Today the coolest thing happened. I was at the beautiful Fattoria La Pievanella by chance. I was helping out the owner with some translation work when I heard her talk to some American people who had stopped by to ask if it was possible to get something to eat.

Normally, it’s always better to book in advance there (and be prepared for the prices) because the restaurant works mostly for the guests and if the guests choose to go out for the day, the chef gets some time off. As you can imagine, he cannot leave at any other time during the tourist season. Anyway, I went out to help out with the language barriers (the owner is German) and in the end she decided that she could ask the chef to prepare a light lunch for them anyway. She asked me if in the meanwhile I could take them around to see the pool etc. They seemed very nice, so I did.

While we were walking down to the pool, I noticed they had something printed and I asked how they found the place. They told me they had read about an off-the-beaten-path drive in Tuscany online… It was the guest post I wrote for Keith’s Velvet’s Escape Travel Blog!!! There was a  photo of me, my bio etc! It was so weird and so cool at the same time! We had a good laugh!

They had lunch there, and then we took photos and talked a while! It was so funny! I almost felt like a star! LOL

In the end, when I was ready to leave, I guided them along my favourite route around there, to the Castle of Monte Antico. There they stopped to take a walk around and some photos and we said goodbye!

Ah…the power of the web!!! I need to thank Keith once again for asking me to write that guest post and in so doing, for giving me a chance to meet nice people like them!! I hope they will send the photo we took with the print-out of the article!!!

Driving in the countryside is like a therapy against stress for me, especially on perfect summer days like today.

Even when we go somewhere on holiday, driving around is a big part of our vacation. It is not about getting from point a to point b: it’s our way of enjoying beautiful landscapes, stopping along the road to enjoy the views and take pictures, and taking it slow. The drive, for us, is often not just a necessary part of a day-trip: it’s the whole point of a day-trip. We like road trips very much.

I am always a bit surprised when I hear our guests worry about driving in Italy or on winding country roads: that’s the best part of a vacation in Tuscany! Our recommendation is always to take it slow, stop when you feel you need to, and ignore those behind you: do your own thing as you feel comfortable, the world will adjust to your rhythm!

Country lanes are generally a good place for slow drives because there is very little traffic. This morning, on my slow drive through our corner of Tuscany, I only met two other cars.

I left Civitella Marittima and drove towards Grosseto along the E78-SS223. I turned left on a road that I really like, called La Cerreta, which connects the main highway E78 to the road to Monte Amiata (SP64). It’s a road that cuts through the woods and the countryside.

I got on the main road to Monte Amiata and almost immediately turned left passing under an old railway bridge to get onto the Strada Provinciale di Petriolo and followed towards Monte Antico.

The road to Monte Antico is a beautiful drive. It takes you through the prettiest landscapes of Tuscany, with old bridges, fields dotted with hay bales, olive groves, vineyards and sunflower fields. Monte Antico itself is a little hamlet home to less than 100 people, but they can be very proud of their local restaurant, La Taverna di Campagna. They serve both traditional food and excellent pizza, and the owners are the proud producers of one of the best Montecucco D.O.C. wines in the area, Begnardi.

To many, Monte Antico is probably just a group of houses, but I find it fascinating, with its yellow church, and the little train station, which is one of the main stops on the old Grosseto-Siena  railway line. The steam engine train called Treno Natura always stops here. It is one of those places which still bear traces of the old times, when lots of people lived here or in the many farmhouses around this group of houses.

From Monte Antico a picture perfect cypress tree-lined road climbs up to the top of a hill, where the ancient Castle of Monte Antico is located. The castle looks like a fortress from the outside, and it is now a beautiful hotel. It has a lovely courtyard with a well, and breathtaking views over the valley of the river Ombrone.

Driving up to the castle you can enjoy very beautiful views over the hills where our village, Civitella Marittima, is located, and over the surrounding vineyards, nestled among the cypress trees. It’s really pretty. Coming closer to the castle, the old church of San Tommaso, now a theatre, welcomes you to this fabulous corner of the inland hills of the Maremma.

