Ciao David

Our landlady and her husband stopped by last night, and we told them our plan today was to drive to Florence and park the car outside of town.  They suggested we take the train from Montevarchi to Florence instead.  They said the train ran often, and the station was right in the center of Florence, making it easy to get to the major attractions.

We made a reservation to see Michelangelo's David, at the Accademia, at 11:45.  We drove into Montevarchi at about 9:30, and found no parking near the train station.  And in air traffic terms, we weren't the only ones "stacked and circling".  Every conceivable spot, official or not, had a tiny car wedged into it.  After driving around for several minutes we found a spot on the street, but it was about 1/2 mile away.

When we got to the station, we discovered that the next train wasn't leaving until 11:15.  Our landlady's husband didn't mention that the frequent trains ran only during rush hour.  We waited around for 90 minutes, having a drink at the little cafe near the station, plus using the W.C., of course.    The bathrooms at the train stations always cost money, and often had the additional attraction of spraying disinfectant all over the room after the paying occupant leaves.  I've been in the vicinity when someone else sneaks in on the heels of the departing patron, without paying, only to have the spray feature activate while they're inside.  Lesson learned.

We arrived in Florence about 12:30 and headed out to find the Accademia.  By the time we arrived, with a little confusion, as per usual, it was about 1:15.  I asked the guard at the door about the likelihood of getting in so late, and he said, no problem!  Amazing!  Can you imagine this attitude in the U.S.?  The ticket booth was across the street, and there too, our lateness was not an issue.

We bypassed the long line and got in.  Accademia is a nice little museum, with lots of other sculptures in addition to the statue of David.  Why on earth photography isn't allowed is a mystery.  I don't think the statues are affected by flashes of light, like the paintings might be.

Michelangelo's statue of David, courtesy of Wikipedia

The statue dates from 1501, when Michelangelo was only 26 years old.  It stood outside, at the entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, for over 300 years.  In the late 1800's it was moved indoors.  The museum also houses Michelangelo's Prisoners, St. Matthew, and a Pieta.

We found a cafe for lunch, and sat for a bit.  Although this should re-energize us, some of us would like a nap after a glass of wine in the middle of the day.  After all, that's what the Italians would do!

Next stop was the Duomo.  The fascinating thing about this church is that it was built with a big hole in its roof, awaiting the development of the technology to erect the dome.  The designers and builders were confident that someone would eventually rise to the challenge, and sure enough, Brunelleschi did.   Construction on the church began in 1296, and the dome was completed in 1436.

Florence's Duomo

The exterior of the actual dome

The interior of Brunelleschi's dome

On the way back to the station Becky and I decided to stop in and see the Church of Santa Maria Novella.  It was beautiful too.

Inside the 13th century Church of Santa Maria Novella

So many altars

More gold than you can shake a stick at

The sacristy - designed and built between the 16th and 17th centuries

Crucifix by Giotto

We hopped the train out to Montevarchi, and the guys ventured out to find the cars.  It took a while to navigate the one-way streets of town to get back to the station and pick us up.   There was a Coop grocery store right next to the station, so we picked up a few things for dinner, and were on our way back to the house.

We had a simple pasta dinner, and tried to use up any leftovers.  Tomorrow we leave beautiful Tuscany.

Emmett and Marco arranging the display

Display of our sampling of local specialties for the week

We'll probably get a "thank you" note from the vintners and brewers association of greater Tuscany.

Siena, and chefs come to our house

Another beautiful day and our plan is to see Siena.  It's not too far from the house - maybe a 45-minute drive.

We parked at the train station, since it's not possible to drive in the old part of town.  We thought we'd catch a bus up to the top of the hill - where the old walled city is located.  Instead, we took a series of escalators up.  I think there were 9 of them, and some pretty steep, but it was a great way to get to the top without waiting for the next bus.  And it's free!

Our first stop was the weekly market, where everything from undies to kitchen utensils to fresh flowers and food, and even ready-to-eat foods are for sale.

One of the meat and cheese vendors at the Siena market

Fresh produce at the market

Flowers at the market

The market closes at 1:00, so we spent an hour or so perusing the hundreds of booths.  

I could post a picture of Rick, every single day, standing next to his favorite Italian vehicle, the Ape (ah-pay), a three-wheeled truck that we've seen everywhere.  He's sure we need one on Camano Island, and I think it would be fun too!

  Although Rick loves this little truck, John, a contractor, looks a little skeptical.  How many trips to the dump, during demolition, would this take? 

