Florence, Italy

I cried when I saw the statue of David in the museum. He is so beautiful.  It's breathtaking to see him.  I didn't want to leave.  I just wanted to watch him.

Yeah, Yeah Yeah....there was a bridge (Ponte Vecchio), there was a church (Cathedral of Sant Maria del Fiore), renaissance paintings, museums galore, and architecture.

 

Volterra, Tuscany

Another day, another medieval hill-top, walled city. We intended to go to San Gimignano because everyone said we should go.  Well we arrived and couldn't find a parking place and there crowds of people.  So we scrapped that plan to find a road less traveled.  That road lead us to Volterra.
 

Volterra is a beautiful medieval town with lots of historical buildings like a Roman theater, cathedral and town hall palace. One family built and lived in this city so there is lots of family history and, of course, lots of churches. The streets were wide with lots of room to walk and shop.  We found it a delightful city with fewer crowds and a calmer atmosphere.

Rick always seeks out the gelateria wherever we go. Well he found the best one in town as there was a line to get a treat all day long.  The line was worth standing in as the gelato was superb.  Gusto Gelateria was rated as the best gelato in Tuscany for two years running.  Rick was very happy.

Here is our selfie for the day.  We had a beautiful background of Volterra.  

Montalcino, Tuscanny

Today we set off to see Montalcino (Tuscany) which is a lovely medieval town on the top of a hill with charming historical buildings and an impressive fortress.  This area is famous for its "Brunello" wine. This is about an hour south of where we are staying.
 

After climbing a billion stairs and walking up steep hills we reached the top of the hill and were rewarded with a  spectacular view.  It was threating rain, as you can see, the sky was looking dark and ominous.  Tuscany has had little rain this summer.  I am sure this a welcomed sight for the locals.  We tourists would rather have sunshine.  But we put on our raincoats and had a great day.

Of course, there were several churches in Montalcino complete with roman facades, bell towers, stained glass and fancy alters.  We tried to eat lunch at one of the local spots but they were all full and had waiting lines.  Not our favorite thing.  So we proceeded down the hill to head to Montepulciano and find a lunch spot.

Once again we wandered into a fabulous restaurant: "La Babarossa Travern". So quaint and Italian we couldn't believe our good fortune. So here comes the food porn as my friend Irene would call it....

Every restaurant serves a bag of bread to start the meal.  We find this so funny because the bags are all crumpled up and are full of crusty, delicious bread.  We also get a bottle of water and of course we got to try the famous Brunello wine. The wine was soooo good.  We have never had wine from this grape variety before and we have been missing out! We got a bottle to take with us.

Rick had a pasta dish with spicy sausage and onions which was very spicy.  I had Gnudi, ricotta and spinach dumplings, with racket cherry-Tomatoes and pecorino. The meal was so good, the place was so quaint and romantic and the view was spectacular.  We really didn't want to leave. 

By now it was raining cats and dogs.  We gave up our plans to go to Montepulciano and drove home in the pouring rain. 

Here's our selfie for the day.

Sovicille, Tuscany

We rented a VRBO in Toiana in the Sovicille area. It is a tiny village (that's being generous!) 10 Km outside of Siena. It's a little farm house with incredible views. It is quiet and comfortable.  We needed a little R&R from our tourism and this is the perfect place for it.

It took us a while to find this little hide-away from the turn off at Siena.  The area is full of  little, winding, country roads. Our host gave us directions but they were a little vague. 

I never knew farm country could be so beautiful.  This is the view from our front yard.  Yes, that is a vineyard in the foreground.  Our little house is surrounded by olive trees, rosemary bushes, mint bushes and flowers.  We even have a pool.  Although it is too cold to get into.

We checked in and headed for the grocery store. Their stores are like the ones in the US except everything is in Italian. The produce is so much fresher than we get in Bonaire.  It is really nice to eat tomatoes that have not been refrigerated. We have learned to weigh all our produce and use the scale to get a sticky tag with the price to place on our bag of veggies.  The prices for food are much lower than Bonaire.

We wanted to get out of the heat in Bonaire so we traveled to Europe.  But it is getting cold here in Tuscany.  I saw snow on the surrounding mountains and its going to be 40 degrees tonight. Brrrrrrrrrrrr

 

Siena

Siena is another walled city with crazy churches. It is a mess to drive up to the walled city with curvy roads and bad directions from Google maps.  We we finally parked and walked into the city. This medieval city boasts one of the most ornate, over the top decorated churches we have ever seen.  Once again our pictures and descriptions do not do it justice.

Once you walk into a small plaza, this church jumps into sight.  It takes your breath away.  Every inch is covered with filigree, gold, paintings and rick-rack.

We had business to conduct in Siena.  First we found a hair cut for Rick.  He spoke no English and we spoke no Italian.  So with some waving of arms, pointing and laughing Rick got a hair cut.  They were nice enough to take a walk in and one minute wait turned into an hour to get the hair cut. The hair cut was $20 which included a shampoo. 

