Tuscany, IT

We spent five nights at La Spiga d’Oro, one of many “agroturismo” farms scattered across Tuscany which host guests in a self-catering style accomodation. Our welcome was authentically Italian. Our host was not in, so we first me his parents, an elderly couple straight out of a cariacature about old-world Tuscan country living, who welcomed us like lost children in an enthusiastic deluge of incomprehensible Italian. “Mama” gave us a tour of our two bedroom suite, pointing out various points of interest as we furiously flipped through our phrasebooks trying to pick out key words. We got most of the message, until her concluding remarks, which we had her write down. As it turned out, we were invited to dinner (which we missed, due to the lag between the message and its later translation).

We were preparing our own dinner when our host, Giancarlo, arrived. He gave us the english version of the tour, translated Mama’s message, and explained about the farm. We had a bottle of their wine, and a jug of their olive oil, compliments of the house. Dad grilled him on his farming practices, and they got into some heavy discussion on the production of oil and wine.

Our time in Tuscany can be characterized mostly by two activities. Exploring the old hill towns dotted about the area, and getting lost on the winding, unmarked roads, both in the country and in various towns. The largest town in our vicinity was Arezzo. A regional capital, in the same vein as Siena and Florence, none of us had heard of it before this visit.

We stopped by town on our first full day, just to stop in at the Tourist Information Center to pick up a region map. Finding the TIC was more work than we expected, and we walked all over town before finally finding one right up at the highest piazza, opposite the main cathedral. We got some good information there, and spent a little longer browsing the shops, and checking out the large park. The map we picked up showed many small towns, as well as interesting stops between towns.

One of those was the Monteccio castle, lying between Arezzo and Cortona. We were going to Cortona anyway, since Mom had a note to check a certain restaurant there, so we stopped by Monteccio to see what it was all about. From the road it looked very impressive. Crowning a hill, rising above the village below, it looked every bit the part of ancient castle. Up close it was less impressive, since it’s basically just a relic, and not used for anything. A perfectly good castle, just sitting up on that hill. Not so much as a signboard to tell you who built it or what it was for. Just a dirt road leading up to a closed door, and barbed wire around the top of the wall.

Cortona was a very nice town, with a spectacular view out over the valley, and all the dark alleys, stone walkways, and private gardens you could want from an ancient medieval town.

Rick Steve’s, in his guidebook, which the folks had brought along, notes it as the “classic Tuscan hill town”. We had dinner at Ristorante La Bucaccia, selected by Mom from the guidebook, and noted for its preparation of Chianina beef – a variety of cow indigenous to the region, and bred for the size and quality of its meat. It wasn’t a cheap dinner, but one steak fed all four of us, and we spent a couple of hours enjoying the food and wine and atmosphere.

We had to visit Florence, both because of mom’s namesake, and its reputation for shopping, art, and history. We took the train from Arezzo, and had a nice (though sleepy) ride in. Fortunately the train station is quite close to the center of town, and we had a fairly easy time doing a walking tour. In the markets dad had a close call with a very nice leather jacket, and despite the persuasive cajouling of the salesman, walked away with wallet unopened. We very much wanted to see the statue of David, though were, as a group, too impatient and cheap to either pay entrance fees or wait in line to see the real thing at Galleria dell’Accademia, preferring instead to find the identical “fake David” which is on display for free elsewhere in town.

We walked by the Galleria, and knew that we had made the right decision when we saw the line, half a block long, sweating it out in the sun. Our tour took us by Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, best known as Duomo di Firenze, which certainly did not fail to impress. The scale, and level of detail, were absolutely impressive.

After marvelling at the Duomo for a short while we circled around to Palazzo della Signoria, where David stood at the door, among other statues. It’s a very nice statue, but I lack the artistic education to understand why so much is made of it, instead of other statues, say, his neighbour – a heavily muscled and bearded gentleman pausing in a moment of reflection just prior to smashing another fellow’s head in with a huge hammer.

Our walk also took us to Ponte Vecchio, lined with jewellery shops, and made famous by lovers engraving locks with their initials and locking them to the rails. Apparently you’re not allowed to do that anymore, since the rail was lock-free and a sign warned of a 160€ penalty for such romances.

At the end of the bridge we stopped for a gelato, and while at the counter witnessed a brawl between one of the aproned staff and a somewhat elderly customer. That sounds like a great story, but it was mostly just confusing. We hussled back to the train station in order to catch the train which would get us home before our parking would expire, and arrived just a few minutes prior to departure. Arriving late to a leaving train means that all the seats that will be taken have been taken, and in this case that meant ALL of them. And then some. We joined the standing travellers, and took seats as they were vacated along the line.

Lucignano, to the west of our home in Foiano della Chiana, is another of the nice little Tuscan hill towns we visited, this time after a very late start. We had kept up a pretty stiff pace, and after rising characteristically early, Dad took a remarkably uncharacteristic 3-hour nap after breakfast. Mom recommended not waking him, I suspect looking forward to a chance to relax by the pool, which is just what we did.

Eventually we did arrive at Lucicgnano, and had a nice private look around. This town seems not to be on the tourist circuit, and was almost completely empty. We stopped by a tour guide office to see if they could recommend any wineries in the area that we might drop by for a free tour, and the very helpful gentleman there made some calls on our behalf. He gave us some directions, mostly based on the local geography (“at the bottom of the valley drive towards the ancient dome”), and after some circling we found Fattoria Santa Vittoria.

There we were given a fantastic tour by Claudio, our guide, and saw some things that I haven’t seen in many wine tours before. As we began, a harvesting machine full of grapes (for the co-op, not for their own house wine – those are picked by hand) rolled in and unloaded into a waiting tractor container. Claudio took us all around the buildings, showing us the equipment they currently use, as well as some of the older pieces, no longer in use. Three massive barrels are still in the cellar, both because they are beautiful, and also because they can’t be removed whole – they were built on the spot, and no door is big enough to get them out. We tasted about half a dozen samples of their product, and made a few purchases.

Our final full day we spent exploring the region south of Foiano della Chiana, intending to locate the Chianini beef farm reputed to be in this area. We had a bit of information, which led us to a closed butcher shop instead of a farm, then in Bettolle asked at another butcher, who marked on our map a likely location.

We circled around his mark for some time without success, and pulled into a hidden dirt road to make a pitstop. Seeing that the dirt road went underneath a bridge, we decided to explore it, and drove right up to a farm concealed behind a wall of round hay bales. Hidden in plain sight. We spent some time checking out the livestock, and cruising around the large estate (also run as an “agroturismo”). We pushed on to Montepulchiano, a place known, apparently, for high class wineries. We walked around town, and found it to be another very nice hill town along the same formula as Cortona, but with even more impressive views. After walking to the top of town we found a nice terrace restaurant with views into the valley and stopped there for a small lunch.

We spent a little more time shopping during the descent to the car, then drove back to our home, via Valdichiana Outlet Village, where Mom wanted to see what deals could be had. Turns out the best deals were in mens shoes, in my size… how about that.

We returned home and prepared our last meal in Tuscany – pesto ricotta ravioli, foccacia bread, and bococcini salad. We had prepared most of our dinners at home in our kitchen, so this was a nice way to finish.

During our packing I had a private farewell with my old Vans shoes, which had served me well, but will now be replaced with a fancy new pair of Sketchers. In the morning we shared a heartfelt farewell with Mama and our hosts. We had a fantastic time staying with them, and it very much felt like being part of a real Italian family. We’ll now be off to Rome, for some “big city” Italy, and a few of the worlds most famous sites!