Today was what anyone could want when visiting the Tuscany region of Italy. We had a 9am start from our hotel and headed out from Florence in our BMW van which is Federico’s method of transporting people around. He had obviously cleaned and polished it prior to meeting us again so it was obvious he took great pride in what he does for a living.
About 40 minutes our of Florence we came into Siena – one of the very early towns in the region. Each of the main towns around here centuries ago had enormous stone walls around them to protect their townships from attack by other regions. They were each very protective of their region and annual battles took place each year to determine who had the rightful honour of being the ‘best’ town. This competition was fought in the form of a bareback horse race around the main cobbled square of Siena – a large oval area where everyone gathered in the centre whilst a 90 second horserace of no more than 10 riders was run around the outer circle area. It would have all very very colourful in it’s day I imagine.
The main focus of Siena, like other towns/cities in the region, is the ‘Duomo’ or main cathedral. We paid a small entrance fee to visit the inside of the cathedral and once again a ‘wow’ factor took over. This place was extraordinary! Every inch of flooring was inlaid with marble drawings; the ornate objects and artwork were amazing. One small room off to the side was the ‘Library’ where display cases held huge books inscribed in symbols from the period in which they were written. As said, an amazing cathedral. From the cathedral we wandered the small streets – all only wide enough to carry one small vehicle but all cobbled with tourists and locals alike mingling in the small streets and shops (Trish!!!!). Once again lots of handbag shops, all very reasonably priced.
We met Federico at out scheduled time an hour and a half later – once again he has this amazing “I can park and go anywhere” vehicle so we never have to walk to a nearby car park or whatever – he’s always just ‘there!’
Left Siena to head to our designated lunch stop which Marg, Trish and I assumed would just be some little vineyard restaurant somewhere along the way. How wrong could we be!
Our lunch stop was a local farmhouse in the Tuscan hills where the owner – in this case ‘Fulvio’ welcomes small tour groups (we 3 plus Federico), with open arms and cooks up a gastronomic delight of pure Tuscan food – parma hams, sheep cheeses, onion jams, wild boar pastrami, bruschetta – and oops – eat all that and find it is only entree!! Ne All this in his small homely dining room with an open fire blazing, cat and dog roaming outside and view over the countryside. Next we are served a beautiful bowl of pasta made with feta cheese, home grown tomato sauce, basil, parmesan and whatever – but it was wonderful. All this plus the appropriate Tuscan region wines to suit the course. I of course made full use of everything offered!
Next course was chicken in orange sauce with a red cabbage salad which had a balsamic like dressing though it -this also wonderful. No dessert as such but a delightful sweet wine for dipping the homemade biscotti into and finish off with a couple of other traditional local small cake thingies!
What a magnificent lunch – the setting could not have been more delightful. Fulvio then showed us his little church adjoining his house – still has the full atmosphere of a local church but is now only used for private ceremonies.
From our lunch spot we head back to another town set high on top of a hill – San Gimignano – wow! An extremely old township set high up on the hill to protect itself from ‘invaders’ way back centuries ago. Once again tiny, narrow cobbled streets but lots of local shops in and around the alleyways. We all seemed to wander off in our directions here but each of us had a story to tell of what we had come across whilst wandering. I managed to follow a Japanese tour group (they must be heading somewhere!!!) and ended up way up high on an outlook above a smallish circular area of olive trees growing amongst which a man playing a flute (Ave Maria) made for an absolutely magical place to be – high over the hills of Tuscany within an olive tree setting listening to a flute playing – I came away from there smiling at how magical it all was.
So the whole day for the 3 of us was the highlight of our Tuscany region visit. And we owed our guide Federico a great deal of thanks for making it a great day for us. We had (we I had!) quizzed him very tactfully over lunch about wines, what the different reds were, whether he drank wine and which ones he preferred from the region – got the answer of course so picked him up a nice bottle as our ‘tip’ to him. He was most grateful and when he dropped us back at the hotel it was hugs and thankyous all round – he really was a special tour guide!
But the day was not yet over and we had an Opera to go to! An opera in Florence in a church! Will leave that to your imagination but we had a delightful evening and wandered back along the evening river to the hotel desperate for bed!!!
