Tuscany Layover

Now that Ann is here, I have someone to talk to. I don’t have a lot of spare time to write my blog. Here’s a summary of the past two days.

We picked up a car in Florence yesterday. It’s a Fiat Panda – small but adequate for our needs. It’s the same one that we had in le Marche last year. We drove back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, turned on the GPS and headed out to San Quirico. We made one stop on the way at one of the wonderful autostrada rest stops. We had pasta in one of its restaurants.

Back on the road, we soon left the freeway and got onto secondary roads. We reached our hotel around 3:00.

After checking in, Ann took a swim in the huge pool. After she got out, we had a short, sparse rain shower. When the rain let up, we walked into the very old part of town. We wandered along the main street and side streets doing our tourist thing until 7:00 when the restaurants opened. We were seated at a small trattoria. We split appetizers of bruschetta pomodora and three kinds of pecorino cheese with pears. For a main course, Ann had thick vegetable soup and I had mixed grill – Tuscan sausage, beef and pork. We got back in time to be in bed before 10:00.

This morning we had a decent breakfast buffet. We then hopped into the car and drove over to Bagno Vignani, an ancient thermal bath. The village itself is tiny – just a few houses, a hotel and a large building that enclosed a spa and probably thermal baths.

We got back into the car and drove to Radicofani. This is another small village that is located below an old tower that was part of the fortification of this area. We parked the car and took a long walk up to the tower. When we got there, we were in a forested area, a contrast to the fields and vineyards that we are used to. We paid our entrance fee and climbed up the inside of the tower. The view was spectacular. Unfortunately, it was hazy and not conducive for taking photos.

Walking back down the road toward our car, we started to get hungry. We stopped at a small grocery store and had pinini made for us. Ann’s had pecorino cheese, mine had pecorino cheese and Tuscan salami. We ate in a park next to where we parked the car.

We decided to drive past Multepulciano on our way back to San Quirico. It looked crowded, so we didn’t attempt to find a parking place.

We got back to the hotel just before a spectacular thunderstorm broke out with very heavy rain. It also turned cool. The storm was done by 4:00 when we walked over to the COOP grocery store for some supplies.

At 6:30 we decided to head to town for a 7:00 dinner. Because of the threat of more rain, we took the car. We couldn’t find a parking spot so we drove it back toward the hotel and parked it about two blocks away and hoped it didn’t rain.

We got lucky with the weather and with the food. We ate in a different trattoria. We had flower of zucchini stuffed with ricotta cheese as an appetizer. Ann had taglietelle with asparagus and tomatoes while I had rabbit.

Bedtime is before 10:00 again tonight.