TUSCANY (long day, long post)
As we have established in previous blogs, I’m a frugal traveler, to say the least. The region of Tuscany hits peak tourist during the “harvest”’season around April to Early October. Of course we decided to go in November.
The area is a bit like the foothills of NC as far as beautiful fall trees, hills, & dizzying roads. There are only a handful of tourists in each town during this time of year so it’s like we have the places to ourselves.
We drove the couple of hours from Modena straight to a special drive through the “Heart of Tuscany”. This area is famous for wine and this drive was once a pilgrimage road. We would start and end in the amazing hill town of Montepulciano.
We drove straight through town to start the driving loop. First stop was a castle that has a functioning farm and B&B from the 1100s. We were allowed to just walk around while they worked. Then onto a town that has kept up functioning spas from Estructan (pre-Roman) times to now. This town of Bagno Vignoni was my favorite. The medieval town square was built around the biggest thermal spa. The best (natural) spa was past the town, under the old mill areas in the valley. These pics are not photoshopped!
The next part of the drive included a fortress and an Abbey that was breathtaking (Sant’Antimo).
We finally visited a winery. The Ciacci Piccolomini D’Aragona winery let us taste the wines of this part of Tuscany. All red wines in this area. It was as great as you imagine. An old Tuscan farmhouse, newly built wine tasting rooms overlooking vineyards. We only bought one bottle as it breaks our rules (well more importantly our backs) to have and carry souvenirs.
The next town of Montalcino, also a famous type of wine, was as small as Liberty! It had a large maintained fortress and a small piazza (square).
Look at these views from the drive ! And yes that is a church out there on a hill.
The town of Pienza was the last stop. It had some famous spots and it’s a favorite of travel bloggers. First up is the view made famous by Russel Crowe in Gladiator. And next to this view is a church from the 1000s. This church has a claim to fame for the baptism of a famous Pope. It has never been updated; look at this crypt. We were the only ones there and it had two lights on in the church.
We then wandered into the city itself but a movie was filming and therefore blocked entrance to the church & historic house. But look at this cool movie stuff:
At this point, we had done amazing to see all these sites. I had one hour of daylight left. I insisted we revisit the church upon the hill and try to see it up close. Over the next hour we bumped down dirt roads and got lost several times. The path to the church on the hill eluded us regardless of effort.
At this point it had become dark. We had to get back to Montepulciano. As we entered the city, it was unclear how to get to our Airbnb. Google, Apple maps nor the navigational system worked. It kept taking us in crazy directions and down streets cars were not allowed. Over the next 30 minutes, Jordan miraculously figured out how to drive down medieval lanes to find the parking lot outside the town; it was as bad as the Amalfi and the flashbacks were real.
Finally we parked in the lot and made our way up the hill to town our place. Here is where things got dicey again. For a second night in a row, I placed us in a food Mecca. There are endless restaurants in this town. However, just like Modena ALL are closed in the off-season. So the two macaroons, banana and cheese I had eaten for the day had worn off. There were no places to eat! We just sat down at the one place open and I ate tomatoes. By the grace of God, one of the four star restaurants was open according to Opentable; so we fled there just in time for the last round of dinner. I got my Tuscan beef / steak. Now for the past two days I’ve eaten beef and drank wine for dinner. To say I’m hungry is an understatement.
All in all, even with the hunger, this day was one for the books. So many stunning views and notable points. Each time Jordan is brave enough to drive me on these crazy road trip days, it makes me realize he’s a hell of a driver and a guy.
I cannot wait for Florence now!
Step Count: 21,000
Bottles of Wine: 2
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