October 11-19
When we last left our heroine, she was tied to the railroad tracks with a hand to her forehead crying, "Who will SAVE me!!"
Just kidding. But I was in need of saving of sorts. I needed to get away from all the big city noise and crowds and lights. I needed someplace quiet for a few days that didn't involve subways or train stations or hotel rooms (next to train stations). So we scrapped a few plans to stay in big touristy cities in Italy in favor of a place that neither of us had ever heard of, a small Tuscan village called Buonconvento. We were heading to this small town because it housed an Agriturismo called Podere Cunina that looked like it would be the perfect place to relax for a few days. But first we had to get there!
In order to get from Avignon to Buonconvento we would have to take the train across Southern France to the Italian border (using our Eurail pass) then take an Italian train to Genoa where we would go to the airport to pick up a rental car. Then we needed to drive down the middle of Italy about 4-5 hours to Buonconvento. Sounds like a day trip right? Nope. Not possible. We needed to split the trip up and I had the perfect solution- Nice, France!
I first went to Nice in 2004 on my sabbatical and I still vividly remember how shocked I was to find these gorgeous Caribbean Blue waters in the South of France. I wanted Shaun to get a taste of it as well and since Nice is pretty much the last stop before Italy, it would be perfect for us. We booked one last train station hotel, the Ibis in Nice and then boarded a train from Avignon to Nice early Tuesday morning. We arrived in Nice around 1:30, checked into the hotel, threw some bathing suits on under our clothes and headed toward the water. First we needed to eat something though, so we stopped for a pizza and a salad at a cafe. Finally at around 2:30 we stepped onto the beach and laid out our towels on the rocks.
Shaun in the beautiful Place Massena in Nice, France
Yes, rocks. I should mention that most of the beaches in Nice are covered in rocks not sand, but it isn't as bad as it sounds. The rocks are fairly small and smooth from the water so once you settle in you can get pretty comfy. The weather that day was gorgeous, hot and sunny, so after a little while Shaun went in for a swim while I watched the bags. He said the water was a little chilly, but clean and beautiful. The rocks were a bit difficult to walk on though. So now it was my turn. The water looked so inviting but walking on the rocks looked like not so much fun. There was only one solution- I wore my sneakers in to the water. It may not have been fashionable, but it sure was fun! And really, who will ever know I did that? (Oh, except you. Right.)
Shaun swimming in the waters off Nice
See, you can't tell that I have sneakers on!
We stayed on the beach until around 5:30 and then headed back to shower up. We walked into the Old Town for a quick dinner and then headed back to the hotel early. We had to catch an early train the next morning if we wanted to get to Buonconvento by dinnertime. Between the ocean swimming and laying in the sun, it was a fabulous day in Nice.
On Wednesday morning we were on the train by 7:30AM headed to Ventimiglia, Italy. We were using the last day of our Eurail pass to get out of France so when we got off the train in Ventimiglia we bought two tickets to Genoa and boarded the train for the next leg of the journey. Both of those train ride were beautiful. These trains run along the coast of France and Italy and for much of the ride you have beautiful views of the water. When we didn't have water views we were both reading so the time flew by. Next thing we knew we had arrived in Genoa. That's where things got interesting!
The train ride to Genoa. We had no idea what awaited us.
We got off the train and immediately left the station looking for the bus stop. We had researched the buses and knew there was a cheap one that would take us to the airport. I was looking at the schedule when Shaun called my name. I told him I was just trying to figure out the schedule and I would only be another minute. He said "Eileen, you better take a look at this". I looked over and saw two paddy wagons and at least twenty policemen, all in black in full on riot gear. Behind them we could hear quite a bit of noise but we had no idea what it was. I motioned to Shaun that we had better get on to the median where the bus was. As we walked over, we heard an Australian gentlemen rather urgently telling two other women that no buses were coming and asking if they wanted to share a cab. I stepped up and told him that we would definitely share a cab. He told all of us to follow him and we walked up the street just as a huge protest turned the corner into the train station. It was loud and angry and scary and I was very glad to be walking away.
