Paradise Found - Italy

I. Love. Italy. I held in one hand the Italian people and their celebration of life with the love-of-the-moment attitude. And in the other hand, I held the rich historic culture with the exquisite religious art literally everywhere. At the same time I was bathed in the beautiful countryside while drinking intense Italian red wine and eating the most gratifying food I've had in a long time. It was all simple, delightful, and intensely heavenly, the combined adventure unlike anything I had experienced before. I wanted to receive all that Italy had for me.

We spent the previous week visiting Sicily to see where Dad fought Retracing Dad's Steps in Sicily and then explored Rome, the Amalfi coast and Pompeii. We were now ready to set off to Tuscany for our next week's adventures. We took a train from Rome to Pisa to pick up our rental car to avoid having to drive around Rome or Florence. We took a cab from the train station to the airport to find our car. But first, we stopped at the leaning tower of Pisa. Our cab driver dropped us off at  and waited with our luggage at the taxi stand near the Piazza del Duomo or Cathedral Square. The tower was built in the 12th century and has been recently reinforced so that it won't topple over. It was a quick stop for us, but one we couldn't miss.

We arranged our car and after a two hour drive, we arrived near Badia A Passignano to negotiate the gravel hilly one-lane roads that lead to our cottage for the week. We booked a cottage with AirBnB and it was really a nice place to be our base for the week. Our cottage was over 300 years old, but nicely restored. The kitchen was well-stocked with cooking supplies. The scenery was breath-taking. We bought groceries on the way in and knew that we wanted to rest a bit from Rome and Amalfi coast drive before visiting the nearby villages.

We took it easy on Monday with just a wine tasting and dinner in nearby Greve. The next day - on Italian Unification Day, we meandered into Badia a Passignano to look at the church and little village. We had dinner at Antiga Scuderia. It was probably my favorite dinner with truffles scattered on every dish we ordered. We overlooked the vineyards in the evening as we relaxed on the outside patio. On a Tuesday evening, the restaurant was completely booked in this tiny village.

The next day was our adventure into Florence.  We drove to a nearby small
town named Galluzzo from our cottage and parked the car in the town square to take advantage of all day free parking. We purchased round trip bus tickets at the news stand and took the 20 minute bus ride into Florence's main bus station. The larger Italian cities have ZTL's which are limited traffic zones. The fines are quite large if you even attempt to drive into the city ZTL's - most of which exist at the city's walled borders. We had an appointment at 11:00 to visit the Accademia to see David and then at 1:30 to visit the Uffizzi. By purchasing the tickets in advance, it avoids the hour long waiting in line to visit these popular museums. We arrived in time to take a quick trip to visit the Duomo - officially called Santa Maria del Fiore. It is the predominant church in Florence and featured in the skyline with it's tall dome. We also visited the Basilica of Santa Croce. This church was Michelangelo's neighborhood church, built in the 13th century, and it is where he is buried. I had previously visited this church for mass when my daughter studied abroad in Florence. It is staggering to walk in the footsteps of the great artist Michelangelo.

Michelangelo's David did not disappoint. After reading the Agony and the Ecstasy which tells in detail about Michelangelo's quest for perfection, I was impressed with all aspects of this masterpiece - including the perfect Carrara marble and the detail of the body of David. Michelangelo's slaves are also in this hall. They are his unfinished works which give insight into the process of creating these masterpiece sculptures. Boticelli has a sculpture here and Giambologna's Rape of the Sabines is also exquisite. We left after an hour to find lunch. We grabbed a quick bit of pizza at a nearby restaurant and then proceeded to the Uffizzi for our appointment there.

The Uffizzi was built by the Medici family as offices  and to house their art

collections in the 16th century. The building itself is a masterpiece located by the Arno River and the bridge that crosses it - the Ponte Vecchio. It was said that the famous artists Michelangelo and de Vinci used to hang out at the Uffizzi for it's beauty, to work and for recreation. We looked forward to seeing the art representation of the Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello. We left the Uffizzi after three hours into a 92-degree sweltering day. We briefly visited the Ponte Vecchio and scrapped our plans to see the Piazzale Michelangelo, the Basilica of San Miniato, and the David sculpture there near the hilltop of the city overlooking the Ponte Vecchio. It gives an iconic view of the city. We did stop long enough to grab some gelato before we walked to the bus station to bus to our car. We recovered from the heat on the deck of our cottage as we ate leftovers.

