Ever since I read the book Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes in 2003, I have wanted to visit there. Tuscany is in central Italy and is well known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy and was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance. Of course most tourists visited Tuscany because their famous wine and olive oil. We rented a car so we could spent time at smaller villages and ancient hill towns. We used both Florence and Siena as our bases. Thank goodness for Google Map, it gave clear instructions (in English) and us quickly when we made mistakes. Without it, we would never have made it with the Italian road systems and their hundreds of roundabouts.
We headed to Pisa (88 km west of Florence) on a gorgeous sunny day. The tower was 185 ft tall and weighs 14,500 tons. It was built in 12th century and already tilting when it in 1372. It leaned over 5 degree and had to be stabilized in 1993. We, like all the other tourists, tried to place our hands on the leaning tower in a photo. It actually was very difficult to get them right. On our way
back, we stopped at the town Lucca which was Puccinis hometown. We attended a recital by two singers in an old church (great acoustic). They sang most of Puccinis famous arias - Tosca, Madam Butterfly, Turandot and of course La Boheme. What a beautiful experience that was.
We stayed at Siena for 3 nights. We met an American expat from Dallas at Sienas Piazza del Campo. She brought her motorcycle and dog over after retirement and told us for $32,000 a year, one can live an enchanted life In Italy. Maybe we should look into that.
We drove the famous Chiantigiana (SR222) route which connecting Florence to Siena, a circular route passing acres and acres of vineyards and olive groves. The scenery was just postcard perfect. We stopped and enjoyed some very charming towns - Greve (Castle of Montefloralle) , Penzono (best hamburger from Chef Cecchinis roadside food truck), Siena (Gothic Cathedral with uniqued marble pavement chiseled with figures and animals), Radda and Castellina (great wine).
On second day we took a different direction and went South of Siena on the Val dorcin route. In addition to the town of Val dOrcia, we also stopped
at Bongo Vignoni Montalcino (thermal bath), Penza and San Gimignano. San Gimignano is a small walled medieval hill town and by far our favorite. Its unique in its preservation of about a dozen of tower houses. It attracted a lot tourists but it was easy for us to step away and walked in quite neighborhood with magnificant stone walls and lovely Tuscany home with gorgeous flowers.
It was very easy to do a winery tour in Tuscany but much harder to find a tour about Olive Oil. Beatrice from Gonnili 1585 answered my email and arranged for us to visit this old family Olive farm in Reggello. The farm has 1000 trees on site but process olives from 48,000 trees in the region annually. The variety of olives, the harvesting time (green or ripe) and the weather all played important parts in the flavor of the oil. Gonnili pressed the olives (pit, skin and all) only once to produce the extra virgin oil. The residual was processed and dried as pellets and used as fuel. The peak harvesting time is October through December. We tasted 4 different kind of olive oils and learned which one is our favorite. For
We took a bus tour to Cinque Terre National Park, a coastal area in the NW of Italy. of five villages that connected by local trains. Over centuries, local people and fisherman built stone terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs. On a sunny day, the brilliant colors of painted house made this an deligtful place. Unfortunately on the day we visited it was cloudy and the ocean was rough. Even so, we felt that we could have spent a few more days in this lovely place. Maybe next time.
