More Tuscan Travels with the Whitehouses
I woke up on Friday morning feeling a lot more rested. William had stayed out late that night. He had been hanging out with this Albanian girl and some other people who worked at the hotel’s restaurant. William tried his hardest to be quiet when he came in so he didn’t disturb me much. I made sure all of the troops were getting up and out of bed so we could get a decently early start on the day. Of course my dad had to get online for work and since the wireless internet was quiet shoddy, he had to devote that much more time into just getting a signal to connect. I did a little exploring around the grounds of the hotel now that I could see it in daylight. It was a really cute stone place that appeared very old. It was perched around a river and water fall in a valley that looked down to the Tuscan countryside below. It was certainly rural and remote!
My mom and I left the men back at the hotel and we walked into the town of Loro Ciuffenna to get some coffee and breakfast. It was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. The town was really cuter that I had expected. To enter the old part of the town, one must cross a bridge over the river and waterfall. There are some old homes set right on the side of the water and in fact the river runs through the bottom of one of the homes! My mom took me to the café that they had been visiting each morning. It was a tiny place but quiet busy. The women at the counter were friendly and fast the espresso machine. I ordered a cappuccino and a pastry with a nutty filling. Finally, my dad also showed up and the women at the café already knew what he wanted and immediately made him an espresso and some hot milk with a sprinkle of cocoa powder. Apparently on the first morning, he went and ordered a latte, which for them just means milk and so they brought him hot milk. I guess he liked it and so now they were making him this light hot chocolate. While he finished his hot beverages, my mom and I went to buy soaps from the shop across the way. They were really a general store selling everything from juicers to light bulbs, but they had a good deal on Italian soaps. We bought some with fragrances like “Forest Woods” and “Cypress Tree.” We did a quick stroll through some of the tiny little roads and alleys in this colorful little village.
Once the family was finally mobilized, we got in the car bound for the town of Siena. This is one of the larger towns in Tuscany and also very famous. On the way there, we passed through many picturesque towns and country and hopped out to take a few pictures. On one lonely stretch of road, we noticed there were black women standing on the side of the road. Italy isn’t the most diverse of countries so that sight alone stood out. They were spaced out along this one area, perhaps with a quarter to a half mile between them. The first one was in a skirt and fishnets, but the next in regular clothes. I suggested at first that perhaps they were waiting for a bus. The next girl was wearing a tiny skirt with black leather boots up past her knees. My father thought perhaps they were cleaning houses in the area and now waiting to be picked up. “No,” I said, “I am sure that women do not clean houses in outfits like that!” They definitely appeared to be prostitutes but it was quite strange to see this on a pretty quiet country road in the middle of the day! Still a bit of a mystery…
We arrived in Siena and once again found it a bit difficult to navigate to the winding and tiny roads in this medieval laid town. We found some parking near the Piazza San Francesco and slowly meandered our way up the hilly streets to the center of town. This immediately felt a lot busier than the other places we had been and there were many more foreign tourists. Most of the hustle and bustle was located on one street which as full of shops, gelaterias, food and more. They had high-end designer stores to local vendors. We found one men’s clothing store with an advertised sale. It was beautiful inside of this old building, the walls made of brick and the clothes so perfectly arranged. My parents got a great deal on a wool/cashmere coat for one of my brothers.
We ventured further into the Piazza del Campo which is the famous square in Siena. In the summer, they have horse races around this large piazza and it is apparently the highlight of the year. That day, it was filled with both locals and visitors, everyone enjoying the beautiful weather either by sitting at a café reading the newspaper, playing with children, chatting with their friends, or enjoying the sights. I got out the zoom lens for my camera and started to take candid pictures of the interesting looking Italians. There were many interesting characters and I developed a new joy in taking these candid pictures, feeling somewhat voyeuristic. After perusing through a few more shops and admiring the main cathedral, we figured we had better get moving to squeeze in a lunch before going to another town. We had a bit of difficulty finding our car again as most of the streets look the same and they are far from being laid out in a logical manner!
Since our dinner at been somewhat poor the previous night, they decided to take me to eat lunch at a restaurant they had happened upon earlier in the week. It was just in a random town they had passed through but ended up being excellent and just 20 minutes outside of Siena. The interior of the restaurant felt like a wine cellar with arches and brick walls. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was already about 2m but we were greeted with friendly smiles from the waitress who remembered my family from earlier in the week. For €12 you could get a 3 course meal, a bottle of wine for the table, and mineral water! It was a delicious meal and we tried all different dishes. For the past course we had: spaghetti pomodoro, fettuccine carbonara, tagliatelle ragu, and tagliatelle with a mushroom cream meat sauce. The carbonara is different in Italy, it doesn’t have that heavy alfredo cream sauce but instead more of an eggy sauce and lovely pieces of pancetta. The pomodoro was simple but delicious and fresh tomatoes, not canned. For meat course we had chicken with a cheesy, creamy sage sauce, pork loin, and a breaded tender pork meat. We had sides of salad and sautéed spinach. It really was delicious and so much food for that money!
