Our European Adventure

Day 34 - October 4 - Villefranche-sur-Mer

Today was our lazy day. We got up, blogged, checked email and decided to walk into the center of Villefranche-sur-Mer. We got some coffee and pastries and walked along the shoreline. We sat on the beach for a while chatting and gazing at the ocean and people watching.

Decided to some lunch and stopped at a cafe by the ocean- Brassiere LePalmiers. Of course, all the cafes on the beach are more expensive than normal cafes in town. We each had a pizza, beer, and cappuccino. David's allergies were bothering him so we went to the Pharmacy near our hotel to get meds. They spoke little English, didn't know what Allegra was, but as soon as I said Claritin, they pulled some allergy medicine off the shelf. Seemed to work for him and we went back to our room to relax some more.

We weren't that hungry for dinner but wanted some wine for sitting on the balcony, however the stores were all closed when we went in search of some. We went to Le Roxy near our hotel and thought we would get wine and split a dinner. Well, the owner would not let us split a dinner (she said only children could). We weren't happy as we had already opened the wine and couldn't get up and leave. So we each had a meal and were quite full when were finished.

Before dinner, we had walked down towards the Citadel and watched some people playing bocce. It was our last night here and we wanted to enjoy the last few hours. After dinner, we went back to pack and get to bed.

Day 33 - October 3 - Villefranche-sur-Mer, Nice, Monaco

Got up a little later this morning. Headed out for a day of sightseeing. We sat outside on the sidewalk drinking coffee and eating pastries at a cafe across from our hotel near the bus stop that would take us to Nice.

We waited at at least 30 minutes for a bus, there was a cruise ship in port so the buses were all crowded. We got to the Nice bus station in about 30 minutes. We walked into the heart of Nice through some shopping streets, to the tourist information area for a map and then to the famous Promenade Anglais in front of the ocean. We walked all the way around the promenade to the Nice port watching all the cars line up for the ferry to Corsica. 

We caught a bus in front of the port that took us all the way to Monaco. All of the buses are 'stop on demand' and we weren't sure which stop to get off at, but we figured it out and hopped off in Monte Carlo. The principality is a bit different from the other towns we had visited. Monaco is actually up a steep hill and somehow you have to wind your way down the hills to get to Monte Carlo. We stayed in the middle and went to get pizza and beers at the 'Monte Carlo' Bar. I will note here that there were lots of police and cameras everywhere, on every street corner. I'm certain the crime rate is low!

The pizzas were good but about 2x the normal price. I got up when we were finished to use the restroom and as I walked in and headed towards them, the owner/bartender shouted at me that the toilets were outside. I thought that was odd as I had seen a sign for them inside. I kept walking towards the restrooms inside and he kep pointing and getting a bit mad and telling me they were outside. It finally dawned on me that he thought I was just walking in off the street and he didn't want me using his restrooms. I told him in French that I had eaten lunch here and he seemed to not believe me. I stood my ground and told him again that I had eaten here and said very confidently I would go get my receipt. I must have looked quite serious because he said 'no' that's ok go on and use the restrooms.

After eating, we walked up a steep hill/steps to the Monaco Palace area and small village. It was quite crowded but the view down in to the harbor was wonderful. All the yachts lined up! We toook some photos, saw some tacky Princess Grace souvenirs - can't believe they let them sell that crap. Hopped on the bus back to Villefranche-sur-Mer to rest and blog!

We relaxed on the balcony with some more wine and David decided he wanted his haircut. So we went to the coiffure across the street and using my French and hand signals David got a razor cut in France! They were very nice people and helpful as we have seen all throughtout France.

Off to dinner at a French-Moroccan restaurant the hotel owner had recommended. We hadn't explored Villefranche yet so weren't really familiar with the town layout. We had been given directions, but of course got turned around. We eventually found the place and sat outside on the cobblestone street. It was nice except for scooters/motorcycles that kept cruising through. The streets were so narrow, I can't believe they let them drive through there when people are eating outside- Ah France.

David had couscous poulet: they served it soup-style, the couscous and the chicken and veggies on the side of it, with a broth mixture- it was delicious! I had rack of lamb, veggies. It was quite good also. The restaurant name is La Grignotiere.

We were tired and started back- this time the correct way and fell into bed.

