Day 16 Back to Canada

Our flight was supposed to leave Milan at 6:45 Friday morning so we checked in the evening before and got up Friday at 5:00 to get across to the terminal.  Imagine our surprise when we found out our flight to Frankfurt had been cancelled :-(

After standing in line with other disgruntled passengers for a very long time we got tickets on the 9 am flight to Düsseldorf and then direct to Toronto.  They wouldn't give us a boarding pass for the Toronto to Halifax portion but the time was tight.

We got to our gate (A5) and waited.  When they called the flight we were told it was not our fight after all.  We looked at the board and it was now listed as Gate A34.... a long way away... we ran.   We thought we heard our names being called on the PA ... just to add to the tension.

When we got to gate A34 we were told that our flight was not at that gate but we needed to be at gate A11!  Back near where we started ...  ran again.

We had about given up hope of making our flight but when we got to the proper gate the nice lady there told us they would not be boarding for 20 mins. so no worries.  Sigh.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful with the exception of crazy rain and wind we had in Toronto.  So, a 2 hour flight to Düsseldorf, a 7 hour flight to Toronto, through Customs and then a 2.5 hour Air Canada flight back to Halifax.  This all makes for a long day buy at least we are home.

We managed to wear almost everything we took and were glad we had jackets and long pants for the cold days.

It was a great holiday. We ate some wonderful food and drank some excellent wine.  There were some wonderful sights and we saw a lot of Northern Italy.  We'll be editing photos and putting up a proper album but this is the last entry for the Italy trip.

Day 15. The Road Back to Milan

Another perfect start to the day in Tuscany. We were up a bit earlier than normal to finish packing, clean up the unit, finish the food left in the fridge and take off to Asciano to drop off the keys.  Then the GPS routed us back out on to the A1 and we headed north.

We had traveled this road before on the way to Florence so it was familiar until we turned off toward Pisa. This takes you west across the middle of the country and into some larger mountains. 

It is built up on both sides of the highway but about halfway across we went through a zone of ornamental horticulture the like of which we had never seen.  Mile after mile of trees of every description.  Hundreds of shaped trees all the same.  Fantastic.

We had planned to visit the leaning Tower of Pisa but a wrong turn that would have meant an additional 30 km and two highway tolls turned Jim off and we kept on going to Genoa.

The highway running into Genoa is a masterpiece of engineering. We went thru tunnel after tunnel, some up to 2 km long.  It seemed that half the route was underground!

From Genoa we turned north to Milan.  The first few km are in tunnels and then it flattened out to the agricultural land we started out with two weeks ago.  Rice fields, barley and corn.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We checked into the Sheraton Hotel at the airport, returned the car and got ready for for an early departure in the morning.

One interesting fact.  The Telepass had registered 126 euros in tolls during the trip.  The 15 euros we had invested in it were well spent.

Long trip to Canada begins at 6:45 Friday.

Day 14 The Back Roads of Tuscany

It was a lovely day in Tuscany today. Sunny and highs of 27-28. We left mid morning and went south to the town of Montepulciano. It is only about 20 minutes away so we had a nice drive through the country.

The types of crops changed from field crops like barley to grapes. Lots and lots of grapes. This area is known as the Noble Wine Region.

Montepulciano is spread  out along a high ridge line and enclosed with high walls. They had parking and a tourist information area just by gate that made it convenient. One more sign that Montepulciano has thought about tourism marketing is the existence of not only good signage in the city but a lot of QR codes on the signs that link to further information. They even supply an open and fast Wifi connection! Brilliant.

There is the requisite window shopping but here there are a lot of food and wine related stores. Everyone had a free tasting.

We walked around Montepulciano and took in the sights. There are some great views of the countryside.  Grape vines everywhere.

We next headed toward the town of Montalcino. It is located about 30 min west of Montepulciano. As it was after noon we stopped for lunch in San Qauirico d'Orcia. This is a great little to town that feels more "authentic" for some reason. It is not overrun with tourists but has some good shops and we had a great lunch.  The parking was even free!

