2019_09 Tuscany – Lynn's Travel Adventures

Under the Tuscan Sun

June 24

We were in 4 different regions today. We started in Tuscany and when we got to Cortona we were on the border between Tuscany and Umbria but I guess “Under the Umbrian Sun” didn’t have the same ring to it. We were in Perugia when we were at the lake, we drove through Umbria again after leaving the lake and finally tonight were in Lazio.

Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty quiet. After sitting by the pool for a couple of hours we went back to Volterra for lunch. But that was pretty much it.

Today started out with a trip to the northern suburbs of Florence to mail home a box. It was the closest Mail Box Etc., and was only about 10 minutes out of our way. We wanted to mail the alabaster lamp as we (well really me) was paranoid about trying to get it on the plane. I didn’t want to deal with security rejecting it so I thought the best thing to do was mail it back. As long as we were mailing a box we sent our jackets (which we haven’t used in 4 weeks) and other things we bought. So our two carry-on sized bags are almost 16 pounds lighter. Yeah!

Then it was on to our last Airbnb home in Castel Madama, near Tivoli. But since we our route took us within 25 km (about 15 miles) of Cortona (the town from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun), we decided to take a detour. We’re so glad we did as it was a really cute town. It seemed like an artist colony as we saw quite a few galleries and workshops. The town is on a hill and was beautiful from a distance but we couldn’t find anyplace to pull over to take a picture. Here are a few from town.

Delicious looking gelato; we didn’t have any because we were full from lunch. The presentation is always so beautiful.

Main town squ;are with the town hall. This was the square where the movie producers added a fountain for a couple of scenes. It’s not there any longer.

Ate at the restaurant just through the arch.

Tuscany is famous for sunflowers; this was so pretty.

The side streets are so beautiful. This one looks like a post card. This was actually a pretty steep hill.

As I said, there were a lot of artist workshops and we found one shop we really liked. The art was almost abstract, which neither one of us like, but they were so different they were actually very pretty. We bought a couple of very small pieces that easily fit into our suitcase.

Posing with the artist. You can see some of his work in the background. We liked the ones in neutral tones rather than the full color.

After lunch we started back on the road south, but detoured once again to Lake Trasimeno, only about 25 minutes south of Cortona. It was a beautiful drive and the lake looked amazing. We wouldn’t mind staying for a few weeks someday. It’s on our list, but as you know, our list is pretty long so who knows when we’ll actually get there again.

Have no idea what town this was but thought the building was pretty cool.

Beautiful Tuscan countryside. That’s a different lake in the background but don’t remember the name.

Once we stopped detouring it was only about another 90 minutes to our country house in Castel Madama. The house is very nice and our host was amazing. She drove us to pick up a few groceries as she didn’t want us to drive into town. Now that we’ve been there we understand. It’s a typical hilltop town with streets barely wide enough for a horse cart let alone a car. We were very appreciative of the ride.

Tomorrow, we’re seeing our last few sites….Hadrian’s Villa and Villa d’Este both of which are only about 15 minutes from here. Then it’s back to the airport to drop our stuff at the Hilton before taking the car back. It will be a busy day.

Lazy Day at the Beach

June 22

We drove about 45 minutes northwest of the resort to the beaches in Pisa. We rented an umbrella and chairs for 15 euro for as long as we want them. The water is pretty cold, about the same as the pool at the beach resort on the Adriatic but it was still fun.

We’re in a protected cove which is good because the current is pretty bad here.

When we leave here we’ll go hang by the pool until it’s time to make dinner. Not sure what we are doing tomorrow; maybe just hang by the pool all day. It’s our last day to relax as we have about 4 hours of driving on Monday then on Tuesday we have to take the car back and get ready to fly home on Wednesday. So resting tomorrow sounds like a great idea.

Delightful Dinner in Tuscan Countryside

June 21

Without GPS we would have never found the restaurant as it was down a hill and on an unpaved road. Even once we arrived I thought we were in the wrong place. We weren’t and ended up having a wonderful dinner. We sat with 2 other couples staying at the resort. The first 5 days they were in Italy the took a Vespa tour around Tuscany. That’s not something on our list of things to do but they loved it.

Dinner was a traditional Italian 4-course meal beginning with the Antipasta.

Starting at 12:00: Procuitto crudo (smoked ham); bruschetta with sausage (actually quite good); empty bowl that held olives (Peter took them off my plate immediately; I hate olives); typical bruschetta; pecorino cheese and I can’t remember the name of the salad but it contained barley and other things.

Then it was on to the prima patti which is a pasta dish. This time it was pasta with a simple ragu sauce like the kind we learned to make at our Italian cooking class in 2016.

By this time I was pretty full but we still had two more courses to go. The next was the secondi patti, which is the second plate, and could be meat or fish. We had very thinly sliced roast pork with roasted potatoes. This is a typical Tuscan secondi patti that we also made in our cooking class.