Day 32 - October 2 - Cinque Terre to French Riviera

We ate breakfast, checked out and walked to the train station. I figured out from the schedule which train, which platform and double checked.

Our train was an Intercity train (goes a little quicker than regional trains) and arriving on Platform 1. Well we hear an announcement and everyone starts running towards Platform 2 which is down some stairs, and up some stairs on the other side of Platform 1 where we were waiting. David gets a little worried that we should be over there. A woman is waving at us telling us this trian goes to Genova, which is where we are going to change trains to Nice. However, I knew it was too early for the train to be arriving (trains are late, but they would not leave 30 minutes early). We decide to run over to Platform 2 as that train is arriving. The conductor is telling us, yes it goes to Genova, but luckily a passenger said, no there is another faster train that was coming soon going to Genova - guess which platform? Platform 1 where we were originally waiting! Argh, back down the stairs and more waiting.

Our train arrives and we hop on it. These Intercity trains have glassed in compartments with 6 six seats per compartment. We hated that, it too enclosed, not open like the other cars we had ridden. We hopped off an hour later in Genova looking for our next train. David found out it was coming in on the same platform we had arrived so I waited with luggage while he grabbed some lunch for us.

We kept hearing announcements that trains were running late, we heard an announcement for a train from Milan running 15 minutes late, then our train to Nice was going to be 15 minutes. I should have put two and two together and realized these were the same trains.

Anyway, the train from Milan shows up, I think it is going to continue South, but we started asking if this train went to Nice, several people said yes. We started walking to the train and continuing to ask to make sure where it was going. We then started running towards what we thought was our car, but realize we are running towards the back of the train and our car is near the front. So we turn around, but at this point the platform is pretty empty and we get a little nervous thinking the train is about to take off without us, so we run like crazy and hopped on the right car. This was another compartment and was already full and everyone had taken up luggage space, so our luggage had to sit in the hallway!

It was an uneventful ride with both of us feeling a little sick. however, the scenery along the Italian/French coast is beautiful! We decided to get off at the Monaco/Monte Carlo train station and catch a train to Villefranch-sur-mer. We get to the train station, oh my goodness! This place is almost made of gold! I would have expected nothing less from a  train station in Monaco! There was no graffiti, it was quiet, wood floors, glass doors, halogen lighting. Nicest train station we saw on the whole six week trip!

We find our train to Villefranche-sur-Mer, hopped on and rode about 8 minutes. We got off and the using the map thought we were going in the right direction. We walked down a hill and down to the waterfront, but realized our hotel was up a steep hill and there was no way we could make with luggage. So...we took a very expensive taxi cab ride to the Hotel.

Our hotel is very nice, 9 small rooms and bathrooms. Our room has a balcony and seaview. We unpacked, got some snack food at the grocery store around the corner, ordered some wine from the hotel owner and relaxed. Oh did I forget to mention, this place had some sweet WiFi!!! We were on the internet!!

Nice end to a long day of traveling!

Day 31 - October 1 - Cinque Terre

We hadn't slept well last night because of the crying child next door. David was furious and we discussed leaving for Nice or another hotel. He went out to the terrace for coffee and told the lady her child kept us up all night. She said sorry, but there's nothing she could do and she didn't seem to care. We know the child wasn't sick because in the mornings she was outside, playing and laughing. We called around and found a Hotel Palme that would rent to us for one night.

We told the lady we were leaving and she gave us receipt, charging us for both horrible nights and one of her relatives drove us down to town. None of them seemed to care; not sure if people leave early all the time or they have enough business.

We trekked our bags to the Hotel Palme- which is part of 'new' Monterosso. They were nice and helpful, although the rooms are bit dorm-style. But, I'm not complaining!

We got our suits on and decided to go shopping, to the beach, eat and check email. We ate at a Foccacia place - yum, light, airy and buttery and crispy. We walked into old town for some shopping, but it was more touristy than I thought. We bought some pesto and postcards. We went to the internet cafe, but it was closing for an hour and a half for siesta. Also the Farmacia was closed until 4 pm. Note: On Saturday, almost all of my contact lens solution leaked out into my suitcase. I couldn't get anymore solution until Monday as all pharmacies are closed until on the weekend. so I was able to use a few drops at a time and get it to last a few more days. We went to Bar Midi again for gelato and to wait until the shops reopened.

