Tuscany - the road less travelled

Israel came to visit last weekend and we decided to go to Tuscany this time. As you know, I've been there before (many times, probably my favorite area in Italy) but Israel hadn't. I was put in charge of the program and the instructions were to find smaller out of the way places to visit. I consulted with Paola about interesting places to visit and so we got to some real gems which are a bit out of the way.

We went without making prior hotel reservations - Israel said that it's not a busy period, that we're sure to find places to stay in and that this way we might fall on more interesting spots. For those smiling to themselves at this point wondering how I dealt with the (somewhat) stressful situation - you're right to smile - but I decided to live on the wild side here and play along... (I made a few hesitant attempts to reserve a hotel or something but in the end decided to go with the flow and see what happens - worse comes to worse, I know a few people in Tuscany or else, there's always the car...).

And so we set out on the trip. Tuscany is about 3.5 hours away from Milan by car, at least Florence is. The period turned out to be ideal - definitely still out of season but we were lucky to have some beautiful weather and we could see the first signs of spring (which I was incredibly happy about - this winter has been more like the winters in Hungary and not at all what I expected of winter in Italy (very grey and depressing although not as cold....)).

Our first stop was in the town of San Gimignano not far from Siena. As you might remember I visited there about a year ago after a failed attempt to get there 18 years ago. What's special about it are its towers. Today, there are 14 of them left (originally there were 72). The town was initially Etruscan and named after the Bishop of Modena who is said to have saved the town from Attila the Hun (speaking of Hungary...). In the picture on the left you can see a few of these towers (and me). By the way, all the pictures in this post were taken by Israel. and another thought - I'm thinking of adding on the side of the blog a list of books/DVDs which I like and have to do with Italy - a good movie in which one can catch some beautiful glimpses of this lovely town is "Tea with Mussolini" with Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Lily Tomlin and Cher.

While strolling around the central piazza in San Gimignano we came across the Tourist Information office and I took a list of the agriturismo places in the area. Agriturismo means farms or houses in the country which have turned part or all of the place into a kind of hotel/inn/apartments for rent for those preferring the countryside instead of hotel rooms in towns or cities. They usually also produce something - wine/olive oil/honey/cheese or things like that. We thought it would be nice to stay in a place like that. The whole of Tuscany is full of these kinds of places. The prices are usually good and the places we were in were all clean. However, as we discovered, most are closed until the beginning of April and some don't open until Easter. We used the help of the tourism offices to find places that were already open. In fact, in the three places we stayed in - we were the only guests. The first night we stayed on a farm producing wine and olive oil called Cesani. We stayed in the blue room (it's got rooms named by their colors). Nice and with a good breakfast.

From San Gimignano we went on to Pienza and met up with some good friends - Liora, Petra and Renato. Pienza's historical center is a world heritage site and rightly so. It's small but beautiful. and they make some very good cheeses (pecorino di Pienza) and wines over there. From there we went on to visit Montalcino. We stayed in an agriturismo apartment - Banfi - between these two places which was very very basic. Nothing to write home about - although the place was clean.

Below you can see pictures of these small places with some older people in them. I noticed that in Tuscany you see many more older people than one sees in Milan, which I liked.

The next day we set out further south. The day before Israel asked Renato about the mountain we could see close by. Renato said this is Monte Amiata . Since Israel likes mountains he said - let's drive up and see what's there. So we did. As we drove up it got colder and suddenly everything was covered with snow. We discovered that there's a ski resort up there with people still skiing in March! How strange - one minute you're in a Mediterranean climate - the next, you're in Switzerland... You can see the snow in the picture on the left (I swear it was taken during this trip and not planted here from another trip....).

And then we were driving again down and up and twisting around, through practically empty (I think in all we saw about 10 cars the whole way) but pretty country roads to arrive just in time for lunch in the tiny village of Sovana (in many smaller places lunch is served until about 14:30 in the afternoon - after that the kitchens close....). Sovana and Pitigliano which we visited next were originally Etruscan, then taken over by the Romans and later fought over by the families ruling in Tuscany (Orsini, Medici and others). They were also important religious centers. Truly lovely (I'm using a lot of adjectives of this nature in this post but these places we visited merit these adjectives - go and see for yourselves...).


Pitigliano is perched on a volcanic mountain - emerging right out of it. What is especially interesting about the place is that there was a thriving Jewish community there since the 15th century up to the end of the 2nd World War. Pitigliano is located on the border of Tuscany and for many years Jews escaping the Papal State in Rome went there. The place became known as Little Jerusalem. There were ups and downs over the centuries but in all the Jewish community was able to survive and grow. After the unification of Italy the Jewish community in Pitigliano became gradually smaller. After the 2nd World War nothing was left of the community. Today there are three Jews living there, but there is a beautiful museum commemorating the Jewish community, including a synagogue which was reconstructed in the '90. The place is cared for by the Jewish community in Livorno.

In Pitigliano (actually not far from it) we stayed in a lovely house which has been reconstructed from what was probably at the time a farm house. As Israel said, if we'd fallen on this place the first day, we would have stayed there the entire time. It's called Locanda Ilune and is lovely. There are big windows looking out on a big oak tree in the garden. The breakfast and the atmosphere in general are everything one might expect from a house in the country and more. Highly recommended.

The next day was the last day of the trip and we were starting on the long trip back to Milan. We thought to go and visit Siena but the lady at the house said - you should go and see Orvieto and the Lake of Bolsena so we did. On the left you can see a picture taken from the town of Bolsena looking towards the lake. The lake is a somewhat smaller than the Kinneret.



From there we went on to the Orvieto - which like Pitigliano was also built on a volcanic mountain and from afar looks a bit like Pitigliano - growing out of the mountain. It was nice to visit there - not only for the town itself but also because I'd just finished reading a good book written by Marlena De Blasi: The Lady in the Palazzo - an Umbrian Love Story which takes place in Orvieto. De Blasi and her husband rent a palazzo over there and she tells about her adventures there, as an expat trying to cope with everything happening around her. Very authentic and real (at least as far as I can compare her experiences with mine).

After visiting Orvieto we got on the highway, stopped briefly for lunch in Florence - good steak at a restaurant called Za Za and from there back to Milan.

This post is rather long. I hope you lasted and enjoyed the read. I've tried to share with you some of the lovely places we visited. I'm going to leave you with some pictures of laundry hanging from the windows in these pretty places, somehow, even the laundry looks nice in Tuscany....



and a riddle to end the post - what's this?