Only ate half of this as I needed to save room for dolce.

Finally it was time for the last course, the dolce. There were about 10 to pick from so it was a tough choice. Both were delicious.

My dessert was hazelnut cream topped with chocolate and pistachio.

Peter’s was custard, cream, strawberries topped with dark chocolate.

Then of course there was wine and Peter finished his dinner off with coffee American which turned into an expresso. Dinner last 2 1/2 hours which is the only way you can eat so much food at one time. Roberta, our street food tour guide in Bologna, said it is rare for Italians to eat a full meal like this. She said they usually have either a prima patti or a secondi patti but not both. A full meal is saved for special occasions. Peter and I had talked about doing this before we left and since this dinner was arranged by the resort with other guests, we thought it was a great time to do it. We’re so glad we did. It was a lot of food late in the evening but it was a ton of fun.

Ancient City of Volterra

June 21

Happy Summer everyone!! Although we’ve had very hot weather (at least 90 every day) for the last two weeks, today it’s officially summer. As you can see from the map, we went a little out of our way today but we couldn’t check into the resort until 4pm and it was too far to go, so we decided to visit Volterra before coming to the resort. We are so glad we did. What a cool town!!

Volterra has its origins in the 8th century BC and has been home to both the Etruscans and the Romans. There are still quite a few structures left from those olden days.

We went to the Etruscan Museum and there were lots of examples of funeral urns as well as the usual pottery, coins, jewelry, etc. Here are some examples.

Can you believe this is about 2500 years old. What great condition!

This tile floor is also in amazing condition.

Volterra is famous for its alabaster. It is a mined stone and is only found in this area. The most abundant is white alabaster and the brown is much more rare and, therefore, expensive. We found just about everything you can think of in the stone….jewelry (was tempted but I resisted), bath items like soap dishes and toothbrush holders, picture frames, wine glasses, vases small and large, chandeliers, bowls, etc. Peter found a small lamp that he loved so we got that. It cost more to ship than it did to purchase so I’ll figure out how we’re going to get it home. It’s mostly white but has a little brown in it. We saw one in another shop that had a lot more brown and even though it was the same size as ours, it cost more than double. Guess the brown is more expensive.

Peaked inside a workshop; the large rocks haven’t yet been cut into anything.

One of the larger shops; these items were beautiful.

Of course there was also lunch. Peter had pizza and I took a walk on the wild side and had a calzone…very delicious.

Here are a few pictures from the town.

After leaving Volterra, it was a short 30-minute ride to the Hilton Grand Vacation Resort in the Tuscan countryside. It’s in the middle of nowhere but that’s not a problem with the car. After getting settled we headed down to the pool. The water was lovely, cool and refreshing but not cold. That’s a nice switch.

Tonight we’re going to an authentic Tuscan dinner in town. It was arranged by the resort and it’s a traditional 4 course meal. We had an early lunch so we’re hungry. Have a great night.

Day of di’Medici

June 20

We spent the bulk of today touring the Pitti Palace, the Palatine Gallery and the Boboli Gardens. We took a tour which was wonderful. If you ever go to Florence (and it should be on everyone’s bucket list) we recommend checking out florencepass.com. The is a tour company, not the 24 hour pass of the same name. Even though we bought the tour on Viator, the tour was organized by the tour company. Our guide, Roberta, was incredibly knowledgeable but the best part was that we didn’t have to follow a flag. In fact, since all of their tours are limited to no more than 12 people, they don’t ever use flags. The first part of the tour, which included the Palace and Gallery, had 9 participants. But the second part where we toured the garden only had four.

The middle section of the front of Pitti Palace; the place is gigantic and contains 8 museums.

The Pitti Palace was first built in 1458. The Pitti family were rivals of the de’Medici family and built the palace to demonstrate their wealth. Unfortunately, once they built the palace they didn’t have their wealth any more so they had to sell. Of course, the only family with enough money to buy it was the di’Medici family who, throughout the years, enlarged it. It is now the largest museum complex in Florence.

The first place we toured was several rooms of the actual palace.

Room filled with 16th century tapestries.

Ceiling and part of a wall froom the white room which was a waiting room for guests.

Then it was on to the Palatine Gallery. This was the di’Medicis’ private gallery. Every painting, table, stature and vase is in the exact spot that it was when the di’Medici lived there. There are over 1800 paintings in the gallery, 90% of which the di’Medici bought. Only 10% were actually commissioned by the family. There was so much to look at it was almost sensory overload but Roberta pointed out the most important pieces. Here are a few of my favorites.

Sandro Boticelli was a good friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent (grandson of Cosimo the Elder) and benefited from the patronage of the family. We saw many of his paintings but this was the only one I took a picture of.

There was an entire room dedicated to Raphael.