We got to the internet point as soon as it opened and checked email, then off to the pharmacy for contact solution. We went to the beach, grabbed some lounge chairs, a beer and sat for a while, relaxing. The water was a bit too cool for swimming, but it was a beautiful day!

We went back to change for dinner. We ate at Ristorante Il Baggiano in 'new town'. I ahd spinach pasta with walnut cream sauce, david had spaghetti and meat sauce with french fries and we split some Prosecco. We asked for olive oil and the waitress asked 'what for?' We felt like telling her none of your business - oh well- the waitstaff was not friendly. Off to bed!

Thoughts: Cinque Terre was the least friendliest place we visited. Other than the beautiful scenery we did not really enjoy our stay here. I would stay elsewhere - Santa Margherita, Levanto, someplace a little north and just day trip to the Cinque Terre. It was so crowded with tourists - it seemed like the locals just wanted us all to leave and the extra money from tourism wasn't worth the trade off in their loss of privacy. Can't say I blame them.

Day 30 - September 30 - Cinque Terre

It was cloudy and a little cool when we got up. We ate breakfast out on the terrace. The owner had asked David if he heard her child crying and David said yes. She said sorry, but otherwise didn't seem too concerned about it.
The weather soon cleared up and packed for our trek across the Cinque Terre Park.

For anyone who hasnt' been here all five towns are part of the Cinque Terre National Park, which is UNESCO World Heritage Site. They are connected by trails through each town and you can walk through all five towns or walk through some and catch a train and go to another. There is also a boat service that runs during good weather to take you to the towns.

We had heard the trail from Monterosso to Vernazza was pretty steep and at some points dangerous. So we thought we would train to Vernazza and walk the rest of the way. We took the shuttle bus into Monterosso and went to the Information booth. A woman told us that their was a train strike and we wouldn't be able to take the train. We luckily decided to go straight to the source - the train station. They said 'No' their was only a strike in Northern Italy, the trains were running through the all five towns. So we bought a Cinque Terre pass (covers unlimited train rides all day, entrance fee to park), but this was probably not a good buy for us as we only rode the train twice.

We took the 5 minute train ride to Vernazza and hopped off. The town was already crowded. I have to mention here that there are massive amounts of daytrippers in the five towns. Many of them train in from other cities, hike the five towns and train out by end of day.  We used our map to find the beginning of the trail from Vernazza to Corniglia. This part of the trail was a bit strenuous. It went uphill for a while, there were steps, rocks, narrow trails, and slippery at times. We said hello to lots of people on the trail - many people were from New Zealand, Australia, Germany and the US. Note: The Germans were everywhere with their alpenstocks (walking sticks!) Drove us nuts.

The men all seemed to be dressed appropriately for this time of hiking, but the women are another story. I could not believe how some of them dressed for this time of hiking. There were women in flip flops, sandals, dresses, skirts, dress boots and my all time favorite is the woman in a brown skirt and brow suede heeled boots! Somewhere I have a photo of the back of her that we'll have to post.

Each part of the trial lead into each of the five towns - through, around and back up. So we were able to see all the villages.

We stopped at a Bar for water as we headed into Corniglia. On the way down, I slipped on some rocks and skinned my knees - another injury to the report!

In Corniglia, we tried to get lunch at a restaurant, but the manager got mad we wouldn't take the table in the sun, so we left and grabbed a snack at another little cafe/bar. Refreshed, we started our hike from Corniglia to Manarola. So far we had taken 2.5 hours for the first leg - counting stops. The walk to Manarola was easier, but still took 1 hour 10 minutes. This was a nice town and we headed to Riomaggiore - this was only a 20 minute walk. However, our feet were killing at this point and we had a few blisters on them so it seemed like it took longer to get to Riomaggiore - But we did it!!!!!

We had to wait an hour for the train back to Monterosso. We arrived and decided to stay in town until after dinner. We grabbed a seat at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. We ordered prosecco, olive oil & pesto bruschetta, nuts & olive for a snack. Two women near us were taking pictures of each other and David got up to take a photo of them together. We started talking to them an dit turns out one of them was from Houston, with a second home in Austin and the younger girl was from Canada. They had met on the trail and were travelling solo and decided to hang out and have dinner together. We chatted with them for a while and then wandered toward the center of old town.

