I had been waiting for this day to finally come since I booked it! My roommates and I decided to go horseback riding through the vineyards of Chianti. Chianti is one of the sub-regions of the Tuscany that is a major wine producer. Sunday morning when we woke up the weather was questionable, but we kept our fingers crossed that the rain would not put a damper on our day. Sunday afternoon we attended mass in Italian at the Duomo before heading off for the most perfect florentine day. We suited up to go horseback riding and walked to the corner of the McDonald's that is across the street from the Santa Maria Novella train station where we were supposed to meet at 3:30. The 6 of us stood on the corner with puzzled looks on our face. We stood there for a good ten minutes until someone came up to us and asked us if we were going horseback riding. Finally we had met up with our tour guide. We then walked a few blocks in order to get to the mini bus that would be escorting us to the winery. The bus ride was about 45 mins long along the highway and through the rolling hills of the country side. Also on the tour was a couple who were on their honey moon. He was from Ireland and she was from Slovakia. The entire car ride there the 6 of us girls drewled over their love story, how he proposed, and gazed at their wedding pictures. Once arriving at the vineyard we were welcomed with open arms by the owners! The farm that the vineyard was part of was huge. There were many stables and dogs perused the premises. They gave us lockers to put our things in and fitted us for our helmets. Next, they were to pair us up with our perfect match of a horse! All of my roommates were matched up with brown horses and saddled up. I was the last to be matched up with my horse, which was a white horse! My friends all joked around saying that I would be the one to get to ride the white horse, being that I am the princess! After saddling up and getting acquainted with our horses we did a few trots around the practice ring where we met our tour guide who would be leading up through the trails. They lined us up in horse order and we were off for the trails. We all wore our rain jackets because it looked as if the rain clouds were rolling in. The trails were absolutely beautiful. We rode through the rolling hills which were filled with long grass, wild flowers, fresh herbs. At some points of the trail the aroma of fresh basil filled your nasal passage. My favorite part of the trails was when we rode through the grapevines of Chianti. When riding through the vineyards the sun started to peek through the clouds and allowed us to see somewhat of a sunset. The sky turned of warms colors such as pink, orange, and yellow as the Jesus rays peaked through the clouds. After a while of being on the horse you kept having to change your position because you became very uncomfortable. Some of the horses did not always cooperate. You had to yell BASTA, meaning stop in Italian when they tried to eat the grass or plants and you had to give them a little kick if you got distanced from the rest of the group. We sure had a few good laughs oursleves! Needless to say the tour leader got quite a kick out of all of us girls. We rode through the trails for two hours. By the time I got off the horse, my legs felt like jello and my butt was really sore!
After returning back to the farm, we were then escorted to one of the oldest castles in the Tuscan region. Upon arriving at the castle we were greeted by the man whose family once used to own the entire castle. He escorted us to the oldest room in the castle, which was his wine cellar where we did a wine and honey tasting. We tasted an experimental wine, a Chianti Classico Risvera, and Brunello. We sampled truffle honey, red hot pepper honey, and strawberry honey. I was pretty impressed with myself being able to know what I was talking about and doing when it came to wine tasting due to everything that I have learned in class. After the wine tasting was over we were served dinner! First they brought out a huge tray of bruschetta which was delicious! Second was a giant plate of pasta, one side was gnocchi and the other side was spaghetti! And for dessert we had a berry tart severed with gelato! Wine was also served with dinner. After dinner was finished our ride escorted us back to Florence! Monday and Tuesday I could barely move and sit in class without being in pain. I was so sore from horseback riding, but it was definitely worth it!
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