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Florence Italy

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Our last stop in Tuscany was the city of Florence. Called “Firenze” in Italian, it is famous for its history and was one of the wealthiest medieval cities of its time. Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance.
All accommodations for our Tuscany trip were taken from the world traveler and guide- book author Rick Steves, except in Florence. My travel agent/ wife booked a lovely hotel in the middle of the older part of town through initaly.com, near the train station and walking distance to major sites of interest (La Residenza dell’Orafo, laresidenzadellorafo.it).
The manager, Raffaella, and her assistant Adriana were more than helpful in assisting us with just about anything we needed to know about Florence. They both spoke perfect English, which was a big plus — we actually arrived where we had intended.
There’s so much to see in this consumers’ paradise. Shops with the high-end names such as Armani, Gucci and Dior tempted the locals and visitors alike. This was the source, not a satellite bureau. The mothership of shopping for stuff no man would ever need, or want. As my wife walked mindlessly into the shops like a moth to a flame, I took in the scenery and people watching outside.
After what I hoped was her fill, she enlisted the service of a burro (me) to drag said merchandise through the rest of the city. We strolled by a street artist
named Matteo Appignani, who was literally drawing on the street renditions of Michelangelo’s paintings with colored chalk. His work was beautiful.
We found ourselves exploring deeper and deeper into the streets and alleys.
A young woman looked out from a doorway down a small, cobblestone, alley-like passage.
We were intrigued, and hungry. I asked if this was a restaurant and if they were open, as there were no other customers.
The restaurant, Ristorante Dante e Beatrice (dante beatrice.com) appeared to be quite small from the outside and entry, however, upon inspection, we discovered it was actually very large and could seat about 100 diners. At this time of day they were short about 98 customers, so we had the full attention of a vigilant staff.
Our friendly server, Hisham, suggested the spaghetti bolognese (red meat sauce). He said he had been eating this dish when we came in,  I ordered, and it was excellent!
The spaghetti bolognese was brought out on a large plate, and stacked like a small mountain. It looked like the monolith Richard Dreyfuss was building in his living room in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
I think it was molded with a bucket. Big and Tall Spaghetti! It was magnificent! Never have I seen the like of this, nor expect to again.
I immediately thought that this would be a major “to go” order, but the flavor was so good that I finished off the whole plate. A meal to remember for sure!
We took the “hop on-hop off” double-decker bus for a city tour. This method of transportation is recommended
by Steves, as well as my travel agent/wife. A day pass will enable you to see the city, get off where you want, wander around and shop and dine, then get on the next bus to see another site, or return to your original location. Our bus arrived at Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking Florence with a splendid view. As there was only one bus after ours, it was a good decision to stay and enjoy the scene. (We did make the next bus.)
Next to the wall of the overlook was parked an Italian taco-truck. No tacos, only Italian fare: pizza, panini (delicious hot cheese and meat sandwich), and bless them, bottled wine. We watched the sun set while drinking local Chianti.
A perfect end to a self-guided tour of Tuscany, and Florence Italy.

Under the Tuscan Sun and Rain

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Our first stop after leaving San Gimignano was the medieval town of Montepulciano to the south. The walled fortress-like town featured shops and restaurants open in the daytime, but they rolled up the sidewalk at night. Just kidding; there is no sidewalk. As this is a medieval town, there are only small cobblestone streets. As a note of interest, there are public wash rooms, with no public toilet paper. Bring your own; you will thank me later.
We walked the length of the town, downhill thank goodness, and returned to our hotel by shuttle bus filled with locals coming back from shopping in the lower part of town. A tourist, busy photographing some quaint artifact, was too close to the street, and the bus mirror missed him by inches. This delighted the passengers to no end. Everyone had a good laugh on that one.
Adjacent to one of the town squares (Piazza Grande) is the winery Contucci (contucci.it). They feature free tours of the barrel rooms and tasting of their local wines. Most wineries I have been to in California charge a fee to taste, and give you a thimbleful of each wine, and you may or may not buy one bottle. The world famous Adamo (head wine man on the property featured in magazines and on PBS, as well as a Rick Steves program on the area) has a different take on this. He gives you half a glass, and if you are not drinking it fast enough, he encourages you to drink faster, as there are many more bottles to taste. As a result, you leave smiling a lot, and with four or five bottles in hand. As the tasting room was next to the hotel Meuble il Riccio (ilriccio.net) and there was no driving involved, we totally enjoyed what we remembered of our experience. And the wine was great!
The next day we drove through the countryside, enjoying the view, when we happened on the town of Pienza. In Rick Steves’ guide, it was described as a tourist-orientated (trap) medieval village. Parking again was sketchy at best, and while looking for a spot, we passed right through the place with the non-help of a navigational device manufactured by Satan, installed by the rental agency. (My wife, Carrie, has many pet names for the GPS, none of which can be printed in a family paper.) This modern inconvenience can make you cry.
I kept driving for about a half-mile when we came across a scene that begged to be photographed. It was a small Tuscan home, with the skinny Tuscan trees in front, with a small Tuscan unpaved road leading up to the house. This was as pretty as a postcard! After photographing from a few different angles, we drove back to Pienza, found a parking spot and started to explore the town. At one shop, I noticed a rack with postcards from the area. There, on two cards, was MY little Tuscan home. Not enough to be as pretty as a postcard, it was as pretty as TWO postcards! (I will add that there was a little Photoshop help on those cards, and as art, that made the scene extra attractive. Take note that the power line is still in my photo.)
Night of terror!
On our last night in Montepulciano, the wind and rain really picked up. In fact, it picked up part of the hotel and slammed it on our wall throughout the night. In the wee hours of the morning, when I heard the final crescendo with a sonic boom-like crash, I knew that finally the wind had won! The next morning I looked out our window to see a 20-foot section of substantial rain gutter lay dead in the garden. Good! I had a nap that afternoon to make up for quality time spent awake. Carrie slept through the apocalypse, but I think she could sleep in an active battlefield. All the years of conditioning by my snoring had paid off. She should thank me later. All in all, a great time in Montepulciano and this part of Tuscany, and being under the Tuscan sun and rain

