!


The walk back after the wine tour, the scenic route!

It started with a run… We awoke on our last day in Florence to a break in the weather. After a few days of over eating we just had to do something so it was off for an early morning run through the streets of Florence. I had been planning all along to use this trip as a means of asking Katie to marry me, she kinda knew this also which meant I had to do something a little more radical to surprise her! The run was my opportunity and we finally had some sunshine. To be perfectly honest I had no plan but knew it was time, on a lonely park bench under the full sun I surprised the heck out of her pulling the ring from my running shorts – mission successful! And she said yes!

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