CollK

Hi Kwren,
Our itinerary is kind of whirlwind (so I was afraid to post it here!)

Milan (2 nites) with a day trip to Varenna and Bellagio
Castellina - 3 nites
Montepulciano - 2 nites
Venice - 2 nites

So I'm especially interested in your Tuscany portion.

kwren

Hey CollK - I can understand whirlwinds - some people might say that parts of our trip were like that too, but other parts we totally relaxed and spent more time. I'm about to write about our short stop in Castellina...home of my favorite gelato of the trip! We also stayed in the greatest place in Montepulciano! It was our splurge for one night at the end of Tuscany. Stay tuned

kwren

Here are pictures of LUCCA, PISA and the view of FLORENCE:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...3&l=99b98c3d18

CollK

Can't wait to har about the gelato in Castllina and big splurge in Montepluciano. Your pictures are great....Lucca looks lovely!

kwren

July 5 – driving to Tuscany

While my husband checked out of the hotel, I walked to pick up the car. I hoped the hotel had alerted the police that my driving in the ZTL was approved for the check-out, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking to drive past all the warning signs.

We drove past Florence on the way to Tuscany with a quick stop at the Piazza Michelangelo for a view of the city. Parking was terrible – completely full, but I noticed a car drive between a break in some chains alongside an open area, and followed them in to park. When you see cars all over Italy squeezed in between 2 cars and parked perpendicular to the curb, it doesn’t seem so bad to find parking any way you need to. I have to admit that I kept my eye out for the ‘polizia’ while we were admiring the view, but we were safe. The view was spectacular overlooking the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, the Arno River and the Tuscan hills beyond. There was a small statue of David, and of course souvenir stands. Finished with this quick detour, we continued back on the winding roads out of this area and back to the highways.

We had decided to take the scenic Route SR222, the major wine route, south through Chianti on our way to southern Tuscany. Lush green rolling hills topped with olive groves and vineyards surrounded us. The region is known for their medieval towns and wineries. Wineries outside the official boundaries of Chianti started making their own wines without adhering to the official Chianti making rules, so in 1924 a consortium was established. The official wineries which are part of this – they make 80% of the Chianti Classico produced today - use the black rooster as their symbol, which we saw displayed at many of the wine shops. We didn’t have time to stop in Greve, host of the Chianti annual wine festival, although I had read about the Cantine and would like to visit it in the future. Buy a ‘Winecard’ for a preset amount, insert it in the slot corresponding to the wine you would like to sample and wine is automatically dispensed. Sounds fun! See a video of it here:

http://www.lecantine.it/cantineUtente/degustazione.php

We did made quick stops in Radda in Chianti (a wonderful hilly town which grew around the pretty and simple San Nicolo Church, with cobblestones streets and a few souvenir shops. We also went into an art gallery underground in beautiful vaulted rooms) and Castellina, an elongated town with stone streets and a long uncrowded pedestrian area with a lot of wine shops. So much to see – next time we’d like to visit the fort, the Via della Volte (tunnel street overlooking the valley) and the burial chambers in the countryside. [NOTE - my personal vote for the best gelato of the trip was in Castellina at the Enoteca le Volte. So creamy, just perfect, so many flavors! This opinion was the source of many discussions as we progressed through the vacation, but I was never swayed! Castellina was worth the stop just for that! The lady behind the counter was so nice to offer to take a picture of us in her shop, and directed us out the back door to see a pretty painting just opposite.] Driving later, we passed a hotel with many swimming pools and separate levels of pool chairs all lined up…and not a single person to be seen.

We entered Tuscany as we circumvented Sienna and soon stopped in Buonconvento, another tiny town surrounded by high walls and the main gate of imposing wooden doors. Quick walk through, a stop at a food store for snacks (where we saw some legs of prosciutto, lots of cheese and an interesting frozen seafood section) and we continued on. The change in the scenery between Chianti and Tuscany was unexpected and striking with predominantly shades of gold taking over instead of the lush green. Not what I expected at all. Striped fields of wheat, but even moreso, miles and miles of sunflower fields! Up hills, down the other sides, sunflowers as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking! (My husband was very patient with all the stops for the perfect sunflower picture!)

