In Tuscany

It is not surprising that Tuscany is the area that tourists and expats flock to. It hosts many of the famous towns (Florence, Siena, Pisa, Lucca, San Gimignano) that feature on many travel itineraries, as well as beautiful varied countryside from high hills down to the sea. There is also a lot of industry in this area so it is a wealthy province, as you suddenly notice when you head over the border south and the roads instantly crumble!

The larger towns can be explored easily using the good – and cheap - train connections. Indeed, having a car is a liability in these places as, apart from the traffic chaos, finding a park is near impossible. Which might explain why so many have small cars that seem to be abandoned on corners, median strips, and across pedestrian crossings!  But to sample the countryside and see the smaller villages a car is a must, so we duly picked up our Fiat 500L (“L” must be for “Large” or “Long” as though it looked like a Fiat 500 from the front, it had room for five adults and bags – more family estate size). 

Using our Google maps on the phone (better than piles of maps, but a satnav would have been MUCH easier!) we steered south to the wonderfully-named Poggibonsi.  Though the name was the best thing going for it, our accommodation was up in the hills nearby with glorious views across the countryside of olive groves and vines and ploughed fields.  The swimming pool was very inviting too, but all pools we have come across here are unheated and it was getting a bit chilly by this time of year.

When checking the rooms Vicki discovered a snake which promptly stopped sunning itself and slithered out the window of Joan and Julie’s bedroom. We decided it best not to tell them until we were leaving! Also on the “cons” side was the number of mozzies, but then we seem to have had them everywhere we have been in Italy and have been bitten virtually every day. But on the positive side the other wildlife here was a red squirrel that kept up its hunt for acorns in the trees on the property, promptly hiding them in all sorts of nooks and crannies for trees to start sprouting later.

The nearest town of note is San Gimignano, photogenically built on top of a hill and featuring 14 remaining tall brick towers. Unfortunately we weren’t the first tourists to “discover” it as we had to drive around and around the base of the town looking for a space in one of the many public car-parking areas. With all the tourists there is money so the town was well cared-for and has expansive views.  Unfortunately the town itself is best viewed from afar and it is difficult to find a good place to photograph it from.

Detail of a foyer ceiling outside a bank

The other well-known destination nearby is Siena. Driving there on the auto route was not pleasant as the lanes are quite narrow and the road surface in poor condition. Surprisingly the speed limit is only 90 kmh and, more surprisingly, most people kept to it. Siena is large but we had no trouble getting a park near the entrance to the “Centro Storico”.   Like Florence there 

were flocks of tourists and expensive shops, with most people congregating at the Piazza del Campo, the large central square famous for the twice-yearly horse race, the Palio di Siena. You may remember it as the backdrop to a scene in Casino Royale. On the day we visited there was a less exciting human running race starting. We did have a “wow” moment when climbing the steps at the back on the Cathedral thinking “this looks quite good” and then walking around to see the front – it is truly amazing. Built in 1380 it intended to be the largest cathedral in the world before the money ran out.

Time for the beach

You can only be a tourist for so many days in a row, so it was off to the seaside for us. The drive across Tuscany to the sea is fabulous but you do wonder at the wisdom of a steep climb up numerous hairpins so that the road can go through one important town and then back down the other side – a prime case for a bypass to be built, though I am sure that the local business people would put a stop to that. There are many good beaches on this western coast, but finding one on a hot Sunday afternoon with a free carpark was a real challenge. The sand was white(ish), the sea was warm(ish), there was plenty of room, only a few hawkers selling rubbish to bored kids and parents – not a bad spot for some R&R.

Ancient historic masterpiece ...

Passing through a small village in the hills we noticed the gathering of many Italian classic cars outside a bar. Numerous immaculate Fiat Bambinas and Alfas. More Italian historic treasures!

Vicki had a deja-vu moment while in Tuscany. We had driven up a hill past a village and I had got her to stop so I could hop out and take a photo. No one else was particularly interested in the scene so I wandered past a carpark and what looked like a social club for elderly gents and took this photo. A few days later when I was processing it Vicki saw it on my screen and recognised it immediately. A few years ago friends of ours, Glen and Irene, had been given an image of an Italian town that they asked Vicki to “fix up” so that they could print it and hang it on their wall. The image was taken from exactly the same location and we can now confirm that the town is Colle Val D’Elsa.

So our final thoughts on Tuscany just confirm what all the tourist guides say – it contains many of the pretty historic towns and cities, all set in picturesque countryside.  A beautiful area to explore by car.

