Final Days

Nathan and I had the goal of restocking our cantina (wine cellar) with wine and oil while in Tuscany. Since we'd noticed a number of "Vendita Diretta" (direct sales) signs on the Radda to Castelnuovo Berardenga route, we took a day to retrace the steps, with stops including Poggiobrandani (a winery that has been owned by the Brandani family for eight CENTURIES - that is not a typo!) and the Barone Ricasoli winery (owned by the Ricasoli family for nine centuries - yowsa!). Baron Ricasoli actually came up with the original formula for chianti classico wine in the 1800s. Barone Ricasoli is the world's oldest, running winery still in original family hands, so what a treat to visit. Our winery day was a lot of time in the car, more than we'd expected, but we definitely added to our stock. No olive oil purchased, but our final stop was at a winery with the best balsamic vinegar I've ever tasted. At the time, I coughed up my taste at mention of the 40euro per bottle price tag, but now, I have to admit to regretting that we took a pass. I have dreams about that balsamic vinegar.

Castello di Meleto - a winery we visited with a swanky tasting room

A visit to Monteriggioni made the lists of both Aunt Lisa and me, so after our wine tasting extravaganza, we headed over to this walled town to take a gander at their towers still standing. I was looking forward to comparing this town of 14 towers to San Gimignano, with it's 17. Dante speaks of Monteriggioni (in Inferno), and, for those more up to date with modern culture, I've recently learned that Monteriggioni is a town featured in a video game called Assassin's Creed. I do not know anything more about this video game, mainly because the last video game I played was on an Atari - the first model. Monteriggioni is an easy town to visit, with parking outside the walls, a nifty money-making set up wherein visitors pay too much to walk on a pathway that parallels the top of the walls to take some nice, pictures of the countryside, and a couple of cafes staffed with waiters tired of tourist season and ready for us all to go home. Still, there are several shops with more interesting wares than the usual tourist fare, and I got to sit and watch an older couple who live in town sit on their front stoop, the woman knitting and the man hailing his friends as they walked by. Monteriggioni was a quicker visit than expected, so we headed on to San Gimignano, where everyone in our group could make the comparison.

For me, San Gimignano wins, hands down. Monteriggioni is quaint, charming, and probably deathly quiet by 7:00 pm. San Gimignano is a town for the tourists nowadays. Everything seems to be geared toward the almighty tourist euro, but that doesn't detract from the power of wandering through the hilly town, tall towers coming into view with every curve. And the views (free) from the fortress wall at the edge of town are divine!

Nathan in thought

Our final day, we realized that we still hadn't spent any reasonable time in Siena - the closest, real city to our hamlet! We headed in that direction, first stopping at the Parco Sculture del Chianti. This place had been on my list all week, and little did we know, it was only a five minute drive from our rental apartment if we took the dirt road short cut. All wheel drive tires are awesome. The sculpture park was the brainchild of an art-loving couple who purchased their country home and proceeded to create an outdoor art park featuring the works of artists from all over the world. Some of it is neat, some weird, and some I just plain didn't "get," but I love their vision. Finishing the outdoor park, we headed across the street to the "gallery," which turned out to be the couple's home. Their home is an art lover's haven, with gorgeous and/or interesting work at every turn, all in a home filled with light pouring in from windows overlooking the countryside. I fell in love with a particular painting, which may become our "Italy" art piece...even though the artist is from South America.

Gorgeous Baptistry in Siena

Our final, Tuscan adventure took us into Siena, where Nathan's aunt and uncle explored the Duomo, and Nathan and I got gelato while walking around, enjoying Siena's atmosphere. Heading back to the Duomo to meet them, I realized that I'd never been into the Baptistry. Our timing was perfect since we saw them walk into the entrance as we walked across the piazza, so I popped in as well. The Siena Duomo's baptistry is a riot of frescoed ceiling work, black and white striped columns in marble, a bronze font, and inlaid marble floors with several designs, including a Celtic knot pattern that took me straight back to Ireland. I marveled anew at the sheer volume of priceless treasures that fill Italy's towns, from the smallest of villages to the largest of cities. We ended our day and our Tuscan trip with a final walk through Siena's Il Campo - one of the best ways to end a week in this beautiful, magical region that calls so loudly to authors, artists, movie-makers, historians, and travelers.

