Report--Tuscany and Rome 2004
 

I returned about a week ago from a three week trip to Tuscany, Rome and Croatia. I'm posting two separate reports--one for Italy and one for Croatia. My sister, on her first trip to Europe, joined my husband and me for the Italian part of the trip. Though she came from Madison, Wisconsin and we from Miami, we had no problem connecting at Fiumicino airport.. She was waiting for us right where we told her to (based on advice from this forum) in the arrivals hall where all the limo drivers, taxi people, etc. meet people coming off flights. She enjoyed waiting there because there was so much to watch, but the area is bereft of chairs so if you have to meet someone at the Rome airport coming off another flight, consider just meeting at the baggage claim area. It's far more boring but has better seating.

Fiano Romano
We got our rental car (for AutoEurope, actually EuropCar) and immediately took off for our hotel in Orvieto, stopping first for lunch in Fiano Romano, just off the autostrada. Any of you who may be looking for a totally non-touristy place in Italy would do well to check out Fiano Romano. It has a Ducale Castel in the process of being restored and some cute medieval streets--and not another tourist in sight. This may become the next Civita, who knows? I do know they had a cute little restaurant with red and white checked tablecloths and good oxtails on one of those cute medieval streets with very cheap prices and plentiful portions. I guess I'd not make a special journey to this place, but if you're driving by, drop in. It's cute, though it needs some spiffing up, but as a tourist you'll have it all to yourself.

Orvieto and surrounds
We stayed at the Villa Ciconia, just outside Orvieto. Nice place with lovely grounds, nice dining room, ample breakfast and good sized rooms. Our room for 3 was only 185 euros. Orvieto itself is a very nice hilltown with a terrific Duomo, though it is still encased in scaffolding. But the inside is beautiful, suffused with blueish light from the rose window illuminating the seemingly dark blue and white striped stone. It's one of my favorite cathedrals. I prefer it to Assisi.
From Orvieto we took day trips to Narni--a nice little hilltown without a lot of tourist traffic and to Cortona--a place with atmospheric streets that, however, needs to be better kept up. Enroute to Siena we stopped at Monte San Savino--another nice little town where we had a fine lunch at a place called the Terrace and at Castelnouovo Berardenga--probably good but unmemorable until I see the videos my husband took of it.

Tuscany and the Hotel Castello di Leonina
We had first thought to stay in Castellina but then decided a place close to Siena would be better situated for day trips in both the south and north during our 4 day stay in Tuscany. We selected the Castello di Leonina just a few miles south and east of Siena on S438 in what is called the Crete and must surely be the most beautiful area of Tuscany. I believe it's the Fodors guide to Tuscany that singles out the road from Siena to Asciano and on to Mt. Oliveto for its beauty. Well we stayed on this route and it couldn't have been more perfect. Each morning as we left for a day trip or returned in the evening we'd think ourselves a bit daft to not just stay at the hotel and soak in the beauty. The undulating green fields with bright red poppies interspersed were beautiful beyond belief. If the surroundings were lovely, so was the hotel. Though I had located it on the Tuscany.net site sometime ago, it had only been open a couple of months. The kinks were still being worked out, e.g. the spa was not yet opened and the restaurant couldn't be finished until the local authorities did more inspections and licensing. I suppose that may account for why we were able to get a two story room in the tower for three persons for 190 euros per night when the maximum that could be charged per the sign on the door was 420 euros. Don't know how the pricing structure will shake out eventually, but this is a very nice property to check out and a real steal if the rates stay anywhere near what we paid. It's a bit difficult to find--especially navigating the maze of roads around Siena, and since it's in a rather out of the way area, the current lack of a restaurant is problematic, but the place itself has real promise. It was the birthplace of a pope and it has old world charm updated with every modern convenience. Furnishings are very nice and the public rooms, including the breakfast room, have real style. Service is pleasant. Nice amenities -- slippers and robes, etc. The views alone are priceless.

