Dean

Toscana Suggestions <BR> <BR>My wife and I have stayed in Toscana three times in the last 4 years. While we loved Florence and did all the usual things there, here are a few ideas for other things to do. Hope you enjoy them. <BR> <BR>We stay at a friend’s winery in Castellina in Chianti so we don’t have any recommendations on where to stay. His winery is Castello La Leccia and its located on the road from Monteriggioni to Castellina, just a few km. down the hill from the town. The Chianti Classico is superb and the riserva even better. They makes a super Tuscan called Bruciagna which will amaze lovers of cabernet. Many good restaurants have his wines in the area. Enough for advertising his wines. <BR> <BR>Castellina in Chianti <BR> <BR>Tiny town on the Chianticiana. Great pedestrian area with a covered passageway. A couple of nice shops. In the newer section of town is Antica Delezia with amazing gelato. Very rich and creamy with natural flavorings. This is some of the best gelato we have had in Italy. Pottery can be found at Pep Bizzerie on the main street leading to the pedestrian area. Traditional to modern. They ship for very reasonable prices. They specialize in lamps as well as dinnerware. In the old section Gallopappa is a great restaurant for lovers of beef. Traditional food, nice antipasti with Fiorentina or a roasted version that is also great. Their meats come from a famous butcher in Panzano and its really great. <BR> <BR>Just north of town is an Etruscan tomb. 4 chambers with lights available. The light control box is by the entrance to the site. Usually deserted, you can really feel the spirits of the ancient folk who built these tombs and gave us the heritage of what made much of Modern Tuscany and Lazio. Wonderful treat if your car can make it up the steep drive. Signposted from the main road. <BR> <BR>If you take the road from Castellina to Poggibonsi, when you think you’re in the middle of nowhere you will see a huge number of cars on your left and an inn on the right. Its called IL Pestello and was a former stable. The food is great, hearty and traditional. The lamb is my favorite, pastas very good and the soups even better. My nephew Zach (aged 13 at the time of his visit) loves the fettuna- grilled bread rubbed with garlic, sprinkled with salt and drenched with olive oil. Contorni are special, fagioli and roasted potatoes with sage were standouts. Nice wines available. <BR> <BR>South of town is the hamlet of Fonterutoli, with another Etruscan tomb to see and a wonderful winery with an Osteria attached. Simple, inexpensive and tiny, Osteria di Fonterutoli is superb. Nothing fancy except the wines of Fonterutoli available by the glass. We enjoyed the stuffed rabbit and the homemade asta in a rustic tomato sauce. <BR>

Dean

Monteriggioni <BR> <BR>Monteriggioni is a tiny walled village just off the Siena-Firenze 4 lane super strada (free highway). When you get off the strada, turn west and you will pass Bar Orso. It has an Illycaffe sign out front. The espresso and cappuccino are superb, the staff friendly and the pastries very nice. In the back room they make panini and foccacia sandwiches. Their specialty is porchetta and they have a nice piggy right on the counter. They also stock artisan produced prosciutto and salumi along with excellent Mozzarella di Bufala. The panini go for about L5,000 or about $2.30 <BR> <BR>The town of Monteriggioni was a fortress between Siena and Firenze. It is a great place to wander. There are several nice wine shops and a couple of restaurants but we have not tried the restaurants. You should try to see Monteriggioni both during the day and at night. It is well light and has a very evocative feel at night. In July there is a crowded festival there whit lots of drinking and merriment. <BR> <BR>Abbadia Isole is a tiny beautifully sited monastery just north of Monteriggioni. There is a chapel and a main church. If you go to the caretakers house or the tourist office you will be let into the chapel where they have great frescoes. A great place to wander. There is a restaurant in the village whose name translates into Legend of the Dreams of the Brothers. I think is Legende della Sori di Fratti. You can’t miss it. Imaginative cooking, about 200,000 for 2 for a full meal with wine. <BR>

