September 3 - Saturday - Usual morning routine, read, enjoy breakfast with lots of fresh fruit and workout. We didn’t do much today as it rained - the first day of rain in over a month. We welcomed it as it cooled things down some. We went into the center of town to have a drink at one of the local cafes and watched the comings and goings. J watched some movies. T made a couple of Skype calls in the evening while sitting down in the main piazza as that’s where the network was the strongest - great to chat with friends.
September 4 - Sunday - After a coffee in town while we use up the last available time on the local Internet network card, we head back to have a quick bite to eat. In the afternoon we head up to the Hotel Valentina that has a thermal pool that J can go in as well. It’s only a 10-minute walk from where we are staying. We pay for our entries complete with having to purchase lovely smurf blue bathing caps! Oh yeah, we were impressed with the look! The pool was like a cool bathtub temperature only really salty, but not sulphur smelling. We had great buoyancy. All three of us spent an enjoyable hour swimming.
Refreshed from the swim, we go back to the apartment to get the car keys to go for a drive to the town of Piacenza. It’s about 45 km from our place. We drive along secondary highways, and we can certainly see some more of the industrialized north. A couple of major highways intersect here, so lots of warehouses. We drive into the city, which is fairly large and your typical Italian city. It embraces the centuries old sections with the new. We drive around and come across the old section, surrounded by walls built in the 1500’s. It’s pretty cool to see how the old walls have been incorporated into the landscape in this town. On one side of the town, the walls are high and the roads are behind are below, while on the other side, the roads are at the top of the walls.
We found a great spot to park and we wandered amongst the locals on a pedestrian only roadway filled with people of all ages walking, biking and sitting on park benches under the leaf tree-lined street. We stopped at a little kiosk for a gelato and then enjoyed the shaded walk. We came across a park for J to play at while we phoned a couple of people on Skype.
September 5 - Monday - It’s road trip day today. We are heading back to Ravenna to see if we can find, buy tickets and watch a couple of 2011 FIFA World Cup Beach Soccer matches which are taking place. The drive will take 2 hours along the autostrata and traffic was pretty good, no hold ups. We arrive in Ravenna and head toward one of the beaches hoping to coming across the stadium. Any info on the net doesn’t indicate the exact location of the stadium that has been assembled for this 11-day world championship. Once we are near one of the beaches, M pulls over while T gets directions to the vicinity of the “stadium”. We aren’t far off; we backtrack a little and follow the signs for the Marina di Ravenna. As we get closer, we see big posters advertising the tourney, so we use these as our guide. We soon come to the beach where the stadium has been set up. T hops out to find out about tickets, while M and J go in search of a parking spot. Luck would have it that they find a spot about a block from the venue. T asks a security guard where she can buy tickets and is told that it’s free. “Wow! Don’t find that too often.”
The place is set up with booths and stuff with people milling about. We are given passes for the day that allows us access to the four games scheduled. We decide to stick around for 3 games. The first, at 3:30 is Senegal vs Iran. The second is Portugal vs Oman. The third at 6:30 is Switzerland vs Italy, and as we expected the stadium filled up to see the home country squad. What a game that was - the level of noise from the packed stadium was deafening at times. Italy squeaked out the victory with an amazing goal in the last couple of minutes of the game to head into the quarterfinals. The game is fast, with lots of bicycle kicks, and the rules are not quite the same as soccer as we know it. The pitch is smaller and each team has 5 aside. 16 teams from around the world are playing, and they had to qualify to attend. We all agreed it was a great way to spend the afternoon. After a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant we head back to Salsomaggiore and arrive by about 11:00 PM.
September 6 - Tuesday - It’s moving day today. We are headed for Tuscany for the next 2 weeks. We’re up packed and ready to leave the place by 9:30. It’s market day in the parking lot across the street, so we’re going to stop in there to pick up some fresh fruit and of course some of those great chicken wings for later. The guys at the roastisseria enjoyed listening to Jeffrey speak his Italian, as they knew that he speaks English.
