An Italy Trip to Remember – Part 2: TUSCANY
Italy Trip – 2024 – Tuscany
On to Tuscany and Part 2 of our Italy, a trip to remember! This morning, after another filling breakfast, it was off to the airport to pick up our car. Aaaa, driving once again in crazy Italy!! On the way, somehow Ron lost his International Driver’s License, but he was still able to rent the car with an Oregon Driver’s License. Now we just hope that we don’t have any run-ins with the police…. We want this to be a trip to remember and not pleading to get Ron out or jail.
We have a Peugeot, which is lovely and very fancy, but also very complicated to run.
The navigation system features “Kate” our British guide, but we had a very hard time trying to set it up for the first time.
Don’t laugh, but other problems we have had are intermittent windshield wipers which just turn on whenever they like, and an air-conditioner which has two settings that we have found: MAX and Hardly There. When we finally figured out how to exit the airport, the rest of our journey to Tuscany went very smoothly.
At last, we arrived in teeny tiny Monticchiello to visit Francesco and La Casa di Adelina in the
incomparable Val D’Orcia. Francesco greeted us warmly at the car with “Ciao! Welcome!”, hugs, handshakes, and even Italian kisses (Kissing air on one cheek and then the other).
This will be our third time here and we love its authenticity, its feeling of home, and most of all the charm and culinary skills of Francesco himself. Our late afternoon and evening was spent wandering the streets of Pienza, another one of our favorite hill towns in Tuscany. We love it for the views, the level surface (unusual in hill towns), easy parking, and its shops.
With Jill’s wanderings, she stumbled upon a little restaurant, Piccolomini Bistrot, in a garden courtyard. What a lovely location! We promptly ordered more pasta and bruschetta. We just can’t get enough it seems. This was a joy of a location with mostly locals!
Tomorrow, perhaps a picnic?
Day 5–Heart of Tuscany Drive
The day started with Francesco’s five-star breakfast, today featuring fresh fruit, homemade focaccia and bread, and pancakes stuffed with Nutella. Francesco has always made our trip to Italy one to remember!
Then we enjoyed scrambled eggs on toast and of course, fresh cappuccino. Always the best part of Casa di Adelina.
Then it was the comedy of errors as we drove around Tuscany, first to Bagno Vignoni, the spa town, then to the Casanova di Nero winery, ending up in Montalcino for lunch.
The Picnic? Decided against it…..
The most fun was had in the laughs and the angst as we “misheard” or “disobeyed” Kate, our GPS navigator, or just tried to wing it on our own. BIG MISTAKE. It made for a stressful, but entertaining ride through the narrow roads of the Tuscan hillside and we arrived back at Casa di Adelina in time for a nap before dinner.
Tonight we stayed in Monticchiello for dinner (Thankfully) at La Porta Restaurant where Ron and I had Pappardelle pasta (flat, wide pasta) with Tuscan meat sauce–delicioso! and Vernon and Jill had Beef Cheeks with mashed potatoes. Yummy! The best part was the view of the Val D’Orcia with its charming tiled-roofed farmhouses and lines of cypress trees, from our terrace dining room. What will tomorrow bring? Another breakfast for sure, then a trip to Montepulciano! Tomorrow we will listen more closely to Kate as she tries to guide these rebellious tourists
Day 6–We complete the “Full Monti”
Don’t worry, it’s not what you may think. We call visiting Monticchiello, Montalcino, and Montepulciano the “Full Monti”.
Today we visited the touristy town of Montepulciano. We parked at the top and walked down the very steep street of the town, browsing in the shops as we went. Jill an I found a ceramics store with Val D’Orcia (the Valley of the Orcia River laden with cypress trees and ancient homesteads perched on the mountain tops) scenery hand painted on vases, tiles, and plaques, leather and linen shops, and many other Italian goodies.
Meanwhile Ron relocated the car to the bottom of the endless hill to pick us up and return us to our “home” in Monticchiello.
The treat tonight was our dinner in Monticchiello at Daria’s Restaurante,
our favorite in Tuscany. We still cannot believe that our friend, Daria, is not with us, welcoming us at the door and serving Michelin quality meals.
We started with a complimentary Prosecco, then our bread, then an appetizer of tiny tomatoes set in pistachio cream (complimentary). Next we languished over our main courses: Crispy pig with roasted potato for Vern and Jill, Beef cheeks in a red wine sauce for me and Bolognese with wild boar for Ron. Then we had homemade gelato (Pistachio and Lime). Then complimentary Vin Santo. One of our best meals so far!!
Day 7–We Travel to our Condo in Terriciola
After a two-plus hour drive, mostly on windy roads through little villages and towns, we arrived at Borgo alla Vigne, our three-bedroom retreat at our Hilton timeshare.
NOW we can relax, do laundry, and do what the locals do (Mostly that means eat!) We visited Da Carlo Ristorante for lunch and the volume level was LOUD! Why? Italian conversations surrounded us, as we were the only Americans there. Fresh fish was the specialty of the house. Our one waitress serviced the whole room and still was smiling. AHHH. Time again for homemade pasta.
A relaxing evening was ahead with wine and pizza at our own picnic table with a view of the small village of Peccioli in Tuscany, a little slice of heaven.