Dean

On the road to Volterra <BR> <BR>From Isole Abbadia its an easy drive to San Gimignano. One stop on the way there is Casole d’Elsa. It is sign posted from the main road. This is a perfectly lovely small village where you will find few tourists. The village is on a small hilltop with great views of the Val d’Elsa. You can climb up the tower of the city municipal hall. In fact to get to the top of the tower, you have to enter the municipal offices and go through a sliding glass door. The views are wonderful. The town is full of nice shops and has two churches with the requisite frescoes and paintings. We have visited twice and it is a great place to spend a couple of hours. There is also lots of public art to see. There is a very nice enoteca where you can drink the local Vernaccia or Chianti. <BR> <BR>San Gimignano is a favorite town of ours despite the tourist throngs. The tourist hordes are concentrated on the main street leading up to the collegiata (It was a Duomo but has been “demoted”). After enjoying the wonderful frescoes therein and taking the climb to the top of the Torre Grosso, there are a few real treats in San Gim. If you face the entrance to the collegiata, there is a passage way on the left side that puts you in a small courtyard with a fountain in it. If you are lucky, Andrea Piazza will be playing his harp there. His playing is wonderful and light. He plays his original compositions and sells three CD’s that he has made. We have them all and when we play them are transported back to San Gim. Again, facing the Collegiata, take the street to the right of the church up the hill. There you will find a collection of artists galleries. We have found a potter who works out of his shop and makes a variety of vases and plates. There are several other artists of quality there too. For a restaurant recommendation, we loved our meal at Il Pino. Traditional food well done with fine service. The pigeon with Vernaccia was wonderful as was the wild boar (Chingale). San Gim is a much more pleasant place late in the day or in the evening when the tourist armies have reboarded their busses back to the cities. Public art abounds as well. <BR> <BR>Volterra- Volterra is thought by some to be grim but we love it. The Etruscan Museo Guarnacci is a treat although it can overwhelm by the sheer number and repetitiveness of the artifacts. The highlights include L’Ombra del Sole- a very modern looking ancient bronze statue of a warrior and the second floor display of some of the finest funerary items. On the first floor are some recreations of specific tombs showing how the artifacts were found. After the museum, you can go to the Roman Theatre “behind” the town. It looks deserted but there is a ticket office that allows access to the site. You can stroll in relative peace with only a handful of other visitors, while the hoardes are looking down from Voltera proper above. The ruins are clearly defined and the information available give you a lot of insight into what you are looking at. There is a theater and a bath complex. Finally you can go farther out of town and see Le Balze, a region of eroded hills and gullies. Mother nature is taking back the hilltop. <BR> <BR>

Dean

On the road south <BR> <BR>As you leave Siena you have a choice to go to Grosetto SS2 or to Massa Maritima (ss223) You can take either and follow the signs to Murlo and its amazing Etruscan Museum. Archeologists have discovered an Etruscan bronze forge and built a museum around this find. Wonderful! And the church in Murlo has an unexpected delight- a modern Ascension of the Virgin. Here Mary is rising to heaven from a WWI battlefield complete with machine guns, bombs and dead soldiers. Jesus is depicted with a crown of barbed wire. Very moving and a provocative statement about religion and war. <BR> <BR>If you continue south on the ss2 you will come to the town of Buonconvento. There is a family run restaurant called Rosticceria Maria (I think) that is a treat. You will be the only people in the restaurant who aren’t life long friends with the owners. They have a huge menu but only 3 or 4 things will be available. The house wine is horrible but wonderfully so. We had a lovely meal for 4 for under L80,000. Roast chicken was incredible, rabbit, duck all good. Pasta was wonderful. Best of all perhaps were the french fries. Not worth a detour but if you’re there and its lunch time, stop in. <BR> <BR>From Buonconvento follow the signs to Monte Oliveto Maggiore and prepare yourself for a truly amazing art experience. This is the home of a great fresco cycle by IL Sodoma. He was a famous Siennese painter also famous for his admiration of young men- hence his name The Sodomite! What a choice for painting the cloisters of a monastery. There are 9 panels by Signorelli that pale in comparison to IL Sodoma’s. IL Sodoma put his sexuality on for all to display. His young men have a feminine grace and an easy sexuality that must have been simply shocking (or entertaining) 500 years ago. The panel of the Flagellation of Christ would inspire in some a passion not at all religious. I do not mean to offend the religious, but this must have been quite the hot place to be 500 year ago. We have stayed for Mass at Monte Oliveto and it is a wonderful experience with Gregorian chants that are haunting. The most amazing thing is the ethnic diversity of the friars- Korean, Chinese, Italian, eastern Europeans all together in a community. <BR> <BR>

