This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence. I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.
Got up and had Breakfast at ~8:30, packed and checked out of our B&B.
We decided that it would be easier to catch a Taxi to the Hertz office, as it was a few blocks from the bus at each end. Had to wait for about 20 mins at the Hertz office as their computers were down and they were doing everything manually. Our car was a Chevrolet Matiz - a tiny little 4-door car - even smaller than Andrew's Toyota Yaris - that's small.
Headed west out of the city and onto the Fi-Pi-Li Superstrada (Firenze - Pisa - Livorno) - a 4-lane highway, but not a toll highway like the Autostradas. An hour later we were heading into the outskirts of Pisa. Rick Steves had said that Pisa traffic was crazy, but we found the car park near the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) quite quickly.
Pisa - Campo del Miracoli | |
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We had decided not to go into the Tower itself - according to Rick Steves the wait is typically 90 minutes (it was actually closer to two hours when we got there). We could have made a reservation, but we weren't sure when (or even if) we were going to Pisa. We did however visit both the Baptistry and the Duomo itself. Unlike Florence's Duomo which is quite plain inside (except the Botticelli Dome) Pisa's Duomo is quite fancy with a wonderful mosaic over the altar.
After visiting the sites, we left for our Agriturismo in southern Tuscany. We drove back along the Fi-Pi-Li Superstrada to Empoli and then took the road for Siena. The heavens opened up and it poured with rain - the drive from Empoli to Siena was miserable - flash floods and muddy water pouring across the road. Once we reached Poggibonsi on the Fi-Si Superstrada (Firenze Siena) it cleared up and the rest of the drive was much better.
Our Agriturismo (Farm B&B) was in the Val d'Orcia, near Montalcino. Google maps had directed us to turn off the main S2 highway at Castiglioni d'Orcia - we climbed up a winding road and through the town of Castiglioni d'Orcia only to descend again on the other side - the Agriturismo was well signposted and we found it quite easily - its a beautiful farmhouse looking over the Val d'Orcia.
Agriturismo Aiole - Castiglioni d'Orcia | |
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Two ladies from Idaho were sitting on the patio when we arrived - the had just finished a cooking lesson from our hostess - Noella. We checked in, unpacked and headed into Montalcino (just behind the hills in the picture on the right and a 20 minute drive) for dinner at the Grappolo Blu - a recommendation of our hostess, but also in Rick Steves.
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