Horseback riding through Chianti

A few weekends ago, Kathleen, Katelin, Gina and I decided to go horseback riding for a day trip. We all stayed in Florence that weekend and wanted to do some kind of day trip not too far away. Chianti is known as the wine country (where they make the best vino!) and it's only like an hour outside of Florence. We all got picked up by a van, and the driver drove us straight to the horse ranch. From there we got our horses, and had about a 2 hour tour through Chianti with a few other people. The riding was a little bit too slow for me...i thought we would be going much faster on the horses. But we pretty much kept the same slow pace the whole time. My horse kept stopping to eat some grass, which was strictly not allowed, but I felt bad kicking it and pulling the ropes to make it stop. I kept on getting yelled at by one of the staff people to keep going and not let the horse eat, which was funny. It was really nice weather, and the country was beautiful. When we got back, the guys who worked there bought us some snacks and took us to see a baby goat. It was so cute and we all got to pet it! Then we all drove to a castle where we had lunch near by. We had lunch at an authentic Italian restaurant with about 20 people, who were all part of the Chianti tour. We got to try three different kinds of wine - 2 red, and one white. All of them had such unique tastes, and our guide was explaining to us what you drink it with and where it came from. My favorite was the white wine from San Gimignano; it was amazing! We also had some pecorino cheese with the wine. The guide poured honey on the cheese, which i thought was really weird, but it turned out to be delicious. We also had some pasta samplers and some cookies for dessert. After our meal, we got back into the van and one of the guides drove us back. The staff were so nice, and the guy who was driving us was talking to us like we were his friends. He offered us a ride to the mall, and offered Katelin and Kathleen to stay with him for their last night in Florence (since our apartment is not going to be available then)...hmm..a little too nice. Overall it was a great day, and very relaxing.