We looked for a restaurant I had heard about - Il Posso. TUrns out the name was Al Pozzo. We saw a French couple from our B&B and said hello to them. We found the restaurant adn sat outside on the terrace - the bugs were really bothering us during most of our meal. I had pesto and pasta, David had spaghetti with meat suace and we split a Florentine steak. It was a T-bone but 5 inches thick! They cooked it fairly rare so we reheated it on the grill. We had more Cinque Terre wine! Another woman traveling solo sat at the end of our table, we chatted with her a bit. I do admire these women traveling solo- not sure I would do it.

We left the restaurant and went to Bar Midi for gelato and to wait for the shuttlebus. We caught the bus which dropped us off at the bottom of the hill to our B&B. We almost passed out walking up the two steep driveways after having walked all day. We got to bed, but were awaken in the middle of the night, by the screaming child. We decided our room must have been part of their apartment and they had enclosed some of it to rent out. The reason we thought this is because you could almost every word and noise in their apartment! The crying went on longer than the previous night, almost until sunrise.

Not a good end to our nice day!

Day 29 - September 29 - Tuscany to Florence to Cinque Terre

We got up at 6 a.m., finished packing, and said goodbye to our hosts. Off we go, to the Cinque Terre, via Florence.

We started our drive, but missed the turn-off to Chianacce that would take us to the A1 highway. We had to back track, and finally found the turn-off. We went through a number of small towns to get to the highway entrance, but then headed onward towards Florence on the A1. A note here: Italian main highway entrances and exits are sparse, compared to the USA or England. Be sure to research the directions to your destination in Italia especially if it's in the country. The same is true when you decide to leave - you may have to drive a long time on country roads to actually reach the highway entrance. There were many occasions where we went under or over the A1 but there was no local connection to the highway!

We finally got into Florence using the Europcar directions. They were very good directions, however we missed a turn and had to backtrack about one block. I can't believe we figured out how to turn around and get back to the correct spot -- we rock!  It was quite scary; it was supremely crowded, and everyone was honking. Never drive into or out of Florence if you can possibly avoid it! If you need to rent a car, take a local train to another town near where you plan to stay/visit such as Siena, Chiusi, Orvieto and rent a car there - it's much easier!

Again, we noticed how horribly run the Europcar office is. If you choose them, just build in extra time for idiotic procedures, lines, and lack of personnel at the office area. Luckily, we ran into one of the car-hops (who run the cars back and forth to wherever they park them) and he looked over the car and signed our receipt! Woohoo! We didn't have to go inside or wait. We counted our blessings and grabbed our stuff to go.

We walked about four blocks to the train station, avoiding the bicyclists, vespas and everyone else walking on this nice Saturday morning. We decided to stop at a patisserie by the station and had coffee and croissants. We also bought 2 proscuitto sandwiches, a pizza slice and cannollis to take on the train with us for lunch.

We got to the station with plenty of time and found our platform, then validated our tickets. It was very crowded, unlike what we thought. Lindi needed to use the bathroom, and found that it cost 70 (Euro) cents to do so! She's not sure it was worth that much, but it was clean!   :-)

The train was OK - we went 2nd class, as the trip to Monterosso was only 2.5 hours, with a transfer in Pisa. It was a bit crowded with lots of young kids. The conductor didn't check tickets on the first leg until the very end of the run, into Pisa. The kids got fined 5 Euros each for not validating their ticket - we leave the train before they could check our tickets (which were in order), so there obviously were tickets that went unchecked. Once again, the Italian train conductors appear lazy and inefficient.

Our train had been late coming into Pisa, but thankfully the train going to Monterosso was late also. The Pisa station is really a bunch of tracks with the board with print outs of the train schedule. David found the train we needed and we hopped on.

As we got closer to the Cinque Terre, it became more cloudy, cooler and showered a bit. The Cinque Terre is composed of 5 villages built into the side of the mountain. So the train would go through lots of tunnels and then we would pop out next to the ocean, it seemed like we were floating above the water because you couldn't see the train tracks. This was a beautiful train ride through each of the villages -- it looks just like the photos you see of the area!

We arrived in Monterosso - the northern most town of the five villages in the Cinque Terre. We called our B&B hosts and they told us how to get to the parking area to meet them. Apparently the town shuts down car traffic during tourist season (May to October 1) to make it easier for all the tourists to walk around - we found out listening to a few locals that they hate this and are not too happy with all the tourists, no matter how much money it brings in.

