"Not all those who wander are lost.” -J.R.R. Tolkien

Our visit to Siena was, without doubt, one of my favorite experiences in Tuscany. That was surprising since we didn't have this hilltown planned out in terms of what we wanted to see when.  We just showed up and began wandering aimlessly, and it turned out fabulous. We spent the daylight hours exploring the streets, taking in everything the capital of this province had to offer: known for its art, museums, food, and medieval landscape, there was plenty to see!

When the sun started to set, we set up camp outside the Palazzo Pubblico (town hall) in the Piazza del Campo, which is a huge open public space where people just sit and relax, read, share picnics, and enjoy being outside. Raja grabbed a bottle of wine and some plastic cups from a nearby enoteca, and we spent the hour around sunset people watching in this big town square.

Piazza Pubblico

Just before our reservation at dinner, we wandered around a bit more so we could see the town at dusk.  The streets of Siena really just have something magical about them, and they take on such a different feel at different times in the day. 

We'd planned to have dinner at a restaurant called Osteria le Logge, and it turned out to be one of our favorite meals of the whole trip. A large window by the main entrance lets you see the chefs at work.

We spent a long time at dinner, just enjoying all of the different courses and talking.  When we emerged several hours later, we got to see Siena at night... Just when I thought the town couldn't get any more magical, it did.  We did more wandering around for a bit before heading to the car for the drive back to Chiusi. It was a fabulous day and night, and I'm so glad we built Siena into our plans. :)

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." -Lewis Grizzard

During our visit to the Tuscan countryside, we quickly learned that "roads" that convinced you that you were on the path to nowhere led to the best spots for food.  Since Pienza is tiny and hardly takes any time to explore, we knew we could throw in a leisurely lunch in the early afternoon, so we researched ahead of time and planned a visit to an organic farm/restaurant just outside of Pienza.  We trekked back to the car after our hilltown visit, typed the coordinates for the Podere Il Casale's restaurant into our GPS, and off we went.  All seemed normal as we wound down the hill a bit, and then Jill (the "American English" persona on our GPS) instructed us to take a right onto a tiny unmarked road.  Since I'd been feeling brave enough to drive in hopes that Raja could see some of the gorgeous views as we wound back down the mountain, I hesitantly edged our tiny rental car onto a narrow strip of dirt to the right, and paused so Jill could "recalculate" and bossily inform me that I'd taken a wrong turn. But for once in her life, Jill remained stubbornly silent, so I glanced at Raja, who was sporting an honest-to-God, legitimately furrowed brow.  This isn't an expression Raja takes on very often, so I knew my hesitation wasn't unfounded. He said to just drive slowly for a bit and see what might be ahead, so we continued on the dirt path for a while, checking the GPS along the way to see if we were really still on the supposed right track. Just when we were about to start backing down this tiny road, convinced we were totally off track, we saw what looked like a water tower up ahead, but it was much smaller in size than the huge water towers you see in towns here. That looked promising enough to keep us inching forward, and in another minute or so, a farm and small house finally came into view.  Still unsure if this was the RIGHT farm and farmhouse, we were at least relieved we'd probably find some people we could ask.  As we got closer and closer, gravel took over where the dirt road left off, and a dog bounded out to greet our car.  That prompted a wave from a lady outside the farmhouse, and when we rolled down the window, she acted like she'd been happily expecting us (which she was, I guess, since we'd made a reservation and were arriving pretty close to the expected time).  Finally, we knew we'd made it to the right place!

This was the first of many dirt road excursions during our stay in Tuscany... You'd think eventually we would get used to them and just trust we were on the right path, but when you're surrounded by forest and pretty certain that this strip of dirt doesn't constitute as a road, it's easy to feel tentative about the whole process.  Despite all the bumping down dirt roads, furrowed brows, and general bewilderment that resulted from what was often multiple dogs bounding up to our car upon our arrival, it was worth it every single time.  These little off-the-beaten-path treks led us to some of the best food we've ever had.

Podere Il Casale's farmhouse & restaurant in particular boasted not only amazing, organic food, but some awe-inspiring views of the valleys and hilltowns scattered around the area.  I'm still unclear as to how many times I'm going to be that annoying girl that says "The pictures really tell a better story than I could in words," but it's just so true sometimes in Italy!

Here's the farmhouse where the family lives.  The restaurant is attached to the left, and outdoor seating is available both to the left of that archway, and to the right overlooking the valleys.  Clicking here will show you a map of the entire farm.

http://www.podereilcasale.it/farm

Just walking around the upper grounds provided amazing views of the Val d'Orcia region.  Here you can see some of Podere's farm area, and in the background, the valleys dividing hilltowns Montepulciano and Pienza.  If you look closely, you can see some of their sheep in the bottom of the photo.

Pienza is pictured below... It was so neat to look over from our table and see the hilltown we'd explored earlier that morning.

And then the food started coming... and kept coming and coming.  It seemed neverending, and everything was fresh from the farm we were overlooking.  Homemade ricotta cheese, sun-ripened fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden below, prosciutto from their own tiny pig operation, more grain salads than we could count, homemade fresh bread with the farm's extra virgin olive oil, wine from their own vineyard...