Our second task was to find the bus station and buy tickets to Florence. We were able to accomplish this mission easily. Now we are all set for our trip to Florence on Tuesday.

Eating and drinking is always a priority with us.  We always try to seek out a quiet place for lunch.  The tourist crowd frequent the sidewalk cafes in the plazas.  We, on the other hand, seek out places on non-crowded streets.  We found a great restaurant that is called an Osteria.  We think it means farm to table and local products. We always know we chose right when there are locals eating. We thought this restaurant had only a few tables.  However, we discovered that they had three dining rooms.  We were there with only one other table of diners. They must do a big dinner crowd.  We had a great lunch with Chianti wine.  You don't need to choose wine at the restaurants.  You identify if you want bianca or rosso and they bring you a glass of local wine. We always try the tiramisu.

Another church caught our eye as we were leaving the city. Siena is a walking city for all but the residents.  Only those that live within the wall can drive in the city with a permit, of course.  Touring the city requires long steep stairs, uphill climbs, and slanted plazas.  However, this city has signs with arrows that point the way to landmarks. Once you find your way in, its easy to get out.

 

Modena, Italy

In Italy, every town, village, and turn in the road has a church or ten.  Modena is no exception.  It's a small town with a big central square and not too many people. My sister Nancy, calls it traveling closer to the ground.  We call it one off.

This is the inside of one of the cathedrals in Modena.

We visited Modena because we saw a cooking show called   "Somebody Feed Phil" and it featured balsamic vinegar tasting.  So we checked it out.   

We popped into one of the tasting stores.  A nice young woman educated us about balsamic vinegars and let us taste all of the ones she had including the holy grail of balsamic...her words. 

They all tasted different and they were all fantastic.  We settled on two to purchase and take with us to our VRBO in Tuscany.

                                   

Modena has some crazy architecture and the buildings are painted bright Easter egg colors.  This building caught my eye because of the gargoyles holding up the third floor balcony on this five story house.

Our travel to Tuscany was on the highway with thousands of semi trucks traveling along with us.  Everyone is going 130 km which is the speed limit.  Its pretty scary driving a little Fiat next to trucks and cars speeding along.  My expert driver, Rick, did a fine job getting us through Bologna, Florence and Siena on our way to our place in Toiano.

                                                                                 

Soave, Italy

Soave is an ancient walled city with a castle.  The entire valley is covered with vineyards, olive trees and tiny villages. We came here because a restaurant owner in Bonaire who imports wine told us about Monte Tondo wine and the agriturismo.  It is also on the way to Tuscany where we are eventually headed. 

The view from the castle is so beautiful.  The overlook is of Soave and the valley below. 
 

We rented this cute Fiat in Venice to drive through Italy.  You can drive 130 kmh on the highway. There are toll roads every so often which require some patience to get through and to learn how to pay. But we figured it out and have spent two days in this beautiful valley.

We stayed in the agriturismo at Monte Tondo. Agriturismo's are B&B's at vineyards and agriculture concerns throughout Italy.  The are well kept and nice hotels and many are for $80 or less a night.  Ours has a swimming pool (too cold to swim in) and is set in the middle of the vineyard.   We also did a wine tour and tasting.

This is food porn for everyone.  We sometimes have no idea what we are ordering but we have had really good food. We often have Cichettis (Italian form of Tapas) with wine for dinner. We have managed to drink wine at every lunch, dinner and snack time. 

Our next stop is Tuscany. We have rented a farm house in the country and will visit surrounding areas like Sienna, Florence, Modena and smaller communities.

Murano and leaving Venice

 

We had little luck in learning to ride the water bus in Venice until our last day.  We got on a water bus that traveled all around San Marco Island before it went to Murano. It was an hour bus ride when Murano is just 10 minutes away. We had tried many times to use the water buses but we always managed to get on a different one than we wanted.  We finally got the right one on our return to Venice.

Venice was crazy crowded. Murano was a laid back island and very calm and quite.  We understand that is an unusual thing but we went on a weekday instead of the weekend.  We really enjoyed a break from the activity of San Marco island. We shopped, had lunch and strolled the town.

Murano is known for its blown glass creations.  There are workshops scattered around the island. Every store has blown glass.  This one had blown glass balloons which I thought were cool.  

We saw some fabulous creations.  We couldn't buy anything because they can't ship to Bonaire and we had no room in our bags.

Our last night in Venice, we found this little restaurant that was situated on a triangle of terrace hidden away from the street.  Our table was two inches from the edge and right on the canal. Very private and very romantic.  We had a fabulous meal of seafood and pasta. We had finished a bottle of Prosecco before dinner so we had a Bellini and a Spritz (Aperol and fizzy water). Yes, I know its hard to believe, but we were "wined out" for the day.

Leaving Venice was hard. We had such a good time and just loved the city. We had a great hotel, lots of good food and gelato.  We saw great sights and walked all the streets.  Rick's navigation skills are tremendous. Venice is like a maze and without Google maps we would have been lost.

Time to move on. We rented a car at the Venice airport and headed west.  Our next stop is Soave and a stay at the winery.