The Lazy Olive

Wow. Just wow.
There are not too many places on this Earth that will do to you what The Lazy Olive does … I believe that was the most beautiful thing about our experience at The Lazy Olive — just that simple fact. We arrived to a place on Earth that seemed a planet all its own. Traveling through the windy dirt roads, seeing historical bridges, wanting to reach out and touch the hundreds of olive trees and taking in the rolling hills felt as if we had slipped into a time that few people have known.
When we arrived Malcolm and Daniela promptly brought us the best bottle of red wine we had in all of Italy. It was so fresh from the vineyard that it had not even been labeled yet. They also brought us a bottle of Prosecco! And then dinner started arriving in courses right on our table in our apartment! We were both so exhausted from our flight but you couldn’t tell our taste buds that! Malcolm’s duck made me double think my conclusion of not liking duck — it was delicious! All of it was presented beautifully, too — even the dessert was pretty. And yes, there was a candle involved.
In the morning we awoke to gorgeous sunrises. In the evening we wound down to gorgeous sunsets. All day long all we saw was beauty with our heads about as close to the clouds as you can get — figuratively and literally. We smelled lavender outside our apartment while we drank our coffee, watched the butterflies, and spoke of dreams. How fascinating is it to speak of dreams and know you are living one?
Daniela kindly dropped us off at Coop to get groceries — we loved cooking in the kitchen! Malcolm kindly took us into Siena when he had to go to the University. We enjoyed that day very much and we also enjoyed hanging out at the University. And, prepare yourself for this, Malcolm took just the two of us on a most unforgettable adventure: we started by seeing some recently discovered random gravesite along with a small hiking trek that led us to an old fort and church (they were all that was left of a once-​upon-​a-​time town). We even got to go into an old olive mill of a neighbor on the way out of Asciano to see how olive oil was made old school. Then we ventured into Montalcino to include our favorite lunch in all of Italy; let’s just say it was beyond what I imagined an authentic Italian café to be like for the locals in Montalcino. Next it was on to the Abbey Sant’Antimo for Gregorian Chants. Again, unforgettable! Lastly, we visited the Altesino winery. Once again — it was just us. That was an amazing experience to have the entire winery to ourselves, sipping on delicious wine, learning about Brunello and even seeing the grapes used for Vin Santo.
Our time at The Lazy Olive was a lot like a fairytale. I think the only thing that wasn’t fairytale-​like was the furniture in the apartment — very uncomfortable … all the way down to the bed. The kitchen windows opening up to all of Tuscany, the fireplace, and the large amazing bathroom (with an entire wall full of windows) that felt as if you were handling your business in the sunlight, grape vines and olive trees totally made up for it though! Oh and the fact that The Lazy Olive is an olive farm with free-​flowing olive oil like nothing you’ve ever tasted, along with lots of wine and laughter as well as dreams realized didn’t hurt either!