That’s right. Most people don’t have this image of the Maremma in their head. They believe it’s a flat area by the coast. Not at all. The inland areas are quintessentially Tuscan, with rolling hills, vineyards giving way to olive groves, giving way to woods and fields. It’s Tuscany at its best.

I really like the short stretch of road that from the Castle of Monte Antico takes you back to the old Leopoldina road. The road is one of my favourite places near here. I wrote a post for the Velvet Escape Travel Blog about it. The views area amazing!

I drove as far as Fattoria Nuova Pievanella, one of the most beautiful countryside villas in Tuscany. It’s a holiday farm with rooms and apartments, a tennis court, swimming pool, gym, paths through their grounds and a restaurant. But most importantly it is in a stunning location. It’s the perfect romantic retreat in the Tuscan countryside.

I turned around and drove back down to Monte Antico, along the road that runs below the castle. There are a few spots where one can stop and enjoy the view over the hills towards Civitella. The fields have just been harvested and the hay bales are still there: so pretty!

I got back to the old Strada di Petriolo, also known as the “ancient salt road”, because it was the old road that led from Siena to the sea and ensured the salt supply to the city. There are plenty of spots to stop here, and I did stop quite a bit, and took some really cool photos of some hay bales on the top of a hill!

The road is wider than the other one so it’s an easier drive. It is also busier but I still only met two other cars. Most of the fields have been transformed into vineyards over the last few years, since the creation of the Montecucco DOC wine region.It’s very beautiful, especially the part which overlooks the Castle of Casenovole and Monte Amiata.

I then turned left to take the road that goes down to the ancient Ardengheschi Abbey and finally leads back to the village passing by the old village fountains.

A perfect way to spend a Sunday morning in Tuscany!

Here is a photogallery with 62 photos I took this morning. To see them in a larger size, please click on the box with an arrow symbol in the bottom right corner of the gallery. Thank you. They are also available on Flickr.

This itinerary (avoiding the highway) is also perfect for expert cyclists and for horseback rides and walkers.

The fact that we own a vacation house in Tuscany might simply look like a job to some people. To us, though, it’s often much more than that.

It’s a funny feeling, especially for me, but I guess for my husband Marcel too in a way. Casina di Rosa is the house where my great-grandparents raised their family, my grandfather Gino’s family, after actually building it with their own hands. My mother was born there (and I mean right there), and so was my uncle. I have grown up knowing that that was my greatgrandmother Rosa’s home for as long as she could live on her own. And now it is a holiday rental in Tuscany… but to me offering Casina di Rosa does not  equate selling accommodation, it’s actually like opening my family’s home’s doors to our guests.

We have tried to make it comfortable and pretty. But mostly, we hope we have managed to preserve the fact that it is a home.

For this reason, when we meet our guests on Saturdays, it’s always exciting and worrying at the same time. There is always a funny feeling inside of me that makes me worry about whether they are going to like it or not, or whether they will enjoy spending time in the village or if they will rather think we are a bunch of hilly-billies and how can people ever live like that!? For me, it’s like opening a door on who I am and on where I come from, on my life, my culture and my history.

I obviously love my village and our little home: it inevitably does get personal.

Most people, luckily, end up loving both the house and the village: and that is enough to make me happy, because it makes me proud. It is hard to explain.

And then, there are those special cases in which our guests really get to experience life in the village: they participate in local events, they mix and mingle with the locals, and contribute to the local community in many ways. When we are lucky enough to meet these people – and the first sign that that is the case is when others in the village ask about our guests and tell us that they “hanno fatto amicizia“, they made friends -  then I know my “heritage” is in very good hands!

When those guests leave, it’s like saying goodbye to friends, and you wish they will be back. I told you: it’s not a job. It’s getting to know people, opening the doors of your home and connecting.

And I think, recently, we have been very lucky.

I am still working on the itinerary for the Canadian crew which is supposed to come film lavender fields and olive groves on Sunday. I have to say that this has been a really interesting experience because I have had a chance to look at the area of Tuscany where we live with different eyes and I have found out that… as a matter of fact… there are a few farms actually growing and processing lavender!