We had Sandra, a founding member of the farm, take our picture when we THOUGHT the food had all been brought to our table.  It turns out that 2/3 of the food hadn't even arrived yet.   (Excuse my expression in the photo... I clearly had trouble understanding when sweet Sandra was actually taking the picture, so I'm of course carrying on a conversation with her when this picture is being shot).  By the time all of the food arrived, we were searching for space on the table to put all of the plates. The amount of food was almost dizzying, and we didn't even know where to start.  We soldiered on though, tucking in happily and continuing to stuff ourselves after we were already full. 

Remember the dog that greeted our car upon our arrival at the farmhouse?  Yeah, that wasn't the only pet present during our lunch... Cats.  Three of them, to be exact.  If you know me, you won't be surprised at Raja's effort to keep me calm by plying me with wine while these three cats (seemingly innocently, but I knew better) basked in the sunlight surrounding my chair.  When the food started arriving, they began prowling about, staring at our food. I rigidly sipped my wine as they began slowly crawling their way onto the brick barrier between our table and the farm below.  Sometimes I could see the little creatures, and sometimes I couldn't, and I'm not sure which situation was worse.  Raja and Sandra made several attempts to shoo them away from the premises, but they continuously returned to stalk.  One of them finally sneakily went for the ricotta cheese, so we figured out the best thing to do was to have Raja lure the furball to his side of the table with the plate of cheese, so I could eat in peace. It totally worked... All three cats jumped up beside him to lap away at the cheese until there wasn't even a crumb remaining.  As soon as it was all gone, they ventured over to the next table to bask in the sunshine until the cheese arrived to that family.  Turns out the "gatti" weren't after my flesh after all. :)  

 We spent the rest of the meal much like the cats... basking in the sunshine, enjoying the view, and pretty much lapping up everything off our plates.  Everything was just so good, we didn't want to stop eating! We finally had to wave the white flag. Needless to say, it was touch and go there for a while on when we thought we'd be able to eat again. :)  We spent some time exploring the rest of the farm area, looking at all the animals and gardens, and learning about some of the products they sell from their farm. 

Not a bad start at all to our explorations through the countryside... We really loved everything about dining here on this small, tucked away family farm.  And when we think back about it, we think so fondy of the dirt road and even those cats.  It all added to the experience, and was exactly the kind of "off-the-beaten-path" adventure we were hoping for. :)

Podere Il Casale - food. lodging. farm.

http://www.podereilcasale.it/

Phone +39 578 755 109

Cell +39 333 425 0705
Address 64 53026

Pienza (SI) Italy

GPS Coordinates N 43° 04'51'' E 11° 42'41''

“Life is great. Cheese makes it better.” -Avery Aames

The second leg of our Italy trip involved a plane trip to Florence from Milan, then renting a (tiny... so cute!) car and navigating our way from Florence to the countryside of Tuscany.  We'd opted to stay in this region for about 5 days, since a central base in Chiusi afforded us great access to so many of the hilltowns we wanted to visit.  During our planning, we picked one or two of these hilltowns to visit each day, then created our route by GPS each morning before setting off on the journey.

One hilltown I knew I didn't want to miss was Pienza.  So much of what I was looking forward to about Italy involved food, so I kicked off Tuscany with a visit to this town famous for its pecorino cheese production!  I wasn't disappointed; we could literally follow the scent of cheese before we could even SEE the cheese.  The main town streets were lined with shop after shop crammed full of different varieties of this ewes' milk cheese.

Since we veered off course a little when we fell under the spell of the ridiculously yummy smell of fresh cheese, we finally got it together and pulled ourselves away from gazing at mounds of pecorino so we instead gaze at the view for which this hilltown is just as famous.  Situated in the province of Siena, Peinza overlooks the Val d'Orcia region, which extends from the hills south of Siena to Monte Amiata. The whole region is characterized by these gently rolling hills dotted with picturesque little villages and wineries.

 Gorgeous, no?  We snapped about 30 photos of the view.  I dutifully weeded out so you wouldn't be assaulted by 10 variations of the same exact view, but it wasn't easy... Everywhere we turned, it just somehow got even prettier.

The streets of Pienza were also a big draw for me.  Since this was our first stop in the Tuscan countryside, it was my first chance to see the alleyways, the stone streets, and the colorful doorways I'd come to expect from these quaint Italian villages.  Again... just simply not disappointed.  So much cuteness in such a small place.  Pienza only takes about an hour to explore, but every little street and corner holds something special to see. 

