Usually on a Thursday the day just seems endless – made worse, of course, by the fact that it’s not yet Friday and the weekend still seems miles away. But Thursday the 22nd August just flew – what, with the long awaited Italy trip only hours away – and loads of GP budgets to sort out before then… but by 3:30pm I was out the door, my baby backpack firmly secured and on my way! I met Meg, Nic and Kate and we were off to Stansted and an uneventful Ryanair flight to Brescia (I’m always pathetically thankful for non-eventful flights these days!). Upon arrival in Brescia we were greeted by a lovely, pleasant evening and a strong smell of cattle dung – I could almost have been back in the Free State! A quick taxi ride took us to the hotel to meet Yvonne, who had flown in earlier that day.
Next morning, anticipating a lovely day in Italia, we got geared up in skirts, skinny tops and sandals, only to realise upon checking out that it was pouring rain outside – and the four faces in front of me dropped considerably. But, not to be discouraged by the weather, we made our way outside to the bus stop to await some form of local transport – we’d never been so pleased to see a large, packed, puke-y brown and orange bus! From the station we got the train safely to Verona, the home of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It’s such a beautiful city, and was an absolute pleasure to wander around. Thankfully by the time we got there the sun was out and we booked into the most beautiful hostel – high up on a hill and happily situated amongst some really beautiful gardens.
We had a walk along the river, which is very picturesque, with lots of lovely bridges, and the entire city is filled with charm. We found Juliet’s balcony, which wasn’t too hard really – just followed the hoards of tourists! All the walls surrounding the building are covered in graffiti added by many thousands of lovers that have passed by, and there’s a statue that has a myth attached to it that if you rub Juliet’s breast you will have luck in love… Yes, well hmmm. I have to say that I have yet to find a less romantic spot, and as for the breast rubbing thing, I seem to be doing ok in love at the moment – and surely that particular myth must have been invented by men to give them an excuse to rub a breast!!! So, having voiced my cynicism, I was relegated to the role of photographer and had the challenging task of trying to dodge unattractive tourists while trying to take a picture of Yvonne, Nicky and Meg rubbing Juliet up with force!!! We also explored the Castelvecchio, which has some really lovely works of art (of the Italian – and therefore inevitably Jesus-and-Mary variety!).
We walked over a lovely bridge with spectacular views of the river and then headed home to the hostel to clean up before the Opera – yes, we booked to see Carmen in the Roman Arena! What an experience! This spectacular venue is all that is left of a sporting arena that was built by the Romans in 30AD. The seating is all still in tact, although there is only one part of the arched surrounding structure that remains, and adds an extra bit of atmosphere to the place. We stocked up on (really) cheap wine at 1Euro for 1 litre and some gorgeous Italian speciality pizzas and snacks, and found our way to our seats way up in the gods. We invested in some square red cushions that certainly seemed a luxury at the time but by midway through we were all thanking our lucky stars that someone had had the foresight to persuade us!! The actual performance was fantastic too. The sets were huge and ingeniously thought out and the colours and choreography made this a performance to remember.
Next day we were off to Florence. We took the train via Bologna, and boy, was it packed! There wasn’t even space to stand in the isles, and we landed up piling into the section by the toilets with some really friendly Italian guys! It was really funny trying to get out of them what “Out of Order” is in Italian, so that we didn’t have to get up off the floor every time someone wanted to use the toilet! Meg eventually found it in her phrase book and when we told the guys our cunning plan they really thought we were brilliant!!
When we eventually got to Florence we picked up our car, and Meg demonstrated her excellent driving skills… we headed out to our hotel in Badesse, which was to be our base for our time in Tuscany. Tuscan towns are inevitably walled and situated on hilltops, so we had our exercise cut out for us! Our first stop was of course beautiful Siena. I’ve been there before, and it was one of the places that I’ve always wanted to go back to. It’s got something infinitely charming about it – with it’s shell-shaped piazza and sidewalk café’s. Lovely! After a fantastic lunch we had a walk up to the Domo, and it truly was spectacular. It’s exterior and interior are black and white striped, which is quite striking – although being on the inside felt uncomfortably like being trapped in a chessboard! We also happed on a parade, which Italians seem to do in style, and then Kate and I managed to get ourselves lost and had an hour or so stressing about finding the girls in the pouring rain. While we were in this panic-stricken state the girls were attentively shopping for some fresh ingredients for dinner. Just as Kate and I decided that we’d been beaten in the search and started to head back to the car, Yvonne, Meg and Nicole miraculously appeared in front of us and we went home to prepare a good home-cooked feast! The meal was fantastic, but I don’t think any of us will ever look at garlic the same way ever again!!!
