Zurers in Italy: 2007

Day 17: San Quirico d'Orcia

2007-05-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

Today is the scheduled "free day" in southern Tuscany....no group outings are scheduled and everyone has the option of doing whatever they want....or not doing anything. The weather is fine...warm and sunny....and everyone has a relaxed morning. I have an appointment at 10 am to visit the Casa Lemmi, a fairly new b&b on the main street in town. I have only seen the pictures on the web site and want to see if it is really as nice as it looks.

The owner Antonio...a young man from Naples...runs the place with his wife and it is indeed as nice (if not nicer) than it looks on the internet. The rooms are extremely large and nicely furnished...some with views over the street and the La Collegiata church, others to the back over the garden. And it has the bonus of wireless internet and reasonable prices. Definitely someplace to try in the future...

Four of the group--Seth, Michael, Monica and me--set out on a walk to Bagno Vignoni; the others remain in town to relax, shop, sit or write. Bagno Vignoni is about five kilometers (3 miles) from San Quirico d'Orcia on a gravel road which is quite steep at times. We pass through fields with haystacks and get some great views of the countryside and the village of San Quirico d'Orcia (which looks bigger from this viewpoint.)

Seth had walked this part of the road the other day and had complained about the lack of directional signage.....but we weren't sure what his problem was.

The small hamlet of Vignoni sits on the crest of the hill and looks to be uninhabited...we suspect that the houses are now used as vacation homes.

We pass a large vineyard and Seth stops to investigate....

We notice that there are rosebushes planted at the end of some of the rows of vines

and we are told by a man working in the vines that they are planted to provide an early warning of any diseases that may develop in the field.

Before we enter the town of Bagno Vignoni, Seth and I make an impromptu inspection of the recently opened 5 star Adler Thermae......the facilities appear to be very grand and the pools very attractive.

Bagni Vignoni is famous for its main piazza which is a large pool of water although it is no longer used for bathing.

In order to "take the waters" in Bagno Vignoni, you have to go to the pool at the Hotel Posta Marcucci which, while not as luxurious as the Adler Thermae, has a dynamite view over the valley and up to Castaglione d'Orcia.

We decide to have lunch before calling Jonathan to give us a ride back to San Quirico d'Orcia. We pick a place--the Osteria della Madonnina--that has a sandwich menu but it turns out that they don't serve that menu at lunch. We order some pastas and some vegetables which turn out to be very, very good...and we have a relaxing meal sitting outside on the piazza.

Later in the afternoon, I drive over to Pienza to meet with a client of mine who is staying there and Lisa, Seth and Kerensa come along to do some shopping. Lisa buys a Pienza cheese for her father and we drop her back in San Quirico d'Orcia, pick up Diana and set out to visit a business associate of Seth's who has a small b&b in the area. We meet Seth's associate at another place near San Giovanni d'Asso where there is a big musical evening planned for late in June....the event will include a dinner and a chamber music concert. The setting is unbelieveably beautiful..the house and grounds restored impeccably, the views stupendous. We then go back to see the b&b which is actually in a small, not-so-beautiful village. The b&b is stylish and the owners are very enthusiastic but we are not sure it is a place for most of our clients.

Il Tinaio is closed on Thursdays so for our final dinner together, we go to the hotel's restaurant--L'Antico Forno. Our experience this time is much like we had last year when Diana and I went there...the food was fine by and large but the service was very spotty and lackadasical. Ordering was even more confusing than it usually is for the eight of us--there were not enough of the two different menus and we had to keep passing them around so that everyone could make their selections.

And there were problems with the food also....the bistecca fiorentina came out cooked on one end and cold on the other and a vegetable tart was also cold in the middle. We drank some very local wine--actually from the vineyard that we had walked past earlier in the day on the way to Bagno Vignoni.

Tomorrow we are all going to Perugia together before we have to say our goodbyes.

Day 16: San Quirico d'Orcia

2007-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

A few words about the guest house where we are staying ....the Casa Camaldoli. It is just down the street from the main hotel and very nicely decorated but less luxurious than the Palazzo del Capitano. The rooms are good sized, bathrooms are fine with good water pressure and plenty of hot water and it is quiet--save for the San Quirico d'Orcia church bells. The roof terrace is a real plus and it is great to have the whole place to ourselves. And we get to take advantage of the hotel facilities (beautiful garden) and breakfast.......

Our Siena trip is delayed a bit due to oversleeping by part of the group but we get on the road by 10:30 am and arrive at the parking lot in Siena by 11:30. We park in the Campo lot which is about a 15 minute walk (partly uphill) to the main piazza in Siena. We are heading to the weekly market which I remember--only when we arrive at the empty Piazza Mercato in the "centro"--is actually held on top of the town near the Fortezza. The climb to the Fortezza is less strenuous than I had remembered and we hit the market (which is very, very big) while it is still in full swing.

But the group is less interested in shopping and browsing and more interested in finding the food section to have lunch.

The food area is at the far end of the market and, while not large, provides us with a chance to sample five different porchetta sandwiches, a roast chicken, some fried vegetables and some melons. The consensus is that the porchetta from the Grosseto truck is the best

and everyone enjoys the roast chicken as well. After a round of coffee, we want to go the big wine library inside the Fortezza and have a glass of wine while sitting on their terrace. Unfortunately, they have changed things around and the terrace is now closed to the public. But we take advantage of the bathroom facilities and sample a few glasses of wine from Molise, Piemonte and Tuscany before resuming our tour of Siena.

Back down to the center, our first stop is the Duomo, one of the largest and most elaborate in Italy. The facade is very distinctive with its striped stones, its intricate carvings and frescoes and the big rose window at the top.

The interior space is overwhelming....the entire floor is covered with illustrations of bible stories, the vast space is supported by sturdy columns and there are statues, frescoes and paintings everywhere--it is hard to figure out where to look first.

I was taken by this sort of whimsical detail from one of the floor panels.

My favorite part of the Siena Duomo is the Piccolomini Library with its wonderful, bright frescoes by Pinturicchio.....they look as if they were just finished last year.

Some of the group head for the top of "facciatone", a large freestanding wall which was supposed to be the back wall of the biggest duomo in Italy but was left incomplete when they ran out of money. Now there is a great view from the top.....but the rest of us opt for some refreshment at one of the many bars that ring the Campo.

After something to drink, four of us are ready to climb the Torre di Mangia which towers about the Campo and Siena.

Rain is threatening by now and we are told that if it rains, we can't climb but we start anyway. It is over 300 feet up (about 400 steps) inside the bell tower...but it is not too tight or claustrophobic. The view from the top is great but just as we get there, it begins to rain pretty hard and it is cold and windy. We take shelter as best we can until it lets up and we get to enjoy the views.

Back down on the ground, the group gathers to go back to San Quirico d'Orcia (after a gelato stop) but just before we get to the garage, it begins to pour again. We take shelter to wait it out but after about ten minutes--when it appears to be letting up--we make a run for it...and the heavens open up again. Everyone is pretty well soaked by the time we get to the garage and we head back immediately. (The rain stops just as we get to the garage....we needed to wait for five more minutes.)

Seth and I set out to find someplace to eat tonight......Il Tinaio is full again....and we take a nice walk around the new town. We discover a couple of informal places and also a nice small hotel with a pool. We decide to eat at another one of the newer places in the "centro storico". The place is called "La Piccheria" and, in addition to being casual and friendly, the food is very good....especially the "pici alla briciole"--thick spaghetti with a sauce of breadcrumbs, oil and garlic. The waitress is very friendly and enjoys joking with Seth. We also drink a very good Rosso di Montalcino. A very successful meal.....