I have always told our guests that lavender is used in gardens but not as a proper cultivation as in Provence, but looking for places to film I have discovered that over the last few years several farmers have started cultivating lavender.

Today I have visited another of these farms, and beside the stunning location on the top of a hill overlooking on one side the plains of the Maremma down to the coast and on the other the Val d’Orcia hills and the Monte Amiata, this is what I have learnt:

• lavender is a plant that doesn’t need much work, except for keeping the fields clean. It doesn’t need to be watered, quite the opposite: it dies if the soil is too humid.
• it is in bloom in early to mid July.
• it is used to make many products such as lavender extract, body creams, detergents and soaps. It is also used dried as a perfume for wardrobes and underwear.
• bees love it, so it’s the ideal setting for beehives where an excellent honey is produced (I was given a jar!)
• apparently my dog loves it too… she must have sniffed every single bush!!!
• there are different types of lavender, that differ in the shape of the leaves and flowers but also in their colour (more or less purple/bluish) and smell.
• in the Maremma there is a variety of wild lavender that grows spontaneously: people who decide to grow lavender look for the presence of spontaneous plants before planting the “domestic” variety to see if the terrain is potentially good.
• selling lavender and lavender products in Italy is very difficult. Apparently the larger factories who make lavender-based products don’t buy flowers from the local producers. Only 10% of what they need comes from Italian lavender farms and the rest is imported. However since the transformation is carried out in Italy, they still have the right to say that their products are made in Italy…

If you want to discover how lavender is grown and processed in Tuscany, contact us! We can arrange half day and full day visits to several lavender farms!

Today, I went online to find out a bit more about this holiday, and I actually found out that July 4th is a day to celebrate even if you’re not from the States (damn Italians, every occasion is good to party!!)

Anyway, here are the 10 good excuses I found to have a day off even if we are in Tuscany, and not at all American.

1. We have to be sympathetic with our American friends, so we could still celebrate the 4th of July! In the end, this day is a celebration of independence and freedom, and who doesn’t like and need that? These are certainly values that we should remember and celebrate a bit more in Italy too, especially these days…
2. Being a 50% Canadian family, we could celebrate the 374th birthday of the city of Trois Rivières, founded on July 4th 1634. A way to celebrate new beginnings!
3. We could also celebrate progress in civil rights remembering the 183rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the State of New York (July 4, 1827).
4. We could celebrate our freedom to travel by remembering the 173rd anniversary of the first long-distance railway ever opened: the Great Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool officially inaugurated on July 4th 1837. Or the 124th anniversary of the first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train that arrived in Port Moody (British Columbia) on July 4th 1886.
5. We could celebrate dreams come true and the anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (July 4th 1865) or of the NASA’s Pathfinder landing on the surface of Mars in 1997.
6. We could celebrate women’s rights: on July 4th 1903, Dorothy Levitt was the first woman to compete in a motor race.
7. We could celebrate the importance of culture and free speech by remembering the terrible massacre of Polish scientists and writers by the Nazi during the capture of the Polish city of Lwów in 1941 or the first first broadcast by Radio Free Europe in 1950.
8. We could celebrate moral integrity by remembering the anniversary of Samuel Richardson’s death (July 4th, 1761): who has ever explained better than him that “virtue is indeed rewarded” in hundreds of pages of epistolary novels?!
9. We could celebrate love, passion, nature and life, with all our vices and virtues, by remembering the controversial first publication of Walt Whitman’s book of poems Leaves of Grass in 1855.
   
10. We could celebrate spirit of community by remembering Garibaldi’s birthday: he was born on July 4th 1807. You see? I told you I would find the perfect excuse for Italians to celebrate!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
W. Whitman – “America”

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a Canadian TV crew that is coming to Tuscany to film a documentary.  They are interested in lavender and olive groves in our area. I was thrilled that they had contacted me because I see this as a great opportunity to give our area a bit of visibility and to show that Tuscany is not synonymous with the area of Siena and Florence.

So I’ve been working with them and with some local farms to define the schedule of their brief visit. It takes a lot of work to find the best way to fit their schedule (they only have 4 hours) and choose what to include and what to exclude. When a destination is your home, you want for people to see everything and possibly appreciate it as much as you do, but of course, I do understand that this is not possible.

