We drove slowly down the mountain from Campiglia on the Sunday morning, passing by Pisa and Livorno and turning right into Tuscany via Volterra and Siena.
The high points were the beautiful Tuscany scenery, very green at this time of year with the vines looking very full and red/orange poppies in fields everywhere. We wantred to walk around Volterra, but there was a medieval jousting festival on that Sunday (pubic holiday weekend in June). We were told later that it was very good, but we decided to head out to avoid the tourists and the traffic (very narrow winding roads round these towns, as most of you would know). We had a little picnic lunch overlooking the surrounding fields down the hill from Volterra, then moved on to Siena. Another highlight on route was a beautiful medieval castle (not large) which is now a hotel. The area surrounding this castle was amongst the prettiest we have seen, and we have the details if you are interested.
We reached Siena (home of the annual horse race)by late afternoon and did the usual walks to the Piazza del Campo and the Duomo - quite wonderful. We then journeyed on after unseemly delay!! wearily to our farm-stay 15 minutes south from Siena (San Gorgio farmhouse B & B) which became one of our favourites. Breakfast was quite memorable in their pretty dining room, and the hostess (Francesca) did some serious cooking of jams and other local farmbased produce in her very modern and large kitchen. We took some short walks around the area, and recommend this area if you are into the farm scene, Cheryl would love to come back with the family, but only if she wins the lottery!!
We then moved on the next day - parting company with Nola who was heading off on adventures in Germany and Denmark, before leaving for Greece and then onto the unknown! The remaining 3ofus headed off for our 2 night stay in the Umbrian town of Orvieto. This was extremely pretty countryside (travelling along The Cassia Road, Val D'Orca - southern Tuscana- region) which was the route of the medieval religious pilgrimage from Siena to Rome.
Orvieto was astonishing - and we held onto our hats as we were led by Valeria up the most winding narrow streets, finally inside a "door" to her family's 500 year old palace which her family had owned for 300 years (previously onwed by a bishop from Rome). We had the "Panorama apartment", which while it was a little old (of course!) and the beds a little lumpy (of course) we had a very lovely view over the Umbrian counrtyside. We were also referred to some restaurants offering some of the best cuisine we had eaten in Italy.
The next day we had time out(necessary once in a while and explored the amazing underground Etruscan caves-including olive pressing site and the "pigeon holes". We come upon another surprise event this time a vintage motor cycle race around the tortuous lanes of Orvieto
We left Umbria for Rome on the 3rd June, held up by a train strike for 2.5 hours.the usual Italy stuff!
A little more on Rome, then home on Friday
4ofus