After dinner, a few of the group head for the Bar Centrale for some more "foosball" but most of us head back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is a free day....no activities are scheduled.

Day 15: San Quirico d'Orcia

2007-05-15T06:17:00.000-07:00

Another nice morning in the Val d'Orcia. After a leisurely breakfast (in shifts) at the hotel and some work on the computer, the group is off to Montepulciano, another beautiful Tuscan hill town to the east of Pienza. We drive past the extensive field of poppies that I had found the day before and stop for some more photo opportunities.

The scenery continues to be impossibly beautiful and Montepulciano is very impressive sitting on top of its hill as you approach from the south.

We stop first at the Church of San Biagio, a plain, Greek-cross style church sitting below the town with a lovely vista back toward the village of Montefollonico.

The interior is in restauro but still is impressive.

The group takes a short rest at the church before we get back in the car and drive up to the top.

We continue up as far as we can go and park at the last lot before we hit the "centro storico" which is a short easy walk to the main piazza and the duomo. The duomo has a stern, unfinished facade (it was a location in the film "The English Patient") and inside it is quite restrained. The art highlights inside are two Sienese paintings...one an impressive large altarpiece and the other a very stylized Madonna and Child.

The main square is surrounded by old palazzi and the town hall and is very handsome. Some of us make the short climb to the terrace of the Palazzo Comune (previously we had climbed to the top of the tower for a spectacular view but it is closed today) to enjoy the vista, and others take the time to do some shopping.

After a descent down the very steep main street (Montepulciano doesn't do well in the Zurer Travel Index of Level Hill Towns),

we climb back up to the top (we could have taken a bus), we finish shopping (Seth and Kerensa buy a ceramic platter, I buy a belt and Jonathan buys a salami, cheese and truffle paste sandwich which is advertised as an "out of the world sandwich" which he shares and which gets very good reviews from the samplers.

We plan to stop for a sandwich at a big restaurant/bar just outside of town (Pulcini) but we get enticed by the view from the terrace and find that you can only get sandwiches if you sit in the garden. A moderate sized feast ensues---salads, roast chicken, sausages, sides of beans, artichokes, and potatoes--with a pleasant local red wine to wash it down. All the tables on the terrace are filled with non-Italian tourists--the Italian customers are all inside eating bistecca fiorentina--but a good time is had by all.

We make one more stop on the way back to San Quirico d'Orcia at a farm that has a sign advertising plum marmelade. The proprietor interrupts his lunch to come down and let us sample some (and some olive oil) and we buy a half dozen jars of various flavors of preserves.

The afternoon in San Qurico d'Orcia is taken up with naps, work or relaxing in the garden of the hotel.

Ulf and Magdalena come over to San Quirico d'Orcia for a visit...I give them a short tour of the town and then we have a drink in the garden and a nice conversation. After we say our goodbyes (it's always good to visit with Ulf in Italy, which we have done for the last three years), the group reassembles to drive to the abbey of Sant'Antimo (south of Montalcino) for the vespers service which includes the monks singing the service in Gregorian chant.

San Antimo is a very handsome Romanesque church dating to the 12th century and it located in a lush green valley...it is hard to conceive of a more lovely setting.

About 50 tourists have come for the chanting which sounds wonderful in the beautifully serene church interior.

On the return trip, we take the back way past Castiglione d'Orcia on one of the roads that I think is one of the best drives in Italy....the whole route is gorgeous but there are about three kilometers when the road sits on top of a ridge and the vistas in both directions go on forever.

Tonight we are celebrating my birthday dinner at one of the newer restaurants in town...there are lot more people in town and Il Tinaio (the first choice) is booked solid. We had hoped to eat in the garden of the Osenna but it has gotten a bit cool to eat outside. The meal is uneven...some very good pastas--pici with boar and pici with mushrooms, some excellent gnocchi and very good crostones--but the service is a bit slapdash and it takes a while to get to dessert with the birthday candles that Diana has brought to mark the occasion.

After dinner, we stop at the Bar Centrale for some foosball and gelato......

before heading back to the hotel. A very nice day for all and a great birthday for me.

Tomorrow the crew is going to Siena.

Day 14: San Quirico d'Orci

2007-05-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

We all sleep well in the guest house in San Quirico d'Orcia and enjoy the great breakfast spread served at the hotel. It's Diana's birthday and she gets a present of Vestri chocolates from Seth and Kerensa. We have a leisurely morning..made even more leisurely for some of us when we discover that the hotel now has high speed wireless service that we can use in the lobby and in front of the hotel.

We head off to Pienza around 11:30 for our get together with Ulf and Magdalena. I think that the main road from San Quirico d'Orcia to Pienza is one of the most scenic in Italy....the beautiful vistas just go on for miles in both directions....and we make a couple of stops for photo opportunities.

We park in the pay lot in Pienza and meet our friends in front of Duomo. The young people take off to explore the town and the four "older" people find a bar, have a drink and talk. We eat on the outdoor terrace at Dal Falco, a nice trattoria just outside the walls, and have a very good lunch....the local pasta speciality--pici--are particularly good, Diana very much enjoys her proscuitto and melone and vegetables are very well prepared. After a group picture,

I make a quick stop at the hotel next door where I have a group coming next week just to make sure all is ready.

We say goodbye to Ulf and Magdalena but we invite them to come over to San Quirico d'Orcia the next day to see the town and visit us in the hotel garden.

Driving back to San Quirico, I take the alternate route through the valley and we discover one of the largest fields of poppies that we have seen....it seem to stretch out along the valley floor for miles. (This picture doesn't do it justice....better ones will be in tomorrow's report.)

Back in San Quirico, some of the group take naps, others sit in the garden of the hotel and read and a few work on their computers. Later in the afternoon, there is some strolling around town and shopping. Seth sets out for a hike through the country and ends up at a castle--Ripa d'Orcia--about five kilometers away. He decides that it is too much to walk back so he calls and asks Jonathan to come and pick him up. We all gather on the roof terrace, drink some wine and eat some cheese and bread, fruit, olive oil and lots of chocolate.

Kerensa sings "When I'm 64" to Diana for her birthday and after the sun sets,

we regroup downstairs in the ground floor sitting room where Michael and Seth play scrabble and the rest of us read and talk.

We have eaten enough bread and cheese, etc. to make dinner unnecessary but around 10 pm, we all walk down to the Bar Centrale--the local hangout bar/gelateria/game room for some gelato and some "piazza sitting".

Tomorrow we are planning to visit Montepulciano.

Day 13: Parma-San Quirico d'Orcia

2007-05-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Day 12: Parma

2007-05-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's warm and sunny this morning as we head out for breakfast. I forgot to mention in yesterday's report that when we got back to the room the night before my mobile phone was missing. After a thorough search of the room, I retraced my steps back to the gelato place but there is no sign of it. The bar where we had drinks was closed. We go back to the same bar to have breakfast and as soon as we walk in, the barman tells us that I had left the phone the night before and he had tried to find us in the street but couldn't.

Happily united with the phone, we have a good breakfast--the barista is a cappuccino artist--and a nice conversation with him about Parma and the U.S. I give him my card and invite him to visit us which he enthusiastically accepts.

