Story by Randy Kalp

Photography by Bethany Salvon

Consistently in the Top 5 most in demand tourist spots in the world, Italy gets more than 40 million visitors a year. Legacy cities, like Rome, Venice and Florence, get most of the action, leaving some of the best regions seemingly tourist free.

One such place is Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy. Set between Milan, Cinque Terre, Venice and Florence, Emilia-Romagna jumps with local flavors, customs and pride, doing so many things well that it is hard to comprehend how its nine provinces have been consistently overlooked by travelers for so long.

Emilia-Romagna is anchored firmly by its capital city, Bologna, but each city in this region brings something to the table, often times literally–tortellini, Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmesan) and the world’s best balsamic vinegar are all staples of this eclectic environment. Let’s just say that after spending a week eating my way through the region, I split my pants 24 hours later while straddling a bench near the Colosseum in Rome.

I know what you are thinking: Why the heck would I pull a Rick Steves (think: Cinque Terre) and go blabbing all about Emilia-Romagna? Well, because we love you guys and we do what we do to share our discoveries with you. Plus, I’m no Rick Steves, so I’m confident that no matter how much I share our love for Emilia-Romagna logic dictates that the masses, when traveling to Italy, will still always choose the country’s famed cities for their one or two week vacations, ensuring that this little piece of foodie heaven will remain off the proverbial beaten path for years to come.

We spent a week in the region with Emilia-Romagna Tourism as part of its Blog Ville project, using Bologna as our home base. So, we have a lot of great stories and photos to share with you over the coming weeks and months. In an ode, though, to old travel days when postcards and snapshots were how many of us got our first glimpses of foreign lands, we decided to showcase a handful of our favorite iPhone photos from our journey as an introduction to this amazing region.

One of several ancient canals that runs through and under the city of Bologna.

Homemade lunch by Sports In Open Spaces who guided us on our white water adventure down the Trebbia River.

Piccolo and Sublime, a local hangout in the university section of Bologna.

The sacred halls of the Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortium in Parma, Italy.

The medieval colors of Grazzano Visconti, a village in northern Emilia-Romagna.

Piacenza, Italy

                                                                                     Black Gold from Acetaia di Giorgio in Modena.

Chef Ivan Polatti of Cantina Bentivoglio making Emilia-Romagna’s signature dish, tagliatelle al ragu.

Selection of breads, including the local favorite, Tigella.

Bobbio, Italy

Do you have a favorite destination that is off the tourist path?

*This campaign was hosted by Emilia-Romagna Tourism and supported by iAmbassador. As always, our thoughts, opinions and split pants are entirely our own.

Editors Note: This is a guest post by fellow travel blogger Susan Shain. Please see her bio below to learn more about her.

Traveling to a new country is a journey into another world. The language is different. The food is different. The music is different. Even the smells are different. But one thing that stays the same? The kids.

I’ve worked with children in the United States, Tanzania, South Korea, and Nicaragua, and spent time with them in many other countries. I’ve come to the highly scientific conclusion that they’re the same everywhere. That’s what makes them so awesome. They laugh and cry at the same things. They’re maniacs at age 5 and too cool for school by age 13. Though one may be playing with a brand new soccer ball, and the other with one made out of old plastic bags, they’re still playing the same game.

The best part about kids, no matter where they’re from or how much money their family has, is their attitude: their energy, curiosity, and positivity. It’s the reason I enjoy working with them — and photographing them. In these photos, I’ve tried to capture some of that magic. I hope it’ll make you smile, or even better, inspire you to instill some child-like zeal and wonder into your own life.

Mongolia:

Kenya:

Tanzania:

Jordan:

Guatemala:

Philippines:

Nicaragua:

Israel:

Susan’s Bio:

Susan Shain has been working seasonal adventure jobs and traveling the world since 2008. Her favorite things ever are ice cream and baby anythings. If you’re sick of your 9-5 and are yearning for something different (or just like pretty pictures), check out her blog, Travel Junkette. You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

We’ve got a really special Pin Up Live! tonight! You may remember that we traveled to the Galapagos Islands in March with Adventure Life, and tonight we are going to be chatting with them live and sharing tips about taking a trip to the famous Ecuadorian islands.

