Under the Tuscan Sun

I just got back last Sunday from a fabulous two week trip to Italy. This was a very different trip for us, since we usually do tours when out of the country, but this time we rented a villa in Tuscany, rented a mini-van and toured the wonderful hill towns of central Italy.

There were five of us, Claire, Mickie, Maxine, Ruthie (my sister) and me. Claire was our intrepid driver and she was amazing, traveling those twisty, narrow roads with many a hair-pin curve. She is a great driver with a wonderful sense of direction. I know that I never could have done it.

We took a train from Florence to Venice, where we spent two nights and three days, quite an adventure. But mostly we rode around and found some terrific wineries and restaurants and great little shops.

We visited Florence, one whole day. We had a driver take us there and pick us up. The hill towns that we saw were San Gimignano (try saying that after two glasses of wine), Volterra, Pienza, Sienna, Radda and Montepilciano (another tongue twister).

Of course I took a lot of pictures and I will share some of them here:

PonteVechio in Florence

Venice

I thought the sign in this store window was quite amusing. The sign is telling us that these masks are made in Venice and not China. We saw similar signs in other shops. We went in anther store that was lovely and had an amazing array of masks. I had purchased mine the last time I was in Venice, but Claire and Ruthie each picked up a small one.

Beautiful Burano, know for its very colorful buildings. The story goes that the fishermen painted their homes in bright colors so that they could identify them from afar. No glass stores here, but they specialized in beautiful linens and lace. We also went to Murano, famous for their glass. I ordered a light fixture for my new home in Florida. 

St. Mark's square in Venice.

More of the square, a very busy place with many restaurants surrounding it, but very touristy. We did not eat there.

Breathtaking views everywhere when we were on the road. My photos don't begin to do them justice.

This was wine country and those perfectly parallel rows of grape vines were spectacular. If it wasn't grapes then it was olive groves.

We visited a few wineries, so charming.

They happened to be picking that day and Claire couldn't resist  tasting one. Me, too, and they were very sweet.

We were in the Chianti region and this black rooster was their symbol and was seen all over in many variations.

We tried to eat at small out of the way places and were rewarded with many a good meal. I think it's hard to get a bad meal in Italy. We drank a lot of good red wine, usually just a carafe of house red and it was delicious. They add very little sulfates to their wines so you never got a headache or a buzz. 

Cappuccino was part of our daily diet, as was gelato. There seemed to be a Gelateria on every corner of the towns.

Enjoying a cup of our favorite beverage.

Check out the view at this restaurant.

Wild boar was a specialty of the region and I had it twice, both as part of a pasta dish. It was delish. We tried to eat the local food and I had black squid ink pasta with cuttle fish, grilled Bronzini fish, pasta with pumpkin and ricotta. We did eat a fair amount of pasta, but it wasn't what we get here in the states. The sauces were usually very light and not always with tomatoes. Amazingly none of us gained weight. We would have a good breakfast and then about 2:30 we had "linner" (our word for lunch and dinner combo) then back at the villa around 7PM we would have another glass of wine and some crackers and cheese. Did I mention that the cheese was marvelous!

Another reason why we didn't put on the pounds was the WALKING that we did. Those charming hill towns involved a lot of walking and very often up and down very steep hills. First we parked the car at the bottom of the town in big parking lots. No cars allowed in town except for residents. Then we would hike up to the town and within the town there was more walking and more hills. Made for good calorie burning.

Oh how I lusted over the Italian pottery! So many pretty designs, shapes and colors. I wanted it all, but I demonstrated great restraint and only bought one coffee mug from this collection. It is hand painted and signed by the artist and should play very happily with my other blue and white mugs.

I will come back tomorrow or the next day and show you some pix of the villa.