Tuscany

Tuscany conjures up an image of rolling hills, ancient mansions, old cities, old churches and vineyards.  It's everyone's favorite part of Italy.  Florence is the capital of Tuscany but to enjoy Tuscany you have to get away from Florence.  There are many beautiful and ancient towns to choose from:  Siena, Lucca, Pisa, Arezzo, San Gimignano, Livorno, etc.  There is not much public transportation options if you want to explore the region so the best way to do it is to rent a car.

Driving in Italy is very different from the US, or other parts of Europe for that matter.  Italians are much more aggressive drivers, especially in bigger cities.  You have to be able to drive a manual transmission, although automatic transmissions are available for a much higher cost.  Not only you have to be able to shift gears, you have to shift without thinking because your speed changes very quickly with the sudden traffic.  You also have to know how to drive through roundabouts, which are almost at every intersection.  At the same time you have to listen carefully to the GPS.

We rented a car from Sixt Car Rental.  We found the rental through a portal called Autoeurope.  After specifying your rental requirements, the website gives you choices from different car rental companies, like Hertz, Avis, etc.  Sixt does business mostly in Europe so it's not well known to Americans.  But I've read that it's a good company.  However, Autoeurope is a money-making company so even though the rate may be reasonable, Autoeurope add on their own charges.  Like many car rentals, it's "caveat emptor" or buyers beware.  Sixt has a booth inside the Florence train station.  It's a big building and it took me some time to find it.

Our plan is to spend 3 days and 3 nights in the Tuscany countryside.  We had a lot of recommendations on where to go.  I finally decided that we'll go to Assisi, Siena and Chianti.  Our first stop is Perugia, not far from Assisi.  Both are actually in Umbria province.  We arrived there in the early afternoon and checked into the Sangallo Palace Hotel.  It's a very nice 4-star hotel at a reasonable rate.  After checking in we headed for old-town Perugia through a series of escalators that took us up to the hilltop.  There were some old buildings and a cathedral (always in Italy) but not much else.  It was a disappointment.  We thought there will be more to see in Perugia.

Old Town Perugia

Restaurants lining old town

We parked our car in the garage a couple of blocks away.  In the morning when we drove to the hotel to pick up our luggage we found the road to the hotel blocked.  We didn't know why but we circled the area a couple of times through winding streets but the police would not let us through.  Eventually we called the hotel to bring our luggage to another street and picked it up from there.  Such is the frustration of driving in Italy.

Our next stop is Assisi, about 30km away.  Assisi is made famous by St. Francis, who left a privileged life to become a priest.  St. Francis started the Franciscan Order.  Much of the town is on a hilltop.  We found a parking lot where we could take the escalator and walked some stairs up to the town.  We could've driven up there but I didn't want the challenge of navigating through some narrow streets.  Many Italians told us that Assisi is their favorite town.  We can see why.  The town has a done a good job of preserving their buildings, especially the churches.  We headed for the Basilica of San Francisco d'Assisi.  Its a beautiful church at the edge of the hilltop.  The grounds were well-maintained and the church itself was also very clean and well-maintained.  Surprisingly, there was no admission charge, except to certain parts of the church.

Tasty looking canoglis

A Restaurant in Assisi

Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

One of the streets

Looking into the court-yard of the church

Another church closer to the main square

From Assisi we drove to Siena, about an hour away.  The Albergo Cannon d’Oro hotel is supposed to be right in the middle of old town.  That's why I picked it.  It's not a very nice hotel but it's close to where we were going.  However, finding the hotel is a big challenge.  The narrow streets of the old town just goes round and round.  Finding a place to park was a big challenge.  Eventually we found a parking spot we think it's close to the hotel.  We took our stuff and walked about 20 minutes and found Via dei Montanini, one of the main streets in old town.  We checked in and then took a walk through the busy street.  There were many shops, banks, restaurants, etc.  Some are upscale and some are just middle of the road.  We ended in the very big main square, the Piazza del Campo, where there was supposed to be a concert that night. We waited for a long time.  The concert started at about 10pm.  By then we were fairly tired and ready for bed.

