Spring Rambles in Tuscany

Along one of our nearby country roads

One of the great joys of our time here in Tuscany has been watching the land come alive with the coming of spring and seeing all the blooming plants and  flowers.

Since our arrival in March, the land has seemed to burst forth, and every walk and drive along the country byways, reveals something new.

We recognize some of them from home-- daffodils, lilacs, irises, roses, etc., but the so many of the wildflowers are new to us or in an abundance that we have never seen.

The poppies are incredible

The poppies that seem to spring up in every field, on on every stone wall, in every cranny are especially delightful and fun.

Poppy closeup

We have tried and tried to grow poppies in our various gardens but have never had much success.  To see them growing in such wild profusion has been a treat.

Mustard fields were prevalent during March

Earlier in the spring, the fields of mustard, glistening in the sun were also a new experience for us.  The mustard is mostly gone now, the farmers have plowed them under to sow their spring crops, but while they lasted they were a sight to behold--solid fields of yellow amidst a landscape of green.

Small farmer's vineyard--just a few rows

What dominates one's view most often are the vineyards and olive groves.  It seems to be every Tuscan's birthright to grow his own grapes and olives.

Even in  the smallest plots--in towns, cities and countryside, you see olive trees and grapevines.  We have been told that it takes about one tree to make a liter bottle of olive oil--so everyone's goal seems to be to grow enough for their own use.

Palazzo that we see on our walk with its vineyards & cypresses

Here in the Siena countryside, each farmer  seems to have three or fours rows of grapes; and we assume that is enough to make a year's supply of red table wine for his family's consumption.

As you drive along Tuscan provincial roads you see vineyards covering hundreds if not thousands of acres or hectares, which is how they measure land here in Italy and most of the world. And for many of these large vineyards, there is a winery.  Some like Ricasoli produce 3 million bottles a year, others like a little winery, Tenuto La Nouvela, we visited in Poggio, 12,000 bottles is a big production.

View from our window

But we started out talking about the lovely flowers and blooming plants that we see each time we step out our door or take a drive or better yet, a walk through the countryside.

One aspect of the Tuscan countryside that we like is the clustering of houses in small communities or settlements, so the landscape is not as broken up by farm houses and outbuildings as it is in the States. Casabella is part of a small cluster of houses--not really a village, but just a community.  We are surrounded by family gardens, olive groves, and vineyards as well as fields of wheat and sunflowers. We would love to be here this summer when we are told the wheat fields are golden and the sunflowers all turn their blooms to the sun.  The Italians call sunflowers, girasole, or sun follower.

Yesterday, in a break from the May showers that are more prevalent and frequent than we had expected, we were able to get out for a long, leisurely walk along the country lanes that criss cross the landscape.  We saw any number of new and interesting plants, at least to us--most of which we cannot name. But we wanted to share the pictures with you, in hopes that it might help to understand this faccinating landscape just a little bit better. Everyday, something new and different seems to appear, and of course as the season progresses, things die, stop flowering, or are just get overwhelmed by new growth.

A geranium or cranesbill that we noticed for the first time yesterday

A type of succulent that seems to grow out of every stone wall we pass

Wild gladioli

Not a clue, but found it peaking out of a bank of two foot high grass

There are lots of thistle--both the giant ones and its smaller relative

Earlier in the spring there were lots of ground cover daisies, but now their bigger cousins are showing up

We think this is another kind of geranium

Is the sage native or just naturalized--either way the big bushes of blue are impressive.

Earlier in the season, this plant was everywhere--it has now been overwhelmed by so many other plants, but still in a lovely clump like this it is striking.

There are many others that we have missed or cannot capture well with the iPhone camera, but we know that when we have the time for a walk, these sights and many others will be there to greet us.

Traveling with Cynthia & Nancy--Part I

Casabellina

Casabellina

After a month in the hills near Florence in the small settlement of Poggio alla Croce, we moved into a little house in the Siena countryside--Casabellina.  Casabellina originally, centuries ago, was a stable and cowshed, but has been converted to a wonderful two bedroom apartment. The first week of May was a great time to rest and relax in Tuscany--we have loved the architecture, landscape and the wild flowers that seem to be blooming everywhere.