We have an appointment to visit an apartment across the river at 11 a.m. so we have time to make a stop at the Teatro Farnese. This large theater--modelled after Palladio's Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza--was built as a performance space for one of Parma's princes in the 17th century. The theater had a large stage area where you could mount large spectacles and the area in front of the seats could be filled with water to stage mock naval battles. The theater was impractical for regular performances and it was used infrequently and then abandoned when the types of events it was made for fell out of fashion.

It was almost totally destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II and it is slowly being restored. It is quite grand...we especially like the unfinished wood which was originally stuccoed and painted and had a completely different look and feel.

On the way to the apartment, we walk through the very large and pleasant Parco Ducale on the other side of the river. The park--which was the grounds of the Ducale Palace--has broad gravel walkways, lots of green space, large trees and benches and is filled with strollers, children on tricycles and joggers.

The apartments are located in a very nice but modest residential area of Parma--a sharp contrast to the grand "centro storico". The owner--Sgr. Pelligrino--is very nice and very accommodating but the apartments are a bit more modest than I was looking for. And, in fact, they may not be available for the weeks when I need them...the Verdi festival (which takes place in September) is interested in renting them for the performers.

We make a quick stop at the neighborhood church which has a very nice cloister and an interesting series of panels illustrating the life and work of Padre Lino Maupas, a local priest who worked with the poor and the disadvantaged of Parma at end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. There had been a candlelight procession through the streets of Parma the night before in his honor.

I was taken with the presepio (Christmas manger scene) inside the church that had the recreated the neighborhood outside the church as the background.

We recross the river and have a light lunch at one of the restaurants on the main square, the Piazza Garibaldi and then stop in the market to buy some cheese--parmigiano-reggiano....some to eat in Italy and some to take home.

In the afternoon, we walk to the laundromat (which we had finally located the day before). This laundromat is not one of the best we have used...the soap machine malfunctions but luckily there is a staff person there who sells us the soap....and the dryer is pretty ineffective, but we do finish the process and have clean clothes. Diana is able to help a young man negotiate the system while we are there. We do notice that few (if any Italians) use the dryer...they fold their clothes while damp and presumably hang them out on a clothes line to dry.

[NOTE: We did have an earlier and much more pleasant laundromat experience that we neglected to write about. In Orbetello, we found a small laundromat near the hotel which was run by a retired seaman who had traveled all around the world and spoke very good English. The place was immaculate, the machines very modern (they even dispensed the soap automatically) and the proprietor did most of the work while carrying on a long nostalgic conversation about his times in the States during the 1970s.]

At dinner time, we walk over to the restaurant where I had made reservations the day before and the lady did remember me. At 8:15 pm, we are the first people seated at the outdoor tables in the street but it soon fills up and people without reservations are being sent away. The restaurant is a Slow Food listing, the Trattoria del Tribunale, and it is mostly very good. We have excellent pastas but the seconds--a porchetta preparation for me--is more pork chops than the stewed pork that I expected--and Diana's steak is good but not exceptional. We have a nice red wine from the Oltrepo in nearby Pavia (the lady at the next table compliments us on our ordering but chides us for not ordering a local Parma wine).

When I go inside to pay the bill, I discover that there is also a large inside room (with an entrance on an adjoining street) which is also completely jammed.

The streets are still filled with Saturday night crowds as we make our way pack to our palazzo. Tomorrow we pick up Seth and Kerensa in Florence and meet up with the rest of the family in southern Tuscany.

Day 11: Parma

2007-05-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

After breakfast in the bar down the street from the Palazzo, we head over to the tourist office to inquire about apartment rentals for my client, in case the arrangments at the Rosa Prati don't work out. The staff person goes through her database and gives me the name of a b&b that also has a few apartments in the center but other than that she doesn't have anything else that I don't already have. She also tells us where the laundromat in Parma is....we will try to do a laundry before we leave town.

The Baptistery is our next stop....it is a very tall, octagonal tower (most baptisteries in Italy are octagonal for some reason) made of pink stone located between the Palazzo dalla Rosa Prati and the Duomo. The doors are framed with intricate carvings on the portals and the facade is decorated with rows of columns and blind arches at the top.

Inside it is completely open to the dome with a large baptismal font in the middle of the floor.

As in the Duomo, the walls and the dome are almost completely covered with frescoes of Biblical scenes and statues and carvings but unlike the Duomo, the effect is somehow not as overwhelming.

Maybe it is because everything is closer and the scenes can be identified more easily but it is a much more manageable visit for us and we spend some time admiring the detail and the workmanship.

We make a quick detour back into the Duomo to see if it might feel different with the morning light but, in fact, we have the same feeling as we had the day before. It's just too much for us.

Before getting the car and driving out into the countryside for lunch, we go to the Camera di San Paolo. Located in an old abbey, there are two rooms with frescoed ceilings...one by Correggio and one by Araldi .......which were commissioned in the early 16th century by the Abbess who was trying to maintain her independence from the Pope. The refectory, which was painted by Correggio, is made to look like like a "leafy arbor" with sixteen scenes depicting different philosophical concepts, and charming small "putti" interspersed in playful positions. The other room is, in contrast, very dense and detailed, with very intricate pictures of demons and fantastical creatures set as a background on the ceiling. Interspersed into this almost hallucinatory scene are a number of pictures of biblical scenes in round or rectangular "picture frames" At first, the ceiling is almost impossible to concentrate on but, once you take the time, the demons (with their many different variations) become identifiable and the pictures begin to make sense. It is helpful that the place is empty and the ceilings are well lit and not far away which makes it easier to concentrate on the details. We like these rooms very much -definitely worth a visit.

We walk out of the Camera di San Paolo down a tree lined entrance road

retrieve the car from the garage and, before leaving town, try..unsuccessfully....to find the exact location of the laundromat.

We are going to La Buca, a trattoria in the village of Zibello on the Po River about 50 km northwest of Parma. The town is famous for culatello, a local version of Parma ham, and La Buca is noted for its amazing tagliatelle, which we had a year ago and are eager to have again. The countryside in this region is very flat but somehow attractive in a quiet way. There are fields with vegetables and fruit trees but it appears to be mainly grazing lands and there are large bales of hay (wrapped in plastic) scattered in almost every field.

Even though the terrain is very flat, the roads are quite curvy so the flatness never becomes as boring as it might with lots of straightaways. We make one stop in Colorno, just north of Parma, to take a look at the Reggia which was built by one of the dukes as a summer villa but was later expanded by the Bourbons into a "minature Versailles". We don't stop to admire the extensive grounds but we do stop at the weekly market to buy some strawberries and peas.

There are only a few tables occupied at La Buca..we eat outside and again have a fabulous meal. Diana says again that the tagliatelle with culatello is the best pasta she has ever had and my "anolini" (tiny stuffed rings of pasta) are not quite as exceptional but the sausage based sauce is terrific. We also share a plate of culatello and salami which are excellent, a piece of wonderful parmigiano-reggiano with pear mostardo (conserve) and have small carafe of wine. I am sure that we will return anytime we are within a hour of Zibello.

After lunch, we stop by the banks of the Po for a short rest....

...and then a short visit to Busseto (Verdi's hometown) where we had stayed for a week some years ago. The main reason for stopping is to buy some parmigiano-reggiano from our favorite cheese store in the town but it doesn't open when the rest of the town comes back to life at 4 pm (perhaps it is closed or they are on vacation). We sit in the bar in the center of town while we wait and watch the locals playing cards.
It is still a very attractive town and has lots of recommend it, especially for Verdi lovers and opera fans.