Dean

A detour worth taking <BR> <BR>To wind up on Monte Oliveto, the grounds are peaceful and in amazing country. There are paths for walking and you can visit on of the chapels that the founding brother used. We have visited Monte Oliveto three times and it keeps on stunning us with its peaceful grounds and IL Sodoma’s art. There is also a bar and restaurant. We have been to the bar where you can buy a glass or bottle of the liqueur that the brothers make. But we have not tried the restaurant (the food looks simple and good) in favor of what we consider one of the great temples of food in the world which I will describe in detail below. <BR> <BR> <BR>Not far from Monte Oliveto is Santa Anna, a small speck on the map if you have a good map(try the TCI 1/200,000 maps available widely in the US to find it). We have not been here but it is the site of IL Sodoma’s first fresco cycle and we intend to go there on our next trip to Tuscany. <BR> <BR>La Chiusa is a stunning place in the middle of nowhere. It is just outside of the tiny town of Montefollonico. We arrived there one rainy day and put ourselves in the hands of the owner and his chef wife and partner. After ordering a bottle of my favorite Vino Nobile producer, Innocenti) who happens to be the best friend of the owners of the restaurant (Innocenti is the only estate winery in Montefollonico) we could do no wrong. Course after course came out. My wife and I got the same dish only once and that was a hand rolled pasta dish where they rolled the pasta to order. We therefor tried 13 dishes before we got to dessert. I can still taste the food. It was artistically arranged on plates painted with sauce, something I usually despise. I don’t want someone playing with my food before I eat it and usually this style put looks before taste. No here. The flavors were concentrated and precise. Every dish was complex and nearly perfect. The sum total of the meal (aside from making my wife and I fat dumb and happy) was a progression of flavors that made us wonder how we could have eaten in so many restaurants in our lives and never had a meal like this one. All the food was local (to the owners imported means from 10 km away) and much of it grown on their farm. We had Zucchini flowers, sformata (cheese torte with vegetables) wild mushrooms, 3 pasta including heavenly tortellini with local truffles, duck, goose, veal carpaccio, roast lamb. Incredibly, the dishes they selected for me were my favorites and those they served to my wife were her favorite! This was 230.00 well spent for the 2 of us. <BR>

Dean

Montalcino <BR> <BR>Back south on the ss2 you will soon come to a cutoff for Montalcino. Take it to wine heaven. My favorite wines of Italy are the Brunelli and Rossi of Montalcino. Made from a variant of the sangiovese, the main grape of Chianti, Brunello is a powerful yet inviting wine. Rosso is made from young vines and is released younger. It is also much cheaper. In Brunello, our first stop is always the Fortezza Medici where we bend the elbow at the enoteca therein. They feature a number of Brunelli and rossi for prices that are the equivalent of Italian retail and half the retail in the US. Put your self in their hands and they will give you an assortment of wines in a variety of styles. Some of my favorite producers include Constanti, La Torre Bianca, Argiano and Pertimali. They also serve up platters of locally made prosciutto salumi and cheeses. Barbi is a Brunello producer that makes incredible cheese so ask for it. Then take your wine and cheese and meats outside to the comfortable wooden tables and enjoy the people watching. See if the old mangy dog is still there begging. She was quite upset when we tried to give her some (the proscuitto was too good to share!). After your workout hoisting glasses of this heavy weight wine, be sure to climb to the top of the battlements for one of the best views of the Tuscan countryside you will ever have. <BR> <BR>Montalcino is a town made for aimless strolling. There are countless churches and quaint streets. In our experience there are myriad quality bars and gelateria for refreshment. There are an incredible number of great wine shops. If you haven’t eaten at La Chiusa or had enough to eat at the Fortezza, friends have recommended Grappolo Blu but we cannot vouch personally. <BR> <BR>Every visit to Montalcino includes a side trip to St Antimo. This is a stunning monastery set in a beautiful valley just minutes away from the town. Here you are transported back to the 11th century. They have mass with Gregorian chants but we have yet to make it on time. The last visit, we made it there at the right time but the local community theatre group was staging a program of 1 act plays, singing and poetry readings that was way over the head of our limited Italian skills. But the church is humbling in its simplicity and the beautiful wooden cross is bathed with light from the window behind it. Even as a non religious person raised in the Jewish faith, it was a moving experience sitting and looking at it. There are remains of faded frescoes to see and just walking around the grounds looking at the building is a treat. <BR> <BR>