My task is to plan a visit to a lavender farm, to an olive oil producer’s farm and to arrange for activities that can exemplify what the locals do with lavender and how olive oil is produced. It is a cool thing, but it is also a great responsibility because I am not sure what sort of expectations they come with…

Olive groves are not a problem: the Upper Maremma is famous for its olive oil and in my village area in particular, olive groves are the main source of income. The local olive press is renowned and appreciated and there are several excellent producers which make and sell excellent quality olive oil.

Lavender, though, for some reason is something that people expect to find everywhere in Tuscany, but the way lavender is used here is nothing like what you would find in Provence, in France. People use it in their gardens, as a decorative plant, but very few farms grow lavender extensively these days. For this reason, when our guests ask us where they can find a lavender farm to visit we always try to explain that there are a few local producers but they will not see the large fields they might have imagined. Who knows what these Canadian documentarists expect to find…

Anyway, today we went to talk with the local producers to see the fields and decide what we will do. They were very nice and helpful. The fields will be in blossom when the Canadians arrive so they should be very pretty. They will be shown how lavender body cream, oil, soap and other products are made. These farmers still use the same instruments that people used many years ago, when lavender was used to scent laundry and for personal hygiene. That’s because lavender is not in high demand and for this reason the products are still handcrafted for the most part.

I guess this is the main reason to visit a lavender farm in Tuscany: a perfect opportunity to see how small, local farms process lavender in the same way as our ancestors did centuries ago. And of course, because it is the perfect excuse to spend a few hours in the beautiful countryside!

Today it was a perfect summer day. It was hot but not unpleasant: it was sunny and there was a cool breeze covering the olive trees in a thin yellow dust. We spent the whole morning in the countryside painting the fences and watching our dogs chase lizards. I did something that I rarely have a chance to do at the weekend: I sat down on one of the lounge chairs under the tall oak trees in the garden and read a few pages of a novel by Victoria Hislop, The Return: a bit of time for me alone… well… for me, the birds, a hen happily announcing the arrival of her new egg, a cow that didn’t sound too happy about her life, a few bugs and my dog.

Then all of a sudden the sky beyond the hilltop where Civitella Marittima, our village, sits went dark. Thunder could be heard in the distance. It didn’t take long for the storm to arrive from Monte Amiata. The countryside suddenly went silent. No cheerful birds, no grumpy cows, no happy hens. Just lowering clouds quickly gathering over the village and over our house, and the rumble of thunder. The rain came “wrapped up” in a whirlwind, with more thunder and lightning. The storm didn’t last more than 20 minutes and left us with a brighter, dazzling sun. All of a sudden the air was cool and clear; a thin, smoke-like steam covered the roads; a distinctive smell of wet straw and earth filled the air.

It was sunset already and while the western sky glimmered over the vineyard colouring  the vines in an intense pink, to the east, a beautiful red full moon was raising in a bright blue sky over the silver olive trees.

Just another perfect summer day in the Maremma.

(Please, click on the symbol on the bottom right-hand corner to see the photos full-screen. If you don’t have Flash, you can see the photos here)

The Gioco del Ponte 2010 will be next Saturday (June 26).  Literally “the game of the bridge”, it is a real “battle” on the bridge which divides the center in two halves: Ponte di Mezzo. There are two equally important parts to this event: the parade in period costume and the “battle” itself.

The historical pageant is really, really impressive. It is supposed to reproduce a military parade so an “army” of over 300 people in historical costumes parades through the center. It’s well worth a daytrip to Pisa if you are in the area. This year the parade will start later than usual at 7:30 pm.

The game starts at 9pm. 12 teams representing each of quartieri (neighbourhoods) of the city are joined in two larger teams: Tramontana, made up of the quartieri on the north side of the river Arno (Santa Maria, San Francesco, San Michele, Mattaccini, Claci and Satiri) and Mezzogiorno (Sant’Antonio, San Martino, San Marco, Leoni, Dragoni, Delfini) from the southern side of the city. Before the actual “battle”, the different teams parade on their own side of the river. A third parade is that of the 81 judges. After this display, the “battle” begins and the teams made up of really large men challenge each other by trying to push a very heavy cart onto each other’s side of the bridge using only the backs of their necks. It’s quite impressive.