Nancy & Cyntia in Todi

On May 5th, our friends Cynthia Adams and Nancy Ball arrived at the Rome airport.  We have gotten well acquainted with the A1 Toll Road and the Rome Airport.  Delayed by a massive tie-up on the Rome ring road, we worried that Cynthia and Nancy would be feeling frantic and abandoned at the airport, but they greeted us with smiles and warm hugs.

Cynthia enjoying Casabellina

Fortunately, traffic out of the city moved at good clip, and we were able to take a pleasant lunch time break in one of our favorite hill towns, Todi. As we have mentioned before, the views over the Umbrian landscape are truly spectacular from all sides of this lovely place. After a delicious lunch, a quick tour and a gelato break, we headed back to Siena and Casabellina--but just for one night.

 

Lucca

Our sheep traveling companions

Early the next morning, we were back in the car and headed to Lucca for a three night stay and tour in the northeastern part of Tuscany and Cinque Terre.  On our travels, we rely on our trusty GPS--aka Gracie--to get us from point A to point B--this time from Siena to Lucca.  Occasionally, Gracie's evil twin, Gladys, seems to take over, and we end up seemingly lost in the countryside.  Our trip to Lucca was one of those times.  We found ourselves so far off the beaten path that we had to stop for a sheep traffic jam. After our initial shock--we all were convulsed in laughter and had enough presence of mind to capture the moment on film.

Biking in Lucca

So despite what seemed like many hours of back road adventures (but only an hour and half or so in reality), we managed to find the lovely walled city of Lucca around 7:00 pm.  What else could go wrong? Well, our Italian cell phone decided to lose its charge and our iPhone refused to link to a local network, so in order to contact our host for the night, we had to walk into the city in search of an Internet connection. That proved harder than we imagined, but finally we introduced ourselves to a nice real estate agent, Astrid, who after hearing our tale of woe, took pity on us and voluntarily contacted our host, Rosella--who had been waiting since 5:00 and wondering what had become of us. She happily agreed to meet us within 20 minutes at the apartment.  Throughout this trip we have relied on Airbnb to find apartments and rooms and fortunately have not been disappointed.  Our Lucca apartment was right in the heart of the historic center: bright, comfortable and newly renovated; the only drawback was the four flights of stairs that we had to climb to reach it--loaded down with too much luggage, food & other paraphernalia.

Nancy with Marco

We have visited Lucca several times and we always forget how much we really like this old but wonderfully modern Tuscan city. The medieval wall is intact and serves as a major recreation setting for visitors and citizens alike.  On our first full day in the city, we rented bikes and rode around the city on top of the wall--actually we circled it twice--first clockwise and then counter-clockwise; along with hundreds of other bikers, runners, walkers and young parents pushing strollers. It was a delightful spring day and a great break from auto touring. Of course, we always have to eat--we ended up at Da Leo (Leo's Place) where we had a great "pranza" and got acquainted with our waiter, Marco, who when he is not waiting tables, is a very talented, but struggling, graphic artist. We all loved walking around this mostly flat town that is filled with art, music, interesting and varied architecture.

Who will be Cinderella?

One of our favorite finds was the Palazzo Mansi, a 16th century mansion that is now an incredibly ornate and interesting museum and art gallery, on the same street as our apartment and just a couple of blocks away. Worth a visit if just to see the sumptuous lifestyle that a rich 17th century Italian family would have been living.

 

Cinque Terre

 One reason for taking Nancy and Cynthia to Lucca was so that we could all visit Cinque Terre--five small Italian Riviera towns that are a two hour car/train trip from Lucca.  Known for their scenic natural beauty, tranquil harbors, and walking trails, we had visited the towns in 1995 and remembered them as quiet and quaint and well worth a visit.

What we wanted to see at Cinque Terre

Since that time, however, these "undiscovered jewels" have become a prime itinerary stop on far too many tours.  The train from La Specia to Cinque Terre was like riding the Tokyo subway and unfortunately we had to share our Cinque Terre interlude with the hordes.

What we actually saw in Cinque Terre.