Dean

San Galgano <BR> <BR>This is one of the oddest sights we have encountered in Italy and one of the most beautiful. San Galgano was a powerful monastery back in the days of the feuds between Siena and Florence. During the political unrest, the control of the abbey was given to a corrupt bishop who sold the lead roof off to one side or the other for use as ammunition in the battles. This resulted in the abbey falling into ruin. The walls are still mostly intact but only a couple of windows still have their tracery. The Campanile fell in the early 20th century. But despite its ruined conditions it is a moving and evocative spot. Try to get there either early or late so you will get the sun coming in through the windows and the rich colors of the stone will be at its best. There is a chapter house and there are still some brothers at the Abbey but it is one of the most isolated and desolate places in Tuscany. <BR> <BR>There is still an alter in the abbey and it is probably been recycled since pagan times. The Abbey has been used in film. One of the spookiest aspects of the abbey are the pigeons. Its can be like a scene out of the birds with all the pigeons cooing. The Abbey is also home to some feral cats. I think the birds eat the cats and not vice versa. <BR> <BR>Above the Abbey is a round church dedicated to San Galgano which illustrates the sword in the stone legend of San Galgano. As opposed to King Arthur, San Galgano put his sword into the stone to renounce fighting. It still remains there even today. <BR>At least there is a stone and a sword in it. The church is a delight with a beautiful view down onto the Abbey. <BR> <BR>On our last visit to San Galgano, we parked the car and were walking up the road to the Abbey when we heard some “whoops” and shouts coming from behind us. We turned and looked and there was a man flying a hawk. We went over and started talking. His name is Guillermo (Bill the Bird Guy is how we think of him as he was called William by his English school mates who couldn’t pronounce Guillermo). It turns out the he is a breeder of endangered hawks and other birds. His goal is not to fly them for hunting or for competitions but to help repopulate the species in Italy. His specialty is Lanier falcons which are extinct in the wild. He has a small bird sanctuary at San Galgano which is open sporadically. He keeps a number of birds there and his main breeding facility is elsewhere. If you do go to San Galgano, see if Bill is there, and give him some Lire to help support his crazy project. Meeting Bill was one of the highlights of our trip. <BR>

Dean

Points west <BR> <BR>Most of our time is spent in Chianti and southern Toscana. But we have been to Pisa and Torre del Lago Puccini. If you are in Toscana in July or early August, you really should go to the latter for the Puccini festival. We took our two teenaged nephews to see Puccini’s Turandot. We even got the to listen!!! I think it was the longest they were without their walkmen plugged into their ears! The performance was amazing with incredible ensemble singing. The staging impressive. The kids later said that the Opera was a highlight of the trip. There is a website so you can get the info and even buy tickets online. They have not announced the schedule for 2002. The cost was surprisingly reasonable. 4 pretty good tickets were less than $200 including reservation fees which is a bargain compared to prices that I am used to. The setting is great, on a lake. <BR> <BR>In Pisa, the highlight is the Campo Santo behind the leaning tower. For you math freaks there is a statue of Fibbonacci (sp?), discoverer and publicist of the Fibbonacci sequence. In the back of the cemetery is a hall displaying an amazing fresco cycle- the triumph of death. The artist is unknown. It was painted at the height of the black death. Many educated folk at the time thought that the black death was the end of the world. The population of Pisa was reduced by well over 50%! The despair of the time was captured wonderfully by the unknown artist who labored for many years to create this huge masterpiece. The final judgement shows the sinners cast into a rocky pit of fire and all the requisite beasts and devils are there. But the depictions of Christ, Mary and the saints and angels are brilliant as well. A peaceful scene of great majesty next to the final destruction of the sinners. The rest of the cycle provides insight to what life was like back then. <BR> <BR>Also in Pisa we had a wonderful meal at Osteria Dei Caviler. We had a tasting menu of four courses, one menu from the sea and one from the land. The highlights include a bread soup, which was basically a mush made from stale bread and fish stock with a few clams and mussels thrown in, and the best grilled lamb chops I have ever had. Pasta, fried dough with culatello (a refined and special ham similar to Prosciutto but more highly sought after by prosciutto-philes), a cheese custard smothered in truffles, a perfect sautéed john dory and a marinated swordfish antipasto all stick in the memory. With a great Castello di Rampolla 1997 Riserva and 3 (for the nephews) or 4 (for us) courses PLUS dessert, lunch for 4 was under L300,000, well worth it. But it did make walking up the stairs at the Baptistery that much more difficult. <BR>

Paige

Great info! Thanks!

BOB THE NAVIGATOR

Wow Dean, What a great Tuscan itinerary. This should be mandatory reading for Tuscany travelers.

paul

Dean: This is fantastic! My wife and I are leaving in a week or so for two weeks in Rome and Tuscany. We've been before but have been looking for some recommendations. What's great about your report is that for the places you mention that we've been, we felt almost exactly the way you did. We too loved Volterra, in all its grim beauty, the Roman theatre, the museum, even that statue; San G.-we stayed at a winery that produced Vernaccia; felt the same about Montalcino; I St.Antimo . . . I could go on. <BR>Anyway, it makes me feel that your other suggestions will be right on for us, for which I'm grateful. Gonna print out your thread right now. <BR>Thanks again.

