Our Day & Night in Tuscany

On Sunday morning we left Rome in a very comfortable large motorcoach driven by a charming driver named Gianni. We drove north through Lazio, Umbria and lower Tuscany to the town of Cortona. The land we passed through looked just as it should: olive tree groves, grape vines, ancient villages on hilltops, here and there a castle. It was a beautiful ride, lasting about two hours. Some of us took pictures from the moving bus of the hilltop towns and the countryside outside the windows.

If you recall the book or saw the film Under the Tuscan Sun you may recognize Cortona as the place where the author, Frances Mayes, made her home in Italy. It is a classic, beautiful ancient Italian town -- Etruscans lived here hundreds of years before the Roman empire was formed. There are large stone piazzas, thousand year old churches, many charming shops and good restaurants. We were disappointed when a restaurant named Osterio del Teatro refused to honor our reservation -- apparently we were "outbid" by a larger group. After arrogantly telling me to go away the maitre d' welcomed a group of about 50 people departing a huge bus outside his door as some of us watched from the street.  We all found a good Italian Sunday lunches elsewhere in Cortona and enjoyed both the food and a lovely Sunday afternoon in the sunshine.

When we left in mid-afternoon, our destination was Sienna, but upon arrival we discovered that the town's bus parking was completely taken up by football (soccer) fans who had come to see Sienna play a German team. We decided to go instead to San Gimignano, near our hotel for the evening.

San G. was wall-to-wall with tourists flocking into the many shops, and we added 16 more! Our group had a very good time searching for special items to bring home or to give as gifts.  San Gimignano is famous for its medieval towers, built centuries ago to protect the warring families from one another.  The town is encircled by high stone walls and visitors enter through great medieval gates.

Our hotel for the evening is located just outside San Gimignano.  It is a country albergio called Villa Ducci located in the Tuscan country side. The heart of the property is an old farm house but comfortable rooms and facilities have been constructed more recently. When we arrived three gentlemen carried our luggage inside while a lady welcomed us all and told us our room assignments. We were all very impressed by our lovely accommodations -- some of us seemed ready to reserve a week there next year!  We gathered on the terrace as the sky darkened and shared some wine.  Later we enjoyed a dinner of traditional Tuscan foods and wines together, topped off by homemade tiramisu.  I'm sure we all wished we could stay much longer in this lovely and comfortable place in the hills of Tuscany.

My primary camera was broken on the first day of our trip and during our day in Tuscany I was relying on an unreliable, inexpensive backup camera.  The pictures here are a few I shot, but for a much better view of our day, please go to our Facebook page (click here).  There you will see an album of photos taken by Patsy Nolan, who generously shared them with us.  Patsy's pictures will give you a true taste of our day.

Libbie