Our Tuscan Getaway

Friday, September 30 - Tuesday, October 4 2011


Let’s jump back a week-- when we arrived back from the U.S. into Geneva on that Sunday, we were greeted at our door by a couple of familiar faces!  Our good friend Courtney and her mom, Marisha, had come from Alabama for their European visit and made our home in Geneva their first stop.  Because of Courtney’s work schedule they actually arrived in Geneva on Friday before we were even back in town.  This gave them a couple of days to rest and try to beat the jet lag.  We’re not quite sure if that worked, but they were troopers anyway! :)

On Monday and Tuesday, the two of us had to work while Courtney and Marisha explored a little bit of Geneva.  Then, as mentioned in our last post, on Wednesday Ang headed to Malta for her work trip, while Courtney and Marisha started their grand Italian tour by flying to Rome.  Before we would see them again, they would also head to the Cinque Terre and Florence, at which point we would meet up in Tuscany for four days.

Let’s fast-forward to Tuscany.  Our journey began on Friday evening after work.  The drive from Geneva to Impruneta (where our Tuscan villa was located) was longer than we could manage in one evening of driving.  In researching options for a midway point to stay the night, Dave ran across the Relais del Castello di Oviglio, a castle located in Oviglio, Italy.  Yes, a genuine castle! 

With much anticipation, we arrived in Oviglio late in the evening and the castle fulfilled all of our expectations and more.  The pictures didn’t lie - this was, seriously, an old castle.  We entered through the electronic gate, down the private driveway and found a spot to park. 

After a quick check-in, we followed the bellhop to our room.  It felt longer than it actually took to reach our room because we were so fascinated by the handful of elegant rooms we passed through along the way.  When we checked out our room (more like a suite), we quickly agreed we should have stayed here longer than a quick stopover!  Our curiosity got the best of us so before we called it a night, we wandered through the dark and quiet halls of the castle (wouldn’t you?), which was pretty much shut down for the night.  No ghosts or hidden treasure to report, unfortunately.

The next morning we explored the grounds a little bit more and snapped some daytime photos of this spectacular building and grounds.  While we enjoyed our complementary breakfast we tried to imagine the history of this place.  However, because we needed to get to Tuscany by a certain hour to meeting Courtney & Marisha, we had to accept that our history lesson would come via the Internet at another time.  After checking the story online, it seems that there has been this castle, or a previous version, standing since the 14^th century.  It was occupied by noblemen under the power of the Dukes of Milan for five centuries, and then was purchased by Queen Cristina of Savoia.  It seems to have been remodeled by the Counts of Calcamuggi before being declared a national monument in 1908.  The only history we know since then is that they signed a contract with Expedia and we got a sweet discount to stay there! :)

We continued our drive south to Tuscany, winding through the coastal city of Genova, and past the charming Tuscan town of Lucca (which unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit).  By noon we were in the vicinity of Florence and decided that we would pick up Courtney and Marisha instead of having them try and meet us at the villa.  This proved to be quite the challenge as they were in the town center and it’s forbidden for non-authorized cars (us) to drive in the center of town.  Long story short, we eventually figured out a rendezvous point and were on our way to Impruneta!

Thinking back, we made some amazing lodging choices this trip.   Our villa in Impruneta (Country Relais Villa l'Olmo) was the perfect base for our three-night stay in Tuscany.  Like many villas in Tuscany, they produce their own olive oil and wine, which we couldn’t wait to try (and later confirmed they were both delicious).  The view from our patio was of the villa’s private vineyards and olive groves, which were open to guests of the villa to wander through and explore—which we did.  (And of course the pool was front & center and still relevant even in October as it was still in the mid 80s).  While tempted to settle in for the afternoon at such an amazing establishment, we knew there were things to see.  The plan that seemed to make the most sense was to visit Pisa and see the infamous leaning tower.  

We don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the leaning tower of Pisa is one of the most recognizable European landmarks (at least to Americans).  We’ve read the reviews that Pisa is horribly touristy—but, come on, who is going to pass up this opportunity?  Well, the reviews were pretty much spot on. :)  It was a little surreal, actually.  After hearing of this infamous landmark our entire lives, it’s natural to have expectations built up.  In actuality, it was a bit different than what we were expecting (neither negative or positive).  You many already know this, but the tower is actually the bell tower of the adjacent cathedral, which is right next to a large Baptistery.  All three buildings are made of the same bright white marble and all are quite impressive.  The strange thing about these monuments is that they are in the middle of a large grass field (called The Field of Miracles), as opposed to other cathedrals we’ve visited that are closely surrounded by the city buildings.  Different than expected, but kind of refreshing to see a unique set up! 

Do you want to hear about the touristy part?  For starters, the entire south wall of the enclosed grounds is lined with souvenir stands.  Secondly, at one point in everyone’s visit to the tower (including us), you need to get a photo of yourself seemingly altering the movement of the tower (either holding it up or pushing it over).  It’s hilarious to see hundreds of people taking turns striking their poses for their friends (a sample in the photo below).  Haha. :)  Third, Pisa isn’t that big of a city and because of the publicity the tower gets, the Field of Miracles feels very crowded and commercialized.  Not to say that any of this is a negative, but it was clearly a spot to get in and out with your photos, in less than an hour.

We were back to Impruneta with enough time to visit the local grocery store and buy dinner food for the next few nights.  Our villa came with a private kitchen as well as some charcoal BBQ grills at our disposal.  Each evening we enjoyed some amazing homemade dinners (more like feasts) sitting outside under the Tuscan night sky.  It’s hard to beat that.