We had to walk about 10-15 minutes from the train station in the 'New' town through a pedestrian tunnel into the 'Old' town and up a bit of a hill to the parking area. We met up with one of the owner's of the B&B.  I'll go off track a bit to explain about this B&B:

Their website was not clear about where they were located. It said they were in Monterosso and the review I read made it sound like the B&B was just up a hill from Monterosso. Well this place is more like 1/2 mile out of Monterosso, around several curves in the highway and then you turn into the driveway and go up 2 steep inclines to reach the B&B house. You can walk, but it's 30-40 minutes and a bit tricky. There was a shuttlebus but the times varied and we figured out early on that we would have to work our schedule around the shuttle schedule so we would not be left stranded or walking at night.

We arrived at the B&B which is literally built into the side of the mountain in the Cinque Terre National Park with a lovely outdoor terrace. Our room however, is not the one pictured on the website, it was quite utilitarian, with a tiny bathroom and as we soon found out, right next to the owner's apartment.

The owner recommended a restaurant a little ways up the hill that had it's own shuttle service called Il Ciegelo ???
They picked us up at the foot of the B&B driveway. There were four girls from Ohio who were living in Turin and doing a study abroad semester in Italy.They spoke with us and we were surprised how nice they were to us 'older folks'.

We arrived at the restaurant and were seated at the end of a long table. There was only one waiter for the restaurant - it was not a large seating area. He seemed a bit frazzled and spoke only Italian. We tried to convey to him that David was allergic to shellfish (we noticed there was a lot of seafood items on the menu). He didn't seem to understand. The girls from the US brought us their phrase book. Then a man fa ew seats down came over and asked us what the problem was and tried to help us. Turns out he was a doctor, but didn't seem to know how to tell the waiter. We found the phrase we wanted the book and repeated it to the waiter who finally understood.

We had a bottle of Cinque Terre wine - delicious white wine that you can't get in the US or even very far outside of the Cinque Terre area. I had pasta with the famous pesto! Delicious! Best pesto I have ever had! Then I had King prawns. Oh wow, they bring the entire shrimp - eyes, legs, head. It was an OK dish. David had ravioli with red sauce and grilled rabbit. We were limited, as he couldn't have seafood and that was mostly what was on the menu. We had a small glass of their homemade dessert wine and split a chocolate dessert.

We got dropped off at the bottom of the driveway after everyone else. Went to sleep and were woken up by the owner's 2 year old child whining, crying and screaming. The owner's themselves were talking loudly the whole time. This was the big problem with the room - you could hear everything going on in their apartment. The child continued crying for a couple of hours and we finally got back to sleep.

Not a good ending for our first day in Cinque Terre!

Day 28 - Tuscany

It was more sunny today, but still cloudy and sprinkling rain here and there. Our first task for the day was to ship a package back to the US, allowing us to lighten our luggage a little. This package contained two things: gifts we'd bought for family and friends, and a small number of bulky or heavy things we had brought along, but discovered that we never used.

So, we took our package to the Montepulciano Stazione Post Office for mailing. We had to use hand signals and the few Italian words we knew (study numbers - you will need them!) to communicate with the post-office lady, who spoke only Italian. She was very nice and helpful and we managed to get our package mailed - we kept our fingers crossed the rest of the trip that it would get through!

We then drove to Chiusi to get train tickets for our trip to the Italian coast, on Saturday. This is a nice, good size town with car rentals outside of the train station. We found a cafe for coffee, and searched for WiFi.

We drove on toward Montepulciano through Chianciano Terme. This is a lovely drive, so we stopped for photos of each of the cities from the road. Even I got out and took a few photos! We got to Montepulciano and parked fairly close and walked a little ways up the hill to the town center. I don't know if it wasn't crowded because the shops were closed for the afternoon, but it was not touristy. The Piazza Grande (main square) was nice and David thought he caught a WiFi signal, so we kept moving around the center of town to see if he could get enough signal to allow us access to the web. No such luck, so off we went to Sinalunga to do our laundry.

Note: Near this area is the place of the woman (Iris Origo) who wrote the book (War in Val D'Orcia) I mentioned in an earlier post - Her farms name is La Foce.

