Siena: Day 1

Have you ever been so far away from home and yet felt completely comfortable with your new surrounds at the same time? Well that's how I feel here in Tuscany... It's like a home away from home.

A 1 hour and 40 minute trip by car from Lucca,

and a few wrong turns later, we drove down the tree lined driveway and arrived at Castel di Pugna. 

Nestled in its very own vineyard surrounded by olive and traditional Italian trees, this castle was strategically built on a hilltop in the 1200s - it's like an 800 year old cherry on the cake! 

Only in my wildest dreams did I think we would stay at a place like this. Shaun booked this place earlier in the morning without showing me on the Internet so this was a total surprise!

Our room was on the top floor, and boy check out this view!

I can see you're squinting so here's a close up...

We took a stroll around the castle admiring the building and its surroundings.

And discovered it even has it's own pool nestled between the olive trees.

After touring around the outside we decide to enjoy the view from the front.

We went back to our room to sort out the remainder of our accommodation before joining the estates wine tour at 6pm.

Here we learnt about the olive oil that is made using their olives as well as their own wines.

We even toured under the castle and had a look in the small jail they had - decked out with it's own chandelier!

We went back upstairs to the dining hall stomaches grumbling, and sampled some local cheeses, prosciutto, bruschetta and their own olive oil as well as three of their wines.

When our group of 11 were seated we were mostly silent, each only quietly chatting to his or her partner... But as the wine sampling continued the ice was broken and we all swapped stories of our countries. There were kiwis, Malaysians and Norwegians and soon enough it felt like we were all old friends...

By 7:30pm the chatter died down and Shaun and I decided to hunt for a local restaurant by foot.

We bathed in the last bit of the sums rays as it disappeared behind the rolling hills.

I think Shaun was looking forward to dinner.

When we arrived at the restaurant we quickly ordered and polished off our meals... We didn't want to trudge all the way back up the hill in the dead of night. We found our way back alright, snapping a few more photos and turned in for the  night.

Tweet Pin It Now!