Our Tuscan Adventure

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Buongiorno

Greetings from Tuscany!

We have just completed our seven day Tuscan walking tour and it was just incredible. Such a great adventure for all three of us. Yet again Katy has amazed and delighted us with her hardy adapability. We walked between 7 and 14 kilometres each day of the tour and Katy was borne aloft mostly Evans shoulders in our Macpac Possum Carrier. Ensconced in her royal litter she had the best view of any of us as the Tuscan country side passed by. Up on her daddys shoulders she looked about herself with interest or, for the most part, slept. After a few minutes of gentle rocking motion her little head would start to droop, her eyes would blink slowly and finally close and then little snores could be heard. Her sleeping positions never ceased to amaze us - head hanging out of the pack like a dog from a car window she would sag and all her weight would suddenly tilt towards her chosen side.

Sadly this propensity towards lopsided snoozing has literally broken her father! Evan was a total hero carrying her up these huge Tuscan hills and now he has hurt his back!!! I have finally convinced him to let a masseuse near him so hopefully this and a locally procured anti inflammatory gel will fix him before the next lot of hiking in the Cinque Terre.

The first day of our walk took place between the villages of Setignale and Fiesole and started with a local bus ride from Florence. We disembarked just outside a local village bakery and took the opportunity to supplement our picnic that we had constructed with the breakfast buffet rolls and cheeses with some divine sweet biscuits and some grissini for Katy to munch on. The walk took us through gorgeous cobblestoned streets and then out into the hilly Tuscan landscape. For this and all the days the scenery included grassy meadows strewn with bright yellow and blue wildflowers, silvery green olive groves, stone walls, field chapels with lovingly painted madonnas and bunches of fresh flowers arranged in vases, long lines of grape vines and hilly hilly hills which we laboriously climbed to be rewarded with breathtaking views.

The walks took us between medieval villages and past vineyards and olive oil factories (really just divine stone buildings with olive oil presses rather than anything even vaguely industrial).

The second day saw us getting a transfer to the village of Greve in Chianti. This was our second longest day - a circular walk into the surrounding countryside of 10kms. We straggled back into town to the welcome relief of our quaint family run hotel right on the village square. Our room overlooked the square. That night we were determined to properly partake of a delightful Italian tradition we had read about but not properly tried (we did it one night in Florence but we were a bit early and the bar we chose was a bit too quiet!!). Every evening between the hours of 6.30-7.30pm in neighbourhood bars all over the country people drop by for Apertivo. You buy a drink and then gather communally to snack on substantial platters provided by the bar and discuss the days happenings. It is FABULOUS. We are super keen to import this concept back to Australia!

Anyway in Greve the best place for apertivo was right opposite our hotel and buzzing with locals. We ordered a couple of Aperol spritzers and settled in for a good gossip. The platters of pizzas, dips, chips and nuts were delicious. And we were soon being approached by locals for a chat. Mainly this was due to Katy who was enchanted and enchanting with her waves, smiles and gurgles of delight in all the new faces to meet. Whenever we are in a new location she sets about trying to make contact with the people around her. She will stand up on our laps and reach out towards people with waves and smiles at everyone passing until she makes a connection and then she will happily exchange smiles and waves with her new friends. It is a lovely quality which we hope she retains as she grows up.

The next day poor Ev was a bit sore so we decided to take it easy and do a short walk up to the nearby village of Montefioralle which is perched on the hill overlooking Greve. It was a great choice - considered by all the guidebooks to be a must see gem in the Chianti region. The ancient stone houses and cobbled streets were an intriguing maze enlivened by splashes of colour from the many flowers growing in window boxes. It was incredible that an ancient village dating back six hundred odd years was still a living breathing town with residents occupying these quaint buildings continuously for such a long time.

We had a sweet picnic overlooking the valley - creme patisserie filled choux pastry and biscuits stuffed with jam. Yummy!!!!