Confronted with the numbers of people--including tourists from throughout Europe, North America and Asia, we decided to ride the train to the northern most town and then take a boat ride back to the initial town.  It was a good strategy--although we were not the only ones to come up with this strategy. Still it was a spectacularly beautiful day--the water was a deep sparkling blue & the sky cerulean, and in the end we had a fun and interesting visit.We were pretty tired by the time we got back to our Lucca apartment that evening.

 

Cooking Lessons with Danilo

Readers of our blog will know how much we enjoyed our time in Poggio alla Croce and the wonderful Becattini Family.  We wanted to introduce Cynthia and Nancy to the family and the Poggio area. Danilo Becattini is a super chef--or Cuoco, as the Italians would say, and he offers cooking lessons in pasta and pizza making, which sounded intriguing and fun to our friends--and it was.  We have dubbed Danilo the Italian leprechaun--he is a wiry and diminutive man with a beautiful smile and boundless energy as well as a great cook and teacher.  Lorenzo, Danilo's new sou-chef served as interpreter and helper. Sue, Cynthia, and Nancy tremendously enjoyed their lesson and are anxious to try what they learned at home. The two hour lesson was full of laughter and smiles, new discoveries, and lots of oohs and ahhs.

Starting with making the pizza dough

Danilo gives pointers about working with the dough

Cynthia rolls out her pizza

Sue thought her pizza was smiling back at her

Danilo helps Cynthia put her masterpiece in the wood fired oven.

 

Certaldo

Linda Darty, a long time ECU faculty member and renowned jewelry artist, has spearheaded the creation of East Carolina University, study abroad program in Certaldo.  The hamlet of Certaldo is a medieval Tuscan hill town almost equidistant from the two main Tuscan towns of Florence and Siena. Our visiting friend, Nancy Ball, is the Development Officer for ECU's College of Fine Arts and Communication, and she really wanted to visit the center. We planned a day trip there. All of us immediately fell in love with Certaldo and the program and were blown away by the facility, faculty, and staff. How can we enroll was the question we all wanted to ask? As it was between term, we were not able to see Linda who was back in Greenville on business, but Ignacio, Marissa, and Chris welcomed us warmly, gave us a great tour, and told us about the program in detail. ECU can be proud of Linda, her colleagues, and the program they have created.

We spent a couple hours with them, ending our visit with espresso on the terrace of a several hundred year old home which has been turned into a beautiful hotel.  Afterwards, we drove back to Sovicille, a village near Siena to take up residence in the farmhouse attached to Casabellina.  We will tell you about Casabella and the remainder of Cynthia and Nancy's visit in our next blog.

Nancy with Chris, Marissa & Ignacio

Sue, Marissa, Chris, Nancy & Cynthia

Valdarno

Typical Tuscan countryside

For us, one of the joys of visiting Italy this time has been having the opportunity to see and experience the countryside.  We wish we could describe for you accurately how incredibly beautiful the Tuscan countryside is.  We have often said to ourselves, there doesn't seem to be a bad view from any town that we have visited, and some, like Todi, Pienza, and Volterra, have unforgettable vistas.

When we arrived in early March, it was still quite winter like--many of the trees were bare and nothing was in bloom.  As we have recounted in previous posts, the weather was often cloudy and rainy. But with each passing week, spring has triumphed over winter.  Spring seemed to burst forth all at once.  Now the countryside looks lush and green and wildflowers bloom along every roadside.

Danilo shows us his "paese."

After Lynne Lysiak's visit we decided to rest, relax, and explore the  area where we were staying. Out for a walk one afternoon, we met up with our host, Danilo, who offered to walk with us and show us his olive orchards and the land he and his family own and care for--and care for is the operative word. Danilo has such great pride in his "paese" which perhaps best translates as his homeland. Our short hike turned into a three hour guided tour of this beautiful landscape

Becattini farm

When Danilo is not in his restaurant preparing gourmet Tuscan meals (and truly, the best we've had in Italy), he is working on his land--pruning the olive trees,  plowing the fields, and planting his garden. We also heard about the history of his family and the community.  Danilo and his wife Gian Carla were neighbors and attended shcool together from the age of five. Her mother and father's (Nonno Dario and Nonna Reina) story is much the same.