While at the Leonina we took day trips to:
Siena--I had forgotten how fabulous the floors of the cathedral with their inlaid marble scenes are.
San Gimignano--and this time I wasn't pooped on by a pigeon?..but my sister was. It must run in the family. It's a predictable occurrence on every trip I take.
Monteriggioni--lots of new tourist infrastructure. More restaurants, cafes, tourist shops than when we were first here in 2001. They do, however, seem to be trying to retain as much of the old, medieval charm of the place as they can.
Chianti wine road--more of that in a bit.
Montalcino, Montepulciano (where we had a wonderful lunch at La Grotta by the San Biaggio church) and Pienza--about which much has been written previously by myself and so many others that there is little reason to blabber on yet some more. They're all three just swell and not to be missed for any typical trip to Tuscany.

Relying on the kindness of strangers
An interesting incident -- Take a lesson all you rental car drivers
The day was had scheduled to drive the Chianti wine road didn't quite turn out as planned. We started in Castellina and enjoyed our walk through that pleasant little town. As we left we searched for a gas station for our first fill up since picking up the car. It was Sunday and we thought ourselves lucky to find an automatic, no attendant place available. I reminded my husband to be sure to use the right kind of gas, not diesel. He filled the tank and we took off for Greve. A few miles along we stopped to take a picture and when he went to restart the car it sputtered but wouldn't turn over. We tried multiple times on the theory that it might be flooded. Finally he got out to check and sure enough, there next to the hole for the gas was a sign saying diesel fuel only, something he'd completely overlooked since we were for some unknown reason certain the car took regular gas. Lucky that we'd pulled over to take the picture such that we were off the road a bit and less likely to be hit by passing cars. Actually we were at an intersection where a few cars came and went past a stop sign. So we were able to talk to a couple in a car that had stopped. Luckier yet that they spoke English and the woman had a cell phone though she couldn't use it immediately since we had stopped in a "dead zone." She said she'd call the Italian Auto Club to give us a tow as soon as she got to an area where her phone would work. And so we sat, in a hot car by the side of a road, a few miles from a town where even the gas station was unmanned and waited for help from a woman we'd never see again. After an hour or so we decided we'd best take matters into our own hands. We recorded the kilometer marker closest to the car and gave my husband the phone number of the Squarcialupi hotel in Castellina where our friend had stayed previously and where we'd originally thought to stay before deciding on Leonina--the only place we could actually name in Castellina. We left him to continue to wait for the tow truck that might or might not have been called. My sister and I then took to the other side of the road in hopes of flagging down a ride back into Castellina. The first car along was a Mercedes with a lovely older Italian couple who spoke no English but stopped, picked us up and deposited us back in Castellina.. (We felt a bit guilty thinking of my husband back in the hot car with no water but enjoyed the cool, comfortable ride.) We headed for the Squarcialupi where the pleasantest Scottish woman was at the desk. Though we were obviously not guests at her hotel, she helped us place a call to the rental car company which could only help us if we had the number of our reservation which was, of course, back in the glove box of the car. She then helped us call for a taxi, talking with 4 or 5 of them who were not working because it was Sunday before finding one who would agree to come and pick us up to return to the car for the papers and call the rental car people and go who know where thereafter. We were informed that it would take a half hour or so for the taxi to arrive, so the Scottish woman ushered us out to the deck of the hotel with motherly solicitations about how we must be exhausted by all of this, poured us glasses or wine and invited us to enjoy the view while we waited. The view from the hotel deck is terrific. Based upon the recommendation of my friend who stayed at this place, the lovely views and the fantastic service, as well as the reasonable prices and the location directly in the town of Castellina, I can't recommend this place highly enough. (Continued)