Day 8–A Leaning Tower on a 100 degree Day in Pisa
Yes, this is the hottest weekend on record for Italy, but we braved it (with umbrella to shade us and fans to cool us) to visit the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa. 100 degrees plus. Whew! But the Tower did not melt and neither did we. This is really becoming a ‘hot’ Italy trip to remember!
We took all the usual pictures (holding the Tower on Vernon’s back and Jill holding up the Tower with her hands), and more, and then we ducked into an air-conditioned cafe’ for pizza and cool drinks.
Dinner was leftover pizza and all the cheese, salami and crackers we had gathered along our journey.
Tomorrow: San Gimignano and a Cooking Class!
Day 9: San Gimignano and a Cooking Class
Our condo sits in the middle of Tuscany, connecting the little hill towns by a series of winding roads, which Ron is great at maneuvering, but HATES driving the winding, narrow roads for over an hour. Soooo after an hour and a half of switchbacks and u-turns, and a route down a gravel pathway, we found our cooking class and Fulvio at a local farm (agriturismo)! On the sweltering hot day, we were hoping for air-conditioning, but in the ancient farmhouse we were greeted with fans (which were adequate) and a table set with cutting boards and mounds of semolina and all-purpose flour, harbingers of what was to come.
Our class started with a lively conversation with our authentic and likeable chef, Fulvio.
We began by making pici pasta, a local favorite, mixing the two types of flour and eventually forming little “snakes” of pasta, which we later cooked and ate.
Next: Two sauces, one tomato, and one with cannellini beans, both delicious. Both had strong garlic and oil bases, flavored with only salt, pepper, onion, lots of oregano, and a pinch of chili.
It was so interesting that a can of cannellini beans could be transformed into such a delicious sauce. The trick was to take the sauce on the top of the can when you open it, to use as a thickener, then rinse the beans, discarding the remainder of the bean liquid, before adding the beans to the sauce. We took turns cooking with Fluvio’s guidance, and were shocked at the flavors from such simple ingredients.
Next we rubbed fresh garlic onto slices of bread and prepared a fresh tomato bruschetta sauce (with oil, garlic, salt, pepper, tomatoes). We also prepared a sauce for thinly-sliced and baked zucchini with fresh parsley, salt, pepper, oregano, and extra-virgin olive oil. (Fulvio’s joke: How do you get “more virgin”, as in “extra virgin”?)
Our appetizer also included thinly sliced chicken with a clove of garlic, prosciutto, and olive oil rolled and fried. MMMMMM.
By now our pasta was finished, and we were ready to reap the benefits of all our hard work! What a fun day with a new friend, Fulvio, in the middle of Tuscany!
Our day continued with a trip to the beautiful town of San Gimignano, and especially Dondoli Gelateria for
the gelato that always wins “the best in the world” competition. We tasted vanilla, hazelnut, lemon, mango, among others. The line was long, but the results were worth the wait.
We ended the day with another harrowing car ride and dinner at Oro Restaurant near the condo for vegetarian pasta, with (again) pici, the local pasta, always homemade.
Day 10–Siena on the brink of the Palio and Another Food Tour
This morning it was off to Siena, the home of the largest piazza in Italy, Il Campo, on another windy mountain path. We arrived in Siena just in time for our food tour with Elio, our guide from Tuscan Wine School. Our food tours have really made this a trip to remember!
The table was set with salami, cheese, and a farro salad when we arrived. Elio, who was very informative
and whose English was easy to understand, explained all the different wines that are grown in the region, the importance of the DOC (Wines with this label are subject to many government regulations including what grapes can be used and more), and DOCG labels (Wines with this label are subject to all the same regulations as the DOC wines plus additional rules to include a taste test), and that Chianti Classico is only authentic if they have the Black Rooster label. We later tried some “street food” pizza and also more gelato. Very informative!
Siena is composed of 17 neighborhoods, or contradas. A person born in Siena is a member of their contrada for life. They attend church there, they are baptized there, and their lives are centered there.
Twice a year the contradas compete in a horse race in Il Campo, which is covered in clay for the event. For us, arriving shortly before the Palio this year, the most interesting part of the day was when we were able to see the “Snail” Contrada preparing for the Palio, just four short days ahead. The young men were practicing with their flags and drums, while others in the contrada prepared food for the massive gathering of all members of the neighborhood. Tables were set in the narrow streets and an electric vibe was in the air.
Did I mention Jill had great success in a leather shop called iPonti where she bought leather Christmas and birthday gifts?
The day wasn’t over yet, though, because Ron was done with the windy roads, and honestly, so were we. He insisted on catching the freeway toward Florence and then driving west towards Pisa, to then reach our condo. I have to admit this was a better route, though about an hour longer.
Did I mention we hated the Peugeot we rented? It was a tight squeeze for all of us to get in and get out, the air conditioning was temperamental, we only partially trusted the GPS system, and we never did fully comprehend the screen options. Of course, all the instructions provided were in Italian, so that didn’t help either. I have to say Ron did a great job of keeping us safe, navigating around tight corners and juggling for space with Italian drivers who often pass too tightly and take a little more than their share of the road.
Day 11–A Day of Rest
The final day at the Condo was spent resting, shopping, and having dinner in the nearby tiny hill town on Peccioli. We sat in the city square at a table with only Italians as the sun went down, church bells chimed, and we were served still more bolognese with ragu, and lasagna. A fond farewell to the area. Did we mention we love Tuscany? Tomorrow, on to Florence!
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