Our tour with them was amazing and we are really looking forward to sharing our stories with you and answering any questions you may have about visiting the Galapagos Islands. Plus, one lucky Pin-Up Live participant will win 5 percent off one of Adventure Life’s Galapagos tours.

Join us tonight (5/15) at 7 p.m. (EST) to have a real time chat about Adventures in the Galapagos Islands with a healthy dose of Pinspiration! It’s simple to participate on tonight,  just head on over to our Pinterest board, Pin Up Live, which is dedicated to the event. We will be pinning inspirational travel pins to the board, each one containing a question related to the Galapagos Islands. All you have to do is join in on the conversation!

Joining the conversation is easy!

We will pin seven of the question pins every few minutes and if you read or see something you like, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section of the pin. This is a way for all of us to share our travel stories in a visual way. During the chat we’ll be checking out your boards and repinning some of your items to the board as well. The theme for this week’s chat is going to be Adventures in the Galapagos! Adventure Life will also be joining us live on Pinterest, so you can ask them any questions you might have through the comments on the pins. Feel free to chat away. We want to hear your travel tales!

Important: Pinterest does not use hashtags (#) in a real time way as of now so in order to follow the conversation, you’ll have to be on the Pin Up Live board at the dedicated time (Wed 05/15/13 at 7pm EST) to participate. You will also need to refresh that page every couple of minutes to see the updates. Remember to refresh!

How do I enter to win the Galapagos Tour Discount and free Quito Tour?

In addition to the discussion, each person who leaves a comment on a pin during the chat will be entered to 5 percent off their Galapagos Tour booking and a free day tour of Quito with Adventure Life.

Why Pinterest?

Ever since joining Pinterest last year, we’ve been hooked. And a lot of it has to do with the inspired ideas and photos we encounter on a daily basis. There’s a lot of incredible people on Pinterest, but no real good way to have a conversation–until now. As avid travelers, we love sharing our travel tales and we believe the best tips and advice comes from your connections–family, friends and social networks. Pin Up Live brings the conversation to Pinterest, making it easy for people to connect and share stories, tips and beautiful images, while developing a comprehensive travel resource board that will grow more robust as new topics are discussed in the weeks and months ahead. This is the first live chat held on Pinterest ever and we plan to continue it each week with different travel themes so please let us know if you have anything in mind you’d love to chat about.

Remember, joining in the conversation is easy, just head on over to our Pin Up Live Board on Wednesday (5/15/13) at 7 p.m. (EST). And remember, if you’d like to be entered in this week’s drawing, all you have to do is comment on one of the question pins during the session.

We can’t wait to chat live with you this Wed!

It happened by accident.

Hangover Mike – the unconventional Roman tour guide.

Instead we decided to visit St. Peter’s and when we arrived we were equally shocked at the length of the line. It was another two hour wait to get inside. When Randy and I had visited a couple years before there was no line to enter and we just walked right in. But at the time we were there in late September and there were a lot less tourists.

It became clearly pretty quickly that our chances of seeing either spot were starting to dwindle fast.

Our merry gang of four walked around trying to figure out our best option when we were approached by a man offering a tour of the Sistine Chapel that included a skip the line ticket for both the chapel and St. Peter’s. The cost was 25 Euro per person plus the normal 16 Euro entrance fee to the museum. (Note: There are discounts if you are a student, see below.)

It was our last day in Rome and one person in our group had to catch an early flight out the next day so our options were limited. Because we all really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s, we decided to jump on the opportunity and go for it! A few moments later we were ushered over to meet our tour guide Mike.

Mike is an American ex-pat (from Ohio originally) who came to Italy seven years ago to be with his Italian girlfriend. It didn’t work out according to plan and you’ll be sure to hear all about his failed relationship during your tour. At one point, I suggested the tour should be called Heartbreak Tours because he clearly is still heartbroken over the situation. He makes several references relating to this disastrous romance when describing different items on the tour. For instance part of his description of The Temptation and Expulsion fresco by Michelangelo (see below) involved a lengthy discussion of how Eve snatched the fruit from the tree and got both of them kicked out of the Garden of Eden even though Adam was entirely innocent. He gave special reference to the fact that Adam was clearly paying the price for Eve’s problems and how this all related back to his own life. It sounds kind of heavy now but it was actually a pretty hysterical interpretation of the painting.