Back in Parma, I go out to check out a few restaurants. This brings me to a part of the city that we haven't been to yet. It is mostly pedestrian with lovely streets and nice shops and, on this early Friday evening, it is buzzing with people walking and drinking at the many wine bars that line the streets. The restaurant that where I want to eat is full that evening so I ask for a reservation for the next night. The lady in charge says okay but doesn't take my name or write anything down....so we will hope for the best.

We decide that this will be a good night to skip dinner so we take a stroll in the same area and stop at one of the quiet bars for a prosecco and some free snacks that are set out on the bar. As we are leaving, the barman--after not saying two words to us--starts talking to us in English and we have a pleasant conversation. We stop for a gelato at Grom, the famous gelateria that began in Torino and now has many branches in Italy and one in New York. The gelato is very good and we walk home through the main square, the Piazza Garibaldi which is nicely lit at night.

Tomorrow we will look at some apartments for my client who is coming to Parma.

Day 10: Lerici -Parma

2007-05-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

The castello looks nice bathed in the early morning sun......

We are checking out today and heading for Parma. We always enjoy our visits to Lerici and look forward to returning to the Doria Park as long as we are able to negotiate the stairs and the hill.

The autostrada to Parma is one of the more scenic that we know.....it climbs over the heavily forested Appennines with rocky crags in the distance and then descends on the other side to the very flat Po River plain. The drive takes about an hour and a half and when we reach the toll plaza, we call the owner of the place where we are staying and he guides us by phone to our destination. We enter Parma through its commercial center (near the train station) but soon enter the very beautiful and sophisticated "centro storico". Vittorio tells us to ignore the signs that forbid automobiles and we end up right on the edge of the Piazza del Duomo...the Palazzo dalla Rosa Prati is the pink building right next to Parma's most famous building, the Baptistery.

We have a lovely "suite"--a large room with a kitchenette and wonderful views over the Piazza Duomo. We unpack and go next door for lunch; we sit at outdoor tables of the bar next door and have pretty good sandwiches. After lunch, we talk some business with Vittorio who owns the Palazzo (it has been in his family since the 1400s). I have clients who want to stay in Parma and one reason we are here is to check out apartment possibilities for the client.

We walk over to to the Duomo which on the outside is quite austere and dignified.....rows of columns line the front (like the cathedral in Pisa) and big statues of lions guard the entrance and support the entrance portico.

This exterior doesn't prepare you for the interior...where almost every inch of space--walls, ceiling and dome--is covered with frescoes. There are so many frescoes in such profusion that it is hard to concentrate on them without getting dizzy.

We beat a hasty retreat, walk over to the Baptistery but decide to postpone our visit until tomorrow. It is too warm for a major exploration so we go back to the hotel for a rest and to get some work done on the computer--taking advantage of the high speed internet in the room.

Later in the afternoon, I go out to check out some dinner possibilities and explore some parts of town that we haven't yet visited. We eat dinner at the Antica Cereria, a trattoria that is listed in the Slow Food Guide d'Osterie. It is located on the far side of the river...the part of town called the Oltretorrente....which has a beautiful large park--Parco Ducale--and is more residential and middle class than the "centro storico". The restaurant is located in an old candle factory and dinner is half good. The pasta course is excellent--Diana has the tagliatelle with culatello and I have a baked ricotta gnocchi dish served with a light cheese sauce. Our seconds are less successful....a guinea hen stuffed with a cheese and bread filling for Diana and a roast rabbit for me--both not bad but not memorable. This is another place where you have to go to the wine cellar to pick out your wine. I take a chance on an unknown (to me) wine--a red from Franciacorta in Lombardia---and it turns out to be quite good. Diana orders the sbrisalona tart--a sort of a coffee cake with a nut crumble topping that comes from Mantova--which is very good.

We take a stroll through the main square and down the main pedestrian street back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will take a drive into the countryside and have lunch at La Buca.

Day 9: Lerici

2007-05-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's a disappointingly overcast chilly morning in Lerici....not exactly what we were hoping for...and we have a slow morning. After breakfast the weather improves and we relax on our terrace for a while. My plan today is to drive to Vernazza, the fourth Cinque Terre village. We have driven in the past years to the first town--Riomaggiore--which was pretty easy but I have always heard how difficult the drive to Vernazza is. In the interest of research, we decide to make the attempt.

In fact, it is a pretty spectacular drive and only the last several kilometers--when the road to the village drops down to sea level--can be considered challenging. But up to then, the road is quite acceptable and the views are quite amazing...not consistently amazing like the Amalfi Coast drive, but very nice nonetheless and from a much higher vantage point.

The very narrow and very winding road to Vernazza ends at a pay parking lot about a kilometer above the town...it is an easy stroll down through a pretty tight valley with houses wedged into the hillside and crops (olives, grapes and lemons) arranged on the steep hillside.

As we enter the town above the train station, things are very quiet, peaceful and orderly.

but as soon as we pass under the train tracks, the small village of Vernazza seems to explode. This is a midweek afternoon in May and the streets are crowded with tourists--old and young--and there a number of Italian school groups enjoying their day in the Cinque Terre. The number of shops that cater to the increased tourism has multiplied exponentially since our first visit in 1993 and, unfortunately for us, it doesn't seem like the same town anymore.

The scenery is still beautiful and the reasons for the popularity of the town are evident...the charming port area, the rocks along the water, the castle overlooking the town, the church on the harbor, the painted buildings enclosing the main piazza with the beach and the water just beyond.

But the sheer numbers of people and the band moving from restaurant to restaurant performing international pop tunes and the bar serving American breakfasts is unsettling to us. We plan to eat at the Il Castello restaurant which is at the top of the town but we find, after climbing up that it is closed on Wednesdays so we go back down and eat lunch at Gambero Rosso (on the main square). The food at lunch is quite good.....a caprese salad for Diana followed by trofie (local pasta) with fragrant pesto. I have some delicious marinated anchovies in a lemon sauce and a very good version of spaghetti alle vongole. The local white wine goes down very easily and we have a nice conversation with the Australians at the next table.

But there are just too many people for Vernazza to digest....people have always come to Vernazza because of its charm...but now for us the charm is diluted by the crowds. When we visited Riomaggiore on a weekday a year ago, it was much quieter so maybe it is just Vernazza that is over-run by tourists. But we're glad we did the hikes before the Cinque Terre became so popular, and experienced a quieter, more charming Vernazza.

We avoid the walk back up to the parking lot because we catch the shuttle bus from the top of the town and we enjoy the ride back to Lerici. The road passes several towns high up on the cliffs that are not as well known as the five villages....perhaps there will be increased interest in places like Volastro, Groppo and Fornacchi in the future.

Our dinner plans with our friend Luigi and his wife are cancelled because of illness, so we decide to eat at the place that Megan recommended to us the night before--Bonta Nascosta. Before we go to dinner, we stop to say hello to the owner of the wine store we have been visiting for many years. He is always happy to see us and we get a explanation of Lerici politics (he opposed the party in power who have instituted very strict rules against cars in the centro which is bad for business) and his personal experience with Italian children who don't leave home. We buy a bottle of limoncello that he recommends and I get a supply of the olive oil soap that I like so much.

The restaurant--which also serves pizza, farinata (chickpea crepes) and foccacia--is small, cozy and friendly. We order a local speciality called sgabei--a deep fried bread preparation served with prosciutto, salami and stracchino cheese (like we have had in the past with focaccia and panigacci). It is very good....and we are very satisfied. We search for a gelateria that is open and have one sitting on the wall of the seafront. Then we climb the hill to the hotel, admire the view

and go to bed.

