Saturday was a day to drive around Tuscany, exploring various towns and seeing what we could see. We didn't make it very far - we had thoughts of making it as far south as Pitigliano, but it would have been 3 hours round trip, and we didn't have it in us today. (Steve has come down with a bit of a cold, which is a bummer, especially as we have just gotten onto Italy time with sleep.) So we instead stayed somewhat close to home but spent a good bit of time in three different places. It turned out to be a great day, full of little surprises and good adventures.
Our first stop was sort of random - a castle with winery that appeared on the side of the road. We are amused to be traveling in the heart of wine country - some of the most famous wine in the world - and tasting very little. I've had a few glasses with dinner, but Steve can't drink the red wine that is so well known here, and we have children underfoot, so we have not been visiting and sampling. But these grounds were gorgeous, and there were three cats, so all was good.
Next stop, Pienza, which has a 14th century papal summer residence, a lovely clock tower and square, various impressive churches and duomos, and lots of streets filled with shops and cafes. There was an old wall that you could stroll along, giving panoramic views over the surrounding countryside.
We found Pienza a little touristy and crowded, so we ducked into the back alleys and side streets to weave our way out. It was shady and more pleasant there - and we found a pizza restaurant for some lunch.
Next up, San Quirico, which turned out to be one of our favorite stops so far, a
really charming old walled town with a quiet medieval church, a rose
garden with a half-ruined wall, and a contemporary art installation and
music festival (plus, fewer tourists). We had a really good time
exploring it and discovering various sculptures scattered throughout the
garden - the children played hide and seek in it - and then hearing music coming from the town hall and finding a
pianist and violin duet rehearsing. We had our daily gelato in the town
and watched the backpackers come through - a dozen of them, clearly on a
trek between towns or possibly pilgrimage sights.
A medieval trebuchet (I think) - it was fun to explain how it would have worked to the kids.
Inside the town hall, musicians practicing for a festival -
After that, it was on towards Castiglione d'Orcia - except that we
spotted this out the window and decided we had to go there instead, or
first.
It is the Rocca d'Orcia, a medieval tower built mainly as a military
installation, and it must have been nearly impregnable. It was a very
tall, very steep rock, and they built a very tall tower on top. We hiked
up and up, through this amazing steep-walled town, on ancient
cobble-stoned streets with grass growing through it, to the very top.
They rebuilt part of the tower in the 1980s so you can climb it - up
vertiginous stairs and into the lower part of the tower (where there was
an exhibit of outstanding photography) and then up still more stairs to
the open top. The views in all directions were simply amazing and we
were alone up there, on top of the world. It was fun to talk about
military tactics and weapons in the medieval era with the kids.
Amazingly, the windows opened up, a totally un-American thing, and we
could lean out and look down.
On the way down, it started to rain - a summer shower, quite cold, with
fat heavy drops - it felt amazing after the hot day. But our Oregon
children were confused and amazed by the idea of summer rain, especially
such an intense one, and that was it's own delightful experience.
We were all tired, so we bought some supplies and went back to our apartment for dinner - farro with borlotti beans and ragu, and a radicchio-fennel salad. Very Italian.
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