Later on in the tour, Mike pointed out that his tours actually do have an official name: Hangover Tours.

He clarified that he named them this because he is in fact hungover for almost every single tour. Turns out his other job is a nightclub promoter and he usually stays up drinking all night. He had just woken up about 20 minutes before our tour and was indeed hungover.

I won’t lie, after we initially committed to this tour I was a little skeptical. Clearly Mike is not your typical tour guide. In his own words: “I don’t like go into dates too much like other guides because they are boring.” After he said that I wondered if what he really meant to say was “I don’t go into dates because I don’t know any.” but ultimately it didn’t matter. Turns out Mike is actually a pretty smart guy who is not only an informative tour guide but a passionate one too. He loves what he does and once we entered the museum all signs of his hangover had completely disappeared. He ran around, with plenty of energy, pointing out things and telling us about little known gems that we definitely would’ve missed on our own.

He’s also quite the jokester and he makes a habit of cracking jokes at the expense of his customers and it’s really quite funny. Although you may not get an insane amount of knowledge dropped on you with this tour I can say that it was indeed one of the funniest and most memorable tours I have been on in a long time. Everyone on the tour fully enjoyed themselves, saw a lot of fantastic art, heard plenty of entertaining stories (based both 500 years ago and from Mike’s life) and laughed the entire time. Plus we all got to see St. Peter’s and The Sistine Chapel at the last minute without waiting in any lines. That alone was worth the 25 Euro.

Mike told great stories about the life and times of Bernini and Michelangelo and the extensive tour lasts about three hours in total. It begins in St. Peter’s Square, then moves onto the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. Finally it ends in St. Peter’s Basilica where he drops you off to explore on your own which is nice because you can spend as much time as you want in there. And even with his unconventional ways and disdain for boring dates in history, Mike does talk about plenty of important dates, including all the significant moments in history related to the Vatican, St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel.

A scene from the beginning of the tour.

We had a great time on this tour and we certainly won’t forget it anytime soon. If you’re in Rome with limited time and you failed to book a tour in advance but you still want want to see St. Peter’s and the Sistine Chapel, definitely consider taking Mike’s unconventional tour. For an extra 25 Euro you’ll get into both spots without waiting in line and you’ll be entertained the entire time while learning some rough and tumble stories about the history of the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s.

I should also point out that another great thing about this tour is that Mike will give you great suggestions for other spots to see in Rome, like a church made of monk’s bones and some great local restaurants. He will also will write the directions on your map so you can find the way. On our tour there were people of all ages from college age to retirement but because Mike is a young guy strongly tied into the local party scene you can also ask him for some more ‘underground’ suggestions if you want to find the best party spots in Rome. He will be more than happy to help and this could be an added benefit for young people traveling together that want to make the most of their nights in Rome as well!
How To Find Mike:

Wanna book your own tour with Mike? Visit his Facebook Page: Hangover Tours

The tour costs 25 Euro per person or 20 Euro if you are a student. It includes a tour of the Vatican square, the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel and ends in St. Peter’s.

Additionally you will need to buy a ticket into the museum which is 16 Euro (payable at the museum) or 8 Euro if you are a student. The tour lasts about 3 hours.

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

O.K., so we lost the first two challenges, but we still have one more chance to win. It’s a new week and we are carrying over the prize from the second challenge!

Want To Own An iPad Mini? Keep Reading…

Three weeks ago we announced a fun partnership with Captain Morgan – for the next couple of weeks we are running a competition with Captain Morgan and some other awesome bloggers. And if we win we get to give away stuff to some of our fantastic (and lucky) readers – that’s you! It’s not just any old ‘stuff’ but really amazing items like Go Pro’s and IPads!!!

How Does It Work?