Dean

I definately am a closet travel agent!

Diane

Happy to see someone else has found Abbadia Isole! We stayed at CastelBigozzi last May (about 2 minutes up the road in Strove) and they sent us there for a special dinner. (Leggenda dei Frati) It was one of the top meals we had over 3 weeks (and one of those that started at 8:30 and lasted quite late, as we took our time and enjoyed every last bite/sip.) This would be a great area to "base" in for a week or even longer, as Dean's fabulous travelogue describes so many places to explore nearby. We only had two nights this trip, but will stay longer next time. I think I found our hotel through www.chiantiturismo.it?

Dean

Here are some ideas of how much time this itinerary would take: <BR> <BR>San Gim and Volterra one day with about 2 hours driving <BR> <BR>Castellina can be done in a day <BR> <BR>Monteriggioni can be done on the way to Sienna, maybe 2 hours without a meal. Or make a day of it with Abbadia Isole and some aimless wandering in the area. <BR> <BR>Monte Oliveto and La Chiusa for Lunch make for a nice day. Montepulciano can easily be added. About 2-3 hours driving from san gim or castellina. <BR> <BR>Pisa is a full day from San Gim. 3 hours driving. <BR> <BR>San Galgano is a long 1.5 to 2 hour drive from san gim or castellina. Its close to nothing else and nothing is on the way. But still do it! Plan on half a day or more total. <BR> <BR>Montalcino is a great half day. you can do it after la chiusa and Monte Oliveto. Be sure to get to the enotecca by 5:30 or so as they close at 7pm. In the summer there is a jazz fest in the Fortezza. <BR> <BR> <BR>

ingrid

Hi dean: <BR>Thanks for this great information; wishe we'd had it before our trip to Italy in July. <BR>BTW, the only place where we really felt ripped-off was a little cafe that sold sandwiches in Volterra. The menu posted on the wall didn't list the prices for eating at their outside table (only the take-out menu); the "eat-in" menu was safely tucked away behind their bar. <BR>They charged 2 1/2 times as much as all the other sandwich bars we had eaten at (in Venice and Tuscany). <BR>

Sherry

Your report is wonderful. I will immediately print it as we are planning a trip next Spring and are staying very close to Castellina in Chianti. So this is perfect for suggestions for us. Thanks! Can your friend's wines only be enjoyed at restaurants in the area, or would we be able to purchase them retail to enjoy at our apartment during our stay? Do you know?

Dean

Thanks for the nice words. <BR> <BR>You can buy La Leccia at the winery. From Castellina follow the road to Monteriggioni. La Leccia is a few KM down the road on your left. Take the washboard road to the winery. <BR> <BR>Several wine shops also carry his wine. The 1999 chianti classico is yummy, the 97 riserva and Brucigiana are both mind boggling. <BR> <BR>In Volterra, right across from the entrance to the Guarnacci Museum is a sandwich shop/enotecca wher eyou can eat well for a reasonable price. I don't remember the name tho. It is a slow food reccommended place. You eat downstairs. Just cold foods mainly. <BR> <BR>

Steve

Great post--my wife and I and another couple returned from Tuscany in August. We stayed outside of Castellina. As Dean mentioned, Gallopapa's is a great restaurant. The veal and lamb chops were wonderful, the best I've ever tasted. <BR>To the east of Castellina, just outside of Radda, we had a wonderful meal at Miranda's. Great pasta, plus my wild boar was fabulous. Quality wasn't completely consistent, though. <BR>I'd also recommend Panzano, just north of Castellina. It's just a small town but we wandered off the main road, walked into a little trattoria by the church and ended up having a wonderful lunch on a patio overlooking a valley full of vineyards. <BR>Thanks for triggering great memories that already had started to fade into the activity of daily life. I think I'll go home and pop the cork on one of the Barbi brunello's I brought back!

Nancy

Thanks, Dean. What a nice report very thorough and concise. I have copied it for my records.

Nancy

Great ideas, we just recently returned from Tuscany with similar stops. <BR> <BR>"The town of Monteriggioni was a fortress between Siena and Firenze. It is a great place to wander. There are several nice wine shops and a couple of restaurants but we have not tried the restaurants." <BR> <BR>A recommedation for Il Pozzo in Monteriggioni. Great place, if you enter the town from the 2nd level of parking,once you reach the square, it will be ahead, towards the right. This restaurant was mentioned in Bon Appetit May 2000 edition and has a web site for reservations. Really enjoyed dinner there.