We arrived easily at our agriturismo, Fattoria Fregoli, outside of Pienza. Our turn was easy to find because it was one of the only roads which happened to have a blue sign to another town. (Helpful after dark on the winding roads!) Guess what! Yet again, the room we had reserved 8 months in advance and had confirmed a month prior to this was not available! Adventures checking in seemed to be the theme of the trip! In a large hotel, this was not such an issue, but in a small farmhouse with only 4 apartments which all had different arrangements of rooms, it seemed more important. We were lead to an apartment we had not booked by the owner’s cousin who didn’t speak English (the owner was not around). I tried to show her the paper confirming our choice, but she just continued on. The absolute funniest part of the trip started there and then. An Italian woman who spoke both English and Italian jumped in and tried to explain and show the cousin our written confirmation for “our” apartment, talking to both of us at once. Another who spoke French and Italian, also showed up to help, simultaneously speaking French to me and Italian to the cousin. Finally a German person tried to get involved. Everyone was talking at once in all different languages, arms waving, to a person who was intent on taking us to the "wrong" apartment. Why didn't she understand at least one of these women??? The woman finally said she’d ask the people in “our” apartment there to move (oh, that was the problem – they double booked or some such thing!), but when I heard that, I immediately said NO we’ll take the other one. I wasn’t going to ask someone else to move. We said OK to the new apartment (complete with little tower bedroom and spectacular views, but no where to sit except at the kitchen table) and loved it, even though we had initially wanted the one on one level with living room and couches. We went with the flow and it worked out fine. We even started joining the Italian lady who first started helping us by the pool over the next few days. Anyway, the apartments were decorated in gorgeous antiques, some hand-painted, and everything was so comfortable. Beams on the ceilings, tiled floors, beautiful bathrooms. I’ll post pictures because you have to see to appreciate! I can’t recommend this agriturismo more and would stay there again.

We settled in and went into Pienza for dinner. Pienza is on top of a hill (and is known for its Pecorino cheeses), but is mostly flat within the walls and perfect for walking around. We decided on Baccus l’Osteria. The hit there was the papardelle with boar sauce. Yum! We recommend desserts there as well and had a fun time talking to other people and the servers.

Back at the farmhouse, the pool was lit up in pale blue – glowing in the otherwise complete darkness.

kwren

Here are our pictures of our drive through CHIANTI, into TUSCANY and of our agriturismo, FATTORIA FREGOLI:


https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...3&l=a68f5a1d2e

CollK

Great pictures.. now I'm really getting excited for our trip. I hope the sunflowers will be blooming for us (5/21 - 5/26) but maybe we'll be there too early.

Sounds like you definitely had some bad luck with your hotel reservations! And that's too funny when everyone was speaking different languages and tried to help. It reminds me of an old "I Love Lucy" episode.

Yummy gelato and wine dispensaries -- those are my favorite things (along with pizza and pasta of course!). So excited to visit Chianti!

elnap29

Just started reading and have "traveled" with you through Switzerland. Wonderful report and fabulous photos! Thank you for posting them, as we have been discussing which destination for next trip and are considering Switzerland. I'm happy I looked at every single photo! Found myself grinning and feeling the joy of your adventures, especially all your downhill rides! And those cows are beautiful, by the way.

kwren

I Love Lucy...exactly!!!

We're not done with the "fun" check-ins, you'll see! Would anyone ever think we could have an issue with every single one in the same trip?!

I think those cows were hamming it up for the camera! They were almost purring they were so happy!!

I'm so glad people are enjoying my trip report and pictures - thanks for commenting!

bxl4373

The pictures of the sunflowers are amazing!

kwren

thanks bxl!

jmct714

Thanks so much for sharing your lovely pics! I'm enjoying your report!

kwren

July 6 – Tuscan countryside

We had an amazing breakfast buffet with homemade tarts, cakes and pastries, cereal, yogurts, and ate outside on the patio, although the common room was also set up for the meal. DH was happy that espresso was being made and the kids loved the nutella tart. There were many birds flying around because they had built some nests under the eaves near the breakfast area, but couldn’t get there with the guests in their way. After eating, we strolled through the property and saw their antique sunflower machines which separated out the seeds from the flower. Those are not used anymore because of the size of their sunflower operation – the flowers are sent out to make oil. There were many different seating areas around the farmhouse surrounded by lavender or other flowers and beautiful views of the Tuscan landscape from every direction, the fields mostly filled with golden wheat sparkling and swaying in the breeze.