Every Monday at 12PM EST, for the next three weeks, we’ll post a challenge here which can only be solved by watching the 60 second “Perfect Getaway” video below. To be entered into the contest each week, all you have to do is watch the video to answer the challenge question. Then leave your correct answer in the comments before Friday at 2pm EST. 

Want To Win?

So do we! Each week, Captain Morgan will give the blog with the most right answers in its comment section two identical prizes–one for us to keep and one for us to giveaway to one of our readers!

For the third challenge, we are going to take things to the next level!

We have an iPad Mini to give away to one of our readers IF we can win this challenge.

That’s where you guys come in; we can’t do it alone! It’s a race of brain and brawn – we need to the most correct comments to win so be sure to watch the short video closely to answer the riddle!

Without Further Ado, here’s the third riddle!

Challenge #3:

The mechanism used to set the prisoner free; the number of these found in the 2010 Panama excavation is this challenge’s key. (Hint: Sundance)

You’ll find the answer to the riddle somewhere in this video. Once you’ve got your answer then simply leave it in the comments! Remember, the more right answers we get in the comments the better chance we have at winning the weekly challenge and sharing the Captain Morgan Booty with you! Please feel free to share this contest with your friends and family so they can join in too.

Good Luck!!

*This challenge runs until this Friday 3pm EST!

One day in the not so near future you will be able to bicycle from Florence to Rome on a path through the Val di Chiana.

We got a taste of that 400 km journey on our recent trip to Tuscany with GAdventures. Believe it or not, without Leonardo Di Vinci’s help, this Tuscan valley would mostly likely still be a muddy wetland since the Chiana river had a notorious habit of flooding, which the artist fixed by changing the river’s flow of direction.

In the past, we had local experiences on vineyards and farms while WWOOFing in Italy, but never the chance to participate in popular activities like cycling.

My history with biking is relatively average, except for a period of 5 months in high school when I became obsessed with bombing dirt roads in the foothills of western Pennsylvania. In fact, I would say that I haven’t peddled more than 15 miles in 17 years. That all changed this past week when we busted out a cool 23 km under a cloudy Tuscan sky.

Our guide took us thorough the countryside, past vineyards large and small, a blooming mimosa tree ( a rare sight since it only comes alive for 20 days a year) and a variety of terrain that got me high again on a feeling I hadn’t felt in a long time–coasting down hills and pumping up them and the adrenaline and sweat that comes from each.

Riding through the back country roads, some dirt, some paved and others gravel, was an absolute amazing way to start the day. I’m already in love with the region and the ride sealed the deal even further. I could easily see myself picking up biking again and really explore the region and backroads of Chianciano Terme if I lived here.

Our bike ride concluded at a local and very out of the way restaurant where we dined on fresh bruschetta, bread salad, sliced meats, a variety of local cheeses and the largest beans I have ever seen. So large, Beth insisted I turn one into a mustache.

After a long, cold Massachusetts winter and spring, a bike ride through Tuscany with a local foodie twist was the perfect way to shake off my cob webs of inactivity and get me excited about biking again. A perfect start for our trip to Italy!

*Although G Adventures hosted us on this trip, our thoughts and opinions are always our own.

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

While we lost the last challenge, we are far from out of it. It’s a new week and we got an awesome new prize!

Want To Own An iPad Mini? Keep Reading…

Two weeks ago we announced a fun partnership with Captain Morgan – for the next couple of weeks we are running a competition with Captain Morgan and some other awesome bloggers. And if we win we get to give away stuff to some of our fantastic (and lucky) readers – that’s you! It’s not just any old ‘stuff’ but really amazing items like Go Pro’s and IPads!!!

How Does It Work?

Every Monday at 12PM EST, for the next three weeks, we’ll post a challenge here which can only be solved by watching the 60 second “Perfect Getaway” video below. To be entered into the contest each week, all you have to do is watch the video to answer the challenge question. Then leave your correct answer in the comments before Friday at 2pm EST. 

Want To Win?

So do we! Each week, Captain Morgan will give the blog with the most right answers in its comment section two identical prizes–one for us to keep and one for us to giveaway to one of our readers!

For the second challenge, we are going to take things to the next level!

We have an iPad Mini to give away to one of our readers IF we can win this challenge.

