I teased this a little about two weeks ago, but now we're here and ready to talk about a little road trip that we took. The plan was simple: Get a place to stay near Florence (but not in Florence), have a good old-fashioned Italian farmhouse meal, and drive around Tuscany, mainly looking for hill towns.
In practice, it was at least that simple - maybe simpler.
You can't end up in a bad place. Everywhere is beautiful, even if it was a little hazy at times. It was February 28 when we left, so it was supposed to be cold, but we were going south without much knowledge of the elevation at-play on this trip. Our first stop answered some questions.
A sign on the highway pointed toward a (maybe) national park of the lakes Suviana and Brasimone. I don't know which on this actually is, but it was beautiful. We had a nice time tossing rocks into the lake and watching the ice spider-web. Quite a setting.
We hopped back in the car, periodically pulling over to take photos, and made our way to San Gimignano. Before you walk into the main gate of the city, here's the standard Tuscan-view.
The town itself is famous for having about a dozen still-standing medieval defense towers. That and it's entirely car-free in the middle of town, so you really feel like you've gone back in time a bit - extra remarkable if it's one of your first stops in Europe.
Back in the car. Next stop, our Agriturismo. It's called I Viticci and they were lovely. They appeared to have olive oil production onsite and according to their site they produce wine, olive oil, jam and honey - all of which were displayed and available for us guests. We had an absolutely ridiculous 5-course meal: an appetizer plate, a pasta plate, bread, a meat-plate, and a dessert plate, plus all the bottled water and bottled wine we could want. It was awesome.
The only downside was that we had about 90 seconds of hot water in our shower. It was supposed to get fixed, and we mentioned it, and they said it was fixed, but no such luck.
The next morning we set off for the most impossible place in the world. Civita di Bagnoregio. It's an earth-island, if that makes any sense. And if it doesn't make sense, here's what I mean.
Everything about this place is insane. Streets end in cliffs, cats roam free, no one seems to live anywhere, and the dirt is freshly fallen on the cliff-sides. It's wonderful. Staring off into the distance seems unlike anywhere else in the country.
But as time ticked away, we got back in the car and headed for our next place. This time we would do a driveby of a town called Orvieto. It also lives on top of a wall of cliffs.
With nowhere to *actually* be but lost that we wanted to see, we just drove. The views across giant rolling-hill-valleys were wonderful, but it was hazy and the photos won't do it justice. We slowly made our way to a place called Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno. Had we taken the direct route, driving between here and Orvieto would've taken about 30 minutes. It took almost two hours instead.
Big castle. On a lake. At sunset. In central Italy. Life was good.
By the time we went back toward our agriturismo, we figured we ought to try seeing Florence lit-up at night.
In practice, it was at least that simple - maybe simpler.
You can't end up in a bad place. Everywhere is beautiful, even if it was a little hazy at times. It was February 28 when we left, so it was supposed to be cold, but we were going south without much knowledge of the elevation at-play on this trip. Our first stop answered some questions.
A sign on the highway pointed toward a (maybe) national park of the lakes Suviana and Brasimone. I don't know which on this actually is, but it was beautiful. We had a nice time tossing rocks into the lake and watching the ice spider-web. Quite a setting.
We hopped back in the car, periodically pulling over to take photos, and made our way to San Gimignano. Before you walk into the main gate of the city, here's the standard Tuscan-view.
The town itself is famous for having about a dozen still-standing medieval defense towers. That and it's entirely car-free in the middle of town, so you really feel like you've gone back in time a bit - extra remarkable if it's one of your first stops in Europe.
Back in the car. Next stop, our Agriturismo. It's called I Viticci and they were lovely. They appeared to have olive oil production onsite and according to their site they produce wine, olive oil, jam and honey - all of which were displayed and available for us guests. We had an absolutely ridiculous 5-course meal: an appetizer plate, a pasta plate, bread, a meat-plate, and a dessert plate, plus all the bottled water and bottled wine we could want. It was awesome.
The only downside was that we had about 90 seconds of hot water in our shower. It was supposed to get fixed, and we mentioned it, and they said it was fixed, but no such luck.
The next morning we set off for the most impossible place in the world. Civita di Bagnoregio. It's an earth-island, if that makes any sense. And if it doesn't make sense, here's what I mean.
Everything about this place is insane. Streets end in cliffs, cats roam free, no one seems to live anywhere, and the dirt is freshly fallen on the cliff-sides. It's wonderful. Staring off into the distance seems unlike anywhere else in the country.
But as time ticked away, we got back in the car and headed for our next place. This time we would do a driveby of a town called Orvieto. It also lives on top of a wall of cliffs.
With nowhere to *actually* be but lost that we wanted to see, we just drove. The views across giant rolling-hill-valleys were wonderful, but it was hazy and the photos won't do it justice. We slowly made our way to a place called Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno. Had we taken the direct route, driving between here and Orvieto would've taken about 30 minutes. It took almost two hours instead.
Big castle. On a lake. At sunset. In central Italy. Life was good.
By the time we went back toward our agriturismo, we figured we ought to try seeing Florence lit-up at night.
Worth it.
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