Finding Cortona and the Lavanderia!

Ciao, it’s Friday now!

To be honest, we had such a wonderful picnic yesterday afternoon that neither of us was hungry enough to go out for dinner! Instead, about 8 p.m. we went across the street to get some more bottled water (the water in the hotel tastes terrible!) and split the last piece of pizza with prosciutto in the shop! It was great, but really all we needed – so our food expenses for Thursday were really on the low side – something like 20E for the two of us for the entire day!

Final views from San Gimignano!

Up about 7 to begin the great “reorganization” – trying to fit everything back into the suitcases from which it had come. Down for breakfast at 8, then paid the hotel bill on our way back up to the room. The day had dawned fairly foggy, but by 8:30 when we left the hotel, the sky above was clear and blue, with fog on the low spots on the ground. We took a leisurely route through Poggibonsi (Linda’s favorite new town name – she calls it Puggy Bunny, which I love!) to Castelina and Radda in Chianti. I took a few pictures at a stopping point, but mostly we just drove over hill and dale, greatly enjoying the incredibly beautiful ceiling. Finally pointed the car at Cortona, which is right on TOP of a very large hill! Our instructions had been to drive up to Piazza Garibaldi and double park, come to the B&B and they would help us with luggage and tell us where to park. Well…not quite according to plan…Jeanette, one of the owners of the B&B was not there, so Linda was able to get most of the luggage inside, but additional guidance about parking. So, I headed back down the hill and found a very tiny little parking lot, from whence it is ALL uphill to the B&B! When they opened the B&B door for me, I was staring UP two HUGE flights of steps! Fortunately, they have a lift that goes along the steps which brings baggage up to the top – otherwise not sure how we would have gotten anything up here! Lovely room on the third floor, in front overlooking the street. Lots of light through two big windows, a good sized bathroom with lots of modern comforts (like heated towel racks…) AND SkyTV! YEA! We can even get some version of ESPN here! On the downside, our little traveling computer, Gulliver, is acting up (hope he’s okay…) and we have absolutely NO cell phone reception on my cell phone! Talk about feeling cut off!!

I managed to get Gulliver up and running, and then we decided to find the local lavanderia down at the bottom of the hill. There are none in Cortona! We went a very round-about way to get there, but finally managed to find it – Starwash! Things went quickly and well, and in a little over an hour we were headed back up the hill, now having more than enough clean clothes to get us home on Tuesday! As we had yet to have lunch, we settled for gelato as we wandered through town. Cortona is amazingly hilly, and our street, Via Nationale, is said to be the only flat place in town! I would now heartily agree! Have decided to save the two museums until tomorrow, then head out of town in the afternoon, possibly to Assisi or Montepulciano!

Sorry this posting is so short, but it really was a moving on kind of day! More later!
Much love,
m

With a view like this, why leave the hotel?

Ciao to all on Thursday!

For dinner last night, we went to La Mandragola, where Robert and I had eaten several times in the past. As it wasn’t quite open when we got there (6:55 p.m.) we wandered into a lovely art gallery near the 1300 museum. They had some wonderful and very unusual pieces on display; some beautiful ceramics! Restaurant was open a little after 7, and in we went. It is a very large room, painted white, with some very colorful and interesting paintings. To start, we split a bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil, and of course, garlic! Absolutely NO vampires around San Gimignano last night! Then, for mains, Linda had lasagna (which was WONDERFUL) and I had something that translated as “chicken cooked under a brick”…it was very good, and I had that along with some fried potatoes. For dessert, we split a piece of ricotta cheese cake – yummy! We also had a split of Tuscan red table wine – truly a memorable meal! Walking back to the hotel, it seemed so odd, as the streets were basically deserted – such a change from during the day, when tourists are everywhere!

After so much exercise yesterday, I for one slept very well – obviously too well, as Linda says I was snoring. Oh well! Sorry about that! We had breakfast, and then decided to do a bit more exploring in San Gimignano. The morning was very interesting, dawning very clear with little pockets of fog in the low spots in the valleys, but with a beautiful sun rise – but by the time we were finishing breakfast, fog began to roll in, until it totally engulfed the entire city! As we headed toward the Duomo, we found that Thursday was market day in San Gimignano! What fun! We walked all through the different stalls – clothing, toys, linen, fish, meat, herbs, flowers – so much fun to see everything that was available!
Went into the Duomo then, as we had decided not to schlep things all over town with us. The church is just beautiful, but for some strange reason AGAIN, no photos!! The Duomo was probably the most frescoed church we have seen yet – they are floor to ceiling, down the entire length and breadth of the church! According to one of our guidebooks, they were scenes from both the new and old testament, and were really used for teaching the people about the bible. Just incredible; and a HUGE St. Sebastian with countless arrows going every which way! (Bob & Stew, you would have loved him!)

Market pictures -

Duomo pictures that I wasn't supposed to take...

Followed the Rick Steves suggested route, going through Sant’ Agostino (again, no pictures…grrr…) and finally the route along the walls. This took us through some beautiful streets, actually outside the walls, and past several very small gates – but absolutely NO tourists anywhere, and incredibly quiet everywhere, just the sounds of nature! At one point we passed a couple who were harvesting olives; it was fun to watch. He was on a ladder actually cutting down the small branches that contained olives. She was then using a large “comb” like rake to rake the branches, putting the olives in a mesh screen set on the ground. Seems like a lot of work, but for anyone who loves olives…

Our route wound us back to the market area, where we bought some lovely table cloths. Then, as it was just about noon time, we decided to put our picnic together, based around the lovely bottle of white wine we picked up yesterday in Monteriggioni. Found a very nice deli, and got a good hunk of Pecorino Grotta (fairly hard and dry Pecorino; just excellent) as well as slices of salami and prosciutto. Add some bread, and voila! Lunch! (Unfortunately, I don’t know how to say that in Italian!) Linda spread everything out on the table on our balcony and we proceeded to have a truly idyllic lunch! Talked and laughed and enjoyed our picnic immensely – also, did not leave a scrap of anything, including the wine! The fog had cleared from the town and valley, and the view was incredible – what a great way to spend a day in Tuscany!