Tomorrow we are off to Parma.

Day 8: Tuesday, May 8: Orbetello-Lerici

2007-05-08T05:11:00.000-07:00

We leave for Lerici at about 10 am....I think that I like Orbetello more than Diana does. Part of its charm for me is its slight funkiness and its completely non-tourist ambience. Being set in the middle of the lagoon gives it an "end of the world" feeling....sort of like a floating city. The restaurants are good, the passeggiata is lively and it is well located for expeditions up and down the coast and into the interior of the Maremma.

We plan to stop in Lucca en route to Lerici. We have made it a tradition to spend a few hours in Lucca--one of our favorite towns, where we once spent two weeks studying Italian--whenever we are in the vicinity. The city is very attractive with typical narrow streets, impressive doors, distinctive churches and broad piazzas.

We want to do a little shopping--chocolate from Caniparoli, face cream from L'Erbario Toscano--visit our friend Paolo Moncini, the owner of the Piccolo Puccini hotel, have lunch at Vecchia Osteria Buralli and stroll around one of our favorite towns.

We park in our usual lot just inside the walls and complete our shopping errands before our traditional lunch of Tuscan fried chicken and fried vegetables--very light batter and delicate frying--sitting outside under the red awning at the Vecchia Osteria.

After lunch, we find Paolo and have a short conversation catching up on his news before retrieving the car and getting on the autostrada for the 45 minute trip to Lerici.

We are always happy to be back in Lerici....especially when we catch our first view of the harbor from the road high above the town. After we check in, we sit on our terrace and enjoy the familiar vista.

Before dinner, we walk down into town to meet Megan McCaffrey, who lives in Lerici and also is in the Italian trip planning business. We have corresponded by e-mail for a couple of years but have never met. We have drinks in one of the bars that line the fishing port and have a good time discussing her life in Italy, the travel business and local Lerici politics.

She walks us to her favorite local restaurant before she heads home....but unfortunately today is its closing day. We don't want anything too elaborate after our lunch in Lucca so we eat at a new pizzeria-restaurant called Moonstruck Too. Dinner is not memorable....Diana has a pasta dish with shrimp and I have grilled sausage. We leave quickly and climb up the hill to the Doria Park. Before turning in we spend a few minutes on our terrace looking at the lights around the harbor.

Day 7: Orbetello

2007-05-07T17:10:00.000-07:00

It is a beautiful morning....the sun is shining as we drive to Pitigliano. The scenery in the area is very distinctive....the town seems to grow right out of the tufa substructure.

There are lots of Etruscan places around here...tombs are scattered through the countryside.

Pitigliano is also known as "La Piccola Gerusalemme (Little Jerusalem)" because it had a significant Jewish population (up to 20% at one time) from the 16th century until the early 20th century. There are no Jews left in Pitigliano--the last remant left during and after World War II--but the town has kept its Jewish heritage alive. The synagogue was restored in 1995 and since our previous visit in 1998, the Jewish ghetto sites have been reorganized into a cohesive unit--the synagogue, a small museum of the Jewish religion (mostly aimed at non-Jewish visitors), the matzoh bakery, the wine cellar, the mikvah and a small library.

The synagogue is very attractive but is rarely used anymore.....sometimes weddings or bar mitzvahs are held there but it is mostly open as a tourist attraction.

The women's gallery is upstairs behind a carved screen and the view down into the sanctuary is obscured.

The mikvah (ritual bath), the tannery and the wine cellar are in caves carved out of the tufa rock

and the bakery still has the oven for making matzah

and a window grating with a design in the form of a menorah.

It is quite an impressive restoration, especially given the fact that there are no Jews in Pitigliano but the project has received a lot of interest in Jewish communities elsewhere and has quite a following internationally.

Walking around Pitigliano today, it is another attractive Italian hill town...the same narrow streets, houses with flowers in window boxes, inviting shops, an acqueduct built into the town walls, a dominating castle of the Orsini family which now houses a museum and wonderful views over the countryside from all parts of the town.

Since it is lunch time, we stop at an "alimentari" to have some sandwiches made and move on to the next "citta di tufa"--Sorano. Sorano is a bit more difficult to get a hold of...it is built into the side of the hill and it isn't apparent to us on our first run through town where to stop. And once we get through town, we have to drive about three kilometers on a steep, narrow, winding road before we find a place to turn around. We are rewarded on our return drive with spectacular views of the town clinging to the side of the cliff, with a big fortress overhanging it all.

We do find the center, park and find a bench in the middle of town where we eat our sandwich. But after a brief walk through the old section (which is picturesque but definitely crumbling), we leave and drive to Sovana, the last of this trio of towns in the area.

We had read that Sovana was very small (only one street) and one guidebook says it only has 23 residents. (We later learn that there are now 116 residents in Sovana.) The sign at the entrance to town advertises it (in Italian) as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy which naturally leads to some skepticism. The streets in town are paved with bricks in a very careful herringbone pattern and as we enter into the main piazza, we are greeted by a lovely small church, a minature town hall, a few attractive restaurants, bars and churches and a hotel built into the old stables.

It turns out that the town is in fact extremely pleasing and harmonious. It is bigger than we imagined with a couple more hotels, a large and very impressive duomo at one end of town with intricate carvings on the doorway and on the interior columns

In addition, the bookshop connected to the duomo has an impressive collection...including some in English and a charming salesperson who helps us find D.H. Lawrence's "Etruscan Days" and a well organized book that includes descriptions and pictures of most of the Etruscan sites we have visited. And before we leave town, Diana buys a pocketbook at the very stylish leather store in town (which is even open in the early afternoon) and we get a gelato and a freshly squeezed orange juice at a gelateria at the edge of the parking lot.

To cap it all off, there is a ruined castle at the other end of town with picnic tables where we can eat on our next visit to Sovana.

Sovana, while small, seems to have it all.....and we will be happy to return in the future.

Back in Orbetello, we sit by the water and watch the sun set over the lagoon

and have our farewell dinner at a pleasant little trattoria in the center of town, Il Nocchino. Diana has a pretty good (but very rich) risotto followed by a steak. I have a delicious "saute" of excellent mussels and a superior "fritto misto". We drink a very pleasant Bianco di Pitigiano that gets finished very easily.

Tomorrow we are off to Lerici.

Day 6: Orbetello

2007-05-06T05:09:00.000-07:00

A rainy morning in Orbetello...... first we are going to visit the local Orbetello museum and hope for the weather to improve while we are there.

The museum is located in the powder magazine of the Spanish fort that dates from the 16th century.

We are the only visitors on this Sunday morning and we really don't know what to expect. It turns out that the Municipal Archaelogical Museum is one of the best small (or even larger) museums in our experience. The museum's holdings are a basic course in Etruscan history and culture, very nicely arranged in cases with artifacts attractively arranged in chronological order. The explanations are in Italian and very well written English and there are many drawings that very clearly show and explain techniques--like funeral practices, ceramic manufacture, farming, etc.--that were part of Etruscan life. There are also pictures of comparable objects that are held in other museums which we find very useful in understanding the exhibits. The candelabras below are surely among their most prized objects.

We end up spending two hours in the museum and come away with a better understanding of the Etruscans and a great regard for the developers of this small city museum.

And when we leave the museum, the rain has stopped and the sun is shining.

