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Just came back to read more of your report! I forgot how long the washing machine in our rented place in Spoleto took :-) But still, it was so much better than having to use a laundromat. Podere Lucignano Secondo certainly looks like a fabulous place to stay.
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John, this is a great trip report! I like all the information you're giving!
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uh_oh busted - yep, even though it takes a while, laundry at home is much better than a laundromat. And yes, the Podere was very nice.
Samsaf - thanks - I just wish I had more time to do this. |
Podere Lucignano Secondo (Day 6)
This was a day of visual sensory overload. From simple and sublime beauty to absolute wows – it was a very good day - but it was a very exhausting day. We got a fairly early start (at least early for us) because we knew we wanted to do a lot. We wanted to go to Montalcino, Sant’Antimo (to hear the chanting), Pienza and Montepulciano. In hindsight I would do the same thing again. Because these places were so far from the Podere it just made sense for us to see them all in one day. My wife and I had been to all of these places before so we just wanted to visit each for a short time. We had purposely planned a very easy day yesterday so we would be ready for lots of adventure today. We planned our trip for the day around the time we wanted to hear the monks chanting at Sant’Antimo. We stopped for a coffee at the little store in Pianella, programmed an address in Montalcino into the GPS and headed out. We arrived at about 10 AM, parked near the fortezza and walked in. We were the only people in the enoteca part of the fortezza and the guys working there offered us a free wine tasting. We tried 4 different Brunellos and they wanted to give us more but 10 AM is a little early even for us to drink too much wine. We bought tickets to tour the ramparts and climbed up some open steps to a gorgeous view of Montalcino and the countryside. We then walked in to the town and took a ton of pics of the incredibly pretty streets. We left for Sant’Antimo but arrived a little early to hear the chant so we stopped in a small village near the Abbey at a vine covered outdoor restaurant for a cold drink. As we were driving through the little village looking for a restaurant, the street was so steep that I killed the engine trying to get through the intersection at the crest of one of the hills. Thank goodness for the hill-assist feature on manual transmissions these days or I don’t know how I would have gotten started again – it was STEEP. Anyway, as we were finishing our drinks, a small tour bus pulled in and a whole group of rather demanding tourists tried to order drinks. I have to give the staff credit for being so nice to these really rude people. I was even ready to tell them to shut up and behave. We went to Sant’Antimo and the monks stood us up again. In 2002 when we went there to hear the monks, the abbey had been struck by lightning the day before so the abbey was closed. This time there was a small hand-written sign that said there would be no chanting until late in the afternoon. I guess we are just not supposed to hear the chanting at Sant’Antimo. It was still a very beautiful place and we enjoyed the visit anyway. On to Pienza. Easy and quick drive. It’s amazing how things work because in 2002, for a variety of reasons my wife and I did not like Pienza much at all. This time we absolutely loved it. Easily found a parking place close to the main area of town and as we walked in, we saw several Ferraris on display. Nice! Walked around and everywhere we turned it was just beautiful. The streets, the view, the church, even the restaurants, everything was gorgeous. Via Dell Amore itself and the view from it was simply outstanding. Took a bunch of pics and decided to have a late lunch. We found a nice air-conditioned restaurant and ate way too much. The server was fun and for some strange reason the power went out for about 20 minutes during our meal. They had enough emergency lighting to see but it was very weird. After lunch we drove outside of Pienza on the side where you get a great view looking back to the town up on the hill and took a bunch more pics. Very enjoyable. On to Montepulciano. Another easy quick drive. We stopped and admired San Biagio from up close before heading in to town. I easily found a parking space and was proud that I found one so close. WRONG! It turns out we were at the very bottom of a really long hill and it was a long ways up. We stopped part way up at a nice little bar that had an incredible view, a nice breeze and cold drinks. After that we walked all over town and as anyone who has been to Montepulciano knows, all streets go uphill. I don’t know how but it seems like you always have to go up to get to where you want to go. The only downhill walk we had was back to the car – and it was a long way down the hill. Even though we had the GPS, it was sort of a tricky drive to find the Siena Highway but once we did, it was easy to get back to the Podere. Because of the huge late lunch we had in Pienza we weren’t hungry enough for much dinner so we had a few snacks, a nightcap glass of wine and went to bed at about 10. An excellent sixth day at the Podere! |
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Well, your lovely descriptions of Tuscan towns & your photos had me sighing wistfully! How we enjoyed staying in Pienza, exploring hill towns and driving through the countryside - so beautiful! Glad you liked Pienza this time!