We walked around the corner and the Australian told us to wait there. He said he would take the elevator up to his hotel and see if he could get us two cabs. In the meantime, one of the women who was actually from Genoa, told us that they had closed down a factory and these were the factory workers protesting the closure. She talked about how hard things were in Italy right now and how some people were very angry with the government. Finally, our friend the Australian came down and told us he had gotten one big cab. We needed to take the elevator up though. He had arranged for them to let us all on this strange elevator. As we got in, he explained that this was the only elevator in the world that goes both vertically and horizontally. I felt like we were in some sort of Batman scene as the elevator went horizontally for about 100 feet and then stopped and went vertically for another 100 feet, dropping us off at the top of Genoa. On the way up, we learned that we were made up of one Australian, two Americans, a woman from Greece and one from Genoa. The five us us squeezed into the cab and headed to the airport the long way, avoiding the protest area.
The cab ride was insane. Shaun and I were in front and we could barely speak because we were fearing for our lives. This guy made NYC cab divers look like newbies. By the time we got to the Genoa airport I was ready to kiss the ground. In all the craziness, our only regret is that we didn't get the Australian guy's name. We would have liked to repay him for his kindness when we went to Australia this winter. Looks like we will need to pay it forward instead.
I was fairly nervous about having a rental car in Italy. The Italians are known as much for their crazy driving as for anything else. There's a reason for that. They are insane. Soccer may be the national pastime, but tailgating has to be a close second. And if you are on a hairpin turn on the edge of a cliff but you are deemed to be going too slow, they will pass you even if there is a semi coming in the opposite direction. Thank God Shaun was driving, not me. My job was "Map and Sign Girl". I would try to spot the turns ahead of time so that we didn't need to slow down at all, lest we be killed. After a little while we were both pretty comfortable in our roles with just the occasional "Holy Crap!!" or "Save me Oprah!!" escaping us when someone decided to pass three cars at once on a blind curve or something like that.
So on we drove down through Italy. Silvanna, the woman at the Agriturismo had told me we should stop in Pisa along the way to see the tower. Vanda had told us that the tower was cool but the rest of the town was a Sh**hole, so we decided we could make that a quick stop! We did and we're both glad we stopped. It's true that Pisa doesn't have much to offer, but the tower is kind of unbelievable to see in person. It truly looks like it will topple over any minute! But more surprising to me was how beautiful the actual square and the tower are. I'd always pictured it like it was all decaying and dirty, but it is actually quite pretty. We were both glad we went and happy to head back on the road knowing we weren't missing anything else by skipping the rest of Pisa.
The famous leaning tower.
The rest of the drive to Buonconvento was beautiful. It was the end of the day and we were driving through these Tuscan hills just following the signs. Silvanna had told us to follow the signs to Florence, then to Siena, then towards Rome for about 30 minutes and we would eventually see signs for Buonconvento. It was just as she said. At around 6:15pm we reached the sign that pointed toward Resta and took a left hand turn onto the dirt road. We drove up and up into the hills on a winding dirt road following the little hand-made signs that said "Podere Cunina". Finally after about 10 minutes of slow driving we arrived at the farm. We were both awestruck by the views from the place- gorgeous pink skies over miles and miles of hills and farms for as far as the eye could see. Podered Cunina lies in the middle of the Sienese Clay Hills in Tuscany and is a farmhouse that had been turned into an Agriturismo with 6 apartments. Every apartment is named for a type of tree and ours was named for the Pine tree. It was called Pinus. Yep, Pinus. We've had lots of fun with that.
The road that led to the Farmhouse was long and winding
The stairs lead up to our apartment. In the foreground you cann see the herbs that grew everywhere on the property. Huge rosemary, sage and mint plants everywhere as well as lavender and even cactus.
At that point we finally met Silvanna, who I had been exchanging emails with for the last few days. She was just as sweet and helpful as all the reviews had said. She gave us a local map and showed us all the best towns to visit and how to get there. She gave us a list of restaurants in all the nearby towns that they recommend. Then she showed us the apartment. Shaun said it best. Sometimes you rent an apartment online and they make it look so big and beautiful and then you arrive and realize it must have been the way they photographed it. This was just the opposite; the photos online did not do it justice. We had a big dining area with an invection stove and oven and a washing machine in the corner. Off to the side of the dining room was our bedroom with a queen sized bed and a twin on the side. There was a big downstairs bathroom with a shower and another half bath as well as a sitting area and couch upstairs. Outside, each apartment had their own little patio with a table and chairs. Ours just happened to be closest to the outdoor brick oven that anyone in the apartments could use. And did I mention that she had cut us a deal because they were going into Low Season? We had rented the apartment for 5 nights but I think we both knew at that moment we wanted to stay longer.
Our bedroom with the view of the Tuscan hills that we looked out on every night and morning.