Our olive oil press tour was changed to tomorrow so today was spent touring:
first Bagno Vignoli with its thermal water spring in the center of the town (the Romans used to go there for vacation) and then St Antimo Abbey to hear the monks chanting (wow!). While distances don’t look so far on the map, these two towns took quite a bit of time to reach due to the winding roads up and around various towns perched on hills. (I recall it took an hour from Bagno Vignoli to St. Antimo so plan accordingly if you are doing this drive.) Coming around a bend and first seeing St. Antimo was breathtaking. We never would have imagined a site like that! There are only a few times a day that the monks chant, and pictures are not allowed. They file in, sit in pews opposite each other and start chanting. It wasn’t full of tourists and was definitely worth the trip.

Next, we drove past San Quirico and on to Montalcino, famous for Brunello wine. We did the wine tasting at the Enoteca Wineshop at the Fortezza while the kids climbed to the top of the fort. At the Enoteca, you choose how many wines and which level to taste and pay accordingly. It was hard to choose our favorites – we liked them all. Finally, we circled around to Sant’Anna in Camprena, an old monastery and where the movie the English Patient was shot. It is now a pretty and rustic agriturismo, but was too simplistic for our tastes. We parked between some olive trees and toured the grounds and walked around inside the halls (no one was around to tell us whether we could or not – it seemed completely deserted). The interior courtyard was pretty with lemon trees growing in big pots. We returned home and ended the afternoon with a swim in the infinity pool.

We had dinner back in Pienza on a patio at Terrazza Val d’Orcia. The view was spectacular, and the food even better. The gnocchi with butter and sage was light as a feather and melted in the mouth. The spaghetti with boar sauce was once again a hit. We ended our day at the gelato shop leaving of Pienza and were treated to the end of a beautiful Tuscan sunset on the way back.

elnap29

Your agriturismo looks lovely.
We visited Buonconvento briefly on our last trip with our guide, who provided many details. We could see the closed in arches of the former stables at the ground floor level of the homes (from the days everyone had horses), and the narrow slots in the outer walls provided a secure place to fire cross-bows over the former moat. It was a quiet, friendly village for a coffee stop. Buonconvento means 'good welcome' or 'good reception.'
Really enjoying your report.

joannyc

Very much enjoying your TR and pictures! Glad that you had such a great trip!

kwren

Thanks for the details elnap - we didn't have a guide, but that would have been great. You'll see in one of my pictures that there are bikes inside one of the buildings - a great way to point out to our kids that even though we walk around as tourists, that people still live in these towns. I wish I had known to look for the stable arches. Guess I'll just have to go back!

Glad you are enjoying the TR jmct and joannyc! Only a few more days until Rome!

kwren

If anyone is interested, this is the website for our farmhouse:

http://www.fattoriafregoli.it/html_en/home.html

hazel1

BTW, Lucca, Florence, Chianti are all in Tuscany - you didn't enter Tuscany once you hit Siena, you only entered the Siena province of Tuscany.

Enjoying your trip report - thanks for writing it up.

kwren

July 7 – Tuscan countryside

We had an olive oil tour scheduled for this morning, but it was changed to this afternoon, so my daughter and I decided to go out in search of the Vitaleta Chapel. This little chapel is pictured on so many calendars and we had see it in the distance driving in, so I figured how hard could it be to find it?! Famous last words. We saw it again in the distance, and started circling around the vicinity, but didn’t seem to get any closer. Finally, we tried a tiny road and finally came upon a sign directing us in the right direction. Success! Well, for a minute of celebration, that is. There was a locked gate across the road. We parked at the edge of the road and walked for about 10-15 minutes until there it was! Just like in the calendar between some cypress trees. We got pictures from both sides and went back to the car. We hadn’t driven far until we came upon some vineyards so we stopped again, hopped the 2-wire “fence” to get some close-ups of the grapes, which were ripening quite nicely. It would be so much fun to be here when they were harvested – maybe someday.