Meanwhile as I collected myself and gazed at the Tuscan landscape and drank a nice white wine, my sister took off to find a sandwich and some wine for my poor husband back at the car. While waiting in line for her sandwich she met an American tourist staying in the area for a week or so who kindly offered to take her wherever she needed to go to handle the car problem. We thanked him profusely but felt some allegiance to the lone working cab driver we'd already summoned and who arrived luckily just moments after my husband had gotten on the phone with the Squarcialupi to explain that miracle of miracles the roadside angel with the cell phone had called the Italian Auto Club as promised and that he had been towed to a garage in Siena where they were actually working on a Sunday and would have his car fixed by about 4:30 in the afternoon--not bad for an episode that started around 10 a.m. We told him to stay at the garage and we'd have the taxi take us there, pick him up and head into Siena for the day until we could return for the car. The taxi driver was very kind and delighted when we rewarded him with the two bottles of wine my sister had purchased for my husband who no longer needed it on the hot roadside--and which we had no interest in carrying all over Siena. The mechanics at the auto club garage spoke little English but apparently laughed a great deal at my husband's expense as he explained what had happened. He was glad for he opportunity to relinquish his position as butt of the joke and return to Siena with my sister and me. When it was just about time for the car to be done we asked the waiter at a café on the Siena campo where they run the Palio to call us a cab--not an easy thing to get on a day when there was a big football game in Siena. We finally got one and went with him to the garage which he approached from a different side. He let us out and we thought it would be a quick walk around the block to the front of the place. Not so, he'd deposited us at the wrong garage and, worried that the garage would close before we could collect our car, my husband took off at breakneck speed to find the right place, not even sure if he was going in the right direction. My sister and I followed but soon lost sight of him and could only stop before we took a wrong turn and got separated forever. We waited because there was nothing else we could do. Finally he appeared, riding in our car which was being driven by one of the mechanics who had taken the car out to get it gassed up (with diesel this time) and had spotted my husband walking along. We paid for the work and the tow (amazingly enough only 242 euros) and were back on our merry way by 6 p.m. or so, my husband kicking himself for his stupidity but all of us marveling at the many coincidences which had worked in our favor and the many kindnesses of so many people we had experienced during the course of this adventure.
Moral of the story--always look at the sign by the gas cap before inserting the gas

At the end of this horrendous day we still needed to find a place for dinner and the area around our hotel had very few spots. We decided to drive the 21 km to Asciano which rewarded us with beautiful scenery and one of the most interesting dining experiences of the trip. Since we knew there would be few possibilities we had more or less made up our minds to take the first place that actually looked like it had food. I inwardly groaned as I saw the neon sign on the second floor of a large building that promised a restaurant and pizzeria. I was so hoping for something pleasant, relaxed and maybe even possessed of a good cook. We bravely entered and were struck almost speechless. Before us was one of the most beautiful dining rooms I've ever been in. It felt like something out of the English Patient, or some other Merchant/Ivory movie. A long room in stone with arched ceilings and columns and lovely tables clad in white linen and Vileroy and Bosch china. The scene was lovely, evocative, even surreal. The restaurant is named Le Scuderie (stables) del Granduca and in fact once you knew what it was you could see the old drainage gullies cut into the floors and the iron rings on the pillars where the horses must have been tied. Though there were a large number of tables, only one other was occupied on this Sunday evening. From brochures I picked up, it appears the place must do a big banquet business. As we waited for our food, one of those typical Italian good-looking grey-haired older gentlemen wearing his loafers and a sport coat slung over his shoulders as they so often do came out of the pizzeria area and left the building only to return with a bouquet of sage leaves picked from the garden for the gnocchi in butter and sage that I'd ordered. As he walked back to the kitchen, he stopped at the table just long enough to provide me a deep sniff of the bouquet and with that lovely old-world gesture, I forgot all of the cares of the day past and reveled in the beauty of the setting and the delights of the table. A perfect ending to a less than perfect day.

Rome
We hadn't intended to take my sister to Rome but it was the only place from which I could get EuropebyAir flights to Croatia, so Rome it was. My husband loves Rome. I'm more lukewarm about it but I enjoyed it this time probably more than on either of two previous trips. For one thing, the weather was fine. Warm but not too warm and nice and sunny. My sister liked Rome but preferred the natural beauty of Tuscany We stayed at the Hotel Locarno near the Piazza del Popolo. We'd stayed there on our two previous trips and like the hotel though we probably could have found something both more central and less expensive. A room for 3 (actually two rooms for 3 with a shared bath) was 360 euros. But the place is fun (it's featured in the hotel book devoted to Hip Hotels), has lovely art nouveau public rooms, a roof garden and a street level garden area for breakfast and drinks. It also has one of those old, old wooden and glass elevators where you can see the workings. It looks creepy but functions perfectly and adds immensely to the charm of the place. The hotel has expanded since we were last there by adding a new breakfast room and several guest rooms in the building adjoining the original and which shares the street level patio garden. They've also added internet accessibility.