Florence

Vicki’s favourite city. Possibly mine too. There is so much to like about this city starting with the lack of modern buildings which makes the whole place (mainly 5-storey brick or stone buildings with tiled roofs) look much as it must have hundreds of years ago (if you excuse the traffic and TV aerials) and with just the major churches standing out.  Hard to imagine a better film set. Everywhere you look there is another museum, statue, 15th Century Palazzo, or tourist. There is very little traffic too with only taxis, service vehicles and emergency services being allowed in, plus the numerous locals out on cycles competing with the foot traffic. And what foot traffic – the downside to being a place that people want to visit is that people want to visit. As well as the hordes of young foreigners attending the various international art schools, there are tour groups everywhere. It is hard to walk in a straight line down any street without avoiding a tour leader waving a flag and speaking into a microphone, followed by a herd of lemmings with their earpieces firmly attached.

We were lucky in having an Airbnb apartment just a few metres away from the Arno river near the centre of town. The apartment was in one of the old buildings with 14^th Century “features”, though lucky these didn’t stretch to the amenities - these were tastefully modern. “Lucky” is relative as we found that there was a nightclub underneath us plus the noise of traffic reverberating between the stone buildings kept us awake most nights.

The ceiling of the Duomo

We had hoped that Joan would accompany us up the 400-odd steps to the top of the dome of the Duomo and had encouraged her to get herself fit for this over the last few months. As it turned out she was a little worn out by the previous travelling and left us to it, which turned out to be a wise choice. For a bargain 10 euros you get a 24-hour ticket to see inside the Duomo, climb to the top and also to ascend the neighbouring bell-tower.

 

Though last year we had climbed 

Giotto's Campanile (bell tower)
completed 1359

the dome we were keen to redo it with Julie so, avoiding the lengthy queue to enter the cathedral (apart from its immensity there isn’t much to see inside) we took the side entrance and climbed up inside the dome. The steps are narrow and at times you have to wait while others squeeze past in the opposite direction. Luckily there aren’t many wide people attempting it! As an attraction there are several highlights: one is walking around the balcony inside the dome looking way down at the people on the floor below and being able to admire the ceiling paintings very close up – and the large cracks too! Coming from Christchurch we just think “one good earthquake …”. The next highlight is squeezing up the steps between the two layers of dome – to reduce the weight the dome is actually two, an inner and an outer. And the views from the top, as it is the highest point in the city, are wonderful. As we were feeling so good after this climb we finished by climbing the 414 steps of the bell-tower! We were very ready for lunch by this time.

Just another room in the Pitti Palace

Napoleon's bathroom

Luckily we have already toured the Uffizi so we weren’t tempted to spend hours queuing followed by hours wandering eternal corridors of Renaissance paintings … so this time we tried the Pitti Palace, a very imposing stone building that turned out to be elegant inside. Each succeeding invader had added their own touches, from the Medicis to the French and the Austrians. As you wander the corridors each state room has grander and grander painted ceilings. There is a rather cold looking bathroom made for Napoleon with a (short) marble bath in it. And as well as all the Renaissance paintings adorning the walls there was an incredibly good “modern” section, principally 19^th Century French and European artists.

We had arranged to take Marina (our host from last year) out to dinner to her favourite pizza restaurant, where she had taken us on our last evening in Florence. She was staying at her townhouse so we met her there for aperitifs (with her son Lorenzo) which was very interesting for Joan and Julie to see inside one of the grand old houses. Last year we had learnt that less is more, i.e. the simple pizzas have so much flavour, like a Margherita, that adding more ingredients doesn’t help. On the way home Marina drove us up to the Pizzale Michangelo for the beautiful views over Florence by night. Like all in Italy who grow olives, Marina is concerned about this year’s crop. There is so much olive fly about most of the Mediterranean is doomed to have poor crops. They have been advised to pick very early while there are still a few olives left on the trees. Once the fly has laid its eggs in the olive they ripen very quickly (turn black) and fall off.

Despite the numerous historic attractions of Florence, the girls probably enjoyed the markets most. Florence is famed for leather and, alongside the numerous high class shops selling coasts and bags and gloves, there are many market stalls offering goods at very reasonable prices. Vicki came away with (only) a leather jacket and belt, to go with her leather gloves from San Remo (where the gloves were much less expensive than those in Florence).  She's [almost] looking forward to returning to cooler climes so she'll be able to wear the jacket and gloves!

So after a noisy and crowded sensory experience in Florence it was time to pick up a hire car and escape to the Tuscan countryside.

On the (Italian) Riviera

Cerianna - one of our favourite local villages

We were lucky enough to be able to go back to our farmhouse in the province of Liguria where we first started our HelpXing last June. We had arranged with Sue (our host) for us to work a week with her and then spend the next two weeks house-sitting while Sue and her sister
Judy went on a holiday.  This worked very well for us as we were to have Vicki’s mother Joan and sister Julie with us for a holiday.