That’s where you guys come in; we can’t do it alone! It’s a race of brain and brawn – we need to the most correct comments to win so be sure to watch the short video closely to answer the riddle!

Without Further Ado, here’s The Second Riddle!

“The Captain’s vessel is of great fame. The answer to this challenge is in its name. (Hint: Morgan’s flagship)

You’ll find the answer to the riddle somewhere in this video. Once you’ve got your answer then simply leave it in the comments! Remember, the more right answers we get in the comments the better chance we have at winning the weekly challenge and sharing the Captain Morgan Booty with you! Please feel free to share this contest with your friends and family so they can join in too.

Good Luck!!

As an added bonus just for being awesome, here is one of our favorite Captain Morgan drink recipes!

Mutineer

Ingredients
• 1 & 1/2 oz CAPTAIN MORGAN® ORIGINAL SPICED RUM
• 3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
• 3/4 oz Simple Syrup
• 5 PC Raspberry
• 3 Dashes Bitters
• Bottom: 2 oz Cola

DIRECTIONS
1. In a shaker, combine all the ingredients
but the cola.
2. Shake and strain into a rocks glass with cola.
3. Garnish with a lime wedge.

*This challenge runs until this Friday 3pm EST!

Bologna through a jet lagged lens.

Mind-blowing mosaics, signature food (think: prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, tortellini), medieval castles and whitewater rafting, there’s a lot of reasons to go to the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and we are going to indulge in each during the next week.

We already got a sneak peek of Bologna last week before our local living trip in Tuscany, and I got to say we both really dug it, despite only being in town for a jet lagged 20 some hours. Bologna felt different than any other place we had been in Italy, but honestly in my sleep deprived state I could put my finger on why; I just knew I really liked the vibe.

Now that we’ve been in the country for a week, I’m happy to say that Beth and I have finally kicked our jet lag and we’re ready to take on Bologna again as well as the Emilia-Region. This time, however, we are going to have a little help from our friends and fellow travel bloggers: Peter Parkorr of  Travel Unmasked, Erin De Santiago of No Checked Bags, and Norbert Figueroa of Globo Treks. We will all be the first group of bloggers to hit the region to kick off this year’s Blog Ville with the Emilia-Romagna Tourism Board. The four of us will be rooming together for the next week in the official Blog Ville house in the heart of Bologna, and using that as a base to explore, taste and suck-in Emilia-Romagna. Additionally, this will be Beth and I’s first journey with iAmbassador and we are really excited to be the first bloggers from the team to break in the house.

We have some really cool things lined up for this week, including a cooking class, Italian TV interview, day trips to Modena, Parma and Ravenna as well as an overnight excursion to Piacenza-Bobbio, where we will explore Gothic architecture, see a bit of Botticelli’s work and dabble in some good old fashion river rafting.

All in all it sounds like one amazing adventure and we hope you can follow along with us as we discover Emilia-Romagna and see why it is so affectionately called the “land with a soul.”

 *Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

Disclosure: Emilia Romana Tourism board will be hosting us for this journey; however, all of our thoughts and opinions are entirely our own. 

It’s crazy. We’re in Italy – just got here today! Wow.

We were scheduled to be here next week but by a crazy turn of events we arrived one week early.

On the farm in Tuscany.

We flew into Bologna and the minute we stepped on the tarmac I felt a wave of excitement and peacefulness role over me. I just can’t help it. I LOVE being in Italy. It feels like home in every way to me. So much that I started thinking today “hmmm… maybe I should just overstay my visa…” Technically that’s a bad plan and as much as I want to be a rebel with or without a cause, I’m not going to do it. But I’ve made a promise to myself that when I return home I will start the arduous process of working on getting my dual citizenship. Everyone I know says it is a huge headache but I still need to give it a go so that one day I can touchdown and stay down.

By now (and if you ever seen any of our Somewhere In Time photos from Italy) you know that we have been to Italy before. This is actually our fourth time visiting the country.