While in Rome we saw most of the usual sites but added some less touristy places in particular two new (for us) churches that I'd read about in the Access guide. I was intrigued by a passage which spoke of the four big churches of Rome--St. Peter, San Giovanni in Laterno, Santa Maria Maggiore., and San Paolo fuori le Mura. We'd seen St. Peter's, of course (and saw it again this time), but had not seen or even heard of the other three. We didn't make it to the last since le Mura means beyond the walls and thus meant it was a bit further afield than we intended to go. But we did see San Giovanni and Santa Maria, both of which were definitely worth hunting for. Both are enormous and ornate with gold leaf everywhere. Santa Maria has an alter somewhat reminiscent of St. Peters with twisted columns of porphery and bronze. San Giovanni is the church where popes were crowed until 1870 and popes before the move to Avignon lived in the adjoining palace. There is also a very large park in front of the San Giovanni which was the site of a strike rally by civil servants on the day we were there. Going to both of these churches also took us to neighborhoods of Rome that we'd not seen before.

My sister flew home from Rome and my husband and I moved on to Croatia. But that's another report--under the heading Report--Croatia, the Dalmatian coast 2004 if you're interested. Happy to answer questions.

Oh my gosh! We had the exact same adventure with a rental car in Provence. My husband put gas in a diesel car and it just flat stopped on the exit ramp on the way to Pont du Gard. We, too, were grateful for small favors. We could easily have gotten stuck 10 miles from anything. We pushed the car off to the side of the road, and then, with my college French and a phrase book, my 9-year-old daughter and I walked to the toll booth to ask for help. When the tow truck came, the driver loaded the car -- with all of us in it -- onto the back of his truck and then drove through the toll gate. We waved (with no small amount of embarassment) as we passed through, while my daughter sobbed that this really was a "Griswold vacation." Hey, at least we didn't back over Stone Henge!! The mechanic was fantastic, gave the kids an Orangina and souvenir hats. (Who knew the garage in Remoulins would have souvenir hats?!) We then got a taxi to Avignon and drank. My husband's nickname has been "Diesel" ever since. He's taken plenty of abuse over this incident with the brand new diesel rental car, and I'm sure he'll enjoy reading your post!

Carmen, so glad to hear that we're not the only ones but sorry to hear of your misfortune. I think we should both feel better that we did regular in cars requiring diesel. I understand that the reverse is much harder to fix, can actually ruin a car. Love the souvenir hats--and the drinks in Avignon.

I wonder if you were at San Giovanni the same day I was, Friday May 21? Because there were balloons and ribbons and mikes set up when I was there. I never found out what it was all about however.

Joelle

Joelle, yes. We were there on May 21. It was definitely a rally for the civil servants' strike. Those folks do it up big. Did you also find the San Giovanni church fabulous? In any place but Rome it would be the big attraction. There it's an "also ran."

Yes, Julie. Husband was VERY careful not to put diesel in. He just didn't read the instructions! It makes a funny story, but we were sad to miss a day of sightseeing. Glad we all managed to recover from the unfortunate mix-up. I think that's the sort of mistake you make only once ;)

Grazie Julie for bringing back memories of some of my favorite places.Sorry about the car problem.

Wow - small world, we were in the same place at the same time. Yes I was very impressed by San Giavoni - love the mosaics. I was interested in seeing the early Roman churches. So many beautiful churches in one place it's easy to take them for granted.

It's nice to read an optimist's view of an unfortunate situation! Many others would have whined about it (instead of wining it!) and blamed everyone but themselves. Thanks for sharing - we'll be sure to know what type of fuel to use when we visit Italy in Sept.

I loved the sound of your scenic drive and visit to Le Scuderie del Granduca. Can you give any more details on its' location? Closest town perhaps?? Thanks for sharing!

La Scuderie is just outside the entrance to Asciano if you're taking the N438 road from Siena. That road is the one with all the beautiful scenery--Called the Siennese Crete.

The problem you had with the car is something most of us never think will happen while on vacation. My husband and I just love the Italians for their kindness and warm spirit...not to mention the food and wine!

We also ate at Scuderie in April after our drive through the Crete on that amazing road. Isn't it wonderful to be able to have these experiences...can't wait to go back.

Lorac, I'm so pleased to hear of someone else who's eaten at La Scuderie in Asciano. Maybe I was just tired from the events of the day, but I found it an almost mystical place. And who'da thunk it with that garish neon sign outside?!