Let the eating begin

We're arrived at last in Castellina in Chianti! The weather is crappy--chilly and wet--and my nerves are a bit frayed from the drive, but it doesn't matter. Yesterday we drove about 5 hours through a hard rain to Parma. Big thumbs up. It has been recommended by an Italian colleague who used to live there, and it was a really nice city. Best of all, we started with some wonderful gelato, then had a fantastic (and inexpensive) three-course dinner and a good bottle of red wine.

After walking around Parma this morning, we drove another couple of hours south through Florence to Castellina. (Near as I can tell, despite the speed limit being 110kph in Italy, everyone drives either 140kph or 70kph--there's not much in between, which is a bit of a challenge coming from orderly Switzerland!)We stopped along the way for a good lunch in Greve in Chianti, which was odd because everyone around us was speaking German (including some who sounded Swiss German). There's nothing like driving all the way to Tuscany just to hear more German! Now we're on our way out to brave the rain and explore the little town that will be our base for the next few days. We don't plan to blog a whole lot but it's nice to have a computer right across from our room just in case...