Day 7: San Quirico
The sky is mixed this morning……lots of clouds but patches of blue visible. I take my morning circuit around San Quirico d’Orcia–walking on the roads inside the wall and then up and down the main street a couple of times, a quick pass through the Horti Leoni and back home–about 35 minutes. When it is sunny and bright, the walk is extremely pleasant…the sun playing on the stone buildings and the beautiful views from the ramparts; when the weather is less clement, the walk is still pleasant.
After breakfast, we make a short drive just outside of town to visit a hotel called Il Poggiolo. It used to be a stagecoach station and is set on a hill with expansive grounds and great views of San Quirico d’Orcia and across the countryside towards Montalcino. We had thought about staying here on this trip….it is only a half a mile from the centro and would have combined being almost in the country with the convenience of being close to town.
We meet Michele, the manager, who is very exuberant…originally from Sicily, had gone to junior high school in New York for two years…and considers himself a "citizen of the world." He is very enthusiastic about Il Poggiolo, which is a large rambling stone building with perhaps 20 apartments and large hotel rooms. It is very "authentic"…..very austere, very little decoration, minimal traditional Tuscan furnishings, lots of public space, nice grounds and a big swimming pool. Here are some pictures from their listing on Tuscany.net.
http://www.tuscany.net/residenza-il-poggiolo/
After a tour of the property and a long, enthusiastic discussion with Michele, I decide that the place–while very special–may not have been the place for us for our ten day stay in San Quirico d’Orcia because I don’t think that it was especially suitable for spending a lot of time, especially when the weather is less than ideal.
By the time we say our goodbyes to Michele, the sun has broken through so we decide to drive over to Montalcino to explore the town (we hadn’t been there during our last few visits to this area) and to have lunch there. The drive to Montalcino passes through the smooth rolling hills covered with fields of grain that are perhaps the greenest green we have ever seen.
We climb up to Montalcino, a real hill town crowned with a large fortress (now an art gallery and enoteca) and park in the next door lot at the top of the town. We stroll through the narrow streets of the center that are lined with numerous wine stores–Montalcino has become a rich town with the growth of the Brunello wine industry over the past fifty years–food shops and tourist-oriented stores. We walk past the museum (in an old church), the duomo (the exterior is not so impressive after its 18th century renovation)
and down to a park that runs on a ridge with dynamite views over southern Tuscany. This is the same park where we had a picnic on our first trip to the area in 1994.
We reach the main street–Via Mazzini–which is lined with a mixture of businesses–shops that serve the Montalcinese, wine and food stores for the tourists and lots of bars and restaurants.
The streets are aligned in such a way that the only views that you get from the town are narrow slices of countryside framed by the narrower streets that run steeply down the hills.
It is now lunch time and it is getting colder. When we happen on the restaurant that Michele had recommended in Montalcino–Re di Macchie–it seems that it is the right place to stop. Re di Macchie is a cozy small place and we have a pleasant lunch…..a mushroom lasagna for me followed by a plate of excellent tomato bruschetta while Diana has tagliatelle with a duck ragu and a very good cheese plate served with honey. We drink a couple of glasses of a Rosso di Montalcino (one of our favorite wines) and enjoy our meal.
After lunch, we walk back up to our car parked at the top of the town–a very steep climb.
We drive south to take a look at a smaller village–San Angelo in Colle–where there are two good restaurants to check out but we opt not to make another climb to the top of another hill town. Since the sun is threatening to break through, we decide to visit the gardens of La Foce–the home of a favorite author of ours, Iris Origo. To get there, we take a very striking "white road" that brings us to the rear of the beautiful abbey of Sant’Antimo and from there we take road after road with striking views that lead us across the base of Mount Amiata to the eastern part of the valley.
Iris Origo was an Anglo-American woman who grew up in the expatriate world of Florence in the early 20th century. She married an Italian nobleman and they bought a large landholding in the Val d’Orcia. At that time, the Val d’Orcia was an agricultural wasteland scarred with erosion–"le crete". They rehabilitated the land by building irrigation systems and using modern agricultural techniques and were able to reshape the whole character of the valley.