While we were shopping, we happened to see a Wind (cellphone company) store nearby, and we'd been wanting to buy a SIM card, to use in one of our unlocked phones,  so we would have a working phone for local calls.  We bought a card, and some minutes. The clerk told us it would all be loaded and working in about an hour.  We should have stayed to watch him load everything, but in our rush we didn't.  It seems the clerk may have pocketed most of our money, leaving us with about 5 minutes of call time, instead of the few hours we paid for.  Too bad, but I have to say, this is the only time we were taken advantage of on the whole trip.

After the market, we headed over to Il Campo, the main square in town.  It's a beautiful square surrounded by restaurants and shops.  Every year they host the famous Palio horse race there.  The town is divided into different Contrada, or neighborhoods, and 10 of the 17 are represented in the race each year.  It's a matter of great pride in town, and the different contrada have flags, unique street lamps and colors to represent their group.

What to do, what to do?

Why not just sit down and enjoy it like everyone else?

We had a great lunch, at Caffe Nannini, at the best table on the square.  I thought maybe you'd be tired of seeing another picture of us at a restaurant, so here's one of the view we had from the table.

Restaurant on Il Campo in Siena

The view from our table

After lunch we were off to see the Duomo.  It's very grand and beautiful.

Siena's Duomo, dating back to 1215

Inside, the church is chock-full of paintings, sculpture, stained glass and inlaid-marble floors.

Ceiling of the Piccolomini library

After seeing the Duomo, we headed back through town to the escalators that would take us back down to the parking garage near the train station.  The parking garage is also connected to the Pam grocery store and a mall of other shops.  We picked up a few things at Pam and went down to get the cars.  A local gentleman also checking out at the pay parking machine told us we should have gotten a token at the Pam store, and our parking would be free.  We were too tired to go back up to the store, but parking was only 1 euro and 60 cents for each car for the 4 or 5 hours we'd been here anyway.  What a deal!

Back at the house the guys built a fire in the living room fireplace.  We had hired a chef to come in and cook us a dinner.  This is one of the things RentVillas, the agency where we rented the house, recommends. It was a real treat.  Two ladies, sisters as it turned out, came about 6:30 and started preparing our dinner.  They work with a company called the Malgeri Group, which also offers cooking classes in the area.  The food was wonderful, and we didn't have to lift a finger.  They not only prepared and served everything, but did the dishes too.  The cost was 60 euros per person, which is pretty expensive, but we all enjoyed it thoroughly.

A fire in the fireplace, and Diana Krall on the Ipad, set the tone for our fancy dinner

OK, so maybe I'll try to limit our "at the table" photos to 1 per day.  This is our chef-prepared dinner at the house.

You can't see this very well in the picture, but Marco is all duded out in his sports jacket, making the other guys look like shmucks.  We've been trying to talk them all into wearing scarves, like the Italian men do. That would have helped at our special dinner.

Our second course of chicken breast, with a light gravy-like sauce and drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Homemade tiramisu for dessert.

We had nice wine served throughout the meal.  One of our favorite antipastis was peccorino and gorgonzola cheeses served with fig jam or honey.  There were 4 or 5 other things served with this course too.  They also made a wonderful creamy risotto with white truffles and cucumbers.  There was also a pasta course.  Homemade tiramisu and then limoncello were served to finish the meal.

We were stuffed, and promised we'd try to fix some of this great meal at home.  Come si dice in Italiano? (How do you say in Italian) - I would like to have dinner at YOUR house?  

Wine-ing in Montepulciano

Breakfast at the house has been fairly substantial.  Yogurt, yes, if you want it, but also eggs, sausage, potatoes, polenta, juice, coffee, tea, toast.  And biscotti, of course.  You'd think we were all going out to work in the fields.

Wheels were up at about 10:00.  Our plan is to have a shorter day so we can get home to get the coals going and cook some great-looking steaks we bought at the Coop for dinner.

Italian butcher cutting our steaks.  (Tourists take pictures of everything!)

A little driving lesson is in order.  It seems, in Italy, as though cars just pull over, partly blocking the road in front of a store, and put their flashers on.  You'd think there was some emergency.  We think the emergency is really a coffee, cigarettes or a lottery ticket.  I don't know.  Maybe we could learn something from them.

And also, we began to notice a few women by the side of the road, in a wooded area outside of our little village, who seemed to be trying to attract some customers.  They had plastic patio chairs, but always seemed to be standing up when we drove by.  Very sad, but also intriguing.  We're not sure who stops for them.  We saw them every time we left town, and also when we returned each day.

The drive to Montepulciano took us through some pretty scenery, and the weather was great.  We got into town at around 11 and wandered up the street to the main square.

Marco and Catherina find the secret passageway into Montepulciano

One of our favorite experiences in past years has been to visit Contucci Cantine to taste their wine.  Rick Steves writes about the charming and charismatic Adamo who has been making wine there since 1953.  Adamo is semi-retired now, so we didn't get to see him, but the younger folks in the tasting room were very charming and friendly.  We enjoyed the wine - Vino Nobile de Montepulciano - and bought a few bottles to take back to the villa.