We get the car and head inland to visit some more of the small hill towns scattered in the Maremma. Our first stop is Scansano, which is the home of the red wine that we have been drinking--Morellino di Scansano. As we begin to climb into the hills, the sky in front of us is darkening, although to the south the sun is still shining. Just before we reach Scansano, the rain begins in earnest so we decide to have a proper Italian Sunday lunch at one of the restaurants on our list. We drive around the town (every other shop seems to have something to do with the local wine), locate La Vecchia Cantina, find a parking space and walk through the steady drizzle to the restaurant.

La Vecchia Cantina turns out to be a large operation...a spacious restaurant set in a barrel vaulted room with solid furniture and elaborate light fixtures as well as a shop that sells wine, food products and leather goods. We enjoy our lunch very much and are happy to be inside while the rain comes down. Diana has a plate of mixed salume that is excellent and pappardelle with wild boar ragu--the pasta is delicate and nicely done but the boar ragu is only average. My first course is a kind of terrine of vegetables--carrots, eggplant, zucchini in a damp flavored breading--(it tasted better than it sounds) and a "maltagliati"(sheets of pasta) filled with meat and topped with a very good vegetable sauce. We have a very nice (but somewhat light) Morellino di Scansano..the practice at La Cantina is to go into the shop and pick a bottle of wine off the shelf (from a very extensive selection) and bring it into the dining room.

The rain has let up a bit when we leave the restaurant and we take a short stroll into the old section of the village but it is pretty cold and damp so we don't last long before getting back in the car. Before heading back to Orbetello, we decide to make a stop at the hot springs at Saturnia. Although we don't plan to go in, I have always wanted to see them. We have a bit of drama with the GPS...the directions take us on a dirt road which turns into a hiking path which we decide to forego and head back to the paved road.

The only drama on the paved road to Saturnia is our meeting with a flock of sheep that has jumped the wall of the meadow and has filled the road as the run down to the next meadow. We only make a quick stop at Saturnia.....just long enough for me to check out the bathers in the cascades at the bottom and climb up to see the springs before they fall into the pools below.

We get to back to Orbetello about 6 pm and we are both tired and still full from our Sunday lunch. We decide to skip dinner and end up going out for a late gelato ...at the crowded gelateria which is the only one in town that is open at 10 pm.

Day 5: Orbetello

2007-05-05T05:08:00.000-07:00

The weather looks promising this morning as we head east into the hills to visit the small hill town of Capalbio. The countryside we pass through is very green and is heavily agricultural--grapes, olives, cattle, fruit and vegetables. The hills begin abruptly and we climb quickly to reach the large multi-storied parking garage just under the "centro storico" of Capalbio. We are the only car parked in the structure today and the barriers are open...they are not charging for parking. There are steps from the road that take you to a narrow walkway that surrounds the outside of the town walls, with wonderful views to the hills and sea on one side and doorways leading to private homes on the other.

After going halfway around the town, a gate appears and we get inside the walls to discover one of those almost perfect small hill towns.....narrow streets with stone buildings, flowers in planters and growing on walls, archways leading to other houses on small dead end streets that frame beautiful views, a small church set under the large town castle and finally, a few shops and restaurants. There are very few other visitors on this Saturday morning and it is very pleasant to wander aimlessly around the village.

As we are leaving, the shops begin to open and the restaurants are preparing for their lunch business, but we don't regret the peace and quiet of our visit to Capalbio.

Our next destination is the Giardino del Tarocchi, a park filled with the whimsical sculptures of French artist Niki de Saint Phalle based on tarot card figures. The garden is almost on the Tuscany-Lazio border and only a few kilometers from Capalbio. When we arrive, we find an almost empty parking lot with a few other visitors walking towards the locked gate. The park is now open only in the afternoons starting at 2:30 pm so we will have to return another time. You can see several of the large figures looming above the walls and we had gotten a sample of de Saint Phalle's art in a statue set in a piazza outside the walls of Capalabio.

Magliano in Toscana...another small hill town...is our next destination. The town makes a grand impression as you approach...the walls are high and intact with numerous battlements--it would seem to have been hard for any army to get into the town.

But the inside of the town is less impressive....there seem to be more people around than there were in Capalbio but somehow it has more of an empty feeling than Capalbio did. We stop at a bar to have a light lunch.....a plate of local meat and cheese specialties served with a glass of the local red wine......but we don't linger very long.

The road that takes us from Magliano to Alberese--the headquarters of the Maremma National Park--is particularly scenic. It is a back road that winds gently through the typical southern Tuscany landscape--broad panoramic vistas, rolling hills, green fields, poppies and other wild flowers growing in the fields and along the edge of the road...the kind of drive that you wish would go on and on.

Il Parco Naturale Regionale della Maremma is a nature preserve and park that is reserved predominantly for hikers...cars can't drive into the park. We aren't planning a hike today but I stop at the headquarters in Alberese to get some information and brochures for future use.
The park staff tells me that I can drive and park at Marina di Alberese on the northern edge to get a small taste of the park. The road passes some of the remaining cattle and horse farms. The area is the Tuscan version of the American West complete with a tradition of cowboys (butteri) and rodeos.

The beach at the end of the road is one of the most attractive of Italian beaches....very undeveloped and quite wild. The sand is strewn with a jungle of driftwood making walking along the beach a challenge but it is very striking...the trees, the surf and the long stretch of sand curving down the coast.

After a short walk down the beach and short rest looking at the water, we drive back to Orbetello for a while before getting back in the car and making a return visit to Monte Argentario. We drive to the other main town, Porto San Stefano, which is bigger than Porto Ercole. There are two harbors...one for private boats and the other where the ferries leave for the island of Giglio. The waterfront is one endless strip of restaurants, shops, bars and ice-cream parlors and on this Saturday afternoon, it is jammed with people and cars. After driving the length of the harbor, we follow the signs for the panoramic drive which takes us through the industrial area before we reach the very beautiful drive on the top of the island. The views are pretty spectacular and there are many substantial homes dotting the hillside along the road

but the Argentario doesn't really click for us....for whatever reason--in spite of their location--the towns don't seem appealing or inviting.

Driving back across the causeway to Orbetello, we have a hard time finding a parking space in the very extensive lot. The Saturday afternoon passeggiata is in full swing and the main street is jammed with people walking back and forth, shopping, socializing, sitting in bars....There is also a weekend market going on and there is a buzz in the air.

After strolling the length of the Corso Italia with the rest of the crowd, we stop for a prosecco at one of the bars and watch the scene for a while. Then we sit on a bench overlooking the lagoon and enjoy the quiet, peaceful view and the early evening light.

Dinner is at The Gallery, a very stylish restaurant with a modern feel. The food is more "creative" than we have had so far but it is very good. Diana has an unusual and delicious rice dish (sort of a risotto) with sausage, artichokes and a parmesan cheese sauce followed by a wonderful fillet of ombrone that is perfectly cooked. I have the pappardelle with cheese and pepper (cacio e pepe) served on plate decorated with swirls of delicious fava bean puree and a baccala (salt cod) dish made with capers, olives and the tastiest cherry tomatoes. We drink another delicious morellino di scansano and finish up with fresh strawberries. A very good meal....

The streets are still packed with strollers as we walk back to the hotel.

Day 4: Orbetello

2007-05-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

We get a late start this morning...it is raining and the room is dark. After breakfast and hanging out in the room for a while until the sun comes out, we get in the car and head for the small fishing village of Talamone, just to the north of Orbetello. We drive to the mainland on the most northerly of the three causeways...it is lined on both sides with beachfront houses, hotels, beach clubs and camping areas and we don't catch a glimpse of the water on either side for the entire length (6 miles) of the route.