We found the laundromat in Sinalunga with the directions our hosts had given us, without any trouble. We did our clothes in about an hour. During that time David wandered the neighborhood looking for WiFi, but still no luck. Next door to the laundry was a Penny Market - kind of like a Costco; they have large quantities of things, for less money. We picked up a few snacks there.

We started heading back, continuing to look for WiFi. He had perched the computer in my lap and was having me use the WiFi detector and checking to see if the computer would log on. He kept pulling off the road every few minutes to  check the computer when he thought there might be some internet connection. Somehow in all this, we missed a turn (imagine that) and ended up way back at the entrance/exit to the A1 highway - the same exit we had taken a week earlier to get to the farm. We pulled off into a small shopping center parking lot, where David detected some WiFi. We got logged on briefly, but then it disappeared. We had not had internet access for a whole week so David was having withdrawal pains - this is why he was trying so hard to find WiFi!! I threatened to throw it out the window so he finally agreed to give up on internet access for the day, and we retraced our steps and finally got back to the farm. We unloaded our fresh clothes, repacked our bags to leave our little farm, and headed off for dinner at DeRenata - pizza and wine - what a deal!

We got back from dinner and talked to our hosts a little bit, signed their guest book, and then headed back to our room, so we could get an early start. We had so enjoyed the place, the people, and the sights that we were a little sad as we drifted off to sleep.

Day 27 - Tuscany

We got up and left the farm around 10 am. Our mission was: go to St. Antimo Abbey, in the Montalcino area; to taste the famous Brunello wine at a place I (Lindi) had read about called Fattoria dei Barbi; and drive through another section of the Val D'Orcia area. The sun was out, and I thought the rain/front from yesterday had moved through so I put on a skirt and sandals; bad idea, as you'll see later.

As with so much of Lindi's extensive research on the various sites and destinations along the European Adventure, she had read of the various wines, wine regions, and famous vineyards. One such wine type is Brunello. Brunello is made only in this region of Montalcino and is renowned. We found out later that such wines are difficult to get in the USA - read on for more on this. So, this became among the 'must see' aspects of Italy, and we treated it as such.

As we drove towards Montalcino it got cooler, cloudier, and started raining a little. We drove past Pienza, S. Quirico D'Orcia and into Montalcino. Wow - this town sits on a hilltop, and from a distance you can see a castle and surrounding buildings and you feel like you are travelling back in to the Medieval era! We stopped to take some photos and saw several bike riders (yes in the rain, biking up a steep hill). We stopped for some gas and started to look for the Fattoria dei Barbi winery. All we had was a rudimentary map from their website, with no street names, or much real detail. So, we drove on a narrow, twisty road which looked right; knowing that the winery was near the local Brunello Museum we followed both the Barbi signs and the signs for the museum. Lindi finally saw a small road with numerous signs stuck in the ground to the left of the main road. I caught the name of the winery we wanted on the sign and pointed David to the entrance. We drove a bit on a rocky road and then came into an opening with parking and several buildings. "Very nice", I thought... this looked like a top-notch operation!

There was a building for wine tasting, a building for their in-house restaurant, and a separate building for restrooms. We parked, then walked into the cellar for some wine tasting. Fattoria dei Barbi is one of the oldest wineries in Italy and is known for their Brunello. They serve all of their wines for tasting, including the Reserva, Vin Santo, and Grappa (paint thinner - Ok, not that bad but almost). Their wines were fantastic! Their Vin Santo, based on my small experience,  was very good. Fattoria dei Barbi also produces their own olive oil, pecorino cheese, and raise their own sheep and pigs which are served in their restaurant.

As mentioned before, Brunellos are delicious and difficult to get. Once we tasted the Barbi current vintage, we knew we had to have some of it for our enjoyment (and limited sharing) at home. The only thing better than their regular wine was their reserve (reserva). We decided right then to ship some Brunello back to the US! But, as we continued the tasting, we also tried their Vin Santo - OK, now we really had a problem, as we wanted some of that too. As we reviewed the shipping prices, we realized that we would be blowing our budget completely between the regular, reserva and Vin Santo purchases. If you choose to do the same, then realize: shipping is exceptionally expensive. We strategized that only the more most rare wines were really worth shipping back, compared to buying them in the US. Luckily we had been sticking to our budget up to this time, and this was very important so we just did it.