Bit of wine tasting was called for so we headed to La Cantina a pretty intriguing mixture of the ancient (stone basement, continuously occupied by wine traders for hundreds of years) and the new (high tech stands with humidty controlled covers where you insert a card to buy a measured taste of the wine of your choice). We loved the Chianti reserva and some local proseccos the most. All accompanied by a lovely platter of locally made pecorino cheeses included a truffled variety.

The next day we were transferred to Baddiaca a village at the top of a local mountain. The taxi left us at the edge of the village while it headed off to Radda in Chianti with our luggage. This was our biggest day - 14kms through the most incredible scenery. We headed off down hill from the little village and were immediately in a forrested valley. There are lots of forrests in Tuscany - we were not expecting this to be the case from the familiar pictures and images of the region. After a few hours including a back breaking one kilometere ascent over huge boulders we made it to Valopaia which is a divine medieval village at the top of a hill with breathtaking views over valleys covered in vineyards and olive groves. We had a traditional Tuscan lunch of Ribollita (bread and vegie soup) and Beans with Sausages. The second half of the walk was our favourite of the whole trip. The scenery was straight out of the movies and the bright sunshine made it all the more amazing in terms of the colours - bright blue, silvery green and the brown rich earth.

Our afternoon tea stop was at Santa Maria Novella church part of which dates back to Roman times. We set up a picnic and let Katy roam free while we just soaked up the sun and drank the sweetest purest water imaginable from a local spring. The final descent and ascent to Radda was incredibly hard but we were amply rewarded with the town itself which is perched on the top of a hillside and commands incredible views over the region. The town itself is everything you would love it to be - cobbled maze like streets lined with wine shops, trattorias and palazzos. We were to stay in the Palazzo Leopold and our huge room had windows with views over the hillside. All in all a pretty hard thing to take!!!

A day exploring Radda and the surrounding hillsides and then our final stop - Siena.

We didnt have many expectations of Siena - it is a walled city dating back to medieval times. The city is divided into seventeen districts each with its own identity, church, fountain, and animal symbol and colours. Twice a year there is a highly competitive horse race around the centre square between ten of the districts which is called the Palio. It is apparently an incredible atmosphere so check it out if you are here in July-August. We spent several hours just getting lost and exploring the city streets. I climbed another campanile (bell tower) for some amazing views while Evan and Katy soaked up the atmosphere in the square. We also checked out the Duomo (cathedral) which is a pretty incredible spectacle. A library of medieval choir books are kept in a beautiful room painted with frescoes that are so bright and clear they could have been painted yesterday.

The last day of our Tuscan adventure found us heading to Siena train station and getting a train to Pisa where we did a very well coordinated dash to the leaning tower in between train connections!! Evan climbed the tower - which was something he had not been able to do when he was here twenty years ago so he got to tick something else off his list of must do travel stops which was great.

The last stop was the Ligurian coastal village of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre national park. We were heading there to do the famous walk between five fishing villages which dramatically cling to the mountainous hillsides before plunging down to the sea. Very exciting. The best thing about travelling is that however sad you are to be leaving one amazing location, there is always something to look forward to at the next destination.

We wish you all the very best and are thinking of you!

But before we go just a quick word about the food. We are having an amazing culinary adventure as well!! Highlights so far have included - buying $40 a kg ravioli from a providore in Rome and making our own burnt butter sage sauce in our apartment, a pasta with a pistacchio cream sauce served on a Terrace overlooking Florence, crisp pizzas with simple toppings and marvellous home made tomato sauces and asparagus risotto eaten in a lively square in Greve. Hot chocolate over here is a whole special experience - imagine a cup of warm chocolate fondant and you will be pretty close! And the gelato - we have not eaten the same flavour twice and we are having gelato pretty much every day!! Despite all our walking I am pretty sure we will be the same size as when we left after all our eating adventures he he he.

Sadly the only one who didnt love the food is Katy who HATES the crappy Italian baby food. I have been carefully doling out the precious Australian sachets I brought with me supplemented with slow cooked tuscan vegies, bread and fresh mozzarella all of which Katy is very partial to (phew!).

Well gotta dash,

Leah, Evan and Katy.

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