Ok, I'm ready to retire to Tuscany. As long as I can have my own villa on the top of a hill and have an American bathroom. Oh, and have a chef occasionally like Chef Laura and her assistant Other Laura. This place is beautiful. And so much cooler weather wise after the stifling heat of Rome. We took the 14:20 train from Rome to Florence, rented a car (Alfa Romeo baby!), and took off for the villa. One wrong turn in Florence and one more on a beautiful little dirt road and we were here. Our villa is called Azienda Agricoli I Leoni, roughly farmhouse at the lions or of the lions. There are two stone lions out front and Castiglione is nearby. It's a beautiful place on a hill overlooking valleys filled with olive trees and vineyards.
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| One of the views from the Leoni villa |
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| Azienda Agricoli I Leoni |
We arrived late on Saturday and just ran to the local Alimentari, or grocery store, for some cold cuts, cheese, and coffee. That night we spent drinking far too much wine and playing Cards Against Humanity. We had 10 of us drinking wine and put away 14 bottles. It was a fun night but most paid the price the next day. On Sunday a group went to Siena for an hour while another group of us went to the closest town of some size, Montespertoli. On Sundays most everything is closed but we did find a small bar/restaurant open and had some spaghetti Bolognese. In Montespertoli all the shops were closed but there were several local artisans set up in the town square. I bought a nice little mortar and pestle made of I think olive wood and a nice little watercolor painting. After the cost of Rome it was nice to pay just a few Euros for these.
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| The market at Montespertoli |
Sunday night we had the first of four planned meals we hired Chef Laura to prepare. It was amazing. We ate under a gazebo by the olive trees. The chefs Laura prepared everything. Neither speaks any English but we got by. Elizabeth's brother Bill had made the arrangements to have them prepare the meals. There were several choices and we all voted before we came over. For this first night we had four bruschetta to start; tomato, mushroom, onion, and something green we all forgot to ask about but later learned was zucchini. Second course was the pasta. I think it was with a basil cream and tomatoes. It was obviously freshly made pasta, delicioso. Next came some greens with salt and olive oil and sliced tomatoes as the sides. They complimented our mixed grill perfectly. There were pork chops, chicken and best of all, steak Florentine. Steak Florentine is a huge steak cooked rare, sliced in large strips and shared. This was followed by fresh strawberries in a nice whipped cream. You'd think I'd gain ten pounds but I've actually lost weight over here what with all the walking, no real snacking and while it seems like a lot of food it's all natural and really well balanced.
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| Steak Florentine prep in progress |
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| Various bruschetta toppings underway |
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| Chef Laura manning the grill |
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| The little girls invited us all to a pre-meal garden party |
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| Chef Laura and Chef Laura |
After that huge meal it was off to bed because the next day was King Family Wine Tour 2013. Bill, The Planner, had arranged for us to have tastings and or tours at five wineries. There were ten of us in two cars. We started with one just down the road, Podere dell'Anselmo, and as it turned out it was my favorite. I'm sure the beautiful Italian hostess had nothing to do with it. We tried 6 wines: a local white, hard to do around here; two Chianti and they have to be made a certain way to get the Chianti label; a rose; and two super Tuscans, one of them an oak casked reserve. All of them were terrific. I bought 3 bottles and off we went to the next one. Or at least we tried. GPS and directions both failed us and we ended up on a dirt road that my poor Alpha Romeo kept bottoming out on. After a hair raising descent we made it to a road. We had to skip that one and the next. We then went to lunch at a nice little trattoria. I had a local peasant stew with beef and onions. It was awesome. The next winery, Barbudo, had terrific views and a woman who spoke no English at all. But we made do and bought a few more bottles. Then we went to the local castle and winery. Castello Sonnino in Montespertoli. The castle dates to the 1200's. We had a nice tour and a great tasting where we also tried the local honey on Pecorino cheese and some truffle oil and olive oil.
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| First wine tasting of the day! |
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| The Road of Death |
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| The view from the Barbuda winery |
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| Castillo Sonnino |
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| Castillo Sonnino |
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| Castillo Sonnino - last tasting of the day |
The next day we spent in Florence. As with the hill towns and other places in Italy you aren't allowed to drive in the city center. We drove the Alpha Romeo into the city and planned to park at the train station. The only problem was we couldn't find the parking lot! So there I am puttering down a one way street with an impatient truck driver behind me. Suddenly I see an open parking spot to my left. I start to pull in and BEEEEEP! a scooter whips by and stops, the driver, an older guy in a poplin suit, glaring at me. I start to apologize when the truck driver behind me starts yelling. At the scooter guy! We think he was saying, "Hey this tourist has held me up enough! Shut up and move along and let him park! You shouldn't have whipped around us like that anyway!" Anyway, free parking for the day!