We decided to eat lunch in the Fattoria dei Barbi restaurant. Lindi had a glass of their wonderful Brunello, homemade pasta with duck sauce, wild boar with polenta, and cinnamon cheesecake. David had pasta with red meat sauce, mixed pork grill, and a coffee-cream dessert. It was all delicious, although their prices are about 4 euros higher on each item than other places we had eaten.

By now it was raining more steadily and was quite windy. Now you see why I regretted the dress and sandals! I was a bit chilly the rest of the day. It was hard to complain as we had been blessed with perfect weather for over 4 weeks, so far.

We drove to Sant'Antimo Abbey. We traipsed through the muddy walkway to the interior. Quite a few people were there visiting and we sat at the back to await the Gregorian chants. Around 15.00 (3 pm) three monks arrived (for some reason I thought it would be more). The three of them sounded like ten, or more! It was such a beautiful sound - it was very moving, but fairly short.

We drove back a different way, going through Castiglione D'Orcia, Bagno Vignio, and then back through Pienza. It was a beautiful drive and I can only imagine what it must look like in bright sunshine, with the ochre fields and green grass. We made our way back in time to get ready for dinner at the farm.

Our hosts at Le Manzanie serve a dinner one night a week for all of their guests, and tonight was our night! We started at around 20.00 (8 pm) with a glass of champagne. The courses which followed were:

1. Bruschetta - lots of garlic
2. Lasagna
3. Main dishes: sausage in vinegar, slaw, salad, chicken kebabs
4. Olive chicken
       Local red wine was served with all of the above
5. Plum cake, with Asti Spumante
6. Limoncello, to end the eating
7. Cappucino

We left around 23.00 (11 pm) as David was still not feeling well. We heard the next day that the rest of the guests stayed until after midnight! Four hour long dinner - what a country! We fell asleep that night entertained, sated and happy.

Day 26 - Tuscany

We got up around 7 am and the weather was cloudy with some sun. David's throat still hurt, but we decided to drive to Umbria anyway. It's about an hour's drive from where we were staying - not counting photo stops!

As you may imagine, from knowing David, we stopped a lot as we drove around. There are just so many amazing vistas, with opportunities for great pictures from most high roads, whether cloudy or sunny and in any season. We saw so many sights that took our breath away, and on many of those we stopped the car. In many cases David trekked to another spot to get an unobstructed or higher view, and this many times took 10 or 15 minutes. Lindi was always sweet and let David have his fun. She's a good egg.

We took off on the A1 (larger highway) and passed Perugia (huge city!), Assisi (really pretty on the hillside) and Spello. We stopped at an Autogrill for coffee and croissant. We noted that even at a roadside gas station (truck stop) they had espresso machines, and the coffee was delicious just like everywhere in Italia!  We drove through Foligno and headed to Montefalco.

Umbria is more mountainous than Toscano and is noted for not being so touristy. If I ever get back to this area again, I would definitely stay in Umbria, and explore. We drove up and around hills past many olive tree farms - this area is known for its production of olive oil.

We arrived in Montefalco and walked up a block or so into the town center - we actually found a close parking space; quite unusual! There were very few tourists, but lots of enotecas and olive oil bars. Lindi had heard of a family-run olive oil place called Antico Frantoio Brizi, and we went in search of it. While looking for it we saw an enoteca/restaurant called L'Alchimista - which we heard was good. We made a lunch reservation and with some time left before lunch we wanted to continue to look for the Brizi place, so we asked directions at L'Alchimista. As we get close to the indicated street and area,  we found a store front where two women are out front talking. When they are through and one has left, we ask the lady standing there "where is the Brizi Olive Oil place"? She says that we are in the right place, and asks where we are from; we tell her Texas. She smiled and started talking about how we all have things in common - in this case 'oil' (petroleum and olive). Turns out she (Emanuela) is the one of the owners, and runs the mill with her sister. She gave us a 45-minute tour and tasting where we saw the actual olive press and learned how they do the first cold press. They only produce 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil - first cold pressing only!

We bought some olive oil and then went round and round on shipping. It ended up costing us more to ship than to buy the oil - but it was worth it!

Off to lunch at L'Alchimista. This is a small (10 table) restaurant in the basement of the Enoteca. The food was really good - We had a bruschetta mix (melon, tomato, truffles, olive oil, sausage & cheese) for starters. I had pecorino, pear salad, homemade pasta with bacon/zucchini and cheese. David had pasta with chili sauce and beef/pork stew.

