Just back from our honeymoon yesterday, and how am I supposed to go back to eating food in Atlanta after my Italy food journey? Where to start...how about my top 10 lessons learned (spelling errors allowed in this summary):

1. KLM is hands down the best airline when it comes to customer service and services offered. Flying KLM made the long flight (Atlanta to Amst to Rome) seem shorter than a 2 hour flight on Delta (my apologies to Delta employees)!!!

2. Either Italians are very fast drivers, or Americans are very slow drivers, I'm still trying to figure this one out. But even when I was averaging 100MPH (around 160KM), 60% of cars flew by me like I was parked. My compact Ford was ashamed.

3. I thought navigating roads in Costa Rica was fun until I encountered traffic circles in Italy, now THAT'S real fun! Try it some time.

4. Rick Steves knows his towns and cities and his book was very informational, but the guy has no taste buds. Whenever we 'reached' for a restaurant and went with one of his picks, it was consistently the most disappointing meals of the trip! Boo!

5. We felt safe everywhere, we walked all over in Venice and Rome at all hours. Like any big city, just be street smart: money in front pocket, stay away from the gypsys, and no rose is ever free! Romes Metro was great, we used it whenever we got lazy!

6. The 'ugly American tourist' is a completely overrated concept. We were in some Umbria/southern Tuscany towns with no American tourists, and other towns loaded with them, no difference. Every country has loud people, rude people, people in shorts and fanny packs (in other words, looks like a tourist)...that is the beauty of it all. It didn't matter what language they spoke, and that added to our people watching experience!

7. Don't try to navigate Venice streets by stores that sell Murano glass. You could be walking for a very long time.

8. Speaking of Venice, why would anyone pay to have a pigeon sit on their head???

9. In Rome, there are so many decent restaurants in every neighborhood, just choose as you go! In Venice, buyer beware, do your research! In Tuscany, close your eyes and point, the best ever!

10. "Eating and Drinking in Italy" was the best $10 investment ever. Find it if you plan on being outside of big cities. In Tuscany countryside, it was a lifesaver among 20 minute encounters of us trying to speak Italian, and our waiters trying to understand us. Them trying to speak English, and us trying to understand them. Both us and the waiters trying to communicate in French and Spanish as a last resort! It was part of the charm of it all and great fun.

I'm sure there are others. But since it is 11pm in Italy, you can excuse my dizziness. OK, now to put my mark on this, let me tell you which camps I am in:

Gelato in Rome:

1. San Crispano (honey is the best)
2. Giolitti
3. Gelateria della Palma
4. Any gelato anywhere. 4 times a day.

Pizza in Rome:

1. Da Baffeto
2. Pizza Re
3. All other pizza.

Restaurants in Tuscany/Umbria:

1. Grappolo Blu (Montalcino)
2. Il Tufo Allegro (Pitigliano)
3. Latte di Luna (Pienza)
4. La Filanda's (Manciano)
5. Bruschette Con Prodotti Locali (Civita di Bagnoregio, for lunch)

Favorite restaurant in Venice: Taverna San Trovaso

Favorites in Rome: Trattoria da Armando al Pantheon and Trattoria da Giggetto (Jewish Ghetto). Gotta love the fried artichoke!

If you have any questions about the following towns/cities, I was there. A footnote, you will notice a lot of southern towns, because this is where my home base was, I will say that Central and Northern Tuscany are nicer, but this does not take away the fact that there are some amazing towns in the south without the crowds of the north:

Montalcino, Abbiza Di Sant' Antimo - The best ever Grappolo Blu in Montalcino, and be at Abbiza at 12:45 to hear chants which was very interesting to see.

Civita di Bagnoregio and Orvieto - One of our favorite hill towns, slowly crumbling into the valley below. A great side trip from Orvieto. Both Orvieto and Civita are classic and are musts.

Pienza, Montepulciano - Pienza is a picture perfect town with the wonderful Trattoria Latte di Luna. Montepulciano has wine tasting every other storefront! We were lucky enough to catch a free concert filled with Vivaldi and Mozart at Chiesa di S. Agostino, which just gave us goosebumps (and made my wife tear up).

Pitigliano - A must see at night, this hill town is lit up from the basin and is an amazing sight. This is a great town with some great food (Il Tufo Allegro and Albergo Guastini) and a must do!

San Gimignano - A bit touristy, but a perfectly preserved hill town, I think it is worth it, especially at night when the crowds die and the streets are dimly lit and glowing.

