How much wine can you drink, and still find your seat on the bus?

Today was amazing. After a bit of an early start, the bus loaded with our bags as we said good-bye to Forte de Marmi and headed towards Rome, we had no idea just how amazing the day would become.

After a couple of hours on the bus we arrived at San Gimignano - a beautiful old towered city called the Manhattan of Italy. Manhattan should be humbled. This is a gorgeous hillside town with wonderful shops and cafés, churches we didn't explore, fabulous architecture and so many astonishing views that my iPhone camera almost couldn't keep up. Wow is the only word that comes to mind.

And I haven't even told you about the GELATO! Our morning surprise was a coupon for gelato at a shop that won a competition in 2024 for the world's best gelato. Obviously they are maintaining their standards. I had a combination of chocolate and raspberry with rosemary. Yummy to the max. I opted for a cup rather than a cone, so that I wouldn't lose a drop of this delight.

The rest of the time was spent wandering from view to view and eventually enjoying a capuccino at a small café before the group had to move on.

Next stop was lunch and wine-tasting. Those simple words do not begin to describe an incredible feast with a wine to match each course: antipasto with white wine, the best lasagna I've ever tasted and it melted in the mouth with a lovely red wine, and beef cooked in red wine and pepper, served with delicous potatoes and fresh baby peas, served with yet another superb red wine. By that time I was pretty much maxed out on alcohol but didn't stumble once on the way out. I almost forgot abuot the biscotti served with a dessert wine for dunking the biscotti. Climbing onto the bus held more of a challenge than it had when we first departed the hotel.

This incredible feast was followed by a long bus drive, the time mostly passed by napping. When one did look out the window it was like being in a living image of stereotypical Tuscany. Except, it was the real thing.

Eventually we got to the Hotel Adoro in Rome and were served a light supper of Panzanella, spelt salad with feta and vegetables, and the cloud-light cheesecake with raspberry coulis. If I never had another decent meal I'd still be happy. There was a bit of a mixup upon arrival at the hotel so our light dinner was accompanied by some complimentary Prosecco. Tough job but we did our best.

Now settled in fabulous rooms, we have called it a day. I'm too tired to add photos so please check back later when I've added some to this post.

Tomorrow it's off to the Vatican with all its splendours. 

We leaned into the day

Another bright sunny day, not too hot and not too windy. Perfect - as we're starting to expect. We set out in our trusty coach, driven by our handsome driver Giacomo and arrived in Pisa before the main crowds descended. This time we didn't have to walk into "town" as we did in Florence, but took our own little train on wheels to the edge of the market area. It was a short stroll along the city wall until we saw the Piazza of Miracles. Therein we found the baptistry, the cathedral and that famous tower.

I have no idea how this perspective came to be. The angle of the tower is wrong and 
the baptistry on the left, while having a slight tilt, is not trying to be like the tower.

We me our guide Ricardo and were not only kept informed of all the history we needed, but also kept laughing all the time. He hates Florence and uses every opportunity to say so, in so many ways. Whether or not that's how he really feels about the nearby city, he does love Pisa.

Ricardo keeping us amused and educated simultaneously

As usual the cathedral and its various components took a long time to build, using the almost local carrera marble, and other stones. It's quite a wonder all to itself.

In case you needed proof that I really was there

Only a few of our group actually climbed the 294 steps to the top. It's a circular staircase, sloped of course, worn steps and no banister. I was not among the few as my hip was very direct in its objections. So, I stay on the flat, wandered down the local street with three other tour members, and had a fabulous lunch at La Bottega (I think). That limoncello was definitely NOT a mocktail. We blamed the later staggering on the cobblestones.

But the best was yet to come. After gathering at our designated meeting point, we completed a short walk to the stop where we were met by our favourite blue wheeled train, and driven to our waiting coach. It was about a 40-minute drive to paradise. This place was the way I imagine Tuscany to be. The property was hilly, had a fabulous yellow home with green shutters, and was surrounded by walkways lined with roses and other flowers, vineyards, olive grove and personal market garden.

As if that wasn't enough, we sat down to a feast of olive oil, focaccia, focaccia with tomato sauce, all kinds of savoury treats that I don't recall the names of, a sort of fruit punch, water and more or less all the wine we could drink. Hey - my limoncello hadn't even worn off yet! The feast was topped off with a dessert wine into which we dipped our biscotti which were called something else, maybe cannotti? or not!

I could not resist buy some of their olive oil, and someone in the group got and shared the recipe for their fabulous dish, referred to as soup, but more like an amazing dip that was AMAZING on bread dipped in olive oil. 