We decided to stop at the outlet shops in Fidenza that we had stopped by earlier in the week, except this time we drove around the other side of the complex and found about 60 or so designer shops. We all had a chuckle about this as we rounded the corner and saw that this is the type of outlet mall we’ve encountered in N. A. T and J did some shopping while M tried to get on the net to download J’s math and science units. The infamous Guiliemo network “went down” part way through the download so we cut the shopping short and headed to Parma to go to the cafe we had been to a couple of times earlier in the week to download everything else.
Mission accomplished in Parma - downloads and lunch at the same place. It’s time to get on the road. We’re headed to Bologna where M lamented yet again as he searched for fried bologna (ee) in Bologna, so T told him he’d have a better chance of finding that in Newfoundland. Our route to Tuscany would take us to the outskirts of Bologna where we would intersect the autostrata heading south (the same road we will take to Rome after we leave Tuscany). We just get south of Bologna when the foothills and mountains start to appear. As we continue south we see that this route like many of the other main freeways is busy with lots of trucks. As the road climbs to a mountain pass, of the 2 lanes going south, the right one has one transport truck after another interspersed with the odd car. It looked like a convoy of trucks for several miles. We thought we had easily passed a few hundred trucks in the one-hour journey through the hills. The farms pretty much disappeared and we were in forested hills, until we reached Florence that has lots of industry and people. We skirted around Florence to head toward Siena on a twistier two-lane highway. We continued on past Siena toward the town where we were going to be staying - Buonconvento. We didn’t have an exact address, and so we had some difficulty finding the place, but, a couple of telephone calls later, we found ourselves on the right road. We are staying in a renovated 17th century farmhouse.
It is beautiful here. The landscape is expansive and with extensive agriculture. We are surprised at how most fields are already harvested and plowed under - at home they’d still be harvesting. We want to ask someone about this. We are given a choice of 2 apts. and we chose one in a smaller building likely at one-time stables, across from the main house. It has a private patio with table and chairs looking out into the valley - we can certainly see ourselves making use of this in the next two weeks.
The place looks great and it has a wonderful pool complete with loungers etc which we will definitely use as the temperature is still in the 30’s. We unload the car, take care of the formalities for the accommodation and then we head off into town to find a grocery store. The Coop is closed, so we find a small shop with most essentials we want for breakfast tomorrow. We also check out the enoteca that sells besides Tuscan wines all kinds of food products which we have a quick look at and decide that we’ll have to come back another day.
We decide to go out for dinner and Graziella (the lady of the house at our apartment) gave us a couple of recommendations. We find one on the list and sit down outside the restaurant along the street. We had wanted to sit in the giardino, but for some reason, they had it closed tonight. Oh well, we decide to stay and get a sense of the small main pedestrian stroll of the town while we dine. The food was very good. T decided to try a local dish vitello tonno (thinly sliced beef with tuna cream sauce on top). Sounds a bit strange, but very good, although it was served cold, which she was not expecting. J had mushroom soup, which was tomato-based (not what we were expecting, but nevertheless tasty), followed by pici (the local pasta) with tomato sauce. M chose some delicious lamb with grilled vegetables. Funny thing happened - T ordered as a side dish beans in tomato sauce, instead got cannelli beans in olio and aglio (oil and garlic). When she told one of the waiters, it was like - “What - they’re beans - same thing” No, they’re not T thought, but couldn’t bother to argue further and besides the cannelli beans were delicious. T was not impressed with his waitering skills! What a putz!
September 7 - Wednesday - School’s in from summer..... that song popped into T’s mind as she and J sat down to begin some of the lessons. Today it took a while to get some of the work done. We think it’ll move along more smoothly as we become more accustomed to the class calendar and routine. M left to pick up some groceries, we have limited fridge space (a bar-size), and so we have to plan according to availability of fridge space.