That first evening was hilarious and wonderful. We had brought a few things from France, salt, pepper, chocolates and some jam, definitely not enough to make a dinner! So we headed to the grocery store, but it was closed. Actually, the hours were pretty funny. It was the Coop (which you may remember from our stay in Switzerland) which is a full-on Supermarket, but the hours were very Italian. They were open from 8:30AM to 1:30PM and then again from 4:30PM to 7:30PM. It was the same everywhere in Tuscany, all the shops and restaurants closed for a few hours in the afternoon. For Shaun and I, it would end up shaping our days. But first, we needed something to eat, so it was off to downtown Buonconvento for dinner at Ristorante di Mario.
This was one of the restaurants that was recommended by Silvanna and there were lots of people eating in the dining room downstairs and on the terrace. When we told them we didn't have a reservation she pointed upstairs, where there was another dining room. What we didn't know then was that the guy who ran that dining room was insane.
Everything started off fine, if a little fast. He very quickly asked us if we wanted Vino (yes) Rossa or Bianco (Rossa) and then Aqua (yes) gazzetto (yes). Then he walked away and came back with a pitcher of Sparkling water and an unlabeled bottle of Red Wine. he put both on the table and walked away. Similar to some parts of France, they would just charge you for how much wine you drank.
Things got really interesting when it came time to order. He just started in speaking VERY fast italian. I caught a few words like Tagliattelle, Ravioli and Spaghetti so we knew it was the pasta course. I didn't know how to ask him to repeat it so I made a sort of hand gesture and he just said it all again, only louder. Still staring at him blankly, he gave me his little notebook. I think his other career was a Doctor because there was no deciphering the notebook. So Shaun just said Tagiatelle and I said Ravioli. That started him in on what appeared to be sauce options- he loudly recited 8 or 9 types of sauces. Once again I tried to ask a question and he just rifled them off again, louder. At this point, the girls sitting near us were laughing quietly and Shaun and I were very close to bursting out in hysterical laughter as well. We both ordered the Ragu because we knew it was a meat sauce and prayed for this to end. But no, it was time for the main course. Same deal. He bolted through the options in manic Italian. Shaun ordered vitello and I ordered bistecca because they were literally the only things we could understand. He went to put in our order and then came back and said something else, "Contorno". I had no idea what that meant but thought it was probably about dessert and would lead to another showdown, so I just said No Grazie. (We later realized he was asking what we wanted for side dishes).
Once the food came, we were both relieved. The pasta portions were very small and along with the main course, it was a perfect sized meal. Some vegetables on the side might have been nice, but it probably would have broken us to order them. The best was watching everyone else that came in go through the same experience! Even the Italians seemed thrown off by his crazy speed reading of the choices. Each new group had their own experience and then got to chuckle at the next group. We finished up our dinner, paid the very reasonable tab and headed back to the Farmhouse. We settled into our comfy bed, amazed at how dark and quiet it was in this little corner of Italy. We slept better here in Tuscany than anywhere else we had been so far.
The days we spent in Tuscany were so relaxing. We were in a great spot in the middle of wine country. We were about 90 minutes from Florence and just over an hour from San Gimignano and Chianti. Montalcino was 20 minutes away and Siena was 30 minutes. We had a car so we were on nobody's timetable but our own. We wanted to eat dinner at home most days and lunch if possible, so most days we made breakfast at home, read a bit, did some laundry and headed into town to get something from the butcher for dinner. Shaun would usually go running in the hills sometime in the morning as well. I was content to relax here as these were some serious hills!
An evening drink under the gazebo by the pool
The sunsets were just gorgeous. We always tried to get back in time for Sunset
In the afternoons we would go exploring. Silvanna had warned us that the tour buses were still coming and that most of the towns could get pretty crowded and unmanageable when the buses were in town, so as long as we waited until around 4 go arrive in a town, we would have it mainly to ourselves. San Gimignano was a favorite of ours. Like most of these towns, it was built way up on a hill and still had the ancient city walls. It was gorgeous and quaint and full of little shops and restaurants. We walked around the city for a few hours and then found the museum of wine where we did a little wine tasting. As we walked back through the city, we passed a butcher shop and decided to stop in. One look was all we needed before deciding we would make a Steak Florentine for dinner.