 It truly was such a magical little town.  It was the perfect first stop, since it was small enough to be manageable even without a map, yet offered so much of what I was hoping to see in Tuscany, and kicked off our little food tour with a ridiculous amount of regional pecorino cheese.  After this little town, I was definitely excited to see what else Tuscany would hold for us. :)

*One thing that was difficult for us as we adjusted to driving our rental car into unfamiliar little villages was figuring out where to park.  There are free lots, pay lots, and street parking, but they're often difficult to find, and always mandated by rules that were hard for us to understand due to our limited knowledge of the Italian language.  We finally worked out a system where Raja would use GoogleMaps to find the GPS coordinates of a parking destination prior to leaving the agriturismo where we stayed, and we'd plug in those GPS coordinates and follow the directions to that particular parking spot.  Since he's already done the work, I thought it'd be helpful to share the coordinates so anyone that's traveling to that area can easily find a safe, legal place to park.  There's nothing worse than realizing you just passed a parking area, only to find out that the next streets are either one-ways or have menacing looking "No" signs.  You have to wind back through so many roads and it can get quite stressful.  Best to know where you're going before you start, so we hope this helps! :)

Parking in Pienza - GPS Coordinates: 

Longitude 11° 40' 39.7668"

Latitude 43° 4' 44.7162"

Paid parking, but inexpensive

"The Creator made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo." --Mark Twain

Okay, so it’s a tad strange that my blog that is supposed to detail our lives in NYC actually begins with a trip to Italy; timing-wise, it’s just how it shook out.  Somehow I pushed through, ever the trooper. ;)  Although there are quite a few prompts behind my starting this blog, two reasons really cemented the decision:  1) To share our lives with our friends and family members who are scattered across the globe, and 2) To document these adventures for ourselves.  I realized recently that we spend a lot of time behind the lens capturing memories, but we fail to really catalogue those memories in a way that will let us revisit them when we’re sitting in our rocking chairs reminiscing about “that time we went to…”

So while we spend 99% of our time in New York, thus so will my blog, I knew it was now or never with the documenting memories thing  – Italia, here we come!  First stop, Milano!  (That’s spoken in my now trademark “Southern/Italian” dialect.)

Milan was the only city in which we secured a guided tour; we largely opted for the ‘wandering the streets, self-guided tours’ experience throughout our journey.  In Milan, Raja really wanted to see The Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and he discovered that tickets can be sold up to a year in advance.  I’m quite the early-bird planner, often to his chagrin, so he wondered how so many people beat me out on purchasing tickets.  It turns out that if the traditional method of securing advance tickets to see The Last Supper prove unsuccessful, often it’s due to tour companies buying them up in advance.  Since we couldn’t beat them, we joined them, and we were happy we did. J  This means this post will have way more solid information than some of the others; with a trilingual Art History major guiding us around, we heard a huge amount of factual information, rather than my explanations of “back in the day” and “this here church.”   At the bottom of this post, you can find the link to the tour company we used; Raja and I were both really happy with the quality of the tour, knowledge of the guide, and the kindness of the staff.

First stop on the tour was the Milan Cathedral, or Duomo di Milano in Italian.  The guide told us a huge history of the Duomo, including how long it took to build, the types of materials used for the various parts of the structure, etc., but I have to confess I got caught up taking pictures, wandered out of earshot, and missed much of the discussion.  I’m including the Wiki link at the bottom, so you can be more educated than I was, should you want to know more. J  I’ll pretty much just let the pictures speak for themselves, and Wiki can pick up the slack on the factual info.

Situated right by the Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which connects the Duomo with the famous Teatro Alla Scala (an opera house renowned for its perfect acoustics) .  This archway leading into the Galleria was stunning.  Luckily our tour took us right through it; it would have been impossible not to be drawn in to take a peek.  The Galleria is home to some of the oldest shops and restaurants in Milan, as well as today’s most prominent luxury stores; most of these shops and eateries line the bottom floor of the Galleria. When we asked the tour guide what was in the multiple floors above the shops, he said a few hotels are situated here and there, but it’s mostly empty because the rents are just so high.

Our tour then led us through the streets of Milan’s center, past apartment buildings boasting intensely green rooftop gardens, and the tram tracks that tote passengers all throughout the city.  With a quick stop at Sforza Castle, we then wound to Santa Maria delle Grazie, the church that contains the painting of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.  I have to confess that this wasn’t the attraction I was most excited about during our planning phases; I was happy to go along because I knew Raja didn’t want to miss it, but I myself wasn’t as excited about this piece as some of the other things we were expecting to see.  I’m surprised and happy to say that in actuality, I was quite taken aback by it when we entered the refectory and had our first glimpse.  I think all 15 of us visiting felt the same way, as all whispering, shuffling around, and fidgeting stopped immediately upon our viewing.  First off, it’s MUCH bigger than either Raja or I expected.  I’ve always thought of The Last Supper as a painting, and it is… but the term “mural” describes it much more aptly.  Measuring 15 feet × 29 feet, it truly does take up an entire wall and seems larger than life.  Second, it really does exude so much emotion through the faces of the apostles as they reacted to Christ’s announcement that one of the apostles would betray him that very night.  You can almost feel the shock, bewilderment, and even anger registering on the apostles’ faces.  It was a much greater experience than I was expecting, and I’m so glad Raja was insistent on including this in our itinerary.

That pretty much wrapped up our guided tour, so we spent the remainder of that day and the next just wandering through some more of the Milanese streets, navigating the Metro system, and snapping photographs of just about everything we saw. J  This city was a great start to our journey through Italy, and before we knew it, it was time to say “Arrivederci!” to Milan as we headed off to the Tuscan countryside.