When we got to Montalcino I missed the sign for the first parking lot and we found ourselves immediately into the narrow and steep streets of the town. We crept through it and got out to the other side where there was also a parking lot.

However it had a pay and display machine that only took  coins and we didn't have any.  I tired to talk to the parking ticket person who was making her rounds and she suggested we go somewhere and buy something to get change otherwise we'd get a ticket.  So in doing that we found ourselves back in the old town trying to find a store that was open (and a place we could stop) and ended up on some scary steep and narrow places ... one of which we had to back uphill for a couple of hundred meters to get out of. As by now we had seen much if the town from the car (unintentionally) we decided to abandon our efforts to find change and get parked and we left the way we came. 

We did get some wine tasteing in at a couple if wineries, the best of which was Conti Constanti. We bought a bottle of Brunello that was very, very nice.

It was back to our villa il Fornacino for some drinks around the pool before we headed off to supper with the wedding party.  It was held at the Lazy Olive where our cooking class had been.

It was a great evening and we watched the sun go down on our last night in Tuscany.  It will be packing and cleanup for our long trip back to the the airport in Milan in the morning.

Day 13 Florence

Florence is not a place you can see in part of a day as we discovered.  It had been on our list of places to visit and we headed out after breakfast.

It's a 125 km drive so we took the Autostrada there and followed the GPS route to the old down town.  We passed through one of the narrowest walled roads we have seen so far.  It was like a slot car track!
Finally we followed signs to a parking building (always the hardest part of visits to these places) and left the car.

Florence is a city where the motorcycle or scooter is king.  There are streets full of them parked. They pass you on both sides when you drive and seem to have their own road rules.  Everyone from businessmen to kids are on two wheels.

There are also a lot of pedestrian streets and in addition to walkers you have to watch for bicycles.  If you're lucky, they ring their bell as they come up behind you.

The center part of the city is dominated by the huge domed church all done in green and white carved marble.  Stunning. 

There was no way to get near it with the crowds.  We had lunch in the square and looked at it and all the people streaming by. This is the first place we had noticed gypsies working in the crowds.  The women were begging for money for their children. Most people ignored them.

There are artists everywhere around this city, more than any other place we have been. Some places there were 8 or 10 in a row set up with canvas or paper and either painting or sketching. If you wanted to sit for a few minutes you could have your portrait done.

There are lots of statues on display as well.  The famous "David" is here but every corner has something displayed. Again, we didn't get into any of the exhibits due to lineups and lack of time.
What you could not avoid were the stores and shops. Barbara bought a few things, the prices seemed better here than certainly Venice.  The famous Ponte Vecchio bridge is lined on both sides with jewelry stores all competing for the tourist euro.  There is a lot of gold on that bridge.

In a city this big with so many people we were surprised to run into members of the wedding party we had met the night before. They were shopping as well.

It was back to the villa once we got tired of the crowds.  This time we ignored the GPS and took the slower back roads home, seeing some of the same country from a different direction.  It was after 6 by the time we got there. There were snacks and beer by the pool before another of Barb's wonderful suppers. She created her own ragout like we had made in cooking class the night before using the ingredients we had on hand.

If we come back to this part of Italy again we'll plan on staying in Florence for a couple of nights to get a chance to see more of its art and history.

We have only two more nights in the villa before we head north so tomorrow we visit some wineries.

Day 12 Rain in Tuscany & Cooking Class

For the first time since we had left Milan we awoke to an overcast and rainy morning.  It was not a heavy rain but it was cool and dark and didn't encourage us to go out quickly to see anything. Eventually we did take a run into Asciano to get some supplies. It turns out that nothing is included with the rental including having to bring your own salt, pepper and toilet paper. 

