La dolce la niente (the sweetness of doing nothing)

We spent our morning walking around Florence. I thought we could see Boboli gardens but it was walled off and we had little time to tour it so...we headed back to train station to catch a tour we booked.

We first had some lunch at La Dantesca (front is off Via Panzani 57/r) back door is off Piazza S. Maria Novella. They are known for pizza ...we know now good sign of pizzeria we like has the brick oven as times we've had it has been our favorites. Here's the oven and one few Xmas trees we've seen...

We booked and caught our 1/2 day Chianti Colours and Flavours bus tour (Ciao Florence brochure at our hotel or ciaoflorence.it). Convenient pickup near train station. 158 euros included two wine tastings..one at a more modern winery and one at a 3rd generation family owned farm and a stop at Greve- a quaint wine village. 

We sampled at least 3 wines at each location and tasted some chianti jelly or olive oils as well.  The tour started at 2:30 the drive out was beautiful even overcast but once we got to second stop it was dusk so no sights on way back. Our bus was maybe 1/4 full. My recommendation for future visitors is to look into booking a private tour to visit the Chianti region. Probably would have cost same and have more freedom.

When we got back this evening we ate at a restaurant near our hotel called Il Portale (Via Luigi Alamanni, 29r). The waiter insisted on ordering for Jason (ravioli with boar stew on top) and brought him a complimentary limoncello after dessert. Natalie loved her mussels and chocolate pie. Jacob had hard time finishing his spicy pomodora penne dish but managed to eat his chocolate Nutella cake. I enjoyed lasagna forno.

We packed up our new treasures and gifts from Florence tonight in prep for departure to Venice tomorrow.