We take time out in the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful pool that is here. The pool is very refreshing and we all enjoy it, as it is about 30 C out. We spend a few hours there and then J does a bit more schoolwork, before we call it quits. After dinner, we step outside and the sky is ablaze with color as the sun sets around 7:45 and it lasts until 8:15 when the colors of orange, red and purple fade away. We took a whole bunch of pictures on our cameras.
A great way to end the evening before dark settles in. M and T sit out on the patio and enjoy a bottle of Brunello and listen to the crickets - kind of reminds us of home.
September 8 - Thursday - More schooling today and progress is made in how many assignments get completed. We decide to head to Siena later in the morning to see if we can get Internet service to send in completed assignments and down load more school work. We drive around trying to locate the address that is supposed to be for Wi-Fi - but this happens to be located in limited vehicle access area - meaning not open to us, so after much consultation between us, we decide to leave the car parked in a spot we found and venture into the city. Siena is one cool city. A great deal of the town is within the brick walls that are very tall, and this is probably the largest walled city we have come across. There are 8 porta (arched entrances) - we enter through Porta Roma.
The walls are well preserved as well as the portas. Within the walls the roads narrow and are cobbled or thick rock tiled. The buildings line the roads, with most buildings being 5 or so stories high. It’s a neat experience to walk along these roads. This town is quite busy with tourists, but not like Venice, Milan or Florence - a calmer pace.
M finds an Internet point, so J and T find a spot to sit and talk over some lessons while waiting for M to do his thing. After the computer work is done, we find a restaurant close to the Internet spot and have a wonderful lunch. We decide to head back to the car as our meter was expired, deciding to come back another day to further explore this cool town.
Back at the apt, T decides to go for a 5 km walk along the main road to get some exercise as well as enjoy the sights of the Tuscan countryside. M and J do a workout. Then we head for the pool to enjoy a cool dip and then have dinner. Here it is very dry and we don’t see vineyards here, mustn’t be the right area. It’s another wonderful sunset tonight,
so we take a bunch more shots. We also enjoy talking to a few people on Skype to catch up.
September 9 - Friday Once again, schoolwork gets done, and T decides to go for another long walk, this time in the direction of Buoncovento which is about 5 km away. It’s a hot day once again, with the no clouds in the sky. She walked about 6 km and was ready for that dip in the pool once she returned. Meanwhile J and M did a leg workout at the apartment. We all went swimming and enjoyed lounging by the pool for the remainder of the afternoon.
The evening is warm and we enjoy sitting by the pool watching the sunset while sipping on some more great Tuscan Brunello.
September 10 - Saturday - It’s market day in Buonconvento, so we head down to the main parking lot just outside of the walls of this city and wander among the vendor stalls. The usual stuff is being sold, linens, fabric, ladies clothing, kids clothing, shoes, purses, vegetables, cheeses, meats and fruit. The little town parking lot is a happening place. We have found that anytime we have seen or been to a local market, the town is much busier than normal. We buy veggies and fruit for the next few days, some cooked ribs and wings for lunch. We stop at the pesceria and buy shrimp for dinner. Another stop we pick up some Tuscano porketta, which we find out later, is wild boar. By the way, it is delicious, tastes just like roast pork! We found this out by talking with Lucca who is Graziella’s son, visiting from Australia. Wild Boar is a Tuscan specialty.
Once back at the apt. J wants to hang and M and T decide to go for a drive and see some of the surrounding countryside. We leave the wheat and sunflower growing area and head into Sangiovese grape growing area, which they use for Brunello wine. We come across the hilltop town of Montalcino that looks like a cool place to check out and a number of wineries are around here. We enjoy the views along the curved roadways running along side vines heavy with grapes waiting to be picked in the next couple of weeks.
Once back at the apt. we head to the pool to enjoy the 30+ C weather which is quite lovely. Around 6 we meet with a woman named Fritzi, who has lived in the area for quite some time and who Grazielle refers her clients to arrange tours etc. She is a lovely woman who has agreed to try and set up a cooking class, tour of an artist’s shop, a village tour and winery visit. We have a great chat and have agreed to go with her and a group of her friends on a driving and winery tour on Wednesday. We also agree on having her take us on a tour of some villages in the area. She will call tomorrow to let us know if the artist visit and cooking class can take place.