Sorano, Sovana, Saturnia, Montemerano - all hill towns in Southern Tuscany/Grossato region. Smallish but charming for sure.

Siena - where do I start? A must do.

Santo Stefano, Porto Ercole - Nice little port towns in Southern Tuscany. Some beach time!

Magliano in Tuscany, Pereta, Scansano - Pereta is in between Magliano and Scansano, and we loved it because there are no shops, no restaurants, just one bar at the 'entrance' of this perfectly beautiful hill town with zero tourists. Go out of the way for it? No...but on the way somewhere else/in the area, worth a stop for a 20 minute stroll through a true Italian hill town. Windows were open and we could hear the loud family dinners with incredible smells of food throughout the town. We encountered 0 tourists and 2 residents walking through their streets!

Manciano - our home base villa, not worth going out of the way for except for two great restaurants if you are in the area: La Filanda's and DePaolinos, homemade pasta made every morning at both, amazing, amazing, amazing and two of our best food experiences of our trip!

and...of course, we were in Florence, Venice, and Rome.

I also highly recommend Francesca Caruso ([email protected]) for tours in Rome. We did "Ancient Rome" with her (Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon) and was worth every penny. She made Rome come alive, not through reciting dates and names, but through her obvious passion for the city and it's amazing history and culture.

That's all for now. I'll gladly answer any questions! Ciao!

Hi, rmeyer,

thanks for the great appetiser - when do we get the main course?



regards, ann

Sounds like you had an amazing time, and now you are hooked like the rest of us! I especially liked:

"no rose is ever free!" Ain't it the truth!

Nice report! Would love to hear more about your dining experiences around Manciano (La Filanda's and DePaolinos)...we also will be based in that area for several nights, and aside from dining one night at Tufo Allegro I am not really finding much info for restaurants in that area.

I was able to find a some info and a location for La Filanda on the web but don't see anything for DePaolino's...

Thanks! If you can find La Filanda's, you can find DePaolinos (011 39 0564 629388 ask for Sabrina). DePaolinos is probably 200 yards up the road from La Filanda's. I highly recommend reservations at both. DePaolinos is very small, casual and always packed. Homemade pastas every morning and it was exceptional! La Filanda's is very modern, very cool. It almost has a NYC restaurant feel to it. It is more expensive than DePaolinos, more upscale. Chef Barbara came out and spoke with us, very good.

There are also 2 pizza places in Manciano that are decent. One is called Ossi, and is located at the 'Total' gas station in town. It was great for a quick, inexpensive meal. The other pizza place was off the traffic circle going towards Pitigliano.

You will love Il Tufo Allegro, one of our favorites of our trip. Again, make reservations! We also enjoyed Albergo Guastini which is in Pitigliano as well. If you are planning to go to Orvieto, try I Sette Consoli. This is about a 1 hour drive from Manciano and worth it.

I'll try to think of some others and repost. I know that one of the "best" restaurants in Tuscany is located in Montemerano, which is very close to Manciano, but also very very expensive. The name slips me right now...

Thanks for the tips! These sound like good places to search out. We will be staying four nights at Quercia Rossa outside of Manciano, although we might eat dinner there one night as I hear their food is excellent.

Thank you!

Hi,
Can you tell me a little about your tour in Rome? Was your guide expensive?
Thank you.

Francesca was great. She charges 45 a hour (plus cost of any tickets)whether it is just you or if you are with 6 people. So the larger the group, the cheaper it will be for you.

It was just myself and my wife, we spent about 3 1/2 hours with her touring the Forum area, Colosseum, and Pantheon. It cost us 150 Euro with tickets for Colosseum/Panatine Hill.

While we were walking through these areas with Francesca, we were watching all the very large tour groups, with colored flags in the air, microphones, people trailing far behind their tour guide with an earpiece, etc....we were so glad we went with Francesca with a more personal touch.

We were able to go at the pace we wanted, sit in the shade when we wanted to rest away from the sun, we were able to ask questions whenever we wanted. The way she describes things really makes you understand the history and culture without 'school facts'. She is very passionate about the area and it comes through.

You may be able to find tours cheaper, but I don't think you'll find better!

I am going to be at the same villa next July - any suggestions regarding your stay would be very helpful. Thanks

rmeyer:
Meant to address villa question to you.

rmeyer, Your excitement and enthusiasm for Tuscany is quite apparent and it's very contagious Your comments will help us with the planning of our trip next year. Thanks, Deborah

Lindy -

You are staying at a villa in Manciano? We stayed at Villa Nonna Zolira. Our biggest decisions by staying in Manciano was on long day trips. Should we eat dinner in the towns we are visiting and come back late...or should we leave early and eat in Manciano when we got back (the food is excellent there). We did a mix of the two. We drive everywhere we go on vacation so it was very comfortable driving late at night, no worries.