We had time before our olive oil tour so we decided to just drive around to see what we could find. Stopped for some pictures of DD on a hayroll, then we realized that the entire countryside was changing before our eyes. I think every farmer was out harvesting his wheat. So much activity on every field and hillside. So many hay rolls and cubes of hay! The colors were astounding as they all reflected the sunlight. Every hill sparkled and every one seemed to have different plowing patterns. It was really quite beautiful.

We ended up in Montichiello, hoping to get “Tuscany’s best gelato” (according to Fodors), but were disappointed when we arrived at La Porta and it was closed. We walked through the deserted town a bit, enjoying the architecture – imagine finding a Tuscan town with no souvenir shops! – and stopped for ice cream at a tiny place just outside the gates. We realized it was getting close to the tour time, so we drove back and approached Pienza from the back. It really is perched way up on top of a cliff. Interesting to see that perspective.

When we got back, the tour had been canceled – the agriturismo presses its own olives and sells its olive oil, but it turns out a family member was sick so the owner was at the hospital instead of the press.

So it was the perfect day to go swimming and soak up the beautiful views. The pool was freezing, but with the sun and scenery I quickly forgot about that. The pool had a Jacuzzi section and my Italian friend was there. All was right with the world. I noticed some machinery approaching and swam over to watch the field next to the pool being plowed. All that beautiful sparkling wheat was being cut down before my eyes. As I said, all of Tuscany was out working and the landscaped changed in just a few hours.

After a few hours, it was time to explore some more. This time we headed out towards La Foce. This is the site of a famous zig-zag road we’ve seen on some calendars and it was recommended to drive up it and continue on over the mountain…a broken line white road on the map. We got to the top and stopped to admire how far we had come and continued on. The roads became rocky with potholes and we hoped our car would not be jarred into bits. The land was desolate with big rocky outcroppings and the road became narrower and narrower. We felt like we may have been going the wrong way but there had been no choices. Finally we came upon a huge herd of sheep huddled together facing inwards in a big circle beside the road. We stopped for pictures, then all of a sudden a few little sheep heads popped up (how cute!) and then suddenly the entire herd ran away at once to the other side of the field, where they parked themselves “butt to butt” once again exactly as before, just farther away. The roads continued to worsen until we eventually started a decline and spotted a main road in the distance.

Once down, we decided to head back via Chianciano Terme and Montepulciano. On the way, I felt something sharp on my back and realized that a bee had stung me. I had been stung once before and was hoping that I wouldn’t have a reaction when all of a sudden my shoulders and back starting seriously tingling. I mentioned it to my husband and he said, let’s stop and see how you feel. I told him we had better keep going to see if we could find a hospital sign…just in case… because this tingling was getting worse by the minute. He started driving like I was in labor (I remembered that 80 mile per hour trip where I feared for my life) and I told him to slow down. We finally did see the big H sign in Cianciano, but by then the tingling was slowing down (the worst part lasted about 15 minutes) so I decided I was going to make it. My husband, I wasn’t so sure!

We left Cianciano Terme and headed for Montepulciano, not to go into the town since we would be back the next day, but went for the San Biagio Church perched on the side of its hill. It was built in the 16th century in the shape of a Greek Cross and is quite well-known. We went inside and it was so serene. Continuing back via Pienza, we stopped at a Co-op for bread and cheese, fruit, dessert for the kids as this was the night DH and I had planned to go to the widely recommended Pienza restaurant Latte di Luna. (It’s good that we had made reservations yesterday – it was completely full tonight) On the way, we went into some cheese shops and saw so many types of Pecorino cheese that it was mind-boggling. There were all sizes and colors, different shapes, some wrapped in leaves and others coated with what looked like straw.

Latte de Luna was at the far end of the main street and was surrounded by walls of plants. We had the house wine and various courses, but the stand-out here for us was the wide pasta with truffles. OMG!