Our first week went very quickly with Sue providing her usual interesting gourmet dishes for us to savour as we sat outside by the forno on the warm evenings being attacked by the biting insects and fending off the nine feral cats with a water-pistol. Admittedly four of the cats were new kittens and rather cute. Still haven’t managed to get a pizza base hand formed without a hole in it or remotely circular …

Though the temperatures were still in the mid-20s the water in the pool was cold enough for only a quick dip.  The sea was warmer so we managed a few floats down on the public beaches (most beach areas are private, i.e. you pay for access and a deck chair/lounger, changing facilities, toilet and access to a cafe).

Early one morning we took the train through to Nice to pick up Joan and Julie from the airport after a 36-hour flight from Nelson. Understandably they were looking a little weary so we immediately abandoned them while we found a local bus to take us to the hire-car rental. We had a cheap deal which meant picking it up at a commercial garage in the middle of nowhere. Once we eventually got back to the airport and picked the girls up we headed on a scenic trip back along the French Riviera, starting with the Boulevard Anglais in Nice to admire the beach (and inhabitants), then along the windy and hilly road through the little port towns dotted along the coast, with an appropriate number of Oohs and Ahhs as we saw the grand houses and even grander super-yachts. Though we skirted around Monaco you can still see the super-super-yachts at anchor. We could see they thoroughly enjoyed this introduction but were nodding off by the time we reached the Italian border and the slow trek through the built-up towns. The sleepy bit lasted until we reached the track up to the house which is always a challenge with a very poor surface, big drop-offs, and very narrow and steep. Joan was suffering enough with driving on the “wrong” side of the road and the cars zipping along far too close and scooters everywhere – this track was the last straw, especially as the rubbish Renault car we had couldn’t make it up the last 200m. With wheels spinning and car sliding we abandoned ship in a nearby orchard and walked the last very steep bit with the bags. Thereafter Joan didn’t enjoy travelling up our track nor fond of struggling up the last bit on foot.

Our next two weeks alternated between relaxing at the house, enjoying the pool, watering the fruit trees and feeding/playing with the cats, and exploring the medieval villages in the mountains inland. Plus a compulsory stop for gelato at the Smile Bar in Taggia. Even though most of our trips were to favourite places we had been to last year we still enjoyed them again. The huge advantage in this area is the almost complete lack of tourists. There are plenty of Italians down by the coast enjoying their summer holiday, but few venture inland. Peaceful, incredibly scenic and very Italian. On one big day out the girls took the train to Monaco to engage in some beautiful things and people watching.

While trains are the best way to travel along the coast they can be a hassle changing at Ventimiglia – the Italian border town. When we first arrived from Nice the train line between the two countries was closed and a bus service operated. Sort of. Except Italians don’t know the benefits of queuing so each time a bus arrived a scrum formed. As we had big bags that had to be stowed underneath we had no chance of getting on. And by the time another bus had arrived a further trainload would also have arrived to force themselves on. Eventually Vicki showed that watching all those All Blacks’ games had rubbed off and managed to force her way on, elbows flying, then blocked the entrance until I had arrived after stowing the bags.

Having a car opened up more opportunities and we did venture further up the coast. Past Imperia (the provincial capital) to the walled city of Albenga. From the French border right along this coast it is almost completely built-up with town after town of apartment buildings and public and private beaches. Apparently Italians book up a year ahead to get their choice holiday apartment. Albenga is a typical old town with the outside ring of houses/shops providing the exterior walls. Nowadays the modern town stretches well outside the walls but the historic centre is still picturesque, albeit full of tourists and shops and restaurants catering to them. We did find a local restaurant where we managed a large pizza each plus bottled water for only 20 euros for the three of us – quite a bargain, but then food in Italy is cheap by NZ standards.

The girls in team colours refreshing themselves after a hard morning at the market ..

For some strange reason the girls all loved visiting San Remo, our favourite big town just down the coast. As a town it has a lot going for it: an interesting medieval part winding up the hill at the back, a shopping street with no cars but full of the expensive shops, a casino, beaches, and a harbour filled with expensive yachts. Oh, and a twice-weekly street market that we had to keep going back to. Julie got a leather handbag for 20 euros and Vicki a pair of red leather gloves for 8 euros.

So the time comes to leave. Sue tells us that three of her next HelpXers have had to cancel for various valid reasons and she needs someone to house-sit through the winter months. Much as we’d like to be here, it is hard work without a vehicle and, anyway, we are now booked up for the next year or so.