Tuscany Wrap-Up

 We spent our final, full day in Tuscany in Siena, that gorgeous, rolly city, with streets that curve and turn back upon themselves, a campo famous throughout the world and considered one of the best piazzas in Italy, and a zebra striped Duomo with the most vibrant frescoes around. After finally working things out with our landlady regarding the dog, we intended to leave Scully behind. He was having none of that. For the only time in his entire life, he went into hysterics when we left, complete with high-pitched, loud barking that just would not stop. And so, Scully went to Siena, too. Since I'd seen the Duomo and Museum just a couple of months ago, Scully and I set up camp on the church steps, him with the adoration of every passerby and me with my Kindle. I don't know how Nathan and Mom's visit to the Duomo and Museum went, but Scully and I had a fantastic morning. We moved along the steps with the sun, always staying in the shadow. I continually cleared cigarette butts from each new location - Crazy Dog got his moniker by many of his personality traits, one of which is his severe nicotine addiction. He attracted kids and adults throughout the morning, so I had near continuous conversation. In addition, after the first hour went by, a nearby deli owner took Scully under his wing and began bringing out pieces of baguette and bottles of water. After the second hour, we'd moved up to cheese. Sadly, this nice man gave all of the food directly to the dog. After Mom and Nathan joined me for a picnic lunch on the Duomo steps and they'd finished up their visits to the church, museum, baptistry, and the panoramic viewpoint overlooking the city (in the museum), Nathan took over Scully duty and headed to the Campo, where the two of them took a little nap.

Mom and I shopped - or tried to, but many of the shops were closed. The biggie for me, the Pratesi shoe outlet, was open, and with Mom's birthday gift help, I got my first pair of Italian leather boots. So gorgeous!!! After all shopping was finished, we met up back at the Campo, where Scully again proved his nickname is justified by flipping the back of my skirt up with his head. Now, all of Siena and her tourists know exactly what color my underwear was that day. Crazy dog.

Our day to return home was a long, but active day, per usual. We drove the Crete Senese, a road south of Siena that has the most gorgeous views of Tuscany I could have ever imagined! Sometimes, places don't look like the movies. Tuscany looks exactly like it does in the movies. Green and yellow hills, cypress trees dotting the sky, stone farmhouses placed so picturesquely that it seems a film producer had to be involved. Nathan and his uncle are biking through Tuscany this fall, so the drive gave us a great opportunity to scout out the region...except that Nathan kept saying, "This will have to be on our route," and said it so often that I think it all has to be on the planning route. There didn't seem to be a single place where I heard, "Well this is no good."

From the Crete Senese drive, we stopped in at Montalcino, first visiting a wine store outside of town which included a long visit with the friendly, knowledgeable owner (Francesca at Enoteca Fontepreci) and then a winery she recommended, Mozart Winery (aka Il Paradiso). Both were great stops for Nathan to get more information, tastes, and purchases of the local, hotshot wine, the Brunello. In Montalcino, we had a casual, delicious lunch at the wine cafe located in the town's old fort. This is the first cafe in a fort I've come across and what a great setting! A quick browse through town, all wine shop all the time, and then on to Montepulciano.

Montepulciano was another town I fell in love with, and not only because it's where Twilight's New Moon was filmed. The facade architecture of the cathedral was fascinating and unique, resembling a crumbling log cabin, yet made of stone. Montepulciano is all hills, and as Nathan commented on departure, it was uphill both ways to our car - I don't know how, but he's actually not wrong. We were anxious to get on the road to get home before it got too late, so Montepulciano only got a quick perusal from us, but it goes on our list of places to return for a longer look.

On the way to Tuscany

After nine months in Italy and about the same number of trips back and forth to Rome, we finally had the chance to take the little detour off the freeway to Subiaco Abbey. At least I thought it was a little detour. At the end of the day, it actually took about three hours, but it was three hours well worth it to see this amazing, 6th century monastery rising out of the cliff with an interior completely covered in frescoes. St. Benedict holed up in a cave here for a few years, founding the abbey, before moving down the mountains and founding the abbey at Montecassino (of WWII fame). We were headed up to Siena, only a four hour drive away, so we had some spare time for me to cross Subiaco off my list. Parking at the bottom of the hill, we walked up, up, up, then entered through a narrow, twisty staircase to a little piazza next to the abbey. The engineering of the building is fascinating as it's built on top of Benedict's cave and the walls seem to just grow out of the rock. Since we had Scully with us, we took turns going in. Mom and I visited first, and after passing the monk at the entrance, there were no other monks around, no arrows pointing the way, nothing. We visited the chapel next to the entrance, peered down a hall that seemed to be admin offices and rejoined Nathan to take over dog watch. Nathan disappeared for quite awhile, then came out with a confused look on his face, saying, "You know there's a whole lot more than that chapel, right? And was there ever! At the back of the chapel is a staircase down into Fresco Wonderland, complete with St. Benedict's cave, a tucked away staircase up to a small chapel, and more stairs down a Rose Garden and some exterior frescoes. In this land of frescoes, Subiaco is king. Sadly, no photos allowed - but I did take one of this warning, located outside the entrance door:

No Hussies Allowed

Continuing on to Siena and our hotel, we dropped off the dog at the hotel and headed into Siena for dinner. When I visited with my friend back in February, we'd lucked into this fabulous restaurant. Locals sitting next to us informed us that this restaurant was one of the two best in Siena...and gave us the name of the other one. We headed to this other one, Tre Cristi, for dinner, especially after reading rave reviews on Trip Advisor. It was very good, but none of us would classify it as our best meal. With one big "but"...absolutely the best grappa we've ever tasted. Grappa we've never even imagined existing. Grappa that tastes like butter. Grappa that we've now been completely unsuccessful in tracking down to pick up a few bottles ourselves, so if anyone knows where to buy 10 Year Reserve La Centenara by Aquileia, let me know! 

The best part of the evening was getting to the Campo right at dusk, that magic hour when the buildings glow.

Tuscan Pics

We spent the long weekend in Tuscany with my mom, staying at a farmhouse hotel outside of Siena. Using this as our base, we managed to visit five Tuscan towns and one monastery...and still fit in a lazy evening on the hotel terrace eating meats, cheeses, olives and fruit with prosecco and local wine. A Tuscan idyll indeed. My mom and I are preparing to drive up to Rome, so my time is limited to do a big write-up of our trip, but I wanted to post just a few pictures. These are all from our hotel, Fullino Nero, a beautiful, stone farmhouse. Our apartment had a full kitchen with dining table, living room with pull-out sofa bed and bathroom, plus a bedroom with 2nd bathroom. It worked perfectly for us except for our landlady's consternation with Scully.

Dogs are allowed, and I'd included him on our reservation as a pet. And yet...when we arrived, she informed us the dog would always need to go with us when we left the room so she could come in for the trash and towel switch-out. We'd booked a place in the country that allowed pets specifically so we could leave Scully in his crate to rest (broken foot, remember?).  We explained we had a crate, so there would be no problem with anyone coming in while he was there. She was confused. We set up the crate. She was confused. Then she said he might bark. We said he would not. Then she said the crate might scratch the tile floor. We said it would not. Lots of staring at one another in silence until Nathan finally put Scully's dog blanket underneath the crate. Then she said he might "pee-pee" on the floor (all of this discussion was in Italian). We said he would not. We finally seemed to reach an agreement, and we went off to dinner, but the dog seemed to be an issue the entire time we were there and it left us feeling on edge for the duration. Regardless, the hotel, room, and landscaping were just gorgeous, and it was a wonderful, Tuscan retreat.

View from our apartment window

Final Trip Photos

And here are the rest of the Siena photos that I wanted to share...

Siena's Main Square, Il Campo

Duomo interior - reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book

We spotted this through an open doorway on a quiet street - no idea of it's significance, but wouldn't you love to ride in this carriage!

Duomo exterior is so ornate and fun

Duomo exterior again - I loved how this lion seems to be looking right at me

We came across this...thing while attempting a shortcut to Siena's market; it's not listed in any of my guidebooks. There are two more arches just like this one, a pool of water in the covered area (filled with koi) and a tiny amphitheater. We liked the two decorative lions here having a little chit-chat.

Several times, we found ourselves on a road with a view towards this church. We never found out the name of it, but we always paused to enjoy the view.

Panoramic View of the Duomo and the rolling hills of Tuscany

Travels in Italia - Siena

Our final stop on the Italy tour was Siena, and what a finale! We had a rough start with a windy, bus ride through foggy Tuscany that left both of us feeling a little carsick. When we finally arrived in Siena, we set off for our hotel, this one being the only hotel for which we didn't have a good map of the city or clear directions. An interesting fact about Siena: it is hilly. Very, very hilly. At this point, I'd done almost all of my Christmas shopping and about half of my birthday shopping for the rest of the year, so traveling light was a distant memory. After a long slog up and down hills, backtracking about six times, and passing a breathtakingly beautiful Duomo, we reached our gorgeous hotel, Il Chiostro del Carmine, located in what was originally a 14th century Carmelite monastery. Entering into the courtyard of our hotel wiped away all the negatives from our Volterra hotel and exhausting walk to the hotel. Peaceful and beautiful...we were back on our hotel jackpot streak.