Buildings around the main square

Fortress

Duomo or Cathedral, away from the main square

A panoramic view of the main square

In the evening we moved our rental car to a park where the parking is free.  This way we won't have to get up early and put money in the parking meter.  Our next destination is Chianti, the wine region, only about 60 minutes away.  We were going to take SR222 through beautiful vineyards grown on rolling hills.  Five minutes into the highway we were stopped at a roadblock.  We were told that there was a classic car race on highway, which means we'll have to take the country roads and join SR222 north of the section where the race is being held.  Well, that was a bigger challenge that we expected or bargained for.  However, it took us through some of the most beautiful Chianti countryside.

We stopped and posed next to several grapevines.  In September, this is harvest season and the grapes were all riped and bursting with juice.  We picked a few of them and tried them.  They are not sweet like table grapes.  We took a wrong turn onto one of the country roads and ran into 3 women trimming the grape vines.  They told us there were no through roads but they picked some grapes for us to try.  It was so generous of them.

After driving around for 3 hours, with the GPS keep wanting to take us back to SR222, we finally found the part of the highway that is north of where the race was being held.  It was then a short beautiful up and downhill drive to the Albergo Casa Al Sole, a small hotel on the main road.  There are several small towns along the highway and Greve is one of them.

Display of Chianti wines in a wine store

Grapes are ready for harvest

Olives are also common in this region

Beautiful rows of grape vines on rolling hills

Chianti wines are popular all over the world and have been around for a very long time.  I confess that I like Chianti wine but don't know much about it.  In a 2019 article in New York Times, Chianti Classico, Eric Asimov talked about the tastefulness of Chianti.  They are not the cheapest nor the most expensive.  You can get a decent bottle for between US$10 to $20.

In the morning we drove back to Florence, about 30 minutes away, according to the GPS.  As luck have it, we ran into a roadblock as we approach the city center.  It was Sunday and there was a march going on supporting Breast Cancer.  I tried other routes to no avail.  The GPS kept pointing us back to the city center.  Finally I stopped and asked one of the policewomen.  She pointed towards the hill and told me that I can bypass the marching route by going up that hill.  As I drove up the hill I recognized the spot where you can have a bird's eye view of Florence.  I was here on one of my trips with Trafalgar Tours many years ago.  With the maze of streets surrounding the Florence train station it was a miracle that I finally found the right entrance to the garage.  When I returned the car to the desk we only had 10 minutes left before I get charged another hour or even a day.  With 2 hours left before our train depart for Venice I walked quickly to the nearby Central Market and bought some lunch for us.  What a hectic time in Tuscany!

Florence

We took the local train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia.  Not surprisingly, the train station and the train was very crowded.  Obviously, Cinque Terre is overrun by tourists.  Just like Florence and Venice.  Unfortunately, that's where we are heading next.

It was a 2-hour train ride from La Spezia to Florence.  We arrived at the sprawling Santa Maria Novella train station in the early afternoon.  I've booked a room with Florence Style Residence through Booking.com.  I called the rental agent and she told me that it was only a 5-minute walk from the train station.  But Google Maps showed me a different direction and it took us about 20 minutes to find the apartment.  What is confusing is that there are 2 numbers for each building:  the address and a commercial property number.  We were told to ring the door bell and the agent's husband would open the door for us.  The apartment is on the third floor through a narrow and steep staircase.  The agent's husband did not offer any help to us to carry our luggage up, especially Doris'.  All he said was that we brought too much stuff with us.  Well....we were trying in Europe for 5weeks!

The room was small, with the window facing the street.  The bathroom was just outside the room.  You can barely squeeze through the shower door.  You get what you paid for - we paid only about 70€ per night.  In busy Florence, that's a bargain.  The good news is the apartment is within walking distance from most of the tourist sites.  After setting down our stuff, we took a walk along the Arno River towards Ponte Vecchio, the famous ancient bridge.  Many tourists stroll on both sides of the bridge, passing expensive shops.  This is what Florence is about - expensive shops along ancient streets and piazza, museums, cathedrals, statues and monuments, and gelato shops.  This is my 3rd trip to Florence and it gets more and more crowded with tourists.

Commentary on the Ponte (Bridge) Vecchio

Shops and tourists on either side of Ponte Vecchio

Sunset over the Arno River

View of Ponte Vecchio from Ponte Santa Trinita

The most famous sight in Florence is The Duomo, also known as Santa Maria del Fiore.  It is located in the historic center, which is now considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The city goes back to its glory days in the 14th to 16th century.  You can see many of the buildings that were built then and since then.