Loro Ciuffena

Many of the homes in the area are hundreds of years old, while a smaller number have been built over the last decade or so.  Looking across the landscape, you often see abandoned homes, outbuildings and barns.  In the last fifty years, many people have left the rural countryside and migrated to the cities and no one has been left to take care of the buildings and land. Some of these are now being renovated and refurbished--a la Frances Mayes' Under the Tuscan Sun.  But the recent economic crisis has really hit the rural areas badly, and there is no longer money to finish the renovations or purchase any more to renovate.  And there are no jobs for the young people throughout Italy.  Lorenzo, the youngest Becattini and our interpretor, has a graduate degree in Economics but has been unable to get a job for two years & has just accepted a temporary job not in his field.

  

Loro Ciuffena

A couple of days after the Poggio area hike, Sue mapped out a drive around Valdarno (the valley of the Arno River) for us. Our four town sojourn only involved driving some fifty or sixty kilometers, but provided an incredible diversity of towns and historical sights. One of our favorite towns was Loro Ciuffena, an old town that clings to the cliffs on both sides of a river that forms waterfalls and pools for hundreds of meters along its way through the town. There, we also visited an ancient mill--it might be 300 or it might 1000 years old--we weren't quite sure what the old man who greets you actually said, but we were impressed enough to purchase some of his stone ground cornmeal. Sue used it to make corn bread for our hosts--something they had never tasted before.

Loro, again

Just outside of Loro is the tiny little village of Gropina; though there were no signs or guideposts, Gracie (our GPS) easily got us to the village--the road just seemed to get narrower and narrower and finally stoppped at a medieval wall--without the GPS we would have thought ourselves lost repeatedly.  But the drive was certainly worth it.

Exterior of Gropina Church

We were rewarded with visiting the most beautiful, simple medieval church perched high on a hill and built on 4th century ruins of the original.  After all the highly decorative Renaissance era duomos we've visited, this plain yet simply lovely chapel was a gift.  The columns were decorated high at the top with what looked like gryphons, knights on horseback, animals, biblical figures and scrolls.  The tiny slits for windows were filled in with alabaster and cast a warm glow.  A sign said the structure was built in the 12th century and it was easy to imagine worshippers coming there for the last 800 years.  An old man, when he saw our interest (we stayed in there a long time looking at every single detail), came in, turned on a few lights and even unlocked the crypt so we could go down and see ancient graves and the 4th century ruins.  We were enthralled.  You never know what incredible things you will stumble onto just roaming around the countryside.

Interior of Church in Gropina

View of Poggio countryside

Afterwards, we returned to Poggio for one more fabulous Becattini meal, and a couple shots at various times of Vin Santo (with Nonno Dario, his specialty) and finally had to say good by to this marvelous family.  If you ever get to Tuscancy, plan a side trip  on a weekend to Poggio Alla Croce and give a lot of big hugs to Nonno, Nonna, Danilo, Gian Carla and Lorenzo.  Also, pause for one of their fantastic meals (especially the Bistecca Fiorentina) and cap it off with Nonno's special Vin Santo, the best you'll ever drink.

Irises blooming outside our window

Now we are back in the Siena area; our previous host, Marzia, also owns a villa, Casabella and an adjoining apartment, Casabellina, in the Sienese countryside.  Earlier in the month we had the opportunity to visit them and knew we had to come back for a stay.  So this is where we will be for almost all of our sojourn here in Italy. Once a farmhouse and stable, the villa and apartment have been lovingly and beautifully renovated by Marzia and her talented and hardworking husband, Renzo. We cannot imagine a better place to be for this beautiful time of year in Tuscany.

Casabellina

View from Casabellina terrace

Just 10 kilometers outside of Siena, you are surrounded by rich farmland that is just now waking up to Spring.  The grapevines are a young, pale green and just beginning to climb along the trellises.  The artichokes are forming new fruit and the olives are just putting forth their blossoms. From the Casabellina terrace, you have a beautiful view across the fertile valley to Monti del Chianti in the west. Late in the afternoon, we love sitting there with a glass of wine, of course. The little traveled country road provides an ideal walking path for exploring and just wandering through local small settlements, one of them occupied and one apparently abandoned. We are looking forward to the arrival of our next guests, Cynthia and Nancy.  It is so much fun sharing this experience with our friends.