September 11 - Sunday - We are off to Siena today to walkabout within in the walls of this city. We decide to first find the train station for our planned trip to Rome on Tuesday. Navi takes us to the station with no problems and luck would have it, we find a parking spot very close to the entrance. The long line moves fairly quickly, so within 10 min. tickets are bought and we are on our way to the Porta Roma where we had parked earlier in the week, hoping to find a parking spot. It is around 11 am and again we find a parking spot that is easy to park our Peugeot station wagon. It’s Sunday, so parking is free - another bonus for us. Now we can stay as long as we want without having to worry about meters. Sometimes the spots are a bit tight for this larger than typical Italian Fiat, Smartcar, or VW which most people drive here. Our vehicle is definitely on the larger side, although do see lots of station-wagon style cars in Europe. Pickups, SUV’s and Hummers are a rare sighting here!
We head off into the city, and go in search of the Duomo, Santa Maria Assunta and other sites we want to check out. M planned to stop at the Internet point, however, it isn’t open until 3pm. So, out of luck for now, he returns to the car to drop off the laptop, while T and J carry on along the narrow roadway flanked by buildings to find the Duomo. It’s a prime example of Tuscan architecture and yet again another masterpiece. M has agreed to meet us in the Piazza outside of the cathedral. Enroute to find the Duomo, we come across a parade of drummers and flag bearers dressed in the same “country squire” type costume Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila.
This group is celebrating the feast day of the holiness of Mary. This group of males parade through the city walls for several hours, going through the narrow roads. They are all fairly young. It was pretty cool to see, something we happen upon which adds to the Siena experience. While J and T wait for M, we sit and check out the statues, mosaics and design of the outside. M finally meets up with us and after buying tickets and renting audioguides, we are ready to enter. The exterior is marble - white and black-green horizontal stripes - the Florence Duomo has the same exterior.
Later from Fritzi, we find out that this is the Tuscan influence by the architect Pisano built between 1215-1263. Of course, like many of these churches, they are added onto and renovated in later centuries. The floor is referred to as marble pavement has 59 etched and marble panels depicting historic events of Siena as well as Biblical scenes.
It took 5 centuries to complete the floor with the recorded events. It is covered up 11 months out of the year to protect it from all the foot traffic, except in September. We are all very pleased to have “timed our visit” right. We all enjoy the wonder of the church, and are ready to continue with our adventure of the day.
We enjoy walking amongst the shops and check out a few art galleries that M had found on his way to the Duomo. There are a couple of “possible paintings to buy” and confer to decide on a favorite. We have found one, but want to check out the artist that Fritzi knows, before we make a final decision. We stop into a restaurant for lunch. M and T have cingiale con polenta which is wild boar stew and polenta. It is delicious and a Tuscan specialty. J has cannelloni stuffed with cheese - it met with his approval.
M decides, that since it was after 3, he could go get his on-line stuff done while J and T wander around the streets and decide to go check out the Torre del Mangia, a bell tower one can pay to climb and have a wonderful view of Siena and surrounding towns. We had to wait at the bottom of the tower for about 10 min., as there is a limit of 25 people allowed up at the top. We climb a few floors before coming to the spot where we need to pay and put all bags, excluding your camera, into a locker. Interesting, but as we climb higher and higher, some sets of stairs were barely wide enough for T’s shoulders to pass through - ah, now the no bag rule makes perfect sense. It takes a while to reach the top, with only one quick pause to catch our breath and onward we go. The view becomes clear as we near the very top and are now exposed to the fresh air. The last few sets of steps were narrow and steep and T has had enough of the height thing, so she decides to admire the view from the semi-open platform, while J heads even higher (no fear for him!) and admires the view from the very top. We take some great shots from both levels and then head back down.