Steak Florentine is basically a T-Bone or Porterhouse steak from the Maremma cows that is cut in a really thick portion for two and grilled over an open fire. We had already tried the brick oven and thought this would be a perfect food experiment. We drove back to Podere Cunina all excited about our giant piece of meat. Back at home, Shaun got to work on the fire while I prepped the steak. Silvanna had herbs growing all over the farm and she said I could help myself, so I picked some rosemary, chopped it up and seasoned the steak with just Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil and fresh Rosemary. While Shaun grilled the Steak, I prepped some side dishes. (Silvannas husband, Pier Giorgio actually came out to see what Shaun was cooking because he said it smelled so good!) In about half an hour we sat down to perfectly grilled Steak Florentine, sautéed mushroms, chickpeas with a garlicky broth and steamed zucchini. We had a bottle of local wine, a Brunello di Montelcino that we had purchased the day before after a lovely wine tasting at the Altesino vineyard. It was a meal we will remember for the rest of our lives. Shaun says he has never had a better steak. I agree, and something about having made it ourselves in this amazing spot made it even more special.
The incredible Steak Florentine. Best. Steak. Evah.
I think that was also the night we decided to stay longer in Tuscany. We had rented to apartment for 5 days but we didn't want to leave that soon. There was plenty to see and do in the surrounding towns, an we also wanted to spend a few days doing nothing. We spoke to Silvanna who was happy to extend us for two more days as she was going into her slow season. We were thrilled to have a full week in this amazing place.
We really had a nice mix of up and down time during the week. We spent one morning and afternoon in Florence, which gave us plenty of time to see the city and to go to Accademia to see David. If you haven't heard of Michelangelo's David, it is widely considered the most important sculpture in the world. It is a truly incredible sight. The statue, which depicts David (from the story of David and Goliath) standing at rest with his sling over his shoulder and the rock in his hand. It was created between 1501-1504 from a single block of marble (!) when Michelangelo was only 29. It is 17 feet high and the detail is incredible. You can see every vein in his hand and every muscle in his leg. Shaun and I were both taking pictures from all sides when a museum guard came up and told us photography is not allowed. Well, I guess ignorance really is bliss because I'm so happy we got some photos of this masterpiece!
David. If you are ever in Florence it is something you must see for yourself.
I don't love Florence, and I think Shaun felt the same. Even its most famous bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, seems a bit cheesy and touristy to me. It is just wall to wall gold jewelers and wall to wall people. The downtown streets of Florence always seem crowded and somewhat dirty. The Duomo is beautiful and David is incredible, but in my opinion the best view of Florence is from up on the Piazza Michelangelo, high above the city. We started and ended our day trip to Florence from there. This was my second visit and I'm not sure I will be back.
The view from Piazza Michelangelo
The smaller towns were what I really loved. Montalcino, Montepulchiano, Castellina in Chianti, San Gimignano and even little Buonconvento. I loved their little town squares and the ancient walls. I loved the old ladies chatting in the streets, the old men on their bikes and how everyone seemed to stroll in the afternoons. I loved the butcher shops where we found a way to communicate by pointing to something and saying "Per Due" (for two). I loved the small vineyard we went to in Chianti where we drove up and were greeted by a man who clearly worked the land. He immediately told us he spoke only Italian and then he and Shaun proceeded to "talk" to each other, both in their own language but somehow understanding each other and what the other person was trying to say.
More than anything though, I loved Podere Cunina. Practically every night we pulled out the cameras and we took shot after shot, but there was just no way to capture the beauty of the area on film. It was mid-October so all the fields had been turned over but somehow the miles of overturned dirt just added to the charm of the area. The newly overturned soil must have been full of worms and other treats because we saw pheasants and rabbits and even deer grazing along the hills. There were olive trees all along the hillside by the house and little patches of forested areas dotted the hills in the distance. The Tuscan sun was so warm that even though it was only in the 60's, you could sit by the pool in shorts and a T-shirt.
The beautiful pool. It was too cold to swim, but not to sit in the Sun and enjoy the view
Shaun with Silvanna and Pier Giorgio, our wonderful hosts at Podere Cunina
After a week of living this charmed life, it was time to go. We exchanged hugs and kisses with Silvanna and Pier Georgio, who had been such gracious hosts. We promised to come back someday and to tell everyone about their beautiful home in the Tuscan hills. And we got into our little car and took our final drive down the long dirt hill that would lead us away from Podere Cunina, away from Buonconvento and Tuscany. We were headed to Rome, back to big city life for a few days. After our stay in Tuscany, we were well rested and ready for all the city had to offer.
Farewell Podere Cunina with your beautiful Sunsets.
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