Day 13: Parma-San Quirico d'Orcia
Warm and sunny again this morning.....the drive from Parma to Florence on the autostrada takes just over two hours. The only scenic part is over the mountains between Bologna and Florence....the Po Valley is very flat with a lot of light industry along the road. The GPS tries to take us through the heart of Florence (we are picking Seth and Kerensa up at the Piazza Santa Croce) but I opt for the less stressful ring road around the "centro storico". We pull up right on the piazza, make contact with them, bring down their luggage (Seth does a great job of stuffing the bags in the trunk) and start out for southern Tuscany.
We decide to take the Via Chiantigiana, the scenic road through the wine country. We make a number of stops for photo opportunities (the scenery is truly beautiful)
and then visit a Slow Food-affiliated market in the piazza in Greve. We taste honey, cheese, biscotti, culatello and wine and Seth has a wonderful time chatting up the exhibitors with his fluent and colloquial Italian.
Next stop is Panzano; we are too late to visit the "mad Tuscan butcher"--Dario Cecchini--but we have a pleasant light lunch in the wine bar on the main square. Two more stops--one for superior gelato at the gelateria in Castellina in Chianti--
and another at the Villa Casalecchi where we miss both the manager (Umberto) and friends from Washington D.C. who are staying there. After a short look around the property, we continue on to San Quirico d'Orcia. The scenery changes dramatically once south of Siena....the gentle hills with few trees and endless vistas (my favorite landscape in all of Italy--I tend to overuse the phrase "impossibly beautiful" to describe it) and we are soon entering the narrow Porta Cappuccini into the village of San Quirico d'Orcia.
Jonathan, Lisa, Michael and Monica arrive from Rome just as we are checking in. They have stopped in Orvieto for lunch, sightseeing and shopping. We have a nice reunion, flowers her birthday are presented to Diana and we unload the luggage in the guesthouse of the Palazzo del Capitano--the Casa Camaldoli--where we are all staying. We have four of the five rooms in the guesthouse....and there is a roof terrace and a living area for us to congregate in.
I take Seth and Michael on a short walk around the village.....it doesn't take too long to see the main street, the formal garden, the rose garden and the view over the walls. After the others rest for a while, we all gather on the roof deck to talk, enjoy the view and to try some wine and cheese.
We have reservations for dinner at Il Tinaio, our favorite restaurant from our stay in San Quirico d'Orcia last year. The place is almost empty on this Sunday night but we have an excellent meal...highlights are the bistecca fiorentina shared by three of the group, the sweet and sour onions and the Tuscan antipasti. We drink an excellent rosso di Montalcino and many desserts are shared by the group.
After dinner, some go right to bed, Lisa and I go for a walk around the village and others go up to the roof deck to admire the night sky and the stars. Tomorrow we plan to visit Pienza and have lunch with our Swedish friend Ulf.
We decide to take the Via Chiantigiana, the scenic road through the wine country. We make a number of stops for photo opportunities (the scenery is truly beautiful)
and then visit a Slow Food-affiliated market in the piazza in Greve. We taste honey, cheese, biscotti, culatello and wine and Seth has a wonderful time chatting up the exhibitors with his fluent and colloquial Italian.
Next stop is Panzano; we are too late to visit the "mad Tuscan butcher"--Dario Cecchini--but we have a pleasant light lunch in the wine bar on the main square. Two more stops--one for superior gelato at the gelateria in Castellina in Chianti--
and another at the Villa Casalecchi where we miss both the manager (Umberto) and friends from Washington D.C. who are staying there. After a short look around the property, we continue on to San Quirico d'Orcia. The scenery changes dramatically once south of Siena....the gentle hills with few trees and endless vistas (my favorite landscape in all of Italy--I tend to overuse the phrase "impossibly beautiful" to describe it) and we are soon entering the narrow Porta Cappuccini into the village of San Quirico d'Orcia.
Jonathan, Lisa, Michael and Monica arrive from Rome just as we are checking in. They have stopped in Orvieto for lunch, sightseeing and shopping. We have a nice reunion, flowers her birthday are presented to Diana and we unload the luggage in the guesthouse of the Palazzo del Capitano--the Casa Camaldoli--where we are all staying. We have four of the five rooms in the guesthouse....and there is a roof terrace and a living area for us to congregate in.
I take Seth and Michael on a short walk around the village.....it doesn't take too long to see the main street, the formal garden, the rose garden and the view over the walls. After the others rest for a while, we all gather on the roof deck to talk, enjoy the view and to try some wine and cheese.
We have reservations for dinner at Il Tinaio, our favorite restaurant from our stay in San Quirico d'Orcia last year. The place is almost empty on this Sunday night but we have an excellent meal...highlights are the bistecca fiorentina shared by three of the group, the sweet and sour onions and the Tuscan antipasti. We drink an excellent rosso di Montalcino and many desserts are shared by the group.
After dinner, some go right to bed, Lisa and I go for a walk around the village and others go up to the roof deck to admire the night sky and the stars. Tomorrow we plan to visit Pienza and have lunch with our Swedish friend Ulf.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home