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We took off from Washington Dulles airport about an hour late, which did create drama trying to make our connecting flight in Brussels. Instead of a 1 hr 40 minute layover we had about 45 minutes to get to the complete opposite side of Brussels airport. Luckily, the airline waited for delayed inter-continental passengers and we made it on board.

The weather was sunny and beautiful when we landed in Florence. We picked up our two rental cars and headed out to our first hotel – Castel Pietraio Wineresort, about an hour south of Florence.

Enroute we stopped for lunch at a little bar/restaurant and got some lunch. Highlight was the 750ml (~25 oz) Peroni beer bottles for €5! Some folks were dozing off in the car after the long red eye flight.

Castel Pietraio is a very cool place. It’s a castle used as a winery and a Agriturismo hotel. We signed up for a tour and wine tastings for Friday.

We became best friends with Julia who runs the front desk, wine sales and on-site manager. She’s a Cuban, now living in Italy. Italian with a Spanish accent! We bought a couple bottles of wine from her initially for our arrival happy hour, but somehow ended up with 5 empty bottles.

Then most of us got our second wind and decided to get some pizza for dinner. Based on Julia’s suggestion, we walked 1/2 mile to the little village of Strove to their cute pizzeria. The pizza was great, along with the Peroni’s. Of course we had to wait until 7 PM to eat since that was their official opening time. After we crashed by 9 PM.

Tomorrow we will visit San Gimignano.