Italy has always been an emotional destination for me. The first time we came here 3 years ago was to track down long lost family members. By every off chance in the book – we found them – in Rome and a little village called Lacedonia. We spent days hugging, kissing, telling stories in their broken English and my pathetic Italian and of course, eating. It was really the journey of a lifetime for me and one I had fantasized about doing since I was a little girl because Lacedonia is the tiny, little hilltop village where my grandparents were born. To visit there, well I’d love to tell you about it but there just aren’t any words to do it justice. I’d say you could look at the photos (because there are thousands) but it was actually such a personal and emotional story that initially I just wasn’t able to get it all on the blog.

I know, I’m a bad blogger. I should be writing about my most personal stories but it’s just sometimes that is really hard to do quickly. I eventually did publish two stories from that trip: The Homecoming and Brigida, Gina & Emilio’s Nocino. Warning: You might cry.

If it helps give you some perspective – the very first time I arrived in Italy I turned into a sobbing mess. We came in on a train from Paris and everything was going great except when at the last minute we were getting up from our seats and an older lady turned to ask me a question in Italian. I hadn’t heard the accent in over 20 years since my Nonna died. I burst into tears immediately and cried hard for 20 minutes on the train, literally unable to stop. I even pinched myself over and over – didn’t work. Luckily we were in Italy, which I believe is the emotional heartland of the world so if there’s ever a train to wail on, an Italian one is probably your best bet.

I’ve been in Italy less then 24 hours and I’ve already shed a few tears so we’re good.  I’m 4 for 4 now and clearly Italy’s charm or emotional core will never lose it’s hold on me.

So that’s my Italy. A beautiful mix -  the love story of a girl, her journey home and an overwhelmingly beautiful destination combined with good old fashioned Italian emotions that won’t stay put. Then of course there’s the food. Oh God the FOOD.

Living Local In Tuscany

Enough babbling about myself – the whole reason I wanted to write was to tell you about this short, yet sweet 4 day jaunt that we are starting tomorrow with G Adventures. Our trip is a shortened version of their 7 day adventure titled: Local Living in Southern Tuscany.

As you can tell by the name alone this trip is going to be freaking incredible.

We’ll be staying with our host Stephano’s in his farmhouse, or as they call them in Italy, an agriturismo. I love farms and G Adventures description of Stephano tells me things are gonna be just perfect: “Our host Stefano is a very keen producer of everything local and organic and loves showing visitors around the region of his ancestors.” Definitely perfecto.

We’ll be sampling organic wines, cheeses, meats and olive oils. We’ll also be touring the organic vineyards and wine cellar while learning about the ‘slow food’ movement and we’ll be given a cooking demonstration before dinner. YUM.

I’m also very excited because we’ll be taking some day trips as well which include riding bikes in the Tuscan countryside (hello bucket list), checking out the beautiful, medieval city of Siena (it’s so beautiful I have a niece named after this city) and lastly getting in some additional landscape therapy at the UNESCO heritage site of Val d’Orcia. If the name doesn’t sound familiar – I’m pretty sure this photo will do the trick:

Val d’Orcia

I have never been to Val d’Orcia but I have long drooled over photos from the area so I am particularly excited to take photos there.

Randy and I have been very fortunate in our travel lives have actually spent 2 weeks on a Tuscan farm previously and I am really excited for the opportunity to return to this beautiful region and see more of it. If you’ve been a long time reader you will remember some of our tales about WWOOFing in Tuscany. WWOOFing is a way to volunteer on organic farms around the world and it is without a doubt one of the best ways to learn about a culture while at the same time getting a completely different perspective on travel. There really is nothing like it and when I read our upcoming itinerary it immediately reminded me of our days on the Tuscan farm.

Slow, organic food was a daily ritual and endless bottles of wine each night became a way of life. Constant laughter from fellow WWOOFers, cooking lessons and endless good times pretty much surmised our time on the farm and it was easily one of the best travel experiences we have ever had. However there is one major difference between this trip and WWOOFing – working.

Randy hard at work on the farm…

When we WWOOFed we worked 8 – 10 hour days every day but Sunday. We were making wine and the grapes had to be harvested in time. Lemme tell you – picking grapes may sound easy but it is very labor intensive plus the hills – so many hills in Tuscany! You have to walk up and down, up and down over and over and over again with 30lb casetas full of grapes! Then there were the spiders – I know you don’t want to hear it but there are a LOT of bugs in your wine – that’s just the way it is.