Elizabeth had gotten us tickets for the Accademia and a morning appointment. We were late but it wasn't a problem. I was so glad she had paid for a time slot. There are three lines to get in, those without tickets (the longest line), those in tour groups, and those with reserved times (our line, the shortest). We walked through and saw some nice paintings and musical instruments but what we were really there for was David. And it didn't disappoint. It was amazing to see it in person. The oversized Hand of God, the size of the thing. It was amazing. My other favorite was the series of slaves by Michelangelo. These are the unfinished looking pieces where the subjects are emerging from the stone. No pictures here because the Accademia allows no photos. We saw several folks get busted. They delete your picture if they catch you.
After a quick bite and a coffee we went to the San Lorenzo street market and did some shopping. I've discovered I suck at haggling. No surprise, I also suck at buying cars. But we did get some nice things, a wallet for me, a purse for Elizabeth. From there we went to the Duomo and Baptistry. The Duomo, or cathedral, is most famous for it's dome by Brunelleschi. The baptistry is famous for the doors, the Gates of Paradise. These doors were the result of a contest and were one of the first works of the Renaissance, which was born in Florence. Incidentally, the reason the Baptistry is a separate building is because at that time you couldn't enter a church until you'd been baptised. So they put up baptistries across from churches. We didn't go inside either one. We just couldn't face another line. They do have a Florence pass if you go and want to see inside these or climb the Carillon.
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| San Lorenzo market |
Next it was off to Ponte Vecchio. This famous bridge is the place to buy jewelry in Florence. We did some shopping and had a gelato and then headed to the Uffizi for our appointment there. A short wait to pick up the tickets and a slightly longer one and we were inside. We saw the Birth of Venus and several other famous works but honestly it was so hot and we were so tired we breezed through most of it. We then headed back across town to the trusty Alpha Romeo and a drive back to the villa for another great meal.
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| The Duomo |
Later in the week we headed to a couple of the hill towns Tuscany is famous for. These are medieval towns on hills, usually walled, that haven't changed much. The first we visited was San Gimignano (pronounced Giamano). It was a beautiful drive getting there. As in Florence you can't drive in to the town but they have well labelled parking lots outside town. We parked at one just outside the gates. The entire town is surrounded by a wall. But that's not the impressive thing. In the middle ages rich families would construct towers to live and work in. The size of the tower indicated your wealth (compensating for something?). Occasionally they would battle it out from their towers. San Gimignano originally had some 70 odd towers. 14 remain but that's more than most towns. We spent most of our time people watching in a square with a cistern dating from the 1200's. They built cisterns in squares and collected the rainwater from the towers through pipes under the square, through a sand and limestone filter and into a buried clay cistern. Amazing engineering. The other town we visited was Lucca. Lucca is famous for it's wall. Originally there was a Roman wall, then a medieval wall, then, with the birth of cannon on the battlefield, a Renaissance wall. It's this last wall that is so famous. Encompassing the whole town it is extremely thick and has heart shaped bastions to deflect cannon balls. It's so thick you can bicycle on the top of it and ride around the whole town in less than an hour. So we did! It was one of my favorite things we did on the trip and easily the best 18 Euros I spent.
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| Some of San Gimignano's towers |
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| Natalie and Ron spent the day relaxing in the square |
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| The cistern |
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| Over the centuries ropes cut into the stone cistern |
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| Biking around Lucca |
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| On Lucca's wall |
Our last day in Tuscany we spent just riding around and taking pictures. We had all liked the Laura's so much we had them cook us one last meal, brazino (sea bass). They had prepared these really simple salads all week with just greens, olive oil and salt. I had liked it so much they offered to get me some olive oil. So I bought two liter cans from them and smuggled them home. Don't tell Customs! One last thing about the villa. Italians, and Europeans in general, don't have the same addiction to air conditioning we have. At the villa we had to pay extra for air conditioning. Sergio, the owner, handed over the remotes for the individual air conditioners but only if we agreed to pay for the electricity. The other option was to let him set them and pay a fixed fee. As it turned out it was cheaper for us to have the remotes! Natalie paid him for the usage and we all packed up. The next day we were off to Venice!
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| Sunset over Tuscany |
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| Standing by an olive grove |
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