This year, there will also be two large TV screens (one in Piazza della Berlina and one in front of Palazzo Blu) to allow more people to see what is going on on the bridge without the usual crowds on the Lungarno. A hot air baloon above Ponte di Mezzo will light up the river in the area where the game takes place with the colours of the team who is winning.

The cart was installed on Ponte di Mezzo yesterday. Everybody was working hard to have everything ready for tomorrow, because this year, Pisa has decided to go back to the old traditions and have a “veglia” as well. The city will be awaiting her big day with a party on the river banks at Scalo dei Renaioli, Lungarno Galilei, on the day before the event (that’s what “veglia” means in Italian),

Friday June 25. Slow Food and Argini e Margini offer a selection of local products of the Pisa province and the entrance fee is 17 euros.

Exciting novelties, although I am not so sure whether having the game so late in the evening is a good idea or if some of the people who would have come from outside the city by public transportation will come anyway this year. We will see! In the meanwhile… Forza Mezzogiorno!!!!

Interesting resources on Gioco del Ponte:

• Gioco del Ponte, Pisa – from the official Pisa tourism website.
• A video of Gioco del Ponte.

Traditionally, the word aperitivo used to indicate a drink (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) served before a meal. It has always been common for Italians, at least here in Tuscany, to meet at a bar before going out to dinner with friends. Typically, if we have plans to go to dinner with a group of friends, nobody goes to the restaurant and sits down inside until everybody has showed up, something which used to drive my Canadian husband crazy! He was not used to standing around waiting for the usual late friend before being able to grab a drink! But what one would consider to be “late” in Italy, as most people know, is a very flexible concept!

Up until not long ago, the most popular apéritif drinks were Campari and Cinzano. Then prosecco, a dry sparkling wine similar to French Champagne, took its place.  Soon, essentially any cocktail became available as an aperitivo, some of which, such as Negroni, are strong purely alcoholic drinks.

Italians, at least up until to my generation, were not heavy drinkers. Drunkenness was a social taboo, and most people would not drink at all, with the exception of a glass of wine with their meal. For this reason non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails have always been quite popular. For those who were brave enough to venture an alcoholic drink on an empty stomach, bars started to provide something for people to nibble on while drinking. It was mainly very simple snacks such as chips, salatini (variously shaped and flavoured crackers), olives, and capers.

Little by little, the aperitivo became a fashionable thing to do, rather than just a way to kill time before dinner. Now, to go out for an aperitivo means to go to a bar where you order and pay for a drink and help yourself to a rich buffet of finger foods, pasta or rice salads, vegetable salads, cured meats, pizzette, and other more elaborate dishes for free. The drink might be slightly more expensive than it would be in a bar that does traditional apéritif (with no buffet), but the difference is minimal and sometimes the price is exactly the same. Aperitivo is usually served between 7 pm and 8.30 pm. If you go to a very popular bar, you might not find a table to sit at: but that’s normal. Most people just stand around as they would at a cocktail party.

Aperitivo has become very popular in Tuscany, especially in the larger centers. My favourite places for an aperitivo in Pisa are:

• Modus Bibendi: a very stylish wine bar, with a great interior design. It’s in Via Cavalca, just a few steps away from the vegetable market of Piazza delle Vettovaglie.
• Argini e Margini: a recently opened bar on the river bank (Lungarno Galileo – Scalo dei Renaioli), with tables on a deck by the river and a floating restaurant serving seafood. They have a stand which serves fried seafood for as little as 4 euros a portion. They often have live music. A really nice spot in town and perfect for the hot summer evenings.
• Caffetteria delle Vettovaglie: one of the first bars to offer aperitivo. It is very popular. It has tables in Piazza delle Vettovaglie itself: a really nice spot.

There are many more for sure, but these are the ones I’ve tried so far.

