Shortly before Tom moved back to the States and a couple weeks before our wedding anniversary, Tom and I flew to Florence, Italy to do a six day trip through the hill towns of Tuscany in early October. We had originally planned to do the trip over our anniversary, which is October 25, but had to reschedule after Tom got his job offer. Tom is not a fan of large cities so we opted to skip Florence and spend our time exploring the countryside.
I am a big fan of
Frances Mayes, having read almost all of her non-fiction work -
Under the Tuscan Sun,
Bella Tuscany,
Bringing Tuscany Home,
In Tuscany, A Year in the World and
Every Day in Tuscany. I have wanted to visit Tuscany for many years and it was an absolute must-do trip while living in Europe.
I can't speak for Tom but for me it was a perfect vacation. The weather was incredible the entire time we were there. It was relaxing and fun. We ate good food, drank wine, explored beautiful towns, bought treasures and enjoyed being together.
Planning the trip, I booked flights that would maximize our time in Tuscany. We left Stuttgart at 5:50 a.m. on October 6, arriving in Florence at 8:45 a.m. This gave us an entire day to start our exploring. For the return trip we didn't depart Florence until 7:15 p.m. on October 11. This got us home close to 11:30 p.m., but again, gave us basically an entire day to continue our vacation.
My co-worker Danielle had been to Tuscany earlier in the year and gave me a great list of recommendations for the trip.
For lodging I wanted to do
Agriturismo (agricultural tourism), which began in Italy in the 1980s. It is a way for small farmers, who continue to make their living from agriculture (olive oil, wine, cheese, livestock, etc.), to make additional money by renting rooms, apartments or houses to travelers. Giving the tourists a chance to live a bit like one of the locals. By staying at an
agriturismi, we could use that as our base and then make day trips from there. This made for a very nice and easy pace for the vacation.
Danielle gave us a great recommendation on an
agriturismi that she stayed at outside of Montepulciano. It's in a great location, very comfortable and reasonably priced. Fortunately they had space available and so we stayed in one of the apartments at
Il Sasso. We had a bedroom, bathroom, sitting area with a couch and dining room table, kitchenette, and a little covered patio.
Our rental car for the trip was a Fiat Panda that we named Luigi. Our bags barely fit in the back and its tires would squeal when you drove around curves, at very low speeds mind you. But we enjoyed lil' Luigi and found ourselves making him part of the trip.
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| Here's our lil' Luigi |
It took us a little while to find Il Sasso. Our GPS didn't recognize the address. I think we eventually had to use Tom's iPhone to find the place. Since we had arrived so early though we weren't able to check in so we explored Montepulciano in the afternoon.
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| Il Sasso |
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| Relaxing by the pool...a bit cool for a swim though |
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| A very welcomed house guest - we love our kitty cats |
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| Olive tree at Il Sasso |
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| Vineyards at Il Sasso - we got a bottle of the house wine our first night |
In Montepulciano we had a nice lunch and our first Italian wine of the trip. We walked through the town's beautiful streets and explored some of the sites. We discovered as we traveled from town to town that you can often see the other hill towns in the distance. I'm sure the locals can tell the towns apart just by a church or bell tower.
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| Montepulciano |
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| Getting our trip started the right way |
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| Palazzo Comunale |
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| Unfinished facade of the Duomo - cathedral |
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| Inside the Duomo |
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| La Madonna del Pilastro |
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| We stopped here at Talosa for a wine tasting and explored their caves. |
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| Outside of Montepulciano - we bought fresh Pecorino cheese here |
On Friday we drove to Pienza and Montalcino. Pienza was conceived by Pope Pius II and screams Renaissance. Montalcino is famous for its Brunello red wine. During the Middle Ages, Montalcino was considered Siena's biggest ally.
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| Pienza |
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| Frescoes |
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| Of course large slabs of meat would catch Tom's attention |
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| Had to check on the looms in a textile store |
Being in Tuscany at the end of the harvest season turned out to be very beautiful. The fields had been deeply tilled in fat rows. The soil looks like it's got a lot of clay in it and the color is very muted, which makes everything around it jump out even more.