Our next stop was at the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, one of the many monasteries in Tuscany. This is home to the Benedictine monks and was created in 1313. The drive to it was beautiful also through the country. Eventually you see the monastery in the distance. It is set on a mountain peak and is surrounded my cypress trees. As we approached the monastery, we saw a monk dressed in white robs calmly walking down the road. The monastery was all but empty at that time of day. We parked our car and walked down a brick paved road way lined by a forest of cypress trees. It was incredibly still and quiet and the air seemed more clean and pure. The monastery was made of brick and was not terribly large but had a tall tower. Inside, we saw the colorful frescoes in the cloisters which were done in the 1400s and tell the story of St Benedict’s life. From there, we saw the church which was quite simple but had a very hallowed feeling. It was light only by the sun coming through the few stained glass windows and the prayer candles. It had the sweet smell of burning incense. It certainly seemed like a good place for reflection.
After exploring a few more alcoves of the monastery, we visited the monastery shop. To keep it running properly, the monks of Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore make their own honey, olive oil, and “cure-all” health elixir. There were so many different honeys to choose from like lavender, eucalyptus, acacia, a thousand flowers, and names which we couldn’t even translate. Their products were far from being cheap but at least the funds went to keeping the place well preserved. Before we left, we snapped some more photos of the mountainous countryside from this great hilltop location.
The sun was very low in the sky as drove to the town of Pienza. Although it was only about 10km away, one can not travel very fast on switchback mountainous roads! We made it to Pienza, another pretty little Tuscan village, just in time for the sunset. We left our car and headed towards the city walls and enjoyed the bright red and pink colors of the sunset. With the sun down, it was a cold and crisp night with the smell of wood-fire in the air. We walked a bit through the village, however most shops were closing up. William wanted to visit this cheese shop and we got to sample a variety of different pecorino cheeses. They had cheese wheels covered in ash, and ones with sage, truffle, and peppercorn to name a few. Although the town was quite deserted, there were a few bar/cafés and food stores that were brimming with the gregarious locals.
When we ran out of things to do in Pienza, my parents decided we should drive to the town of Montepulciano for dinner and also so that my dad could go back to buy more necklaces for his Chinese girlfriends. It was already dark by the time we got there so I wasn’t able to fully appreciate the town, but it seemed really nice! These villages are all very similar really, but nonetheless charming. They took me to the shop for the necklaces and it was in a really cool old building which actually had an Etruscan tomb from something like 5 B.C. There is a clock tower in Montepulciano and on top is this metal figure that moves his arm to strike the bell on the hour. My dad and I were wandering around right near it when it went off at 8pm but we were not really paying attention. My dad later exclaimed, “Damnit, I missed the special guy ringing the bell!” We found a restaurant right around the corner from this clock tower and decided that we would run out at 9pm to watch the special guy ring the bell. Of course 9pm rolled around right as the 2nd course of food came out, but we went anyway. We ended up being a bit early but we waited, the hand of the clock was approaching the 12 and my dad had his video camera all cued up but nothing happened. We decided to give it another 5 minutes or so and still nothing. Eventually, disappointed as we were, we returned to the restaurant. Apparently while we were gone, the restaurant owner told us that the clock doesn’t go off at 9pm, but at 10:15 instead which makes no sense at all!
For dinner I had one giant ravioli that was filled with ricotta and black truffles. Then I shared a chicken and rabbit dish with my dad, he was less than impressed with it. We sampled some of the Vino Nobile which is famous in that area of Italy. The restaurant served it with their special wine decanter which was this interesting bulb of glass which they popped on to the opening of the wine bottle which automatically aerates your wine as you pour it. William was quite intrigued by it and the owner assured it that we could only find it at his restaurant!! William was all psyched up to buy it until we got our dinner bill. On it, my dad noticed that we had been charged €12 service charge. They said this was the first time they had received a service charge in Italy even though my travel guide said it is quiet common. It is basically like figuring in a tip for you however waiters don’t get a major tip if any in Italy as they do in the US. William still wanted the little decanter, but my dad said nope, he refused to buy the wine decanter from this guy because he ripped him off with the servicio charge. He claimed the man was scamming us from the start!
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