In Grosseto I’ve been to Bar Siracusa in Via Matteotti (it’s ok), and Bar Dribbling in Via Ximenes. I’ve heard it’s become too crowded now. I’ve also heard of a new bar in Piazza Volturno, Bar Cristall, but I don’t think that it’s my kind of place (I like informal, relaxed places rather than trendy places).

In Siena I have been several times to a bar in Via di Vallerozzi, only a few steps away from Porta Ovile, called Caffè La Piazzetta.

As you can guess, I love aperitivo. Here are my top 5 reasons to choose an aperitivo over a seated dinner:

• It’s at the perfect time in the evening. I often don’t have the strength to go back home after work and go out again and maybe stay up late. This way I can just stay out a little longer, and by 9 pm I’m home.
• It’s inexpensive. Unless you plan on drinking like a fish, you can really have a full meal with as little as 5 euros.
• It’s fun. I like the selection of different finger foods, some of which are really creative. Often there is live music, so it is almost like being at a party.
• It’s informal. No need to spend much time sitting down. You can stand outside, you can walk around, take it easy.
• It can be social. It’s the perfect place to mix and mingle and make new friends.

Did I mention that it is very inexpensive…?

You can feel it in the air: the people walk faster; the students hasten out of the University buildings in a festive way; small groups of people everywhere are working out the last details for tonight’s house parties.

The street vendors are putting up their stalls for the market in the streets of the center; sandwich trucks are preparing their display of focacce, sweets, sugar candies shaped as fruit, and of course the most prominent sign of a festive day about to break out: the unfailing presence of full-size porchette!

Almost every bar opened later than usual this morning and by 3pm had already installed a draught beer system outside their door to serve drinks to the hundreds of people who, in a few hours, will fill the Lungarni and the streets of the center.

The city is alive and ready to celebrate the two most important days of the year: La Luminara and San Ranieri, the city’s Patron Saint’s Day.

It’s funny how you can feel the city getting ready. You can even smell it. I was walking to work this morning and I wandered through some minor streets in between the old buildings of the city. I was suddenly hit by a strong smell of soffritto and suddenly remembered the atmosphere of the many mornings before the various Luminare that I saw when I was a student. We would go to class or study until lunchtime and then we would all be on holiday. I used to live with 3 other students and our apartment, a large, old apartment near Pisa’s high street, was the gathering place for all our friends. We would have a dinner party before going out to the Lungarni and mix with the crowds before the fireworks.

The night itself was fun, but it is what Pisa becomes late at night that I will never forget. After the fireworks we would go from pub to pub; we would dance in the streets and squares where concerts had been organized (I saw one of my first Bandabardò concerts at La Sapienza, the faculty of Law, on June 16th 1995!); we would wait for the crowds to leave the city to have the Lungarni all to ourselves. The city is wonderful around 2am, when the breeze is cool, the streets are emptying out and the flames in the glass lumini are still quivering  before the candles go out. It is the memory of those first Luminare which makes the wait for any new one an exciting time.

This year, the rain threatened the “festa”, but after two dreadful days of bad weather, the sun is finally out and the people who light the candles have already been at work for a few hours. They place the “lumini” in the candle holders on the white frames on the facades of the building and called “biancheria“.  105,000 candles will be lit tonight and people will be invited to vote to choose the most beautiful building of the Lungarno. I think Palazzo Blu will win this year: they have stunning Egyptian-style decorations to celebrate the current exhibition on Rosellini’s expedition to Egypt.

Tonight the museums will be opened at night: guided tours will be given of Palazzo Reale. The fireworks will be launched from two spots tonight: from the Tower of the Cittadella as always, and from Le Piagge. Among the interesting events organized, I find the exhibition organized by the retirement home on the Lungarno and dedicated to Keith Haring very interesting. I saw the nurses prepare everything while walking back home: it’s great to think that the elderly people who live there have taken an interest in the event and have come up with such a lovely idea.

The boat with the pole that marks the finishing line of the Regatta of San Ranieri is already in place, ready for tomorrow.

I know that lovely Kathy McCabe Editor of the Dream of Italy Travel Newsletter will be in Pisa for the Luminara tonight: I hope she will enjoy her stay and that she will write a great report of her night out in the city when she gets back!