San Gimignano

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Our plane landed in Florence, Italy, in the late morning. There was a light rain.
The captain announced over the speakers, “Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a slight delay. It would appear that the airport did not know we were coming.” Strange to hear for a International airport. I bet
After disembarking, we headed to the airport car rental agency. (I won’t mention them by name, but if you scraped your knee, you might say it hurts.) They accommodated us with a four-door Alfa Romeo, which has a top speed of 260 kph. That’s 160 mph to us, and no, I did not get near this speed, although others on the road appeared to.
Driving in the city of Florence in the numerous “roundabouts” reminded me of the break on a pool table, or the animation of splitting the atom: high-speed random vehicles oblivious to the laws of physics, and never colliding. As in Rome, all the cars were intact, no signs of crashes, which indicated that this was the norm and everyone was used to it.
The famous PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) traveler and author Rick Steves paved our way to Tuscany. Using his invaluable travel guide, we booked our rooms in places he had suggested and went to sites he thought noteworthy. All in all, his recommendations were right on the euro.
We arrived at San Gimignano in the late afternoon. Parking was imposing, as no vehicles are allowed behind the walls in the town proper, unless you are a local and then only for a very short time.
San Gimignano is a small, walled, medieval hill town in the province of Siena, Tuscany, in north-central Italy. Known as the Town of Fine Towers, San Gimignano is famous for its medieval architecture, unique in the preservation of about a dozen of its tower houses.
Our hostess, Vanna, picked us up in her vehicle, and dropped us off in front of our hotel (palazzoaltorrione.com), which I would bet good money (euro) that we, on our own, would never have found. At this point it was a godsend, as I believe my wife had packed her collection of bricks for the trip, and I was growing weak dragging around the luggage.
That evening, with darkness falling, the town seemed like an infinite labyrinth of small streets that led to who knows where. The next day it had shrunk to a normal medieval town, now that we knew the layout.
A small restaurant, Trattoria Chiribiri, was a stone’s throw from our hotel. As the food was splendid, we frequented it for our stay. They tried to serve one customer a 5-kilogram steak, bringing it out uncooked on a platter the size of a 1960 Cadillac’s hubcap for his inspection. Although the steak looked fantastic, it was turned down, as the man had never eaten an entire cow in one meal.
Another special place was Pasticceria Armando e Marcella.
The owner, Marcella Giunti, who has lived in San Gimignano all of her life, was very friendly, and served us breakfast on both days we were there. The coffee, cappuccino, fresh blood orange juice (which was red, but tasted like great orange juice), and panino sandwiches were a great start to our mornings. The shop had almost anything you could want to eat or drink (except full meals) and yes, lots of local wine! The wall was ordained with signed posters of championship ballroom dancing. It turned out to be Marcella’s daughter.
Another place we totally enjoyed was Il Pozzo Oegli Etruschi Restorante in nearby Volterra (ilpozzodeglietruschi.com). It is a warm, friendly restaurant. The owner had a cute photo poster of a young boy with a soccer ball on the wall. The kind of photo you would get at a mall. It was his adult son, our waiter! We marveled at the change. Kids do grow up too quickly.
We toured the Tuscan countryside, enjoyed the sights, took lots of photos, and enjoyed the food, wine, and especially the hospitality of the locals. We shall return!

City on a Hill

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The Greek island of Santorini, in the Aegean Sea, bathed in the June sun, can be described only as “hotter than the hubs of hell itself” in June.
If ever a reason to have a cold beer before noon was needed on vacation, this is the place where it was conceived. I had suggested that others on the tour should soak their underwear and other clothing in hot water before disembarking the ship, as they will soon become that warm and moist in a matter of moments on the isle. I would recommend visiting in earlier spring or fall.
The great attraction of the isle is on the top of the hill, the town of Oia, with its whitewashed buildings and blue painted roofs. It makes for picturesque scenes that grace most of the postcards.
The volcanic island was bigger in days of old, but like most of the volcanoes in the Mediterranean, all good things must come to (a violent) end. This one blew up big time. The entire center was blasted away, and only the rim was left.
The only way to ascend the crater’s rim is by tram or by a guided burrow ride. My wife, Carrie, and I chose the tram; and our daughter, Katie, the burrow, and we met on the top. There is one other alternative: walking. We did not consider this an option as the cobblestone path is covered in burrow dung. If you fell, you might very well slide all the way down the steep incline.
At the top we caught a bus with a driver who was engaged in a game of “how many passengers can I get on this vehicle before it bursts at the seams?”
Survey says: all of them. To say it was a tight squeeze is an understatement. I did help an old man with his groceries get off the bus to prove not all Americans are ugly, just me.
Oia , a city on a hill, was beautiful but expensive. Katie bought a smoothie for 10 euros. I bought a beer for three. Definitely stay away from the smoothies.
On the way back, I actually had a seat on the bus. I introduced myself to a young lady standing next to my seat, and explained that we would soon become well acquainted because of the driver’s erratic and jerky turns. Sure enough, she was soon in my lap after a sharp turn.
While waiting at the bottom of the hill, I found a small store, about the size of a walk-in closet, that sold beer. It is located between the tram and the burrow concession. It was also air conditioned, and sold groceries and souvenirs.
This beer was different from that at the top of the hill: It was ice cold. That may not seem like a big deal here in the States, but really cold beer is very rare in Europe. I vowed to return.