Next morning we headed out in the direction of Montalcino, which is really famous for it’s wine, and we got our first real taste of the world-renowned Tuscan countryside – it really is just like in the pictures! Montalcino itself is perched way up on top of a hill and is very picturesque as you ascend. It has a fortress at the top and we all climbed up on the battlements for a most spectacular view of the town and the countryside. We also learned that enoteca is Italian for ‘wine shop’ – and not just a store next to Barristers in Cape Town with a name that always did look suspiciously like erotica! Ooh, and we also found the most gorgeous sweetshop – which warranted a good tasting of all the local delights including nougat, pannetone and some wonderful speciality biscuits!
Next we headed off to Bagno Vignoni, which is a popular resort as a result of the thermal healing baths located there. We settled ourselves at a table under a tree in a restaurant that had an absolutely spectacular view over a valley and overlooking a neighbouring village. We ordered a bottle of wine and the waiter came back and gave a display of such pomp that many a distinguished waiter would be hard-put to beat! Five of the hugest red wine glasses I have ever seen were produced and he then displayed the bottle before uncorking it in a rather ceremonial manner. Upon popping the cork he gave the wine a distinguished sniff and proceeded to pour a small amount into one of the glasses. He then sniffed this again, gave it a good swirl and then repeated the process with each glass by pouring the wine from one glass to the next. We all sat there in complete awe – and I personally was just waiting for the grand finale where I fully expected him to take a authoritative sip out of one of the last glass! How funny!! We then had an absolutely scrumptious and very authentic homemade pasta, and by the end of lunch we were all ready for a nice little nap! We then headed over to the local hotel and had a lovely swim in the thermal pools, and lazed about on some deck chairs absorbing the afternoon sun – what a lovely afternoon!
We got going again and found a little town called Pienz, where we had some yummy gelato (ice-cream!) and a wander around and then we were off to Montepulciano. We found it quite easily, but after trekking halfway up this very steep hill we found that there were loads of people queuing for tickets to get into town and there seemed not a soul that spoke enough English to explain to us what was going on!! Eventually Meg managed to uncover a brochure that explained that it was the day of an annual festival that the town is famous for. Basically it is a traditional “clash of houses” and the main challenge involves two of the strongest men from each house (important family) pushing a 80kg barrel from the entrance of the town to the square in the middle of town. Doesn’t sound too difficult, I know – but when you walk the route, as we did, you realise the severity of the race because it’s a very steep path!! There was an awesome parade along the main street, with many representatives from each family, all in ceremonial clothing and lots of flag waving and daring pole throwing between flag bearers… we really were lucky to hap upon this festival! We found ourselves a prime location to watch the start of the barrel race, muscles flexing and hearts pumping... Really fun!
Keeping to our busy itinerary meant that the next day were off back to Florence, but on the way we stopped off in San Gimignano, a town that I surprisingly had heard of, as it featured in the film “Tea with Mussolini” (it was the town where all the English ladies were imprisoned). The town is particularly lovely as much of its architecture remains in tact, although only 15 out of the original 72 towers remain. It is also a World Heritage Sight, and Yvonne and Nic informed us that the town was famous for it’s fabric merchants, who used products to make their fabrics a very distinct orange colour. The towers were built not only for showing off the merchants wealth, but had the practical function of providing more surface space for the drying of their textiles within the protective city walls.
We then continued on to Florence, returned the hire car and found our hotel, which was very close to the river and in this huge old building, with massive rooms and a lovely view out over the city – we even had a good view of the Doma! We had a great time exploring Florence, especially the city’s shops and leather markets! We also ventured into one particularly good restaurant where we had an opportunity to try some really special dishes, including a dish that Marco (from the train) had said was his favourite – Ribolita Toscana. He described it as “soup, but bread” which didn’t really make much sense at the time, but when Kate ordered it we discovered what he meant… it’s basically a very thick, reduced vegetable soup, which is then layered with bread and then mixed up – and the general consensus was very yummy!!! The highlight of the evening was of course pudding, though, and Yvonne and I decided to sample biscuits dipped in a really sweet after-dinner wine, that kicked as hard as brandy!!
From Firenze we were off to Treviso, which is sadly where our trip was to end. Did you know that there’s a Eurostar that runs from Florence to Venice!?! Anyway, Treviso was a real pleasure – I don’t think we spotted more than two other tourists the entire time we were there, and it’s a really beautiful city. Sorry to bring up pudding again – but my goodness, this was where I had one of the most amazing deserts of all time – sweet Italian biscuits and marscapone cheese – my mouth is watering right now at the thought!!!
So anyway, that’s our Italy trip!
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