The Whitehouses take on Tuscany: Pisa, Volterra, and San Gimignano
I booked a flight out of London Stansted airport for early Thursday morning at 08:25. Since I am in south London and the airport is north of London, this was no easy effort. I woke up at 4am to get ready and leave the house by 0430. From there I walked 15 minutes into the center of Streatham to catch a bus to London Liverpool St. which took about 45 minutes. Once I arrived there, I bought a ticket on the Stansted express train which took another 45 minutes. Let's just say I was exhausted by the time I arrived there. I checked into my budget RyanAir flight and made my way to security. There was quite a long line for that early in the morning. When I got close to the passport check area, I noticed that there was actually a little kiosk that was reminding everyone to put their "liquids" in clear zip lock bags, but in the kiosk they actually gave away tons of ziplock bags! It was great! Never seen that before!! I did not make it through security without issue, in fact I was pulled aside for extra checking of my baggage. I bald and jolly Englishman took me aside and said, "Good morning, madam! May I check your bag?" As he pulled each item out, he had a little comment to make about each such as, "Oh, I see you brought a little breakfast for the plane." and "Ah, a little light reading, I see!" Luckily, he discreetly moved past my underwear and tampons without any clever comments...
My parents tend to run on the late side, so before I left for Italy, I stressed to them the importance of showing up at the airport on time to pick me up. I wanted us to be able to make the most of what was left of the day when I landed at 11:45. I was pleasantly surprised to see my mom, dad and William standing in the airport as I walked out of customs! Pisa Galileo Galilei airport is quite tiny so as soon as you walk out, you can be in your car. I figured we would be on our way to visit some little Tuscan villages, but instead we went into Pisa because William had to see the leaning tower. They had planned to hit up this tourist site in the morning before I landed, but as is common for my family, they didn’t quite pull it off!
We maneuvered our way in their rented Fiat to the center of Pisa. I could see already how hard it is to find your way and follow directions in these old Italian cities! We eventually made our way to the Piazza dei Miracoli which is the location of the Leaning Tower as well as a beautiful cathedral. We illegally parked the car so my mom and I sat and babysat it while William and my dad went off to take pictures, insisting they would be back in 5 minutes. Well, 15 minutes came and went and they were no where to be found. My mom and I both made separate trips to look for them but they were lost somewhere in the crowd of tourists. The 2nd time I went to look, I found them further into the piazza. They were chit-chating with some Polish woman. As soon as I arrived, my dad then insisted that we had to all take a picture with this woman. I still couldn’t get them to leave as they both had to pose for the perfect picture of them standing in front of the tower and looking like they were holding it up. This is the typical thing that every tourist: Japanese, French, Brazilian, etc feels compelled to do when in Pisa. You will see dozens of people posing yards away from the tower holding their hand out in the air and trying to make it look as if they are supporting the leaning tower. Back in college, I admit that Ali and I giggled as we each posed for one of these pictures, but I think once in your life is enough! So finally, after much harassment, I got the twins, Dad and William, to come back to the car and head out. We had killed at least an hour at that point. The trouble with the winter is that it gets dark so early! But at least the sun was out and the sky was blue!
Apparently William had been acting as the chauffeur for the week. Driving the manual Fiat all through the mountainous roads of Tuscany, at times, scaring all of us. My mom navigated the way to Volterra, one of the many medieval walled villages in Tuscany. Our ultimate destination would be San Gimignano but Volterra was on the way. The drive through the countryside was beautiful, just like what you see in the movies. Lots of farmland, rolling hills, cypress trees, red tile roofed homes, and rows of olive trees. If it were up to my dad, we would have stopped on every turn of the road to take pictures, and although I enjoy doing this too, I knew that we couldn’t spend too much time stopping as the daylight was dwindling. We arrived in Volterra after 2pm and explored the narrow streets. The town was very quiet and almost no other tourists were there. Volterra is perched right on the top of a mountain so the view is spectacular. From up top, you could see for miles: beautiful mountains and Tuscan hills, the smoke from burning olive branches, smaller villages in the distance, farmhouses. We wandered around a bit more as we looked for a place to eat lunch. We found a really cute restaurant with an affordable set-menu but they were closed!! We ended up eating at an enoteca (wine bar) where we had some lighter dishes like zuppa di faro, insalate, a mix of Italian meats, and a cheese platter. They served the cheese with warm honey and a jelly made of Vin Santo wine. I never would have thought to eat honey with cheese but it was delicious. I never even knew that wine jelly existed but it went so well with the cheese.