Retreated then for naps, and afterwards, another leisurely stroll in town – this time, I got as far as the main piazza for gelato – I had chocolate fondant (tasted just like home-made chocolate frosting) and vanilla; Linda had tiramisu and marscapone. We sat outside the little gelato shop, looking like very good advertisements for what was inside!

Back to the hotel around 5 p.m. To be honest, neither of us are sure if we will even want dinner, after our wonderful picnic! Fortunately, there is a great little pizza-by-the-slice place right across the street!

Tomorrow we’re moving on to Cortona – not too far away, but we are planning to have a few wine tastings as well as a cooking class on our agenda!
More later! Much love!
m
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Things are even MORE lovely when the rain stops!

Ciao; it’s Wednesday already! (WHERE is the time going?!)

We had dinner last night in the hotel Bel Soggiorno’s dining room; table next to the window, but by the time they opened at 8, it was pitch black outside and raining! Fortunately for us, the heat has been turned on in the hotel, so we didn’t have to worry about freezing! We both started the meal with a glass of sparkling Vernaccia wine from the local area. It is nice and light, but a shade dryer than most of the prosecco’s we have been used to. For starters, Linda had a ricotta soufflé with fresh tomato coulis basis, with a thin strip of zucchini and a thin strip of carrot across the top. My starter was a timbale of potatoes with two layers of mushrooms, and then some wonderful truffle shavings in the cream sauce. I won that round! For mains, Linda won: she had artichoke tortelli (looked something like big tortellini) in a cream sauce; it was fantastic! I had ravioli stuffed with smoked cheese in an aubergine (egg plant) sauce; (good but not fabulous). No dessert after that, as we were stuffed! Back upstairs about 10 p.m. and to bed shortly thereafter. It sounded like it continued raining all night, and in the morning, we awoke to quite a bit of fog, especially in the valleys! The forecast called for rain all day today and into tonight, stopping tomorrow and hopefully clearing up!

We had breakfast in the dining room, and then bided our time until about 9:30 a.m. as we didn’t want to arrive in Volterra too early for shops and things to be open. Got there about 10:45 a.m. and it was SO surprising! As we drove east toward the coast, the rain stopped, and by the time we got to Volterra, there were plenty of patches of blue sky! We ended up with lots of sunshine and no more rain, which is terrific, as we didn’t really relish the thought of going into and out of places all day with umbrellas, cameras, bags, etc. So…Volterra; really a beautiful OLD Etruscan city, with the golden stone just glowing as the sun started to shine. We parked in our usual place, right beneath the Porto al’arch and headed into town. Wandered about a bit, as map didn’t make a great deal of sense, and finally stopped at the local tourist office to get an “official” one. We found the panoramic view of the Roman Amphitheatre and other buildings; just beautiful, especially when one considers that at some point in past history, the Volterrans used the amphitheatre as a garbage dump!

While we did NOT visit the Museo de Tortura…there are several here…I wanted Kevin and Jeff to know that there ARE some things they might want to see. Also a few shops with swords, knives and suits of armor just for fun! – might not get through security, tho’! ---Linda

Decided to visit the Etruscan Museum, which houses an amazing collection – we had never seen so many funerary urns anywhere! They occupied literally room after room!

From there, we decided to get some lunch, so stopped into a convenient pizza-by-the-slice place, and for 2E each, got terrific slices! Linda’s had tomato and arugula, and she said it was spicy; I had funghi on mine – how do they make the crust so thin and crispy at the same time??

We did a little bit of shopping on the way out of town; just picking up a few things. Got the car from the garage and headed back to San Gimignano. As it had turned out to be such a beautiful day, decided to continue with the original plan and head to Monteriggioni, stopping first at S.G. to pick up my sunglasses (who knew?), and change clothes from long-sleeves and turtle-neck to short-sleeves; it’s that lovely!

Linda from hotel room balcony!

Monteriggioni is a VERY tiny hilltop town, about 2 football fields in length, walled in completely, and about 20 km from Siena. It has one hotel, one really good restaurant (Il Pozzo, where I have eaten many times before!), a couple of mediocre café/gelato places, and a wine store or two. It now also houses several wonderful craft shops; some beautiful jewelry – had to get out of there before we did something RASH! We did taste a bit of Monteriggioni wine, and picked up a bottle of white, as we’re hoping to have a picnic tomorrow on our balcony!
Drove back to S.G. via Strove (a tiny town that we’ve eaten in before), arriving back here about 5 p.m. A long day, but a really terrific one – I’m just SO happy that the weather turned wonderful again! All of the vineyards have harvested their grapes, and the vines are turning a wonderful bright yellow. Trees in the area are turning both yellow and a stunning RED, just for us! We are very fortunate to have timed our trip so well – if only to avoid like the plague the comic convention heading for Lucca this week!

So…resting up at the moment, and I’ll head downstairs to post and process pictures. Take care; more later!

Lots of love!
m
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