Adventure is Out There: 1 Mile...1 bottle of wine

Today we woke up in the country of Tuscany-the most beautiful region of Italy there is in my opinion. The only reason I woke up is because Arnel said "It's 8' o clock. The free breakfast ends in an hour. Since we'd eaten a lot of peanut butter the day before I was excited to get some food-especially since its free. Now I don't know about you, but when I think of continental breakfast I envision some bananas, a bagel and maybe some juice if you're lucky. This was NOTHING like what we expected.

We walk onto the breakfast room, after being greeted by the nice receptionist, and its a HUGE buffet spread. Not just cramp they went out and bought either-it's amazing and delicious home made food that two chefs make from scratch. There's fresh homemade breads (variety), homemade jams, bruschetta, eggs (boiled and scrambled) and the best bacon I've ever had, there's fresh yogurt made on a nearby farm that I added baked granola and flaxseed to, fresh squeezed juices to drink and fruit picked straight off a tree. Needless to say Super Nel and I are in heaven. We didn't know what to eat first. Oh did I mention the spread of fresh meats? Salami, Prochutto, some other meat I don't know of and cheese. And the breakfast is FREE!!!

For two semi-budgeting backpackers this is a dream come true. And I just so happened to have brought my daypack with me including ziplocks so we stashed a ton of food inside to eat for lunch and snacks. We talked about this meal the rest of the day.

After breakfast we go into town to climb the Duomo. I have to admit that it looks really tall and difficult and I was worried about passing out or fainting from the dizziness. There are ambulances parked around the Duomo and I'm assuming its for the people that faint or lose consciousness from the heat-I really didn't want to be one of those people. Plus it was 85 degrees today and humid! But I did it!!! One step at a time I kept telling myself. I thought of the amazing view we'd enjoy once we got to the top. I thought of how many years I looked forward to this trip. And I made it. And guess what? The climb (463 steps) is honestly not that bad at all. We did sweat quite a bit and huff and puff but we made it. And the views were amazing!!!

After the Duomo we stumbled upon the Florence outdoor market and we stocked up on raw almonds, Italian rice crackers and dried papaya as snacks for the rest of the trip.

We headed back to our hotel to lounge in the pool and play some ping pong. I can't recommend this hotel enough. It's a renovated old farmhouse that is owned by a family. They are all about customer service and treat you like you're royalty. It's called Il Borgo Villa Castelletti. Seriously-were talking 5 stars here. After a siesta we grabbed our 5 euro bottle of wine, sunscreen and some music and went for a hike on the property. One mile and one bottle of wine later Super Nel and I were convinced we had found the epitome of beauty (and a little drunk). There's a natural preserve on the property-a huge lake, horses, trails and a river to follow. Best hike ever.

We're kind of bummed to leave Tuscany but really excited to tour the Cinque Terre tomorrow. All the locals have been telling us how much we'll love it.