Talamone is set above a pretty harbor filled with boats at their moorings.

We drive up to the top of the town and right back down again...there isn't really anyplace to park up there so we put the car in one of the lots near the harbor and walk back up. The Piazza Garibaldi has a statue of Garibaldi and a plaque commemorating the time he spent in Talamone with his army in 1860 before heading south to Sicily.

We continue up to the top of the town---dominated by a large Spanish castle with nice views over the water to Monte Argentario, the island of Giglio and the Maremma National Park.

Our trip is nothing if not research so we stop at one of the hotels in town to pick up some brochures, and then wander up and down the few streets looking at store windows and checking out restaurants. We then head back down to the harbor, sit on a bench in the sun and watch the boats for a while.....

....before heading back up the hill to have lunch at the Locanda dei Mille (named for Garibaldi's army).

Lunch is okay...the restaurant is pleasant, the house white wine very drinkable but the food is not particularly noteworthy except for the delicious small clams on my spaghetti alle vongole, which are outstanding. Diana has crepes with zucchini and cheese and we share a plate of fritto misto--fried calamari, shrimp and small fish. (The menu lists the crepes as being with carciofi - artichokes -however, it was zucchini instead. We had seen carciofi growing in the fields and have had an eye out for them on menus. Next time, perhaps.)

After lunch, we head back to Orbetello and, after hanging out in the hotel room, take a walk around the rest of the town. We walk the length of the main drag--the Corso Italia--stopping to window shop and people watch. We pass the Duomo and stop for a glass of prosecco in the main square in front of the old Spanish palace.

For dinner, we decide to return to the same place where we ate the night before--the Vecchia Cantina. Since it is Friday night and it had been very busy on Thursday, we call for reservations, which turn out not to be necessary. We do get a warm welcome from the staff but the meal is only 2/3rds as good as it had been the night before. The pasta dishes are a letdown but Diana's grilled beef and my filet of scorfano steamed in foil are both excellent. Diana has a couple of glasses of the very nice local red wine--Morellino di Scansano--and my white wine--a pinot grigio--is also excellent. We have very tasty fresh strawberries for dessert.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit the hilltown Capalbio and explore the Maremma national park.

Day 3: Tuscania-Orbetello

2007-05-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

The weather is pretty nice this morning....cloudy but with patches of blue sky. After breakfast, we pack up but before we leave town we take a stroll around Tuscania. We make a circle through some of the business areas and residential areas, then to some of the "official piazzas" and historical monuments. The town is very attractive and very pleasant....flowers on the facades of buildings and in window boxes. The street lamps are very distinctive and there are many fountains to admire.

The main government square is ringed with impressive palazzi and a wall topped with a row of Etruscan sarcophagi.

The town has extremely good "vibes" and it is a place where we would be happy to return.

Our next to last stop in Tuscania is the Archaelogical Museum, which is housed in the former convent of Santa Maria di Riposo. The museum has an excellent collection of local Etruscan finds--a smaller version of the museum in Tarquinia. The artifacts reinforce our positive feelings about the Etruscan civilization which flourished in the centuries before the Roman Empire and was a major trading partner with Greece at the height of its power. The wealth of the Etruscans was due to the discovery of iron ore on Elba which they produced and sold....ending up with a treasure trove of the Greek and Greek-influenced possessions which are among the items on display in the museums.

These are but a few of the sarcophagi on display at the Tuscania museum--some in carved in stone and others made of terra cotta.

There is also a pretty well preserved fresco cycle illustrating events from the life of Saint Francis painted on the walls of the cloister of the former monastery. All in all, an excellent museum....and free admission......

We drive out to the very imposing Basilica of San Pietro which is now about 1 km from the main part of town.....it dates from the 11th century and has a impressive carved facade and intricate rose window on the outside, and inside, a beautiful cosmatesque floor, high pointed arches and austere decorations

as well as a nice crypt on the lower floor with graceful columns and some well preserved frescoes.

We take a somewhat roundabout route to Orbetello, through the gently rolling hills and green fields of this very sparsely populated northwest corner of Lazio. In addition to the red poppies, spring wild flowers, yellow broom, and fennel growing along the roadside are everywhere to be seen. We stop in Farnese, formerly the seat of the famous family, but today a quiet provincial town. The main square is crossed by an ancient acqueduct

and the main tourist attraction that we find is a sign that explains the "Route of the Brigands", which traces the history and describes the exploits of the infamous robbers that ran wild in the area in the 19th century. The sign admonishes us not to romanticize them - it says they were not Robin Hoods.

The restaurant where we plan are to have lunch is unfortunately only open in the evening. We are lucky to duck into an alimentari just before it closes for lunch at 1:15 and they make us a couple of sandwiches that we take with us in the car to eat at our next stop. Diana remarks that I shouldn't hope to find a roadside picnic table--we have found very few in our Italian travels--when, around the next bend, one appears. We stop and eat our sandwiches.

We soon cross the border that separates Lazio from Tuscany and the scenery dramatically changes. While in Lazio, the gentle rolling countryside was very pleasant, once in Tuscany it becomes more beautiful with very pleasing sweeping vistas. And the view of the town Manciano atop its hill is very different than anything that we had seen in Lazio.

Orbetello is a small city that is located on one of the causeways that link the Argentario (an island) to the mainland of Italy. It is completely surrounded by water and is only about seven blocks across at its widest point.

The hotel--the Relais Sanbiagio--is located right in the middle of town and is quite nice....we are given a suite with a sleeping loft, nice furniture and two bathrooms. And...as an added bonus...there is high speed internet access.

After getting settled and doing some work, we head out to explore a bit of the town. The town was under Spanish control from 1550 to 1700 and it still has something of a Spanish feel to it. We walk for a while on the main street, window shop and stop for a gelato. We then get in the car and take the short ride to the Argentario peninsula where we drive to the town of Porto Ercole, a densely populated resort town which doesn't impress much on first impression.

We also make a stop on the beach at Feniglia (this is where Caravaggio died) which is a long stretch of beach on the third causeway that connects the Argenatario to the mainland.

Most everything is closed up (it is still very off season) but the beach looks very nice, although a lot of buildings (shacks??) visible through the fences look like they are pretty run down.

We have dinner at the close by Vecchia Cantina--recommended by Robert Rainey of the Slow Travel message board--and it is very good. Diana has dish of spaghetti with spernocchie (a local term for a type of shrimp)--deliciously sweet but impossibly messy to eat- followed by
the best carpaccio (made with Chianina beef) that we have ever had. I have a great antipasto toscana--prosciutto, salumi, etc.--and a wonderful dish of pappardelle with a boar ragu. We both have panna cotta for dessert, which is very pleasant. We manage to drink a whole liter of the fine house red. The bill comes to Euro 51.00..a good value...and we enjoy our short walk back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Talamone, a small fishing village on the mainland.

Day 2: Tuscania

2007-05-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

It is a bit overcast when we get up (we are able to sleep through the night without difficulty) but while we are eating breakfast, the rain begins to fall.

Breakfast is served in the restaurant at the Hotel Al Gallo, which is done up in a rustic rooster theme (il gallo)--there are pictures of roosters, statues of roosters and much rooster paraphenalia along with red checked tableclothes and curtains.