We decide to count the steps and there are 368 one-way, our legs were somewhat tired by the time we reached the bottom. There’s our leg workout for the day. We walk across the palazzo di Campo where they host a horse race twice a year called the Palio where the horses race three times around the palazzo while people watch from within.
They catch up with M as he has finished submitting J schoolwork assignments and sending our emails. We all head back to the apartment for a swim and then one of T’s wonderful dinners. M and T enjoy another evening sitting on the deck with a fine Tuscan Chianti.
September 12 - Monday It’s shopping day for T at the designer outlets just south of Florence. It’s time to collect on her birthday present. M and J went off in search of science school supplies and the Apple store in Florence to get the latest update for the Iphone enabling us to have our own personal Wi-Fi spot. Lucca (he’s a computer software developer) told us about it, and we wanted to see if we could get it - life would be so much easier with it. Jackpot! The guys were able to get that done while T spent time and a fair bit of money going through the designer stores like Armani, Pucci, Dolce Gabana, Fendi, Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo. It was a good day with all around. We drive back to the apartment, and as with the drive up to Florence this morning, T has J use the time to get some schoolwork done. Later in the evening T showed the boys her purchases and they approved.
September 13 - Tuesday We are up at 4:45 to head out to Siena for 5 as our train leaves for Rome at 5:57. It takes us 40 minutes to get to the station and park leaving us with a bit of time before the train departs. The trip to Rome is about 3 hr. We want to go to the Turkish Embassy to make sure we get tourist visas before going in mid-October for our tour. We have heard from our travel agent, and the Canadian embassy that it’s best to get our visas from an embassy. We arrive in Rome on time and catch a cab outside the station to the embassy that is only about a 5 min. drive away. We arrive at the gate and get buzzed in, wait about 10min and then talk with a lady about getting the tourist visas. We see from the look on her face that this is an odd request; she tells that we can just get the visa at the border as we cross from Greece. She goes to double-check, and confirms with us that as Canadians with valid passports that we get the visas at the border. Too bad we weren’t able to get that info before we came to Rome, would have saved us a bunch of time and money. Still, we now know we can get the visas, and with that information, the purpose of the trip has been completed so we decide to walk back toward the station.
We toy with the idea of seeing if we can change our ticket back to Siena to an earlier time. T stands in line for at least 20 min only to find out that the earlier train is sold out, so we will have to wait until 4:30 for our scheduled departure. The time in line went by quickly as T chatted with 3 ladies from Toronto who had just arrived in Italy. Meanwhile M and J had met a lady that had travelled with her family for a year when she was 10, and told J she had had a wonderful time, and that it was great that he could do that too!
So, we had 4 hours to pass, we decided to walk around a bit, checked out a church, had lunch at a cafe, had drinks somewhere else and people watched. We didn’t have any interest in sightseeing as we are coming soon to spend a week. We spent a hot afternoon trying to stay cooler than the 33 C it was. The train was delayed by 35 minutes, but we were fortunate that our connecting train in Chuisi was still there and we were off to Siena. Much of the train travel time was taken up with schoolwork for J was we figured was an effective use of time. Once back in Siena, we head for Buonconvento to have dinner at one of the local eateries. We decide on a different place than the other night and the food was delicious. We return home by 10:00 that made for a long day.
September 14 - Wednesday We met Fritzi at the driveway entrance of our accommodation. We are going to follow her and 4 friends who are from Austria visiting in the area. Our first stop will be at a small abbey; Sant’Antimo built in the 1100’s, home to only 9 (remaining with this abbey) Benedictine monks who at the time of our arrival were saying mass, singing in Gregorian Chant.
The scent of incense brought T right back to her childhood at St. Francis Xavier Church. The church has the high ceilings that now are familiar to us, with a few remaining onyx columns (and as the onyx is translucent maximized the useful sunlight coming in through the windows) as well as some alabaster columns. It was very plainly adorned. It was built on the premise that there are good vibes from the ground which one can draw energy from, and some critical supporting columns were situated over these sources of energy. We could see where the church had been repaired due to damage in the past. The countryside outside of the abbey is gorgeous and we take a number of photos, quintessential Tuscany.