Iris Origo was also an author–she wrote a number of well regarded biographies…the best known is "The Merchant of Prato"…as well as an account of her experiences during World War II called "War in the Val d’Orcia". This is the book that originally made us want to visit La Foce. The only part of the estate that is open to the public is the extensive garden that she built with the help of a famous English garden planner–Cecil Pinsent. The garden combines Italian and English styles (disorder and order) and has great views over the valley, including the very famous twisting row of cypresses climbing a nearby hill. These cypresses were in fact planted by Origo and Pinsent to accent the vista from La Foce.
We have been before but are glad to be here again. The tour takes you through the various levels and parts of the garden…at this time of year, the most striking flowers are the purple wisteria that cover the walls…and it is a peaceful spot to enjoy the surroundings, especially since the sun has come out and the day has become almost warm.
We head back to San Quirico d’Orcia by taking the curvy cypress-lined road which is actually pretty poorly maintained and makes for a very bumpy ride. But on the road, we come across a lone deer that runs in front of our car for a short distance. This makes Diana happy because ever since our first trip to Italy, she has admired the signs along many Italian roads that alert drivers to the possiblility of encountering deer. (I’m not sure the picture of the deer on the signs is any more graceful than on American signs, but she is enamoured with most things Italian). In all our visits and in all our drives, this is the first deer that we’ve ever seen. (Unfortunately we weren’t able to take a picture–it all happened too fast). We stop at one point on the dirt road and Diana picks some wild flowers for the vase in the apartment.
I take another stroll around San Quirico before dinner and meet Mandy (from the apartment over the park), her husband and their house guests who are having coffee at the Bar Centrale. We have dinner at Il Ciacco, a newish place right on the main square (which Mandy had recommended) and, of course, we meet them again when they come in for dinner. She had told us that the cook at Il Ciacco was French trained and not from San Quirico so his take on Tuscan cuisine was a little more creative than the other restaurants in town. Dinner was very good and it was apparent that the chef was adding some of his own touches to the menu. Diana had a timbale of potato with a cheese center and roast pork medallions served with an onion confit which she enjoyed very much. I had a more traditional Tuscan antipasto plate, then ravioli with butter and sage and–somewhat different–a stuffed galleta (chicken) dish. The house wine tasted very good and we enjoyed the setting and the meal.
It is a quick walk through quiet San Quirico d’Orcia to our apartment while looking at the sky hoping for signs that tomorrow will be sunny.
After breakfast, we make a short drive just outside of town to visit a hotel called Il Poggiolo. It used to be a stagecoach station and is set on a hill with expansive grounds and great views of San Quirico d’Orcia and across the countryside towards Montalcino. We had thought about staying here on this trip….it is only a half a mile from the centro and would have combined being almost in the country with the convenience of being close to town.
We meet Michele, the manager, who is very exuberant…originally from Sicily, had gone to junior high school in New York for two years…and considers himself a "citizen of the world." He is very enthusiastic about Il Poggiolo, which is a large rambling stone building with perhaps 20 apartments and large hotel rooms. It is very "authentic"…..very austere, very little decoration, minimal traditional Tuscan furnishings, lots of public space, nice grounds and a big swimming pool. Here are some pictures from their listing on Tuscany.net.
http://www.tuscany.net/residenza-il-poggiolo/
After a tour of the property and a long, enthusiastic discussion with Michele, I decide that the place–while very special–may not have been the place for us for our ten day stay in San Quirico d’Orcia because I don’t think that it was especially suitable for spending a lot of time, especially when the weather is less than ideal.
By the time we say our goodbyes to Michele, the sun has broken through so we decide to drive over to Montalcino to explore the town (we hadn’t been there during our last few visits to this area) and to have lunch there. The drive to Montalcino passes through the smooth rolling hills covered with fields of grain that are perhaps the greenest green we have ever seen.
We climb up to Montalcino, a real hill town crowned with a large fortress (now an art gallery and enoteca) and park in the next door lot at the top of the town. We stroll through the narrow streets of the center that are lined with numerous wine stores–Montalcino has become a rich town with the growth of the Brunello wine industry over the past fifty years–food shops and tourist-oriented stores. We walk past the museum (in an old church), the duomo (the exterior is not so impressive after its 18th century renovation)
and down to a park that runs on a ridge with dynamite views over southern Tuscany. This is the same park where we had a picnic on our first trip to the area in 1994.