With little structure during our time in Tuscany we were free to do what interested us the most.  On Sunday our interest was to drive one of the most picturesque roads in Tuscany, from Florence to Siena on SR222.  We were rewarded with some beautiful scenery throughout our entire drive.  

Arrival in Siena was stunning.  One minute you are navigating through the residential outskirts and then you reach a lookout point over the Old Town and you realize why this place is so special.  Buildings upon buildings, built with seemingly no plan at all, all lead up to the Duomo (cathedral) on one hill and the Il Campo (the town square) on another.

We wound our way through the narrow Siena streets toward Il Campo first.  Il Campo itself is the large, bowl-like square you can see in the photos below.  The people of Siena host a crazy horse race here every year.  It was hard to imagine the thousands of people that pack into the center of this square to watch contestants from each of Siena’s neighborhoods race around the outside of the square.  The day of our visit, the square was simply a grand hangout area for people to enjoy themselves.  Not to be outdone is the city hall and city tower, which attempts to dwarf the square below.  To give you an idea of how little Siena has changed (and many of the other Tuscan hill towns), you can still see the rings on the city hall walls (and also throughout the city) that people used to tie their horses to when “parking.” 

We visited the Duomo next.  Its zebra-striped exterior continued on the inside of its interior, making for quite a unique landmark.  There was far too much history inside of the cathedral to know where to begin (Siena’s history is laid out in its entirety through different works in the marble floor), so we just stuck to enjoying the building at a purely visual level.  

We were already craving another home-cooked meal so we made our way back to our villa on the same scenic drive.  On the way back we found out why a small section of the drive was blocked off on our trip earlier that day.  We began to see white bags lining the road, which appeared to be trash bags at first.  However, the further we went we started seeing banners and stacked tires and realized we were in the middle of a racecourse!  We figured it had long since finished until we started passing all sorts of cars with numbers on their sides.  When we reached the town of Castellina (the place where the detour started earlier that day) and found ourselves in the middle of a mass of racecars, we realized that we must have just missed the ending.   

Also on our drive back, we stopped in a small town with a life-sized wine bottle.  Hugs were clearly in order!  When we got back to the villa we enjoyed some pool time and another amazing dinner before a nice sunset.

Monday morning held our only planned activity of the entire trip – a Tuscan cooking class at the Il Vicario B&B, just outside the hill town of San Gimignano (we loved the views of San Gimignano from the B&B, seen below).  We already knew we were fabulous cooks from our dinners the last couple of nights ;) but we wanted to learn some Tuscan secrets for making great pasta and other Italian dishes.  

The class was a lot of fun and an opportunity to meet some new people.  It was the four of us plus two other couples, one from the U.S. and one from London.  We started the day forming our own Pici pasta noodles from scratch.  You can see the load of them in the center of the table as we diligently slaved away. :)  Actually, the class involved less cooking than we thought it would and more observing/eating.  That was fine with Dave, but the ladies may have enjoyed a little more hands-on.  The biggest revelation we walked away with is that Tuscan cooking involves A LOT of olive oil.  Katia, our instructor, just told us to keep pouring whenever we began a new dish.  In the cookbook we received later, she calls it “Tuscany Quantity”.  Haha.

Not only did we learn to make Pisi pasta, but also a cream sauce pasta (made with beans interestingly enough) and other dishes like bruschetta, bread salad (better than it sounds), and some cheese dishes.  You can see the spread, below.  We enjoyed course after course of what we had prepared throughout the day and naturally each course came with a different wine paired perfectly with it. :)  We thoroughly enjoyed the cooking class experience and would recommend it to anyone visiting Tuscany.

 

After a successful class, we wanted to do a quick visit to San Gimignano.  We are glad we did because upon arrival we immediately fell in love with the town and it quickly became our favorite in Tuscany.  On our visit we stopped at a gelato-maker who was a member of the Italian team that won the official Gelato World Cup a few years back (it didn’t take much convincing to try it after hearing that).  We also caught the last few open minutes of climbing the town’s tallest (of several) towers for a breathtaking view of the surrounding Tuscan countryside.  

Why all the towers you might ask?  According to the guide books, San Gimignano towers were fortified homes of rich people, which helped protect against sieges of the town before effective city walls were built.  There used to be 72 towers (!) in the city and only 14 remain after the town’s population was gutted by the plague in the 14^th century and the Florence occupation forced them to tear down many of the towers. 

Before heading back to our villa we needed to make one last stop.  The wine that was served at our cooking class was really good, and all came from the same local winery.  So when we found out that the winery was nearby, we had to pay a visit.  Once we got to the grounds, we walked through an old, quaint sleepy village and found their tasting room.  Speaking of favorites, this quickly became our favorite winery in all of Europe so far because it was cheap and it was good (plus the winemakers were really nice)!  Of course we re-tasted the wines from earlier that day to make sure we still liked them :) along with a few others that were new to us.  After much deliberation we bought too much wine, but were glad that we found a winery that fit the bill of a good story, good price, and most importantly, good flavor.  

 

Sadly, our Tuscan holiday had to come to an end.  With a long road ahead we said goodbye to our villa and headed out Tuesday morning with a loaded car and three tired ladies (Dave found ways to keep himself entertained for a good portion of the seven-hour drive). :)  To show Courtney and Marisha a little bit of Switzerland besides Geneva, we took the scenic route up through Switzerland instead of France.  We were able to spot a few cows with bells and some amazing alpine scenery (and at the end of the day, isn’t that the best part of Switzerland?).

Sadly, Courtney and Marisha had to head back to Alabama the next day.  We are so grateful that they came to visit.  We had such a great time and were so happy to spend it at such a fantastic destination!