The church is located in the valley not far from Montalcino so the hills are full of grape laden vines, ready for harvest all done by hand over the next couple of weeks. We even get to see the two old olive trees in Tuscany, over 500 years old and still producing olives.
From here, we travel on a few km of dirt road until we come to the Ciacci Piccolominid’Aragona winery, our next stop. We are scheduled to have a wine tasting and tour at 10:30. The place is a great location. The winery had 40 hectares of Sangiovese grapes being harvested by hand with about 10 people and they planned to have it done in 2 weeks! There are 4 of us tasting, J sits back and has a taste of their olive oil and bread, while we tried 4 wines. From Rosso table ready now, next a blend ready now, to a 2006 Brunello and finally a 2003 Brunello. Martina, our guide, who is currently studying to be a Master of Wine, and if she succeeds will be the first in Italy and one of the 250 or so in the world, was a wealth of info, we could certainly tell this was her passion.
She brought out a bottle of their 2004 Brunello Riserva that was our favorite. M decided to have some shipped home to enjoy in the years to come.
While we toured through the cellar with many 30,000 bottle capacity each Slovenian oak barrels lined along the walls. She also took us to the room where the fresh grape juice was pumped into the stainless steel vats from the grape crusher. It just so happened that a worker was pouring a batch of grapes into the hopper to be de-stemmed and commence the process. Martina grabbed a handful of grapes so that we could taste them - delicious and sweet. They also store their wine in concrete vats for part of the old fashioned process. We learned a lot and had a great time there - of course who wouldn’t at a wine tasting.
Our next stop is for lunch at a restaurant in the hills at an inn, the restaurant is called Le Piave. We had a wonderful lunch with Tuscan dishes and everyone enjoyed it. We had a leisure lunch until 3‘ish and then we stayed behind to enjoy the pool at the inn, while Fritzi and her friends continued on. We were scheduled to have our cooking class with chef Clara at 5. On the menu - Tuscan risotto con ragu, veal cuttoleto, chocolate mousse and red wine cookies, all done from scratch. We had a wonderful time with Clara, who spoke a bit of English, but she had hired an interpreter to help out, and her other main cook was also there. We actually understood most of what she was saying. We learned a few tricks of the trade and then sat on the patio and enjoyed the meal we had watched being cooked. As well, we asked a couple of other questions, how do you cook the good jo jo potatoes, and how is the sautéed veggies prepared that we have been enjoying. All in all a great time - even J learned a few things and was right in there learning what he could, as well as serving as the official taster - the ladies were impressed with him. By the end of the night, he had kisses from both ladies in the kitchen as well as goodie boxes for left over cutlets and a box of the red wine cookies (which are wonderful by the way). We arrived back at the apt around 9:00.
September 14 - Thursday Another early morning rise (7 for J and T) as M usually gets up around that time anyways. We are catching the train to Florence from Buonconvento at 8:19. We only have a 5 min or so drive down into town and there is some parking at the station. We will arrive at 10:05 and the station is close by to the places we want to check out. T had ordered the museum tickets on-line so we wouldn’t have to wait in line for the Accademia Gallery where the statue of David by Michelangelo is. We thought this would be a good choice for J based on our friend AMT’s review of the Uffizi Gallery, which is where most people go when they come to Florence. We had to huff it to get to the gallery as our tickets were for 10:30. With the help of the map that T had kept from her June visit; we were able to reach the gallery at 10:30. There was quite a lineup outside, so we were glad to have thought to buy tickets ahead of time.
The gallery was busy and it is used as a teaching facility for art students, so we did see a class of artists sketching David. Once we entered the gallery area we could see the statue in all its glory at the end of the long room. We enjoyed observing and learning through our audioguides about “the prisoner” statues also done by Michelangelo that were another testament his label of greatness.