We were then driven, reluctantly, back to our hotel where dinner was served a couple of hours later. This is our last of four nights at the Hotel Atlantico, and while it's very clean and the food was good, I won't miss the tiny room and the shower in which the water temperature varied from very hot to very chilly about every 15 seconds. The floor of the shower had ridges which didn't keep it from being slippery, and the shower itself was not spacious. 

Tomorrow we head to Rome and a new set of adventures. We've been promised some fun stops along the way.

11 kms today - and my legs think my watch has understated the distance covered

Back at the hotel after the longest walking day yet, I'll try to stay awake to complete this post. I took the elevator to the 1st floor instead of the stairs when we got back. I could not manage one more step up. In case you don't know, the ground floor here is 0, and so I am on what we would call the 2nd floor but here it is the first floor.

Our rooms here are tiny, have no kettle and thus no supplies for coffee or tea, no place to put my suitcase other than in front of the little closet. The rod in the closet is so high I can barely reach up to put the hangers on the rod. But it's very clean and I have a balcony. I leave the balcony door open at night to get some fresh air because it's supposed to be too early for mosquitoes. It's not. I had one mozzie join me this morning, but I'm happy to say his life indoors was short.

The food here is pretty good and finally the portions are not huge. There is great coffee in the morning and steamed milk that keeps it hot, and of course, tasty. I'll try not to take a croissant at breakfast tomorrow.

We are on staying on the coast and Florence/Firenze is inland. It was at least a 90 minute coach ride to the parking lot where tour coaches can drop off their passengers - for the measly sum of €600!!! Yes - two zeroes. That's just to drop us off, and the same again to pick us up. I'll try not to complain about parking charges at home.

We had a long walk to the place we met our local guide. Michael has more knowledge about Florence and its history in his head, that the average encyclopedia. And my "whisper," or headset, was only working intermittently so I didn't hear everything he had to say. We had a two and a half hour walking tour during which I took my usual overload of photos. They are currently uploading so I hope to have some to put in this post before I call it a day. 

The wine window. During the plague you could place your order and receive your wine via one of these windows on the street. I wonder if they were reopened during Covid.

On the Ponte Vecchio - jewellery stores
 selling some very lovely and very expensive baubles. The
little round windows allowed light into the corridor used
by the Medicis to move between their homes and "offices"
without having to mix with the common folk.

This art installation has something to do with climate change.
If you figure it out, please let me know.

You can look up all that history for yourself. I focussed on the architecture. The streets are narrow and at first I thought it was a pedestrian-only area. Nope! Watch out for cars and bicyles and loaded hand carts. They won't stop for you, so you have to get out of their way. The streets and plazas and every location in sight were all very crowded. It's not even tourist season quite yet but you could have fooled me.

After the guided tour. during which we learned about so many interesting buildings and landmarks, we headed to the huge indoor market which would have been worth a visit in itself. However, we had lunch in mind and the location was new to Approach tours. It's soon to be a bad memory. We had three tiny samples of meat served in tiny paper cups similar to those used to dispense medication in hospitals at home. Our guide asked for bread and we got some. They did provide bottles of water - some still and some fizzy. So that we didn't go hungry, Sandra and Francesca ordered pizzas for us to share. We had passed some lovely looking restaurants on our trek to the upstairs gallery in the market. Maybe next time they'll be part of the tour instead of the weird offerings we had.

We had the option after lunch of a tour of the Uffizzi Gallery, along with thousands of our dearest foreign friends, or free time to wander. We wandered back to the Ponte Vechhio where I purchased a lovely pair of earrings. They were not like the ones I'd been looking for, as a pair similar to what I wanted, cost €734 or close to $1,000 CAD. Call me cheap, but I settled for lovely pair of twisted oval hoops in 9K gold. I suppose the high cost of gold is fine if you have purchased some in place of stock, but my budget does not stretch to 24 Carat or even just 18K.

This purchase was followed by a celebratory gelato. Mine was a combo of dark chocolate and peanut.

We wandered slowly back to the square with the statue of David, which is only one of many many statues in that location. Each one has a story. Sadly, I recall very little. I do recall that the statue of David is not the original, but a lifesize copy. 

We still had a little time to kill and did so happily with Lattes for two of us and a beer for the other. Choices will not be attributed to the individual participants. But mine had caffeine, just fyi.

Then it was time to meet the guides for our walk back to the bus. We did so at a pretty steady pace on very tired legs. It took half an hour. Nothing looked as good as our bus with the doors open for boarding. The drive back included some rush hour traffice but we weren't in a hurry. The scenery was lovely.

All the homes seem to be made of concrete and painted either beige, yellow or light salmon. Here and there are some old stone houses. I wonder if those are the only options so that the common perception of a Tuscan landscape remains unblemished. 