We reach the main street–Via Mazzini–which is lined with a mixture of businesses–shops that serve the Montalcinese, wine and food stores for the tourists and lots of bars and restaurants.
The streets are aligned in such a way that the only views that you get from the town are narrow slices of countryside framed by the narrower streets that run steeply down the hills.
It is now lunch time and it is getting colder. When we happen on the restaurant that Michele had recommended in Montalcino–Re di Macchie–it seems that it is the right place to stop. Re di Macchie is a cozy small place and we have a pleasant lunch…..a mushroom lasagna for me followed by a plate of excellent tomato bruschetta while Diana has tagliatelle with a duck ragu and a very good cheese plate served with honey. We drink a couple of glasses of a Rosso di Montalcino (one of our favorite wines) and enjoy our meal.
After lunch, we walk back up to our car parked at the top of the town–a very steep climb.
We drive south to take a look at a smaller village–San Angelo in Colle–where there are two good restaurants to check out but we opt not to make another climb to the top of another hill town. Since the sun is threatening to break through, we decide to visit the gardens of La Foce–the home of a favorite author of ours, Iris Origo. To get there, we take a very striking "white road" that brings us to the rear of the beautiful abbey of Sant’Antimo and from there we take road after road with striking views that lead us across the base of Mount Amiata to the eastern part of the valley.
Iris Origo was an Anglo-American woman who grew up in the expatriate world of Florence in the early 20th century. She married an Italian nobleman and they bought a large landholding in the Val d’Orcia. At that time, the Val d’Orcia was an agricultural wasteland scarred with erosion–"le crete". They rehabilitated the land by building irrigation systems and using modern agricultural techniques and were able to reshape the whole character of the valley.
Iris Origo was also an author–she wrote a number of well regarded biographies…the best known is "The Merchant of Prato"…as well as an account of her experiences during World War II called "War in the Val d’Orcia". This is the book that originally made us want to visit La Foce. The only part of the estate that is open to the public is the extensive garden that she built with the help of a famous English garden planner–Cecil Pinsent. The garden combines Italian and English styles (disorder and order) and has great views over the valley, including the very famous twisting row of cypresses climbing a nearby hill. These cypresses were in fact planted by Origo and Pinsent to accent the vista from La Foce.
We have been before but are glad to be here again. The tour takes you through the various levels and parts of the garden…at this time of year, the most striking flowers are the purple wisteria that cover the walls…and it is a peaceful spot to enjoy the surroundings, especially since the sun has come out and the day has become almost warm.
We head back to San Quirico d’Orcia by taking the curvy cypress-lined road which is actually pretty poorly maintained and makes for a very bumpy ride. But on the road, we come across a lone deer that runs in front of our car for a short distance. This makes Diana happy because ever since our first trip to Italy, she has admired the signs along many Italian roads that alert drivers to the possiblility of encountering deer. (I’m not sure the picture of the deer on the signs is any more graceful than on American signs, but she is enamoured with most things Italian). In all our visits and in all our drives, this is the first deer that we’ve ever seen. (Unfortunately we weren’t able to take a picture–it all happened too fast). We stop at one point on the dirt road and Diana picks some wild flowers for the vase in the apartment.
I take another stroll around San Quirico before dinner and meet Mandy (from the apartment over the park), her husband and their house guests who are having coffee at the Bar Centrale. We have dinner at Il Ciacco, a newish place right on the main square (which Mandy had recommended) and, of course, we meet them again when they come in for dinner. She had told us that the cook at Il Ciacco was French trained and not from San Quirico so his take on Tuscan cuisine was a little more creative than the other restaurants in town. Dinner was very good and it was apparent that the chef was adding some of his own touches to the menu. Diana had a timbale of potato with a cheese center and roast pork medallions served with an onion confit which she enjoyed very much. I had a more traditional Tuscan antipasto plate, then ravioli with butter and sage and–somewhat different–a stuffed galleta (chicken) dish. The house wine tasted very good and we enjoyed the setting and the meal.
It is a quick walk through quiet San Quirico d’Orcia to our apartment while looking at the sky hoping for signs that tomorrow will be sunny.
posted by Jim Zurer at 9:09 PM
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