The group outside of Contucci Cantine

The wine cellars here were very fun too.  Oak barrels as tall as giants, in cellars that have been in use since the 1500's.

Marco and Catherina look like Lilliputians next to the wine barrels.

We went on to visit the cellars of Cantine del Redi.  Their cellars were ancient, and even included some Etruscan caves.  Hundreds of oak barrels lined the cellars.   We enjoyed their wine too, and bought a few bottles to take back to the house.

In front of the well in the Etruscan part of the caves at Cantine del Redi.

We were told that scenes from the Twilight movie were actually filmed in the caves here at Cantine del Redi.

We had a nice lunch on the square, and a few of the more adventurous in the group climbed to the top of the tower.  The view was wonderful.  The rest of us would just have to see it in the photos.

The walk back to the cars was easier.  Downhill all the way.

We got back to the house, and all 4 of the guys got busy lighting the coals for the barbeque.  It's always tricky on a strange grill, and it seemed like it took hours before it was ready for the meat.

Giovanni (John) prepping the steaks for the barbeque

Dinner was excellent.  We had nice wine that we'd purchased at the tasting rooms, instead of our usual, amazingly inexpensive stuff from the grocery store.  Not that anyone is complaining about the cheap wine and beer.

It was another great day in Tuscany.

Settling in and our first excursion

Our house in Tuscany, surrounded by olive trees and grape vines

No "wheels up" today.  I forgot we needed a day to get situated.  We stayed at the house to do some laundry, and get settled.  The Coop supermercato closes at 12:30 on Sundays, so we needed to get our shopping list made and head out.

It's great that we have a washing machine at the house, but it takes an hour-and-a-half to do a load, and then there isn't a dryer, so clothes take many hours to dry on the drying rack.  It's an all-day process for the 8 of us.

The grape vines and supports work well for laundry too

There are always at least 4 of us going shopping.  Good thing, because we have about a ton of food and beverages by the time we're done.  Amazingly, the money we spend on all of this is about the equivalent of one lunch for the group at a restaurant.

We were exhausted by our few days in Rome, and our attempt to see as much as we could in those few days, so a laid-back day at the house was enjoyed by all.

Dinner was much like last night.  Chef Ricardo, prep staff, clean-up crew.  We had turkey cutlets, potatoes, salad, and chocolate and cake for dessert.

Our kitchen, our favorite beverage, our dessert!

Today is Monday, and our first excursion in Tuscany.  We decided on Volterra, since it looked like that was the longest drive, and since we'd had a day to rest up for it.  The drive, which should have taken an hour or so, actually took almost 2 hours by the time we were parked.  We did get lost on the way, but only once!

We were ready for lunch by the time we got to Volterra.  "Wheels up at 9:00"  actually turned out to be departure at 9:30.  We ate at a place recommended by David Wagner, of Italia Roadrunners, called Il Sacco Fiorentino, which was very good.  Nice house wine.  Italian beer is turning out to be a favorite with some of the group too.

Volterra's main square, with the city hall building from the 1200's

On the edge of town are the ruins of a Roman theater, which are pretty fascinating.  They fell out of use hundreds of years ago, and people started tossing their garbage over the wall, into the theater.  After 800 years of this, the stage, the amphitheater, and all of the outbuildings were completely buried under the garbage.  In the 1950's an archaeology buff, working at the local school, started investigating where the theater would have been, and excavation began.  It's a very interesting place.

Roman ruins over the city wall in Volterra

The stage of the Roman theater

The shopkeepers and people working at the churches and museums take a few hours for lunch each day, at least in the small towns.  Of course, we Americani want to hit the ground running after lunch.  It's disappointing when the cathedral isn't open, or the cute shops aren't open.  There were several small churches and chapels in town that were open though, and they were beautiful.  We didn't feel like we'd missed much.  The few shops that were open sold a few things to our group.  Oh, and Volterra is known for alabaster, so there are many opportunities to purchase things carved from it around town.  We all bought something to remember our visit.

Volterra has also become famous as the setting for one of the Twilight movies.  We didn't see any vampires, but we know they were there somewhere.

On the way back, we stopped in Monteriggioni, a small walled hill town that was fun to see.  They had some ramparts built along part of the town walls, so we paid to climb up and see the view.

Marco on the ramparts

Our trip home was uneventful, but we needed to stop at the Coop again for provisions.  All eight of us invaded the little store.  I wonder whether they'll be happy or sad when they realize we're gone at the end of the week.

Dinner was leftover chicken, with some additional chicken, potatoes, salad.  Good, cheap wine.  John picked out some profiteroles at the Coop for dessert.