We spent quite a bit of time admiring David. What an amazing work of art - the detail on it blows the mind. In J’s words - it’s the giant perfect human. We also had the opportunity to view an exhibition by the sculpture Bortoloni - again, it’s no wonder they are considered masters! Again the beauty and detail of the sculptures are incredible. All three of us were very pleased with our choice of museum.
Now we’re ready for a quick lunch at one of the umpteen little restaurants/pizzeria we pass. Then check out the museum that has replicas of many of Leonardo Da Vinci’s machines that J could interact with. There’s a similar one in Milan, unfortunately when we were there, that part of the museum was closed to the public. We spent time wandering through the rooms and trying out the machines that we were able to have access to. The others, we admired his engineering genius and understandings of the use of simple machines for complex tasks, and could clearly see that modern day machines utilize these same applications.
Next thing on the agenda, look around for leather jackets, as Florence is known for its leather. We found a store where T and M spend time trying on different styles and deciding on what’s the best style for each, T also found a purse she liked. The shop offered shipping worldwide, so we paid and arranged for shipping before going on our way. There were no shortages of leather good shops to choose from.
The last stop of the day is to bring the boys to the Basilica Santa Croce that T had been to in June. The boys spent time wondering through the church and looking at the altars and tombstones of famous people such as Galileo, Michelangelo, Rossini, Dante - at the time it was “the church” to be buried in.
We were toured out and were ready to negotiate through the streets
to head back toward the train station. Our train was scheduled to leave just after 5pm. When we arrived at the station and bought ourselves a treat, we headed to our platform. It was early, but we decided to board early. A good choice considering it was air-conditioned and the train filled up with little or no seats available by departure time. We got back to Buonconvento just after 7, and decide to go out for a bite to eat instead of buying groceries and going back to cook. We had to wait the extra 5 min for the restaurant to open at 7:30 (it’s 7:25) by the time we find the place. A decent meal, and then head home to kick back for the remainder of the evening, and enjoy another wine on the deck.
September 16 - Friday We are off for a driving tour with Fritzi again today. The agenda is to visit a number of little hilltop villages that aren’t too busy with tourists. We’re into that and besides, we’re sure we will hear tidbits about the towns which we likely wouldn’t hear about and likely wouldn’t visit.
We drive to Chuisure which is a little village, about 5-6 km from where we are staying to pick her up. There are 108 residents; Fritzi says she is the 109th. It’s very quiet and quaint here and she says everyone knows everyone. The houses like most we see in this area are brick and old.
We head through the town of St. Giovanni d’Asso, known for white truffles. The hunting season for this delicacy is not quite yet. Apparently there are permits people apply and pay for to be able to have a designated area where they can hunt these valuable delicacies, and they guide people on the hunt as well. The hunter uses dogs to sniff out the underground truffles and then they are sold for big bucks. They are the same kind of truffle that was in the Asti area of Piedmonte where we stayed near at the end of June.
As our hosts had said, Fritzi will take you where most people never go. We travel over some dirt roads to a tiny settlement called Bagni that in medieval times the inhabitants worked in the town below, known for its thermal therapeutic waters. The view of the valley was wonderful from here.
The woods below she pointed out were where the wild boar lives. These animals wreak havoc on the vineyards and fields. Occasionally we can hear gunshots and we were told it is hunting season.
Next we continued on our dirt road trek to Vingo where the thermal waters were and still are. This is a wonderful quaint village with the center having a large pond/pool where we could see the water bubbling up from the bottom.
There are caper plants growing along the brick wall that was built in later times to avoid people from falling into the pond. T had no idea that the caper we eat is this flower bud - cool. We stopped for a cappuccino and a drink for J. It’s another hot day. Fritzi leads us through the village where we come across a shallow trench with thermal flowing water carried over the cliff flowing into a couple of ponds several hundred feet below, where people, including J bathe. While up on top we could see where the original bathing ponds/pools were but are now empty. Fritzi tells us there is much less water flowing now than before WW 2 because of development of resorts that divert some of the water for their spa pools. We leave the village and drive a short distance to get access to the swimming holes below the cliffs. We could see the calcium buildup from the water almost reminding us of hoodoos near home. J enjoys exploring the pool as well as the rock formations that the water falls onto.