 We visited San Gimignano, a 14th century walled city,  the next morning early to avoid the heat of the day. It was expected to be over 94 degrees in the afternoon and we intended to be in the pool near our cottage before 2pm to offset the heat. The weekly market was already set up in San Gimignano when we arrived.  We bought tickets to climb the city tower and take a tour of the church. The view was amazing from the top. We grabbed some Italian pottery and a Tuscan tablecloth as souvenirs from the market and then bought dinner from the market stalls, including some special cheeses, fresh pasta, sausage and some bread. It would have been easy to stay the day here visiting the shops and outdoor cafes. It is by far my favorite Tuscan village. However, we cut our visit short to visit nearby Volterra for lunch before we finished for the day. In Volterra, we drove up the incline to the walled town on the hill. We parked and visited a small cafe in the shade to watch the
tourists and townspeople. I ordered Tuscan bean soup and a salad with a glass of Vino Nobile di Montelpulciano red wine. We were exhausted as we pulled into the cottage at 3pm. This region of Italy also takes time for an afternoon "siesta". We joined in the tradition, wiped out by the heat.

We traveled to Siena the next day. Siena was settled in 900 - 400 BC by the Etrusians and Augustus ruled here as well. We looked forward to seeing one

of the oldest cities of the region. Siena was the hardest city to drive near and parking - though well scoped out - was difficult as well. We were lucky finally to find a street spot across the river, though we may have driven into a ZTL by mistake. We'll find out via mail whether or not we were given a hefty fine. Il Campo is the piazza that is the most famous. This large area hosts horse races a couple of times a year and we just missed a jousting festival by one week. On this day, it was a lazy day in the area where there were only art students sitting and drawing perspectives of the Duomo. We walked to the Cathedral and purchased tickets to enter. Next to the Vatican, this 13th century church was our favorite. The black and white striped exterior represents the black and white horses of the city founders Senius and Aschius, sons of Remus. There were two more Michelangelo sculptures inside as part of a side altar, St. Paul and St. Peter. Michelangelo wanted to complete this altar but instead was called to paint the Sistine chapel. There are 172 busts of popes along the moulding. Bernini designed the dome as a golden lantern and sculpted two statues - Mary Magdalene and St. Jerome and Donatello has a painting and also a bronze St. John the Baptist in this cathedral. 

We left Siena before noon and traveled to Monteriggiani for lunch. This is a very small walled village with a castle and  it was a great place for a lazy afternoon and a great lunch. The entire town has perhaps 20 businesses and fortunately for us, 8 of them were restaurants. We chose Restaurant da Remo il Poccolo Castello, right next to the church. The lunch menu was creative with daily specials. The menu was heavy with meat selections so I chose a sample plate of several pasta dishes so I could taste a bit of several of the side dishes.  The pumpkin risotto was light and delicious.  The spaghetti with ricotta and spinach was very tasty and fresh. Paul's meat dish was browned in flour and he found it a bit heavy for lunch. We sat on the patio but quickly moved inside where the stone walls kept us cool during the very hot afternoon.

When morning came, we had to check out of our cottage. We were sad to leave it - it was very relaxing for us and the stone kept us cool. However, the best was yet to come. We booked our final two nights at a castle -  Castelle Delle Serre -  in a different part of Tuscany near Serre di Rapolano. We couldn't check into the castle until 3pm, so we travel to Montelpulciano for lunch and wine tasting at Bottega Del Nobile. Instead of visiting each vineyard, this setup allowed us to buy tastes of all regions of Italy, including bold Brunellos and Vino Nobile wines from Montelpulciano. There were over 300 wines available to taste. We were treated to years-old Grappa, which tasted like whiskey.  The food was touted to be fantastic as well, but we found it was prepared ahead in another kitchen and transported in. However, my pici pepe was really nicely seasoned and perfectly cooked and my sister enjoyed her Tuscan rabbit (served in a jar). We walked the city and ended the day there with some gelato.

We traveled back to the castle and this 12th century built, recently restored castle was
quite a treat. The owners, father and son Salvatore and Antonio Gangale purchased the property in 1994 and it took eleven years to open up the first three rooms. It had always been there Salvatore's dream to return to Italy from California and he bought the castle in a state of disrepair. It had been neglected since WWII essentially. Perseverance paid off  - the last rooms were just opened.  It has a swimming pool with cabana that is above the town. From the decks of the pool and from our room's windows, you can see the surrounding countryside.  We spent the evening at the pool and ordered a bottle of wine to enjoy on the deck. It was hard to believe that we were staying in a medieval castle with such modern amenities. Antonio spent extra time giving us hand-written directions to see the best views in the area and the best little towns to visit in our last two days there. Salvatore gives cooking classes on Tuesdays and cooks dinner for guests on Saturday evenings as well.

Sunday afternoon after the church bells announced the ending of mass, we walked down the cobblestone path to a very small, family owned restaurant for lunch - Ristorante pizzeria San Rocco. There was a big local Italian family gathered there and we enjoyed the experience of watching them interact with each other. The food was delivered family style and the loud laughter of the group made it seem like a celebration with ages 85 to 2. After lunch we drove back to Montelpulciano to buy a few cases of wine to ship home and along the way spent some time  near Montelcino photographing Val d'Orcia - the most photographed fields in Tuscany. The movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed here. The skies darkened on our final drive to enhance our final photographs.  We left with several thousand photos, a case of wine, and a deep desire to return to Tuscany.