Dinner was nice but I was not hungry and ate little. I've done my laundry and am about to tuck myself in for the night. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain overnight and my things are dry in the morning. We do have one more night here so it won't be too much bother if they are still damp.

Here are a couple of other sights:

A portion of the cathedral

A view of part of the enormous cathedral, whose name I don't recall but
it was dedicated to Mary and something about a flower.

Three happy travellers on the Ponte Vecchio

Cinque terre - but we only visited two of them

Our day started very early and I almost missed it. My alarm didn't wake me up but I managed to slap myself together and join the group for breakfast at 6:33. I was only 3 minutes late. I'd set the new alarm time but somehow didn't turn on the alarm on my watch. Ah well, not the first time and won't be the last.

We boarded our bus at 7:30 and headed to La Spezia to catch the ferry. It was about an hour's drive along excellent highways. En route we were still hoping for the rain not to materialize. The forecast wasn't very promising. Fortunately for us, the forecasts here are just as speculative as those at home, and just as (in)accurate. The rain that could have spoiled our day consisted of approximately 3 drops. Then the sun came out and stayed. The high temperature was supposed to be 19C but it got up to 25C. 

Along the highway, our guide pointed out the mountains that are made of Carrera marble. It was cloudy at the time and the marble was not easily seen. However, on the drive home late in the afternoon, we did get a good view.

That's marble in the mountains, not snow

When our bus dropped us off at La Spezia, our terrific guide, Francesca, was first in line to buy our tickets and as a result we were the first group in line to board. It was worth the wait to get the best seats on the top level of the boat, on the side closer to land. This meant that we could get unobstructed views of the coastline. I'm not sure how many photos I took and choosing one or two for this post was difficult.

After about 90 minutes we arrived at Vernazza and disembarked via a moving gangplank between the boat and the land. There really wasn't a dock but all went well as we gathered around our "guiding flag" to learn where to go and what to do. To say Vernazza is hilly is to understate reality. Not only is it hilly, to get to your home if you live there, means climbing stairs, a lot of stairs. 

Almost everyone made the trek up the stone steps to the viewpoint offering a 360 degree view, which somewhat offset the difficulty of the climb. Thankfully there were handrails almost everywhere with only a few gaps. The views from the top were breathtaking.

The trip back down was much less taxing. We did a bit more wandering among the souvenir stalls and along the street lined with cafés and various shops. Overhead, residents were hanging their washing out the windows above the mass of humanity below. It's hard to believe this is not yet tourist season. I'm very grateful we beat the crowd, although it's hard to imagine more humans fighting for space to walk around.

From Vernazza, we once more boarded a ferry to Monterosso, a relatively flat village. Instead of stairs you were merely walking on inclines less steep than in the neighbouring village. We had time to enjoy a lovely lunch at L'Osteria and then wander through the tunnel to the train station for our return to La Spezia. 

The train trip took less than half an hour and was mostly in tunnels through the mountains. Our coach and driver (bus with Giacomo at the wheel) awaited our arrival. The drive back was smooth and I'm very grateful our driver was so skilled. Driving a large coach around a small roundabout requires skill. 

This evening we dined at the hotel and are now relaxing before calling it a day. The photos have not yet uploaded from my phone, so I'll have to add them later. In other words, tomorrow morning. 

We've arrived in Tuscany

Today was moving day, from Relais Corte Cavillari, a spa hotel amidst vineyards, to Hotel Atlantico on the Mediterranean coast at Forte de Marmi.

Our first stop today was at a Parmesan cheese factory and boy was there a lot to learn about parmigiano reggiano. It's a very labour intensive process involving great care at all stages, including after the "wheels" of cheese have been formed. They don't all age exactly the same even from the same batch. They are turned at specific intervals and the typical outer 'crust' is formed. Then they are moved to the storage area where they are aged and inspected for quality. The marking placed on the wheels indicates the level of quality. 

Then we got to taste 12 yr old, 24 yr old and 36 yr old parmesan. But that's not all. There were parmesan crackers, fresh ricotta which was a taste to die for, prosciutto, mortadella and salami, small flat buns that almost looked like pancakesk, and classic balsamic vinegar. You had all you could eat of all of those things and the accompanying beverages were sparking red wine and prosecco. Oh yes, there was water if you wanted any. We did make some purchases of the wine and vinegar and various other tasty offerings. 