Anyway it was just after lunch when we got back and as we were unloading the groceries Dominick and David stopped by to check that we were still coming to the cooking class that afternoon.  Dom is a friend of our daughter-in-law Monique.  She and David are getting married later in the week.  Unfortunately Monique is not able to travel so the visit that we had planned for this part of the trip with Monique and our son Steve will not happen.

The sun had come out by noon and we walked up the road to the villa known as the Lazy Olive at 3 where we met others in the wedding party. We immediately were included in the activities and felt at home.

The owners of the villa live at their property. The husband is a chef and they brought in a friend who works as chef  a local spa to help.  We were divided into two teams and proceeded to work with the chefs to prepare the evening meal.

We made pasta, a cheese and favabean salad, duck ragout, steak on the BBQ
and chocolate cake. There was also a dish with eggplant and cheese that was interesting. 
With lots of wine, cats, dogs and children to entertain us, the afternoon flew by. I discovered that there is a wifi node at this villa so was able to finally connect, get the e-mail and upload the blogs I had been creating.

A long table was setup outside the villa with a great view of the countryside and the meal was served. It was wonderful.  Unfortunately it turned cold once the sun went down so we were glad we had our coats. 

It was about midnight by the time we got back to our own villa. It was a day we won't soon forget.

Day 11 Siena and North

We thought there might be rain in the forecast but the day dawned clear and ended up being very warm.
We decided to go north  of Asciano to visit a couple of places so after a leisurely breakfast we headed out.
We made quick stop in Asciano to try to connect to the village Wifi but didn't have any luck so that will have to wait.
The road from Asciano to Siena runs along a ridge line over farm county called le Crete.  It's hard to describe but in places the land falls away on both sides of the narrow road. Houses are perched on hill tops all around.  Pretty.
The city of Siena is about 25 km north.  It's a big place with high walls and massive gates that you pass through on the way in. There were lots people and traffic so it was a bit confusing as to where it was OK to park. After our experience in Garda I was nervous of where we left the car so we only went into the main central square to look around and then left. They have a famous festival in the square each year that we had seen on TV. Today it was covered with tourists.  It's big and banked on one side which I found unusual.
We struck out further north to the town of San Gimignano.  The place is another walled town known for it's many towers.  There are 17 of the original 72 left.  It's hard to imagine what it must have been like, as it is, it's stunning. 
They also know how to handle visitors. There are clear directions to the several paid parking lots around the outside of the walls and good signage to point you into the various sights. We had lunch in a square where there was a flea market going on (a common thing for Sunday) and then walked around town.  Again, lots of shops and restaurants and lots and lots of people.
Like San Marino it's obvious that San Gimignano has fully converted to appeal to visitors and while it uses its natural features to attract people, the real purpose is shopping.  Nothing wrong with that.
Back to the villa and another nice supper as we watched the sun go down and the lights appear on the hills around us.

Day 10 Tuscany

We left San Marino in the bright sunshine of mid morning and started toward Asciano.  This time we rerouted ourselves to go the most direct route and not the fastest so we saw many of the back roads of Italy as we passed through the mountains heading west into Tuscany.

While the speed limit is usually 90, I was not comfortable driving that speed most of the time. There are lots of switchbacks and sudden turns not to mention the little villages that we ran thru.  As it was Saturday everyone with a bicycle was out and we had to go around groups of them.  There were also plenty of motorcycles... all going very fast. Scary at times.

By early afternoon we arrived in the village of Asciano and connected with Barbara, the woman from the Agrotourismo office. The streets to there were not really meant for cars and at one point I'm pretty sure we were not meant to be driving there at all!   Made it however.

She lead us out to the villa in her car.. we would not have found it even though we had an idea where it was from Google earth.  Very nice with a great view of the country side.

We had to make a run back into the village (4km) to get some supplies and food and then settled in for the night.  We shopped at a Coop store for food and wine for a couple of days.  We have the place to ourselves for the weekend.

We watched the sun go down over Siena and drank a bottle of wine as we planned the rest of our week.

There is no phone or internet out here so we have to go into the village to get connected. Postings may be slower or bunched as a result.