A Tour of Tuscany

So, after my intense week of training in Switzerland at the Bernina Creative Center Andrew and I had agreed to meet in Rome for some well deserved R&R.  Even though we flew in from two totally different countries we actually landed within ten minutes of each other.  That almost never happens for us!  We had pre-booked the obligatory shoebox rental car at the airport but when they asked Andrew if he would be interested in trying out an Alpha Romeo  for an extra eight euros a day he just couldn't resist.  Of course I was picturing the old spyder sporty version but this turned out to be quiet a fun car in the end.

We landed just after lunch and after a small adventure in the airport due to poor sign posts we drove out of the airport an hour later.  The GPS got us out of the airport avoiding Rome and headed up to Tuscany.  The drive was only about an hour and half so not bad at all.  Once we were heading towards Florence the scenery quickly changed to something more off a post card. 

Andrew had found an apartment to rent for the majority of the stay and we really lucked out with this one.  It was in a small town named, Castigilion Fiorentino, right in the heart of everywhere we wanted to be for this trip.  However when we got to the actual town we drove around and around this medieval place trying to follow the GPS to the restaurant to pick up the keys.  Of course after the third ring around the road we figured out that it was actually inside the city walls and that was a pedestrian only area!  So, we parked up and started walking like mountain goats up these cobble stone streets looking for the elusive Cafe Roggi.  We finally found it and met up with Silvano who took us to Villa la Casina.    (As an interesting side note:  Silvano has lived all his life in this town but he married a woman from Texas!  There is an university there and a lot of American students come over to study.)  The apartment was actually one of six cut out of an villa sitting in a valley looking up to the town.   Every morning when we woke

up this was our view.

It was only an hour to an hour and half from all the places that we wanted to visit such as, Florence, Sienna, Cortona, etc. which was awesome.  Silvano suggested the first night we leave our car at the villa and walk into town for dinner.  He showed us a short cut road that would make the journey faster.  What he didn't tell us was that the road was almost straight uphill and that it would just about kill the two of us long before we ever got to dinner!  Once we reached the top of that road we had to again wander the town streets trying to figure out how to get back to his restaurant and most of the roads were very steep. 

We made it to the cafe just in time as there were large groups that came in just after us.

We sat outside just below the church and bell tower with rolling hills in the background.  The view was just breathtaking.

So Silvano owns the villa apartments and one of only two restaurants in town and he is one hard working man.  He divided his kitchen into two sides and hired a chef to handle all the traditional dishes and he stands and makes pizza in the brick oven and greets the guests.  The first night we both had a starter, pizza and dessert but boy were we stuffed.  Andrew started out with rice salad with vinegared vegetables and I had caprese (tomato/mozzerella) and then the pizza had pepperoni for me and frankfurter for Andrew.  The desserts were yummy as well with tiramisu for Andrew and mousse ciccolato for me.

We walked back down the hill the longer way as there was no way I was going to navigate that steep street with absolutely no light but in the end we found the villa anyway.

This is just the end of day one and there is definitely much more to come.........