Then it was off on the bus again with our first stop being to learn about the production of balsamic vinegar. I blush to admit that what I use at home is not the original traditional Balsamic Vinegar. That has only one ingredient - grapes. There are 30 producers in a consortium and they all use the same white and black grapes, but in unique percentage combinations. The producer where we were uses 80% white and 20% black grapes. Sadly I can't recall the names of the varieties. The traditional vinegar is aged at least 12 years before it is tested. If it fails, it's back to the casks for another year or more. The casks are of five different types of wood and always reused and never cleaned. The woods are: Juniper, oak, cherry and two others I don't recall. While aging the opening in the cask is covered by a piece of white cotton to keep out dust. The aging takes place "upstairs" where it is warmer and the weather plays a huge role in how it ages. 

The tasting was an eye opener. We first tried some 5-year old non-traditional vinegar that uses only white grapes. Delicious. That was followed by the 8 year old version which was a bit thicker and more golden in colour. Even better. Then came the usual black varieties and each was better than the last. Wow. I don't think I'll ever splurge on the traditional type as it is VERY expensive. 

Roadside homage to wine country

After making our purchases, it was a longish bus ride to our new residence for the next four nights. The hotel is on the coast and I have a view of the sea from my balcony. The single rooms are petite, to say the least. We've become accustomed to large hotel rooms with lots of amenities. This hotel scores points for location and cleanliness, but spacious is not a word one could ever use for the single rooms. I don't know about the rooms where people are sharing. 

Dinner is at 7:30 this evening and unlike the previous hotels, shorts are not permitted in the dining room. I hope the meals are a step up from the last location where we had no choices and the options were OK but couldn't hold a candle to what we enjoyed at the Bristol Hotel near Venice. 

Tomorrow we are off to Cinque Terre and the weather forecast is not promising. It will be on the cool side with rain forecast for most of the time we'll spend there. The bus will take us to the boat which will take us to one of the five towns, and a train will get us to another of them. We'll be free to wander and will be given 'lunch money' to spend on a midday meal. 

What's a little rain among travelling friends

A must on any vacation is a rain jacket and umbrella. Today that proved true as we set out towards the town of Sirmione on Lake Garda. It didn't actually start raining until we were on the bus but then it didn't let up for a long time. 

The coach dropped us off at the parking lot and we found out later that such drop-offs and later pick-ups must be scheduled and cost €45 each time. If the coach(bus) decides to stay it will cost €60 per hour. Yikes and I thought parking in Ottawa was expensive. 

Anyway, appropriately garbed we set out towards the area where we'd have a couple of hours to wander around. There were a few options and our first was to find a nice dry coffee shop, and as luck would have it we found one. There we enjoyed our specialty coffee and shared pistachio cannoli. Yum. 

But it was still raining. We wandered on narrow streets, making sure to stay to the right edge because cars are allowed. There were high-end clothing stores, jewellery stores and more than enough souvenir shops. We all resisted the temptations and kept walking.

And along the way we enjoyed the interesting architecture but above all the views we had of Lake Garda.

Our little troup reunited at 11:45 for a boat ride on the lake. The rain stopped, the seats in the boat were dried off, well, not really to the point of being dry but at least we weren't sitting in puddles. Then off we went, to the sounds of music we all enjoyed. Loud music. To the point where my watch gave a warning that I was in a Loud Environment!!

The sun came out and we had some lovely views as we cruised around, stopping to see the bubbles from geothermal "springs" under the water, castles and forests, and snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Once back on dry land, we followed our guide's flag on a bit of a hike, to our lunchtime pizza restaurant where we each chose a personal pizza which was quite large but mercifully had a very thin crust. My personal choice was ham and mushroom. Mmmm good. Our beverage was a choice of a small beer, a glass of wine, or a soft drink. I found the "small beer" to be excellent and indeed it was small.

Following lunch we boarded our trusty coach and headed for a surprise. Along the way we passed an amusement park, Gardaland - that's a reference to the area not the Irish police. The guide tried to convince us that a ride on a huge roller coaster was our surprise. We didn't believe her. The bus drove on and we ended up at a winery where we learned a bit of the history of that vineyard and the types of grapes they grow. This was followed by a tasting of their rosé, Benni. It was delicious, delightful and served nice and cold. Some of our group bought various bottles of their wine, but I declined.

We are now enjoying a rest, having walked only a little more than 8000 steps today. My feet are grateful. It was time to relax and unwind and get ready for dinner at 7.

This is a beautiful spa hotel but the dinner last night was disappointing. The salad was minimal and I just skipped it. I can get iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and grated carrots anytime I want them at home. The pasta course was tortellini - ho hum and the entrée was tough chicken, barely cooked potatoes in some sort of tasteless sauce. Dessert was good - tiramisu but obviously thawed and probably not made on site. Maybe tonight they'll do better.