Night scene of The Duomo

The Duomo, with its famous dome the background

There are many other interesting churches, monuments, buildings as you walked around the city center.  Here are some of them:

Medici Chapel?

One of the busy streets

Basilica of Santa Maria Novella, near the train station

Palazzo Pitti

Inside one of the churches

Statue and fountain in Piazza Della Signoria

Besides the churches and other older buildings, the stores are also interesting to see.  Here are some of them:

A small pizzeria that also sells gelato

Gelato shops are everywhere

Some color candies

We heard about the Central Market and decided to give it a shot.  It's not far from the train station.  As you approach the market there are many stands selling leather goods.  Most of them are run by Indians.  Why, How?  I don't know.  But the Central Market has the downstairs selling raw stuff and upstairs is a big food court.  We ate there twice, once for lunch and another time for dinner.  The food is good and affordable, unlike some of the restaurants in the city.

Inside the Central Market Food Court

A couple of wood-fired gigantic ovens at a pizzeria

Another view of the food court

Selling Chinese soup dumplings

A delicious and affordable dinner

Cinque Terre

In 2011 while on a 2-month backpacking trip in Europe I read about this place called Cinque Terre (CT), meaning "Five Lands", in Italy.  I was planning to go to the Amalfi coast in southern Italy but I saw pictures of CT which was just as beautiful.  It fitted into our route as we travelled along the northern Mediterranean coast towards Nice and Barcelona.

However, my travel partner, who has lived in Europe for over 30 years, had never heard of CT and was not too enthused about stopping there.  "We only need a few hours there" he said.  When I saw what the place looked like I said, no way, would I stop there for only a few hours.  I wanted to spend at least a night there.  We did, but on a very hectic schedule.  I told myself I will be back someday.

On this trip I had scheduled 3 nights in CT, picking to stay in Riomaggiore because it is the most accessible and closest to Rome and Florence, where we'll be coming from and going to, respectively.  There is a non-stop train ride to La Spezia from Rome that takes about 4 hours.  The fare is very inexpensive, about 20€ each.  From La Spezia there is a regional train that runs through all five CT towns:  Riomaggiore, Maranola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterroso al Mare, and ends in Levanto.  You can buy one or multi-day passes that give you unlimited train rides between the town and also access to the hiking trails.  The trains were very crowded when we were there in late September.  Imagine what it's like in the summer months.  In 2011 it was crowded but not crazily crowded like today.

We rented a 2-bedroom apartment right above the city center of Riomaggiore from a company called RioRooms through Booking.com.  We met Cecelia our property manager on the street in front of the cafe where we were supposed to meet her.  She took us up some steep and narrow stairs and then a long and narrow "street" before coming to our apartment.  It was spacious and has a kitchen.  We were so close to the water that we could hear the waves.  Right below us are fishing boats that are parking on the street and under the deck of a restaurant.

Narrow "street" between buildings

Below our window:  boats on the street and under the restaurant

Street in Manarola

The afternoon we arrived in Riomaggiore we walked the main street of the town.  It was busy with tourists and most of the restaurants were packed.  There are restaurants that offer high-end dining and restaurants that sell simple take-out food.  The simple ones sell pizza slices, sandwiches, and snacks.   Since we did not have lunch we bought some fried snacks from a restaurant called Tutti Fritti:  fried calamari, fish, etc.  It was something that satisfied until we have dinner later.

Mixed fried seafood

We were warned by Cecelia after we checked that there was going to be a heavy thunderstorm the next day.  Most of the shops and restaurants were going to be closed.  She advised us to buy our groceries that night.  Buying groceries and cooking our own meals not only saved us time but money.  As expected, the restaurants are quite pricey one the food no better than any other Italian restaurants. The groceries are not cheap and there are not a lot of food to choose from.

Entrance to the hiking trail closed because of heavy rainfall

Paths along the coast offer beautiful views

Colorful buildings in town

More colorful buildings

On the first day we took the train to the furthest town, Monterroso, then Vernazza.  The towns are mainly one-street towns.  There are small streets that lead to residential areas up on the slope of the mountains.  In some places you can walk up the slopes where some local residents live.  Most of them have some gardens that grow grapes, citrus, vegetables and olive trees.  Since it's raining all the hiking trails were closed.  Along the main street are shops and restaurants catering to tourists.  In spite of the weather there were a lot of tourists.