After we finished our lunch, we figured we should make a beeline for San Gimignano since the sun was quite low in the sky already. San Gimignano is one of the most famous villages in Tuscany is it is one of the best preserved and a UNESCO Heritage site. It is a pristine medieval walled village that, although tiny, has many nooks and crannies to explore. Although I referred to it as medieval, the town as thought to be settled in that site back in the time of the Etruscans (the people before the Romans) and the town was named San Gimignano in 450 A.D. You can really appreciate how old this town is! It has at least 3 piazzas, a few churches, and is known for its many towers. At one time it had 72 towers but today only 15 remain. They are quiet visible even from a distance. It is really amazing to see a village that literally has not changed in hundreds of years!
William and I took to exploring and taking pictures while my parents shopped and also looked around. When we met back up, my dad was sporting a large red leather handbag he had just purchased. He carried that bag around like it was his baby! My mom commented on how it must be so heavy with all that leather and all of his souvenirs inside. He said that he planned to carry his new red bag around for exercise! So now my dad has a man purse, a “murse.” We climbed our way to the top of one area of the city wall to watch the sunset and enjoy the views of the Tuscan countryside. The sky was quiet vibrant red and pink as the sun set. After it became dark, we stopped back at a meat and cheese shop William wanted to visit. It was run by a very friendly woman who spoke a little English. We learned that she and her family have a farm not far outside San Gimignano where they raise wild boar and other animals and produce salame, cheese, and a few other local delicacies. They even rent out a few rooms in their farmhouse, agritursimo, as it’s called here. She let us sample some of her cheeses and meats and William picked out a few that he liked. It wasn’t long before my dad had the camera out and wanted to get a picture of her. She was happy to pose but wanted her elderly father to also be in the picture. A few minutes later, her mother came through the door and so a family picture was taken. The storeowner were quite excited about this and asked us to email her the photo later on. As a thanks for doing that, she gave us a free bottle of her home-made wine!
When we left the shop, San Gimignano was dark and very quiet, almost all of the shops were closed. We did find an open café we were enjoyed some sparkling water (acqua frizzante) and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate in Italy is delicious and topped with whipped cream. It is much more viscous than what we get at home, a touch thinner than a pudding, very rich and creamy. I felt like I wouldn’t need dinner after ingesting that! The town was very serene when we left and certainly devoid of other tourists (which is a great thing about traveling off-season). The air was crisp and cool and you could smell wood-fires burning in the distance.
From San Gimignano, we drove back towards our hotel which was in a remote, tiny town in the mountains. It was small enough that there were only perhaps 2 restaurants to choose from, so they decided we would stop and eat at the bigger town of Terranuova right next door. Many of the restaurants were also closed and we finally picked the one place that seemed to have the biggest crowd. I had ravioli filled with ricotta and pears and a cheese sauce. It was pretty good, but everyone else agreed that it was the worst meal they had had in Italy so far! I nodded off on the ride back from dinner to the hotel, and when I awoke and stepped out of the car, the air was quite chilly and damp. I could hear a waterfall and a river nearby. The stars were really bright! My parents’ room was a 2-story loft. William and I had to share the futon downstairs which wasn’t actually as bad as I had expected. I put my earplugs in, slapped on an eye patch, and was off to bed while my dad sat across the room catching up on work with his laptop.
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