Still with all this work, we loved it. Adored it. We worked our butts off and still fell head over heels in love with the little Tuscan vineyard we called home for two weeks.

Why am I telling you all of this? Well it means this trip is going to be beyond incredible! It has all the elements of our beloved WWOOFing adventure but none of the work! And it has another large bonus: Exploration.

Because we won’t have to spend 8+ hours in the field each day we will actually get to discover Tuscany – how awesome is this?!

For the next few days we’ll be exploring organic Tuscany – the food, the wine, Stephano’s passion for slow food AND we’ll get to see the sights – Val d’Orcia, Siena and bike riding. It’s the full package! Thanks to our experiences in the past we know this trip is going to be quite amazing and we just can’t wait to share it with you.

We just got an Italian sim card today so be sure to follow along socially for live, in the moment updates starting tomorrow!

We’ll be using the hashtag #gLocalLiving on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest so please stop by and check out the photos and travel tips we’ll be posting.

Oh and stay tuned on the blog because in another few days we’ll be announcing our next Italian project that starts next week! It’s all Italy all the time here on Beers & Beans. Well at least for the next few weeks!

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!

We are excited to present Pin Up Live! on Pinterest, and we want you to join us for the fun and a chance to win a few bottles of local rum from St. Vincent and The Grenadines.

Join us this Wednesday (4/24) at 7 p.m. (EST) to have a real time chat about liming at St. Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG) with a healthy dose of Pinspiration! It’s simple  to participate on Wednesday,  just head on over to our Pinterest board, Pin Up Live, which is dedicated to the event. We will be pinning inspirational travel pins to the board, each one containing a question related to packing. All you have to do is join in on the conversation!

Beth and I will be hosting the event with SVG and several travel bloggers who will be chatting live from the islands.

Joining the conversation is easy!

We will pin seven of the question pins every few minutes and if you read or see something you like, we’d love to hear from you in the comment section of the pin. This is a way for all of us to share our travel stories in a visual way. During the chat we’ll be checking out your boards and repinning some of your items to the board as well. The theme for this week’s chat is going to be Liming at St. Vincent & The Grenadines! The SVG tourism board as well as these travel blogs–Wild Junket, Live Share Travel, Global Grasshopper–will also be joining us live on Pinterest, so you can ask them any questions you might have through the comments on the pins. Feel free to chat away. We want to hear your travel tales!

Important: Pinterest does not use hashtags (#) in a real time way as of now so in order to follow the conversation, you’ll have to be on the Pin Up Live board at the dedicated time (Wed 04/24/13 at 7pm EST) to participate. You will also need to refresh that page every couple of minutes to see the updates. Remember to refresh!

How do I enter to win the island Rum?

In addition to the discussion, each person who leaves a comment on a pin during the chat will be entered to win three bottles of rum from St. Vincent and The Grenadines.

Why Pinterest?

Ever since joining Pinterest last year, we’ve been hooked. And a lot of it has to do with the inspired ideas and photos we encounter on a daily basis. There’s a lot of incredible people on Pinterest, but no real good way to have a conversation–until now. As avid travelers, we love sharing our travel tales and we believe the best tips and advice comes from your connections–family, friends and social networks. Pin Up Live brings the conversation to Pinterest, making it easy for people to connect and share stories, tips and beautiful images, while developing a comprehensive travel resource board that will grow more robust as new topics are discussed in the weeks and months ahead. This is the first live chat held on Pinterest ever and we plan to continue it each week with different travel themes so please let us know if you have anything in mind you’d love to chat about.

Remember, joining in the conversation is easy, just head on over to our Pin Up Live Board on Wednesday (4/24/13) at 7 p.m. (EST). And remember, if you’d like to be entered in this week’s drawing, all you have to do is comment on one of the question pins during the session.

We can’t wait to chat live with you this Wed!

Wanna hang out and talk travel? Connect with us on Pinterest, Twitter & Facebook!

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*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first. Thanks!