We grab whatever shade we can find, while J enjoys the outing, and M soaks his feet. He also enjoyed striking up conversation with an English couple and their young daughter.
We head to Pienze, another small town, which was built in just 2 years in the 1200’s as a bishop wanted this town to be modern with plumbing, streets that are aligned with one another, and a sewer system.
Cool place, it’s where the movie The English Patient was filmed. We find out a bunch about the film industry as Fritzi worked for years in it. She told us of all kinds of famous actors she worked with and she even shad a role on the first Pink Panther movie, telling us about her experiences working with Blake Edwards, Peter Sellers and David Niven to name just a few. Neat lady, who loves the area, and truly enjoys sharing something different about Tuscany with people.
Pienze is famous for its pecorino cheese. As we enter through the porta and walk along the cobbled lane we are assailed with the smells of this cheese.
In many of the shops there are displays of the cheese at different levels of aging. Some of the cheese is aged in ash, some in straw - it was fascinating to see the varieties. We enjoyed our short stroll through the village that at times offers great views of the valley below.
Fritzi led us to an out of the way ristorante where it has only space for 19 people. We have a wonderful leisure lunch chatting and enjoying the Tuscan fare and of course some wine. To end the meal the proprietor offers us a shot of a sweet Tuscan wine - can’t remember the name for sure Muscatel I think. It is now after 3, and we have an appointment to meet an artist, Elizabeth Cochrane, to see her paintings. We have a short drive through some winding back roads to arrive at Montisi. This little hilltop village is traffico limito, so we must find a spot outside of this small centro. What a wonderful treat we have walking through the narrow walkways, admiring the rock and brick homes with flower boxes and pots.
Fritzi leads the way up a steep incline, around the corner and up a couple of hundred meters to Elizabeth’s gate. We enter her courtyard and Fritzi calls out to see if she’s around. We all enter the flat and scan the studio walls. All three of us agree on one painting within 5 mins. the sale is negotiated and mailing details will be forthcoming and we’re on our way! We continue walking along the laneway from Elizabeth’s that takes us back to the steep incline we took to get up to the studio.
Mission accomplished, it’s time to bring Fritzi back home, which isn’t that far of a distance from where we are now. We didn’t travel very far, but we sure saw some wonderful things all within 30 km radius. We marveled at this on our way back to Chuisure. We said our goodbyes to Fritzi the Italian cheek-to-cheek way and then we were off to the apt. We are very happy how the week went, and Fritzi added to our Tuscany experience.
September 17 - Saturday No touring today - the plan is to hang out today. This has been a busy week like when we had M’s family here in August. We’ve had enough for the week. M and T go for a walk along the main road to get some exercise while J does his schoolwork he hadn’t been able to do due to our busy week. After a quick breakfast, all of us head down to Buonconvento because it’s market day and we want to pick up a few fresh veggies and fruit and a rotisserie chicken for dinner. With that accomplished and a quick stop at the bakery/cappuccino shop, we head home. After the school work is done and a quick bite to eat, we head out to the pool area to hang out, read, listen to some music, chill and of course, swim in the cool water. Luigi, the owner actually had a chiller installed for the water in the pool, making it quite refreshing. Sitting around the pool we can see the olives growing on the trees, they won’t be ready for harvest until late Oct. early Nov. They are hand picked as well, we were told that they put nets around the tree and give the tree a good shake to get as many to drop naturally and then what’s left on the tree are picked by hand. The locals do not want to compromise the quality of the oil by having stems. The 50 or so olive trees on Luigi’s property yield them about 100 litres of oil each year, enough for personal use and to give some away to others in Luigi’s large family. There are many olive trees in the fields around here, but not as many as Puglia.