On the second day we tried to go hiking but the authorities told us that the trails are still closed.  The rain did stop but I suppose the hiking trails are still wet and muddy.  We took the train to Manarola and walked up the side of the hill.  During my last visit I took a memorable photo of the houses across the water.  The pastel color houses is what makes this area unique.  The picture below entitled Vernazza is the one I shot this time.  The trails offer beautiful views of the town and the coastline.

Vernazza

Manarola

Having ran out of things to do we took the train to La Spezia, which is the starting point to CT.  Most tourists take the train here to change to the local train.  La Spezia is a much bigger town.  If I have to do it over again I might stay here and stay the train to the CT towns.  It will be cheaper and less crowded.

Main Street in La Spezia

It was nice coming back to CT.  However, the rain spoiled our plans.  Nevertheless we had a great time enjoying the 5 towns and the scenery.  Unfortunately, the area is overrun with tourists.  It is getting too popular.  I doubt I will come back here again.

Rome

I thought about how to make use of the two weeks we have between hiking the TMB and Oktoberfest in Munich.  It makes sense to travel in Italy because Doris has never been there and there are some places I'd like to visit again, like Cinque Terre and Tuscany.  There are a few ways to go from Geneva to Italy:  by train to Milan, and then to other parts of Italy, or fly to somewhere in Italy and start our trip from there.  Eventually I decided to fly from Geneva to Rome and work our way up north to Cinque Terre, Tuscany and Umbria, and eventually to Venice.

I found a B&B through Booking.com that is about 2 blocks from the Vatican.  Vatican Charme is a 4-room B&B in a big apartment building.  It has a another unit downstairs.  Antonella Monti who owns the place runs the place very well.  The inside of the B&B is modern, spacious and clean.  We stayed there for four nights for about US$500.

I've been to Rome a couple of times and the place that sticks to my mind is the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel.  Sure, the Pantheon and Colosseum are nice but it doesn't beat the paintings by the old masters in the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.  Staring at the ceiling at Michelangelo's painting in the Sistine Chapel is an experience you will never forget.  You think you are in a museum or art gallery but you are actually inside a chapel.  It took him four years to complete it.  Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the chapel but you can read about it here.

It takes more than 2 to 3 days to see all the interesting sites in Rome.  It has a very long history.  We just went to some of the major ones.  Here are some of them:

Piazza Navona

Piazza Venezia

Trevi Fountain

Inside of the Colosseum

The Forum

A Panoramic View of the inside of the Pantheon

One of the things I did not do was buy advance tickets to the Vatican Museum online.  For some reason I forgot.  It turned out to be a blessing.  If you did not buy tickets online in advance you probably have to wait in a very long line for perhaps 2 hours to get into the museum.  If you buy it online, you probably won't have to wait long to get in.  However, the B&B where we stayed is near the Vatican and there are several agencies bundling selling tickets down the street.  These companies buy blocks of tickets in advance and add a few euros to the ticket price and bundle it with a tour guide.  You don't have to wait in line to get in.  It is usually a big group.  Ours has 24.  They provide a remote headset system which you can hear the tour guide very well.  When I came on a tour about 10 years ago you can hear a lot of static in the headsets.

The Vatican Museum probably holds one of the most priceless collection of museum quality art in the world.  In the old days the church hold so much power that all kings, queens, rich people of Christian countries give their most precious art to the Church or Pope.  Many of these art pieces are never shown to the public.  Even the ones that are shown are masterpieces worth a lot of money.  Walking through the museum is like a walk through art history.  Without a tour guide it is very difficult to understand what you are seeing.  Our guide is an Englishman and he explained the art pieces and the history very well.  Before we enter the museum he explained some of the art in the Sistine Chapel.  He is not allowed to talk in the Chapel.

Ceiling of Vatican Museum hallway

St. Peter's Square

St. Peter's Basilica

Sculpture in the Vatican Museum

Toe sculture 

Rome is a busy place, especially in the summer.  The tourist attractions are widely spread out.  Even though you can walk from one to another, it is quite a walk.  The city has quite a good bus and subway system.  You can buy a bus ticket for 1.5€ from a machine at a bus stop or a convenience market or stand.  The ticket can be used unlimited ride on buses for 100 minutes.  On subways you can only use it once.  If you can figure our the bus routes it may be the most efficient way to cover the city.  Otherwise, just follow the crowd to where they are going.