Your washing story of the previous day made me chuckle. It's amazing how long a cycle takes! We had a combination washer/dryer in our Paris apartment that took hours to finish and all the clothes came out slightly damp & wrinkled! At least, you could hang your wash to dry using wooden pegs. Much more effective! |
I'm wondering what you didn't like about your first visit to Pienza?
>>>After that we walked all over town and as anyone who has been to Montepulciano knows, all streets go uphill.<<< It always seems that way. There is a little bus you can catch in Montepulciano. You can ride to the top and work your way back. http://www.sienamobilita.it/mappe/montepulciano.html Did you buy any pecorino in Pienza to take home? |
2010 - We've only been home for about two months and I'm sighing wistfully for Italy too. It's so funny because we seem to have trouble with several things in Europe. Figuring out washing machines, bathrooms, making coffee and sometimes how to take showers have provided us with some interesting times.
kybourbon - It wasn't so much that we didn't like Pienza but a weird combination of a very unfriendly cheese shop keeper and a not very good lunch just didn't do anything for us. I'm sure it was probably my fault - I was pretty young and dumb back then - although now I'm just older and dumb so who knows. This trip we had a great cheese shop keeper and we bought lots of pecorino to take back to the Podere. If I had known about that little bus I sure would have taken it. Good info for our next trip there. |
Last day at Podere Lucignano Secondo (Day 7)
Up late and hung out at the Podere until lunch time. Had a hard time deciding where to go but eventually decided to go to Lecchi and try the little bar we saw earlier in the week when we had dinner there. Great choice! It was a very nice place and we had a delicious lunch, some good wine and a fun time with the owner and his helper. The wine he served us was from a nearby winery called Castello di Ama and he recommended we go for a visit – so we did. Another good choice. What a neat place. We walked around for a while and eventually came to the wine tasting room. I guess it was a slow day and the gorgeous girl working there was very happy to have some company. We tasted several good wines and then she said she was going to have us taste a 175€ bottle of merlot. Kind of surprising to find that expensive of a bottle of merlot in the middle of Chianti Classico country – but it really was good. I forgot I had come across Castello di Ama in my research. They have a contemporary art exhibit (which we did not tour) on the grounds. I wish I would have remembered this place or that we had come across it earlier in the week because it looked like there was a very good restaurant here that I would have liked to have tried. http://www.castellodiama.com/en/ We went back to the Podere, did some more laundry, then went to Castello Brolio for our sunset tour that included a four course dinner at the Osteria de Castello. There were only 6 of us on the tour – the four of us and a couple from California. Our guide was very good and we enjoyed seeing the gardens, the chapel and a few of the rooms displaying some of the Ricosoli collections. After the tour we went in to the restaurant not expecting much because for only 45€ each we were supposed to get the castle tour and a four course meal including wine. Well we were wrong. Was it the best meal I’ve ever had? No. But it was really good for the price and we had a great time chatting with the California couple. They are both in the wine industry in California and they weren’t expecting much either but like us, they were surprised at how good it was. There were several choices for each course and all were good except the cod for the main course – the pork and beef were quite good. We chatted and drank, drank and chatted, drank and ate and then we did it all some more. It was one of those times when you unexpectedly have a great time and kind of lose track of time. The staff brought bottle after bottle of wine never giving any hint that they wanted us to stop. We eventually spent a pretty long time having some coffee and dessert before calling it a night. Even though none of us got too far out of control - thank goodness we were only a few kilometers from the Podere. Unfortunately the California couple had about an hour drive to their agriturismo. http://www.baronericasoli.com/tours/...rs/sunset-tour We had intended to spend some time packing tonight as this was our last day at the Podere and we were driving to Florence in the morning. It was late and we were not inclined to do much packing so we set our alarms for a bit earlier than we would have liked and went to bed. An excellent last day at the Podere! |
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Thanks John and keep it coming! looking forward to hearing about your experience in Positano!