This frame was commissioned specifically for this painting.

This is a portrait of Raphael’s fiancée.

And then there was Rubens.

Self portrait; Rubens is the man on the far left.

There were incredible ceilings.

And a 16th century floor.

Looks like a wall but it’s actually the floor.

And a door.

Every room was floor to ceiling art work.

There were magnificent tables hand made of marble and semi-precious stones. There are master craftsmen who still make tables the way they did 400 years ago. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to own something so amazing!

Can you believe this is a 400 year old table top?

The Palace was taken over by the Hapsburgs in the early 18th century when the last male descendant of Cosimo I (a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent who took over the rule when the last of Lorenzo’s family died out) died without heirs. Why the Hapsburgs (Austria) you ask? Well….the eldest son of Cosimo I married one of the Hapsburg, so they took over the rule of Florence. In the late 18th century, Napoleon made the Palace his headquarters.

Napoleon’s bathroom; the tub is made from a solid piece of Carrera marble.

After the tour of the Palace and Gallery, we took a short break before heading out to the Boboli Gardens. The land is adjacent to the Palace and was bought from the Boboli family so Cosimo the First’s wife (Eleonora) could have a garden.

One of the lakes had an island filled with lemon and orange trees as well as rose bushes.

This was a gigantic roman bath and an Egyptian obelisk.

Lemon House where they store the fruit trees during the winter.

There was a beautiful view of the Dome from the garden.

There was also an amazing grotto carved into the rock.

The tour ended about 1:45 by which time we were hot, tired and starving so off to lunch we went. After lunch we slowly made our way back to the train station passing by many of the unique sites of Florence.

Ponte Vecchio from the inside; as always it was crazy crowded. It’s lined with dozens of jewelry shops and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Florence.

Palazzo Vecchio (tower on left) was the town house of the di’Medici.

Given that we were here less than 48 hours, we packed in quite a bit. We knew we weren’t going to stay long but I’ll take any opportunity to visit Florence, even if it’s only for a few hours. What an amazing city!

Tomorrow we’re off to the Hilton Resort in the Tuscan countryside. It will be a nice place to relax for a few days.

My Favorite City in the World

June 19

Before we get to our two days in Florence, let’s finish with Bologna. Before we left town, we drove to the Sanctuary of San Luca which sits high above the city. A church as existed on this site for a thousand years but the present church was constructed fairly recently in the early 18th century. Of course we managed to get there just in time for Mass but since we’d driven for 30 minutes up a very windy road, we decided to stay until Mass was over so we could get a better look at the beautiful church. We could have walked up the 100 stairs to the top of the dome (and paid 5 euro each for the privilege) but as you might guess we took a pass.

Beautiful carving at one of the side chapels.

It’s about a 15 minute walk to the tram and a 10-15 minute ride to the Central train station; not as cool as last time when we lived right in the city center but with a car it was the best we could do; parking is impossible in the historic center.

Then it was time to head back down the hill towards Florence. This is the 4th time I’ve been here and am excited that I can see different things this time as Peter has done all the “must see” attractions.

By the time we got settled into the flat (which is in the suburbs; the only way with a car) and we made our way to the tram and into the city center, it was after 1pm so the first thing we did was find something to eat. After lunch we headed towards the Casa Buonarroti, which is one of the homes of Michaelangelo (did you know his last name was Buonarroti??) here in Florence. It is now a very nice museum that includes some of the artist’s work.

After the museum it was a 2-block walk to the Basilica of Santa Croce which is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It was built in the late 13th century and legend has it that it was founded by St. Francis.

Think this is part of a cloak worn by St. Francis

I took a zillion pictures but here are just a few.

One of the 16 side alters; Crucifix was carved by Donatello

Oldest painting in the church; dates back to 13th century.

The Basilica is also known as the Temple of Italian Glories as there are many Italian greats buried here.

Composer Rossini (William Tell Overture)

Galileo; was only buried here 80 years after his death as he had been excommunicated.

Dante is not actually buried here as he was exhiled from Florence; this is a memorial to him.

For some reason there is also a memorial to Florence Nightingale.

The outside courtyard was just as beautiful as the inside.

By the time we finished touring the church, which took well over an hour, we were hot (90s again today), tired and in desperate need of gelato. Luckily, there was a cafeteria with gelato right on the corner.

Peter’s (on left) was chocolate chip; mine was my favorite combination…wild cherry and strawberry

On our way back to the train station to catch the tram home, we wandered through the Central Market. This is several blocks of stalls selling all the usual stuff….leather goods, tee-shirts, scarves, etc. We’ll go back tomorrow when we’re not quite as tired.

It’s almost 9pm and I’m too tired to proofread so hopefully there aren’t too many mistakes. Tomorrow we get to follow the flag as we’re signed up for a day trip to the Pitti Palace. We’ll let you know how it goes.