We left Montefalco and headed back to the farm for a 5 pm wine tasting. We did not get to go to Deruta (famous for its pottery). I see a trip in the future back to Umbria! By now it had clouded over more, become windy and had rained on us a bit.

The hosts at our farm stay had arranged a wine tasting at a small cellar in Montepulciano. We all carpooled and drove up the hill to their place. It was lit up inside the main area with candles, and they had provided a light snack of meats, cheeses, bruschetta. They showed us around and we tasted their wines. The wines were inexpensive, but not that good. We tasted their Vin Santo, which was good, but of course they didn't sell that.

We left the winery and got back around 10:30 pm - we went to sleep with a light rain falling. What a wonderful day and a wonderful way to end it.

Day 25 - Tuscany

David woke up with a sore throat. We decided to go to Umbria as it was more driving and less walking, and maybe taking it easier today would keep me from getting worse. Started heading towards Perugia and outside Valiano (15 minutes from our farm) and suddenly we saw the winery we had wanted to visit: Avignonesi. We stopped and asked about a tour and discovered you had to have an appointment. Well, it so happens six ladies from North Carolina were about to start a tour and they invited us to join them - we lucked out!

We went through the winery, cellars and saw how they make various classes of their wine, and also Vin Santo. For this special wine product, they dry the grapes on shelves until they look like raisins. The amount of liquid that comes out for the wine is sweeter, but produces smaller quantities. Therefore, most wineries produce Vin Santo only for family or close friends consumption. It is rarely sold and fairly expensive to get in the US.

After the tour was over we tasted their wines. Very good, but pricey. We bought a half bottle of Vino Nobile and their Reserva (higher quality). We did not realize at the time, but the tour cost 10 euros each, even if you buy wine! We weren't sure it was worth that... Shipping was 100-130 euros for a case. We opted not to buy a case, but later in our time in Tuscany, we realized they all charge that much to ship.

The ladies in the tour said it was supposed to rain Wednesday so we changed our plans to take advantage of the sun. We headed back to get a map at the farm and drive towards the Val d'Orcia area, near where we were staying. At this point it was already 12 noon and we are afraid we wouldn't make it to a place to eat until after they close. You'll recall in Europe restaurants open from 12 noon - 2:30 pm. Shops close from 1-3 pm.We kept forgetting that! We ended up eating some pasta dishes at De Renata again. Finished lunch and headed to Pienza via Montepulciano and had a nice drive for photos.

Pienza is lovely, and not as crowded as some other towns. We stopped for gelato and some photos. Got back to the car and started a drive back towards the farm, going through Montechiello, Montepulciano and passing by S. Biagio's Temple (you've seen this site on many a poster of Tuscany) and (of course) we stopped numerous times for photos.

The 'dirt' here is amazing in color. It's almost an ochre/clay color, not black or brown as in the US. This color contrasts so well against the green grass and beautiful, tall Cypress trees dancing up the hillsides.

The Val d'Orcia area in Tuscany is beautiful and a must see!  All the photos you see of Tuscany are mostly from this region and it really does look like the pictures you see.  There's a wonderful book written by a woman who lived through World War II in this region - War in Val D'Orcia. It's her diary of two years of living and surviving in this region during the War. Her family still owns property and farms in the region. Some of the towns in this area are: Castiglione d'Orcia, Montalcino, Pienza, Radicofani, San Quirico d'Orcia, Cetona, Chianciano Terme, Chiusi, Montepulciano, San Casciano dei Bagni, Torrita di Siena, Trequanda. We covered every one of these by the end of the week.

DW was needing a nap, as he was feeling a bit run down with his sore throat. We got back to the farm around 16:00. David slept for a couple of hours while I hung out on a lounge chair by the pool, reading British gossip magazines! (We thought our media was bad, the Brit media is downright mean!) Fiore brought me some Limoncello while I lounged - this is the life!

DW got up but didn't feel like driving far so we went back to L'Angolo to eat again! This time around no wait for a table and they seemed a bit friendlier. DW had pasta with sausage and a pizza. I had homemade pici noodles with garlic and olive oil and pizza with ham, basil, and mushroom. All of it was good and inexpensive (29 euros for all that plus a glass of wine).