After dinner we strolled slowly around Pienza and it seemed that the whole town was out. My favorite picture was of Girls Night Out – a picture of 4 Italian grandmas just sitting and chatting on simple folding chairs in front of a stone wall. They were so cute as they said I could take their picture. Another wall had 2 tiny chairs, one pink and one blue, just waiting for their tiny occupants. We had gotten to know the gelato man so even though we were pretty full, we stopped by for one last cup on the way out.

kwren

July 8 – Montepulciano

We enjoyed our last breakfast at Fattoria Fregoli talking to our Italian friend and then went to finish packing. We bought olive oil from the owner, chatted a bit then checked out. (That oil is delicious, and was even used by one of the restaurants we had been to in Pienza.) It was so hard to leave this place – it was so relaxing and beautiful, but the most amazing hotel was yet to come.

We drove to Montefollonico and walked around a bit. This may have been the least touristy place we saw. We ran into an American who had been renting a villa within its walls and shared some vacation stories for a while. They even hired a chef to cook for them one night. I could get into that! It was then time to go to Montepulciano.

So we followed the directions the hotel had given us to get to the hotel’s parking area. Go up a hill, turn a few times, go through a parking garage and out the other end, and then we just couldn’t find the tiny lot, no matter which way we turned. We drove back and forth, no luck. After ½ hour, I got out of the car and hiked up into the town to see if I could get some more info from the hotel – those directions had seemed so perfect and detailed and we were at the very end of them, that we just couldn’t understand why we were not finding it. The hotel was locked up tight (here we go again – more adventures in checking in!) and I got nowhere fast. I finally gave up and went back to the car, defeated. We parked in the garage we had driven through, but found we had no change to feed the meter.

Anyway, we decided to make the best of things and all trekked up to the hotel. We rang the bell over and over, to no avail. The hotel had asked me what time we would arrive and I wrote back, ‘around 3, but we might arrive earlier if the day went well’. His answer was, ‘OK’. Well, it was earlier, but he hadn’t told me he would only be there at 3 since that was the time I had stated. I guess this was my fault in a certain way, since I didn’t realize that no one manned the hotel 24/7 and that we needed an appointment to get in. He could have mentioned that I should call if it was earlier, but oh well. (I was not my fault about the parking instructions though.) We were getting used to things not working out at check-in and we were feeling a bit parched by now, so of course, gelato sounded perfect. We found a place, but the man wouldn’t give us change for the meter. I explained I needed small change for the ‘parcheggio’, and he just wouldn’t help us out. I asked again, and he decided to be funny (NOT!) and gave me change in 2 cent pieces. Totally useless. We were sorry that we bought gelato from him, but it was good…of course.

We turned into beggars at that point and went into a shop by the hotel and begged the shopkeeper to make change for us. She was so nice and did it! Halleluja! On the way out, we noticed the main door of the hotel opening as someone was leaving. We happily slipped in and realized that it wasn’t a hotel at all. It looked like some pretty classy apartments with people’s names next to a couple of big heavy doors. Hmmm! There were some stairs, wide short marble ones, 2 stories to the 'hotel' (the ceilings were realllllllly high so it felt like more than2) and there was the door surrounded with marble with sign that said Palazzo Carletti. This was it!

http://www.palazzocarletti.com/en/index.html

Only no one was home.

OK, we only needed to wait another 1 ½ hours until 3:00 (we hoped) so we fed the meter and started our tour of the town, which of course we were going to do anyway. Naturally there were ‘Twilight’ souvenirs, New Moon T-shirts and even special Twilight menus, due to the movie ‘New Moon’ being filmed in this town. Piazza Grande was worth exploring with the church from Twilight and the Town Hall. We saw bakeries with beautiful artistic cakes and pastries, a funny shoe store, numerous cute alley ways, an outdoor restaurant where the tables for 2 were lined up next to a wall, each with its own little awning, and my favorite shop, Mosaico. Those pictures which looked like gorgeous oil paintings were all hand made with mosaics. I found out the next day that the smallest one cost 750 Euros. I think that was about $1000 when we were there, so I had to settle for a couple of pictures with my camera.

Finally it was 3:00, we went back to the hotel and…got rung in!

Things were looking up!