A Weekend in Paris

After finishing at the Chateau we had a weekend to fill in before flying down to Nice and on to Italy. We have both been to Paris before, but not for many decades! The two times I have been before were both in mid-winter so it was a change to see it in a much more pleasant season. We choose an apartment on Airbnb which was conveniently close (i.e. walkable) to Gare Montpanasse (the station we would arrive in), various Metro stops, and the Orlybus (the airport bus). The apartment turned out to be a real success, not particularly clean nor tidy but up a grand staircase, wide hallway and very high ceilings and a little balcony overlooking the street.  Very convenient with lots of transport nearby and supermarkets.

As so many people have been to Paris (it is, after all, the most visited tourist destination in the world) there is no point describing it other than a few general observations …

Plenty of Parisian dogs still ...

The central part of Paris isn’t that large so it is easy enough to walk around with the help of a few Metro rides. We certainly ended up with very sore legs after hours of wandering on the hard asphalt. And it appeared cleaner than in the past – not nearly as much of the famous doggy-poo in evidence!

Due to the major redevelopment in the 19^th Century, the overwhelming image is lots (and I mean LOTS) of beautiful buildings in a similar style, lining wide roads. No individual houses, just 5-storey apartments and offices and glorious public buildings. . One of my all-time favourite buildings would be Le Petit Palais – a free-entry art gallery. It is lucky that there are so many wide boulevards and public squares or there would be nowhere to walk without tripping over other tourists.

The Eiffel Tower is still spectacular, especially at night when it is well lit up.

One of our highlights was watching couples tangoing in the rain on the steps of the Trocadero as it neared midnight.

One of the lowlights was having to pay 4 euros or more for a coffee. Paris is expensive!

Cafes galore!

Farewell to the Chateau

There has been a bit of a gap since the last post as we got into a familiar routine at the Chateau and it takes a bit of an effort to look for inspiration to write another post – the hazard of having a blog! And since leaving the Chateau we have only had sporadic, and slow, internet connections. The excuses now out of the way, here goes …

We spent 6 seeks in total at the Chateau and it was very pleasant, the sort of place we could easily have stayed for a lot longer.  The work was mainly gardening for me (mowing, strimming, watering, poisoning and avoiding weeding whenever possible) plus interior jobs like putting up curtains, while Vicki ended up doing less gardening and more interior cleaning and preparation of the rental accommodation. Not too onerous but with so much that needed doing we ended up putting in quite a few more hours than the norm for HelpXing.

Our only real disappointment was not spending more time with our host Darrien. She is always busy with running a large property, running her English-language library in Lunay, and teaching English. In the first few weeks she was putting in a lot of extra hours refurbishing her library and teaching rooms and in the last few weeks, as it was the school holidays, she was spending a lot of time teaching too: 2 x 2 hour sessions in the mornings and 1 x 4 hour session in the afternoon.  With all the class preparation and pupil assessments she was usually away from home from 8:30am to about 9:30pm, sometimes much later. Long, long hours.  And we had to try and remember how to cook for ourselves too!

The Loire Valley area is very scenic with lots of beautiful Chateaux, not that we went into any as, without a car, transport was difficult. We did avail ourselves of the bicycles often though and enjoyed some trips through the rolling farmland on almost deserted roads. Plenty of pretty little hamlets nearby and interesting towns like Vendome and Montoire.  For a bargain price of 3 euros we spent an afternoon exploring a ruined castle in Lavin (claiming to be the most “French” town in France, whatever that means)  with the local goat population.  Lots of history in this area as it had been owned by a variety of people including Henry IV (he seems to have owned quite a bit of France at one time).

Though we don’t eat out often (with free food at our hosts’, why would you?) but we did have a very typical set menu lunch at a troglodyte village of Troo. For 13 euros each (about $NZ20) we got to sit outside in the main square under a sun umbrella and consume the following: a starter of a vegetable pie and salad, a main of a large steak and chips (note we asked for “Medium” when asked how we wanted the steak cooked, being cautious, and apart from the grill marks there wasn’t much other evidence of any actual cooking – on the rare side of rare in NZ terms), a course of local cheeses, then a choice of dessert, unfortunately the only one we could understand was a Magnum ice cream each! All washed down with half a litre of rose then followed by coffee. A delicious bargain. Speed, though, was not included as you’re expected to languish at the table for a couple of hours …

Medieval carvings in Tours

As we are near a TGV station it is easy – if quite expensive – to visit other towns. We spent a day in Tours, reputably where the best French is spoken! A big town on the Loire River, badly bombed during the war, but with a large medieval section of shops and houses. Quite a contrast to the ultra-modern tram system they have.

Tours

Perhaps it was the season but we came across many weddings. They are readily identified by a convoy of decorated cars tooting loudly and careering around any town.

This has been a very peaceful and relaxing place to be and it would be easy to stay on for a lot, lot longer. However, we have family arriving shortly and more travelling to do ...

Montoire

Lavardin

Public laundry (the boards can be lowered to river level for washing)