The key is to get up early and go! You will end up in towns during lunch hours and things will be closed, but this is OK since we sat to relax and eat long lunches and recharge for the next drive.

I will give you some day trips and you can pick and choose what to do. We had an aggressive schedule that worked out for us, but probably wouldn't work for most people.

The easier day trips:

Loop - Start your drive to Pitigliano (about 20 minutes from villa and beautiful), then to Sorano and Sovana, this all follows in a loop, if you have time, you can also stop in Saturnia (if you bring your bathing suits you can stop on the side of the road, you will see the hot springs/streams, and soak and relax from a long day). After this loop, we stopped back at the villa to freshen up, then you can either go back to Pitigliano for dinner or stay in town. However, you must see Pitigliano both during the day and at night, plus I mentioned restaurants earlier in the thread that you should eat at. The town is lit up at the basin at night is a must see.

Another day trip we did was to drive out to Orvieto (under 1 1/2 hours) and do a side trip to Civita di Bagnoregio. From Civita, we took a detour to Lake Bolsena, then back up to the villa.

Port town day trip: Santo Stefano and Porto Ercole (about 30 minutes from villa). We enjoyed Santo Stefano more, you can have lunch on the water and wander around. Just remember these are port towns and don't have the same 'feel' as the hill towns. It has it's own charm. There is a drive in Santo Stefano that takes you up a winding road up to the top of the cliffs which is a must do. The views are amazing and you pass by some very lucky people owning houses in the cliffs. The road starts to get very challenging at some point and you know it is time to turn around.

Magliano in Tuscany, Pereta and Scansano (Magliano is about 30 minutes, Scansano further north but a nice drive). Much smaller hill towns if you have time but nice. I'd recommend other day trips before this if you don't have the time.

Longer day trips:

Montalcino, Abbiza Di Sant' Antimo - (about 1 1/2 hours) beautiful countryside for some wine tasting. Grappalo Blu a must restaurant in Montalcino.

Pienza, Montepulciano (a bit over 1 1/2 hours but worth it...beautiful towns).

Siena and San Gimignano (1 1/2 hours to Siena and a little over 2 hours to San Gimignano, if you drive like me, or an Italian!)- we grouped these towns together and one of our more enjoyable day trips, but also the longest one. Left around 7am and got home around 11:30pm.

Florence - this was about a 2 1/2 hour drive and we parked at the train station. We spent the whole day here. Some people in our same villa area took the train there but that ended up being a longer trip than just doing the drive.

Let me know if you have any other questions, happy to help.

rmeyer

Thanks for all the helpful info and suggestions. The details you have provided are just great. We are going to be at the same villa for one week in July 2007. (My daughter lives in ATL also and we are accompanying her to the villa.) I also wondered if the villa was comfortable, was there anything special we should bring (there will be 2 small kids and 4 adults)- or is everything supplied. We will follow your suggestions, but maybe not do quite as much. We might do the longer trips after the week is over.
Thanks again so much, and I would like to ask more as things occur to me.

We thought the villa was great. Safe, comfortable and clean. It had all the conveniences you need: TV, CD player, coffeemaker, CDs and DVDs, blow dryer, towels, and even some books/maps for the region. Nice patios to hang out on and a great view. All you need to do is stock the fridge with snacks and drinks and you are set. There is a co-op right around the corner (to the right of the traffic circle), which I recommend for great cheese, meats and bread. I'm not sure which villa you will be in (I think Leone has 6 or so on the property. Ours had a master bedroom upstairs with a king and a secondary bedroom downstairs with twin beds and a bath. Make reservations at least the day before for La Filanda and De Paulinos if you are going to go...or get there as soon as they open if you don't have reservations.

Enjoying your report!!

rmeyer

Thanks again for your added info. We will be in Nonna Zolira- I think you were in same? We will definitely follow your recommendations and look forward to as lovely a time as you had.
Really appreciate your input- its so very helpful in planning our trip.

No problem, let me know if you have any other questions.

Great post! Can you give idea of cost at the different restaurants. H,M,L.
I am into rubbings did you run across any good ruins along the way? We are staying in Alberoro near Arezzo for 2 weeks in July. Grazie!

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