It's a tough call to say what my favorite day of our trip was, since we did so many exciting things. As for favorite moments, this photo captures the essence of one of the very best. We were headed out of Tuscany on the way to a town called Orvieto, where we had reserved a room for the evening. The day in Tuscany had been amazing...everything I would have hoped for and more, so I was already feeling euphoric. We'd been observing some awesome clouds throughout the second half of our day, but they were always in the distance, providing a dramatic view, but no rain, for which we were thankful. Just as we left the Tuscan region we began to smell rain in the air. I always love the fresh smell of rain, but the scent of rain in the Tuscan hill country, after a day of fun and adventure, with the windows down and the late afternoon sun beginning to cast everything in gold quickly made it's way to the top of my list of favorite moments in the whole trip.The experience of driving in Italy (or riding anyway) was an adventure in itself, and we spent more time laughing on that day than any other I think. David did a great job as the wheel man, and the rest of us thouroughly enjoyed taking our turns at navigating.
At the beginning of the morning we purchased an atlas for Tuscany, and cracked it open, expecting to find road names and mileage notations, but finding instead a not so helpful relief map of the Italian countryside. A review of our trusty Rick Steve's book confirmed that, no, we had not bought a bum map...in Italy the roads are rarely marked with road names, but rather a plethora of signs pointing in the direction of various cities. You travel from round-about to round-about, frantically scanning what at times can be 30-40 signs to tell you which direction to take next. It's like connect the dots, and the Tuscan atlas became more useful as we figured out the method to the madness of Italian driving. We were able to identify the towns between where we were and where we wanted to be, and away we went.The first town we hit was San Gamignano, a town with many of its historic towers still intact. It's at the top of a large hill, and the views of the surrounding countryside are really spectacular. David and Daniel tackled the stairs to the top of one of the towers and got some great photos, which I will add to this post as soon as I get them from David. Cars are not allowed in the old part of the city, and the whole town is very charming. I would love to return there one day to spend a couple of days relaxing and enjoying the views.
The next stop for us was Montalcino. By the time we reached this town, we had seen plenty of incredible countryside and we were very ready for lunch! Unfortunately for us, it was after 2pm (a.k.a 14:00), and we discovered that these small Italian towns don't have restaraunts that stay open all afternoon. Fortunately for us, we then discovered a fortress with a "snack bar" of sorts that was open, and we ended up having a really fun meal which began with a tasting of local olive oils, and ended with a tasting of local honeys.
Our next target was Montepulciano, but we were running out of time before we were due to check in at our hotel in Orvieto, so we had to just drive through that town. The actual drive between these towns was reported to be fantastic, and it did not disappoint.
The only disappointment was that we didn't have more time to enjoy it. I truly hope we will be able to return one day and emerse ourselves in Tuscany for an extended time.As for Orvieto, it was another happy surprise, with the hotel turning out to be a nice place to rest (with a very decent bathroom) at a reasonable price, and with the old part of the town at the top of a plateau above the modern city. It was in Orvieto that I had the best gelato of the trip (stratchiatella, of course!) I would revisit Orvieto just for the gelato, but the old town square and the cathedral were very quaint as well. We were there on a Friday, and it was wonderful for us to sit and watch the local children run around and around the square while their parents enjoyed gelato and friendly conversation in the cool evening. This was one of the rare (and appreciated) times I really felt that we had escaped tourist Italy and entered authentic Italy. (Not that tourist Italy is anything to complain about!)
Following a restful night of sleep in Orvieto we headed for the airport in Rome to return our rental car and experience Rome...some of that was covered in previous posts, and I'll probably add more detail later, but for now, ciao.