After a little rest, we hit the town, or at least Il Campo, Siena's main piazza. I'd visited Siena in 2003 and remembered only one thing about the entire city - Il Campo. It's a huge, sloping, circle, anchored at the bottom by the City Hall and it's huge tower (over 300 ft) on one side. I love Rick Steves' description of the Il Campo colors in his Florence & Tuscany 2011 guidebook: "The square and the buildings are the color of the soil upon which they stand...a color known to Crayola-users and other artists as 'Burnt Siena.'" The setting sun hits those colors and cause the piazza to turn a glowing pink, giving evidence to the reason artists flock to Tuscany. In need of a little refresher, we headed to Il Palio for cocktail hour and sat at the window staring out at this beautiful town square. We only left when a man sat down outside and caught us staring at his luscious, pink martini. Apparently, he mistook the lust in our eyes as aimed at him, so in order to avoid an awkward moment, we quickly paid our bill and headed off to dinner.

The next day, our only full day in Siena, we walked through the car-free old town to the weekly market, held on Wednesdays. A little note here - markets in Italy can cover a wide range of items. Generally, the solo word "market," means clothing and household items, possibly a section with produce and flowers. Markets a big deal here to American spouses - huge deal, actually. I've only been to one so far. I have no good reason or excuse for this. The one I visited here in Naples was interesting, but filled with an awful lot of junk. K thought the same about the Siena market, but I was wowed by it. I absolutely loved it. We found a vendor selling mill ends for thread/yarn on cones (K and I both knit) for only 2euros per cone, there were children's wool coats, lined in silk, for only 15 euros, and so much more. But, we were only in Siena for a day, and we had several more things to see.

We needed some lunch and picked a place we passed while walking on a quiet street near our hotel. Seated next to an Australian couple living in Siena, we got to talking with them. As it turns out, by sheer luck, we'd landed in one of Siena's best restaurants. We enjoyed our lunch so much that we immediately made a reservation for dinner as well - the final dinner of our trip.

Feeling much better with a good lunch in us, we headed to Siena's wedding cake, 13th century, Duomo. It is spectacular. Black and white striped columns line the nave, inlaid marble designs cover the floor, there's a Michelangelo sculpture, a Bernini chapel (my favorite sculptor, and unfortunately, the chapel was closed for restoration...which means I will definitely be back), a carved, marble pulpit that is so intricate I can't even believe human hands created it, and best of all, a side library with vibrant frescoes, painted in the 1400s and never restored, yet still as bright as if they'd been painted last year. The Michelangelo statue adorns an alter that was supposed to be for the tomb of a cardinal. That cardinal became a pope, so the tomb was never used. Michelangelo was supposed to carve several of the altar's statues, but the "David" project came up, so he left Siena having only completed one statue. Visiting the side library with the vibrant frescoes, we took note of the strong warning to keep the line moving - then entered to find a completely empty room. where we could stare and take photos to our hearts' content. I love off-season Italy!

Duomo interior is as beautiful as it's exterior

Michelangelo's statue of Paul

The Piccolomini Library's amazing frescoes tell the story of Pope Pius II, who was from Siena

Just a small section of the marble pulpit, with relief panels telling the story of Christ's life; It was carved by Pisano in the 1200s.

One of the many marble, mosaic floor panels - this one shows Siena in the center with other, lesser cities surrounding her

With the plan to climb the tower of City Hall, we headed over there and disappointingly found it had closed just after lunch. So back we trekked to the Duomo, where there is a museum with a rooftop, panoramic view. We just made it in before they closed and got to run up for a marvelous view over the town and countryside. This gave the added bonus of being able to view the exhibit containing the original, stained glass window of the Duomo up close, as the museum has it in a beautiful, well-lit display.

And so, our trip came to a close. I can't think of a better city in which to end. K preferred Florence to Siena, but I really fell in love with Siena. Even in the off season, the streets were crowded at dusk, time for the passagiatta (typical, Italian walk around town at dusk), so the town was active enough to not feel creepy yet small enough to have a quiet vibe. I cannot wait to return.