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ekc - thanks , I'll eventually get there I promise. Like flygirl said in one of her trip reports
.... must.... keep.... writing.... |
Florence – 2 days
Florence (Day 8) Up early to finish the packing we did not do last night. Left for Avis at the Florence airport to drop off the car. Eastave posted here on fodors about the difficulty of finding the place at the airport to drop off a rental car – and the post is correct – it took us three tries to finally find the correct turn. I thought it would be an easy thing to do and it might have been had I known to look for a tiny little sign on the side of the road instead of big overhead signs directing you to Rental Car Returns like we are used to seeing at most airports. Anyway, here is eastave’s post which I completely agree with: Posted by: eastave on Aug 30, 14 at 10:44am We just returned a rental car to Florence airport. We did this back in 2010 with no difficulty. In the past four years they have moved the rental car lots from the airport grounds. Driving in from the A1, the signs pointing you to the right spot are minuscule. We didn't even see them, heading to where we remembered the return to be in the airport parking lot. We managed to get to it, but it was very confusing. So, if you are returning a car to Florence airport, you might not want to rely on signage to find the right spot. You may want to map it out in advance. Like eastave, we eventually managed to find it and finally pulled in to the Avis dropoff lot which is not near the airport arrivals area where I had hoped to get a taxi to our B&B near the duomo. As we parked, I saw a girl in a taxi-minivan across the lot and we made eye contact. I nodded my head to her, she nodded hers to me and with that we quickly and easily had a taxi that would hold all four of us and our luggage. A short time and a small misunderstanding of the address later, we were at our B&B which we liked a lot. http://www.ladimoradegliangeli.com/map-bb-florence.php After a week in the un-air conditioned Podere, our nice COLD room was like heaven. We also took advantage of the 24 hour tea room several times for different coffees, teas and cold drinks. We headed out for a quick lunch before going to the Accademia for our 2 PM entry time (we had bought the tickets from home). What more can be said about David – just incredible. On this visit we only wanted to see David so we spent a little less than an hour before leaving for our 4 PM entry to the Uffizi. On the way we stopped at a little bar to cool off and for something cold to drink. Well the bar was not air conditioned but it had a big fan in the back blowing towards the old man and woman running the place. They only slightly objected when I turned it to also blow on us. They served us individual little bottles of white wine and Prosecco that were very good. While we were in the bar a thunderstorm moved through very quickly and the rain had stopped by the time we finished. We left a bigger than normal tip for stealing some of their air. It still amazes me how many people do not buy their tickets online and stand in line forever at both the Accademia and the Uffizi. On this trip, we mainly wanted to see the Botticelli paintings so we sort of quickly went through the other rooms. Again, what can I say – just incredible. We lingered in the Botticelli room for two reasons – we love the paintings and the room was the coolest room in the Uffizi (by cool I mean air conditioned). Another thunderstorm had quickly moved through while we were inside and we eventually made our way to the outside bar on the roof top where the waiter grudgingly wiped off a table and chairs for us. We always enjoy the view from there and it was somewhat cool after the rain. We went back to the B&B to relax a bit before dinner. The last time we were in Florence, a friend of a friend knew a trattoria owner and made reservations for us. The owner, his wife and his daughter took really good care of us and we had a fun time back then. I had emailed the owner a few times to make reservations for tonight. I knew he had been having some health problems and unfortunately he was not able to make it to the trattoria the night we were there. It was good but not the same without him. We ended up chatting with his son (who is now the chef) and some of the staff until we were the last ones there. We eventually made it back to the B&B and went to bed – an excellent first day in Florence! |
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Florence (Day 9)