The rain continues as we drive to Tarquinia. We change the language on the GPS to Italian because the American voice was painfully mispronouncing the Italian place names. The screen still reads in English but you are told to turn in Italian- and I also changed miles to kilometers - it makes more sense and is much pleasanter. During the drive, we take a detour on a side road and we have a disagreement with the GPS about the right way to go. After a ten minute drive on our choice--with the GPS continuing to "recalcola"--we reach a dead end. The GPS takes us back to the correct road (we had decided against it previously because it was quite narrow and rutted) and we eventually get back to the main road.

As we reach Tarquinia, the rain stops and the sun comes out. We can't enter the town because it is market day so we park in the lot just outside. The archaelogical museum is located in the very imposing Palazzo Vitelleschi--a large medieval building--with pointed arches and lots of crenellation.

The Etruscan collection in the museum is quite extensive and beautifully displayed. The rooms have explanatory material (in Italian) on the walls and display cases in the middle of the rooms with an extensive assortment of Etruscan artifacts recovered from the tombs located in the area. The collection mostly covers the period between the 9th century B.C. to the 4th century B.C. The vases, urns, mirrors, hairpins, kitchen utensils, combs are all things that the dead people will need in the afterlife - but now reveal much to us about their daily lives. There are many Greek items as well as Etruscan ones that show Greek and Egyptian influences.

I was particularly taken with the frame of an umbrella that was in the collection.

There are also many wonderfully decorated sarcophagi, topped with a statue of the dead person reclining on the lid and sometimes decorated with mythological scenes on the sides.

The museum is very impressive and also very crowded...there is a tour group off a cruise ship as well as two or three school groups so we try and go through the museum either a step ahead or a step behind the groups.

The most prized piece in the museum is a terracotta statue of two winged horses that was found near Tarquinia, which is very impressive and nicely displayed.

After we finish at the museum, it is time for lunch so we get sandwiches at a grocery store and eat them on a bench in a park at the top of town. Sandwiches are good, it is sunny and warm and the view over the very green rolling countryside is beautiful.

The other big Etruscan attraction in Tarquinia is the extensive necropolis located just on the edge of town. Most of the Etruscan tombs in this area were excavated fairly recently.....during the middle of the 20th century. Most of the artifacts have been removed to museums but the very striking wall paintings are preserved in the actual tombs. The tombs themselves are protected by windows and the lights are only turned on when there are people viewing the paintings. They have built little buildings to cover the entrance, and stairs (very dimly lit) take you down to the windows. There are about 60 tombs in this necropolis (not all of them are open on any given day), spread out in a large field. Some of the wall paintings are in better shape than others but they show many different scenes of everyday life, sporting events, myths, dancing--all to make the dead feel connected in the afterlife. It is easy to see where the inspiration came for the wall paintings found in Pompeii after viewing the paintings in these Etruscan tombs.

We make our way back to Tuscania with a couple of stops....one at the ancient Etruscan site of Vulci to see the famous old Roman bridge at Ponte d'Abbadia where we also come across a small field of poppies

and in the old Farnese built town of Canino, which is a major producer of olive oil and has a very nice "centro storico" and fountain in the main piazza.

Back in Tuscania, I take a walk around the town before dinner. Tonight we eat at the hotel and have a very good meal. We both have the same pasta dish--strozzapreti with a ragu of sausage--which is very tasty. Diana has a filet of branzino and a salad of fennel, artichokes and blood oranges and I have a "torta rustica"....a cabbage filling inside an excellent baked crust. The chocolate dessert is not as good as the rest of the meal. The very drinkable wine is a sangiovese from an Umbrian producer, La Carraraia. The service iss very attentive and we enjoy our meal.

Tomorrow we move on to Orbetello in the far southwestern corner of Tuscany, only about an hour from Tuscania.

Day 1: Tuscania

2007-05-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

The plane trip from Washington to Rome is good and bad....the Virgin
Atlantic flight to London has lots of empty seats and we are able to
move to a row where we have no seatmates and--more importantly--no
one in the seats in front of us to recline into our space. The plane
leaves on time, arrives early, the food is pretty good and the Virgin
Atlantic personnel are very pleasant.

In London, however, there is a drama with our carry-on bag. The
airport authorities there are very strict about the number of carry-
ons and the size of the bag. Ours is too large for the frame that
they use to measure the carry-ons and they tell us that we have to
check the bag. That means that we have to go through a long line at
passport control, walk to another terminal, check our bag at Alitalia
and then make our way to the gate. Luckily we have 2.5 hours, but it
is pretty frustrating.

We arrive in Rome about 1 pm--right on schedule. After a long wait
for the bags to reach the conveyor in the baggage claim area, our
luggage comes very quickly, we get our car--a Fiat Bravo--and get on
the road by 2:30 pm. I had bought a GPS machine to try out in
Italy (Garmin Nuvi 670) and I hadn't had a chance to practice with it
at home so this was our first attempt trying to figure it out...which
slows us up some. Although navigating is part of the fun, many of my
clients have expressed an interest in having a GPS and I thought I
would give it a try. We set it for Tuscania (though I already know
the way) and it--after some fits and starts--gets us there. It does
get flummoxed when we find that the main street is blocked off for
May Day leading to some trouble negotiating alternate routes to the
hotel.

In any case, we find the hotel Al Gallo (after a thorough tour of all
sections of Tuscania), check in, unload the luggage and park the car
in their lot behind the hotel (which actually entails a somewhat
complicated roundabout route just to get to the back of the hotel).

The hotel is right in the middle of town and has a pretty well-known
restaurant attached to it, where we had eaten four years ago. It has
a distinctly old-fashioned, quirky feel...bright green carpet, dark
walls and an unbelievable patterned wallpaper on the ceiling.

But there is a nice view out the window,

the bed seems comfortable and the bathroom is roomy, so--except for
the pokey dial-up internet connection, all is fine.

After getting settled, I head to get reacquainted with the
town....the streets and buildings are very attractive, the town is
almost completely encircled with the ancient wall and you enter the
main street through one of the original gates. There is a large,
inviting park that occupies the northeast part of town with great
expanses of green, benches, a play area and a killer view of the old

churches and castle (now outside the town) and over the gentle
rolling hills of northern Lazio.

We plan to eat dinner fairly early for fear that jet lag will set in
so we walk over to a nearby, attractive small restaurant called
Locanda di Mirandolina. It is located right on the edge of the park
where we sit for while because we have arrived a bit too early for
dinner (7:45 pm). While we are waiting, we enjoy a very nice sunset.

Mirandolina is very small (6-7 tables) and tastefully decorated. The
owner, Suzanne, is very charming. The food is excellent--Diana has a
pasta called "foglie" with a sauce of pistachio pesto and tomatoes
(very tasty) followed by a large (and delicious) of plate assorted
local cheeses served with honey. I have "maltagliati"--irregular
square sheets of pasta made with borage (a wild green) sauced with
walnuts and pecorino cheese (very good but Diana's is better) and a
wonderful fritter-like concoction (tortino) made with vegetables and
served with a selection of salumi. The restaurant-made bread was
very good and we drink a couple of glasses of a very rich local
Maremma red wine.

The only down side is that Suzanne is charming to all her guests--
which is great--but it slows the service down some and on this night,
we are hoping for a quicker meal than usual. The check is also
surprisingly reasonable (Euro 45.00).....definitely a place to remember.

And it is only a short walk to the hotel through the quiet
streets...the stars are shining and there is a full moon. Tomorrow
we plant to visit nearby Tarquinia to see the Etruscan museum and
necropolis.