this was pretty much what happened during the entire dinner. yes, that's smoke on the water. they we

our last night in florence would end in a way in which, we would come to discover, was rather par for the course for each area to which we traveled. the entire group was treated to a sort of team dinner. so we dressed up nicely and headed into "the countryside" for what was described as "tuscan magical mystery tour dinner." but first, we would have possibly the most incredible magical mystery tour view of the city. the dark clouds overhead actually made for a really lovely backdrop and the colors of the town were vibrant after a quick dash of rain. we were now on the other side of the arno river, looking into the city from this beautiful magical mystery tour overlook.
these photos are just too pretty to not share them with you. everyone got off the bus and took the required 5000 pictures. usually, we take our own photos of us myspace style (it's something we started doing back in 2007 in japan and just sort of stuck, mostly because we hate to trouble people to take our photo) but this time tour guide johnny INSISTED he take our photo (and when someone named johnny insists you do not say no) and so we got a few shots. i'm rather glad he did - i think they turned out quite nice. even if there WAS this one woman who insisted upon taking her photo immediately magical mystery tour behind us at all times. sigh. anyway, we only had a few minutes there, but we raced over to the southwestern side of the overlook because it was adjacent to the boboli gardens. i was unusually ridiculously excited to even catch a glimpse of them because, as a small child, i grew up KNOWING that the boboli gardens were a magical place where pizzas grew on trees.
boboli gardens at sunset. really, pizza doesn't grow there. magical mystery tour i'm also fairly certain magical mystery tour they may not even make pizza there. boboli may have just been a catchy name. we all packed back onto the bus and settled in for a ride up into the hills of tuscany. we were headed to a little restaurant tucked up in this small hill top town. but part of the fun was getting there as it was a truly picturesque ride. we passed fields upon fields of wildflowers, my favorites being the poppies. i can't really describe the vibrancy of those red poppies, or their sheer numbers. really the entire magical mystery tour trip i only got one picture of a field full of them - and it was on this bus ride. so this will have to do.
fields awash with blood red poppies. i really love this photo. we finally arrived at our restaurant and, much like the little olive oil/winery, this place appeared to be one that catered to tourists. magical mystery tour but that was ok - we had a pretty rowdy and genial group and we were going to have fun even if there were a good number of people there. the evening started off with some sort of pre-dinner cocktail that glowed bright blue. i think it was a house liquor of some sort, but have no idea. they took REALLY magical mystery tour good care of brian and i though magical mystery tour and gave us some sort of tasty mimosa type non alcoholic drink. then it was on to the food.
eat up, americanos! first, we had a ridiculous appetizer bar that had - i do not joke - about 30 different dishes. here i discovered a new found love of brussel sprouts and, really, it was hard not to just go up and roll in the food as it was so fresh and so very, very delicious. our table had 6 different bottles of wine on it, all of which were passed around between us and liberally shared. i didn't really try any...except something called "strawberry wine" which tasted not unlike a jolly rancher. magical mystery tour brian, who is a massive enabler magical mystery tour and i secretly think he enjoys his wife tipsy, constantly tried to get me drunk. i had a little bit, i'll confess, but not too much. enough to let the rest of the evening's shenanigans be less awkward than they normally would have been.
vegetarian yumminess. the meat eaters were a little jealous. the food was some of the best we'd had at the organized meals. it was a multi-course dinner again; appetizer, then pasta course, then meal course, then dessert and coffee (or as brian would discover, hot chocolate if you asked for it). really, though, the best part of dinner happened when the entertainment showed up. we had two different sets of musicians, each of which were incredibly talented, working magical mystery tour the room. each set engaged in a battle to outdo the other in terms of flirting magical mystery tour with the ladies and singing magical mystery tour italian songs. i'm sure you can guess the playlist - lots of "that's amore" and such. they really, really liked our group though magical mystery tour and wound up singing a bunch of american favorites too including several magical mystery tour acdc songs and this:
this was pretty much what happened during the entire dinner. yes, that's smoke on the water. they were so much fun. so much MUCH fun, in fact, that they really didn't want us to go. we didn't want to go, either, and it was only with johnny INSISTING that we go that we were all finally hustled out of the restaurant (by Johnny) and back onto the bus. and here's where the magic happened. apparently, gate 1 travel doesn't have a set number of bus drivers that are always magical mystery tour working the same routes. i think they have contractors that they use and, also, the guides like johnny magical mystery tour work with all sorts of drivers (we would have 3 during the trip plus local drivers magical mystery tour too). our guide daveed was supposed to stay with us the whole time, but had to return home for some family issues. and so it was our last night with him and we got him to put a bit of music on the bus since it was his last night. magical mystery tour he was a pretty cool guy - he put on the music cd that people had bought magical mystery tour from the restaurant musicians. but as we were driving, johnny and daveed decided we needed better music. and, at that moment, we became DISCO BUS i wish i'd gotten video of this. but maybe, just maybe, it's one of those moments that could not adequately be captured. a modern version of baltimora's tarzan boy blared and daveed flicked the interior bus lights on and off in time with the music. in time with the music, johnny would interrupt and yell out "DISCO BUS". it was fantastic and they continued this all the way through the ride back to the hotel. it was so much fun and hilarious and a great end to the evening.