Yesterday was a day of seeing favorites that we had already seen before. Today was a day of discovering things we had not seen before. Up early and had breakfast sitting outside at a nearby restaurant. The cost was covered by our B&B. The food, coffee and OJ were surprisingly good and there was way more than we could eat. We wanted to climb to the top of Brunelleschi’s dome and we went there as soon as we finished breakfast so we could hopefully beat the crowds and the heat. We easily bought tickets and made our way to the stairs – a little worried about how difficult it might be. It turns out there was no need to worry at all. The 463 stairs were not crowded or difficult (there were many places to stop and rest if needed) and it was not as hot as we feared it might be. We made it to the top in about 20 minutes. On the way up, there is a viewing area at the base of the dome before you actually enter the stairs inside the dome. What an incredible view of the paintings on the inside of the dome from there. After a short time at this viewing area, we continued on to the top. Wow! The view of Florence was gorgeous. It was a beautiful sunny day – really nice. After taking about a million pictures we made the relatively easy climb back down. It is well worth the climb to see the inside of the dome up close and to see all of glorious Florence. If you are able to climb 463 steps, I highly recommend doing this. We wanted to go inside the duomo but the line was really long so we went back to the B&B for a short time to take advantage of some cold drinks from the tea room and freshen up a little. After this short break, it seemed the line to the duomo was shorter - about 30 minutes later we were inside. We had missed going inside the duomo on our last trip in 2001 so we were happy to get inside. We really enjoyed the duomo and the displays in the basement. We left for Palazzo Vecchio and bought tickets for a 3:30 English tour. We went towards Santa Croce in the hope of visiting it before our Vecchio tour began but were very disappointed to find it was closed while they built a temporary soccer stadium out front for a game that was part of some festival celebration. We stopped for lunch inside an air conditioned restaurant and decided to go back to the B&B for a bit but as we were walking we came across the Bargello Museum. We had wanted to see this and just happening upon it must have been an omen of some kind so we went in. What a delightful museum. Uncrowded, spectacular exhibits and small enough to not be overwhelmed made it a nice experience (if only it would have been air conditioned!!!). It was getting close to our Palazzo Vecchio tour time so we walked there from the Bargello. It is nice to have all these incredible places so close to each other – walking between them is enjoyable and easy. When we visited Florence in 2001, we were overwhelmed by the traffic in this area. Cars and vespas were loud, crazy and everywhere. It was so nice not to have that crazy traffic nightmare now. We found our tour guide and had a really nice time in the Palazzo Vecchio. Our guide was very good and seeing the famous and historical rooms was great. We had thought about also doing the Vasari Corridor tour but it was just too expensive for us. Going back and forth from our B&B, we had walked through the Piazza della Repubblica several times and decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants there. We just happened to choose the outside seating area at the Café Paszkowski and had a great time. Live jazz at 9 then a crazy rock and roll band at 10 that performed mostly Queen songs. But the fun was people watching. It was surreal in a way. The people were so quirky – a table of women in really brightly colored nice dresses were joined by a tall gay guy in an ascot that air kissed the hand of each woman. Another table of 6 guys that were so outrageously different I can’t even describe it. People were singing along with the band and dancing all over the place between the tables (one couple was really good) and other tables of just weird people – I wonder what they thought of us? Lots of people were lined up around the outside watching the band – they were really good musicians and performers. It was a fun and different way to end our time in Renaissance Florence. It was hard to leave the restaurant because it was so fun but we finally walked around the corner to our B&B and called it a night. We almost didn’t put Florence on our itinerary for this trip but because of a scheduling quirk, we added two days to our trip and decided to spend them in Florence. What a lucky decision – we had an excellent two days in Florence! |
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I'm very much enjoying following along on your trip. Thanks for writing!
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I'm enjoying it too. Thanks for also sharing your pics. Makes me want to go back!
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Hey John - really enjoying the report! Also, I like the pictures posted with each segment. I'm going to be a copy cat,
I think ;*) |
Thanks Marija and msteacher - I want to go back too.
hanabilly - thanks - I wish I had more time to do this - lots going on but I will eventually get through it. |
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