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| Tuscany countryside |
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| Tilled fields make houses feel more isolated |
In Montalcino we did some shopping and found ourselves wishing we'd driven down from Germany instead of flying. We would have just filled the car up with good wine!
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| Montalcino |
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| A wine co-op - we shipped wine to Arizona from here |
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| Bought some beautiful handmade, hand painted pottery by a local artistd |
On our third day, we explored three smaller Tuscan towns - Chiuse, Cetona and Sarteano. In Chiuse we visited the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, seeing one of the world's most important Etruscan collections. We also went to the Museo Civico, which included a tour of about 140 meters of subterranean galleries where Etruscan funerary tombstones and urns are exhibited.
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| The Archaeological Museum |
Cetona was a cute little town and we enjoyed walking around but we arrived during siesta so there wasn't much open and we had missed the market. We drove on to Sarteano and had a chance to tour the city's fortress.
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| Castello di Sarteano |
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| K-I-S-S-I-N-G under a giant mistletoe we found in Sarteano |
The next day we decided to drive to Siena. Siena was medieval Florence's archrival. Everything that you probably want to see in Siena is close to the square and no more than a 15 minute walk.
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| Siena |
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| Torre del Mangia - the City Tower |
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| Il Campo: Siena's Main Square |
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| Duomo - dates back to 1215 |
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| Enjoying the best gelato of the trip |
On two separate days we drove through parts of the Chianti region. Tom is a huge Chianti fan. When we were on our way to Siena we found
Castell'in Villa, which was listed in one of the guidebooks that Danielle lent me. Castell'in Villa was created by Princess Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa, who originally came from Athens. She and her husband first discovered the hills in 1967. The vineyard stretches over 300 hectares in the Chianti hills.
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| Getting a private tasting and introduction to the wines |
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| We found La Croce by following a sign off the side of the road |
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| We bought some wine and olive oil here. |
One full day was dedicated to Cortona, which was about an hour or so away from our
agriturismi. We sure did get our workout walking around the VERY steep streets of Cortona but it was wonderful. We spent about the last 30 minutes of our time there trying to find Frances Mayes' house. I was being a bit stubborn about asking for directions. I wanted to find it on my own and didn't want to be one of THOSE tourists trying to find the famous author's house. Tom was great though...not letting me give up when I was getting frustrated by the directions in my tour guide. His iPhone once again saved the day and we found some directions someone else had posted on how to find the house. We found the house! I'm really glad I got to see it after all the books I've read about Bramasole
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| Cortona |
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| We paused for coffee at a cafe under those arches |
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| Tom's lunch...YUM! |
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| Bramasole - a house with a soul |
On our last day in Tuscany, we ventured to one more hill town - Volterra. Volterra probably was one of my favorites and I wish we'd had more time to explore. If we make it back to Tuscany I am definitely going to spend a bit more time in this beautiful town.
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| Not crowded at all - Love it! |
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| So many great streets - fun just walking around |
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| Check out the room at the top of the arch. |
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| Roman Theater - built in 10 BC |
Thanks for hanging in there with me and this very long blog. I figured I'd better get on the ball and blog about this trip so that I can put away all my Tuscany reading material AND return the last of Danielle's books. She's been so gracious in letting me keeping them as long as I have.
Our last stop before flying home was vising the
Florence American Cemetery and Memorial. I'm going to do a separate blog with photos from that visit. I should be able to get that posted by Monday.
Cetona was a cute little town and we enjoyed walking around but we arrived during siesta so there wasn't much open and we had missed the market. We drove on to Sarteano and had a chance to tour the city's fortress. 
On our last day in Tuscany, we ventured to one more hill town - Volterra. Volterra probably was one of my favorites and I wish we'd had more time to explore. If we make it back to Tuscany I am definitely going to spend a bit more time in this beautiful town. 
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