Tuscany Trip – September 23, October 7, 1998
by Claire Lindberg, Ashland, OR
Several people have asked for recommendations and information on our experiences vacationing with Untourist in Tuscany.
This was our second trip to Tuscany; the first trip was with Cross-Culture Tours. Cross-Culture does an excellent job but we realized we just aren’t tour people. Idyll sounded like an excellent alternative to us – and so it proved to be.
Here are my remarks divided in categories that have been mentioned by others mostly in the order that were of the most concern to me before we went.
Driving
Italians drive fast – certainly far faster than I was willing to drive. I adopted the following defensive driving strategies. – First, I drove at a speed with which I was comfortable. Ironically, that usually turned out to be the posted speed limit, which was universally ignored by the Italians. Second, whenever a car came up behind me, close enough that it was obvious the driver wanted to pass, as soon as we hit a straight stretch of road with no oncoming cars, I’d pull as far right as I could and slow down. Third, I signaled that I was pulling left whenever I had to pass a cyclist or a pedestrian. Fourth, I drove with my lights on during the day to help oncoming cars (who might be pulling into my lane) see me. Fifth, I referred to my rearview and sideview mirrors even more frequently than I might in the States.Signage in Italy is not as good as that on French country roads. It is easy to make a wrong turn. A good map and a designated navigator are highly desirable. We found the Touring Club Italiano Toscana 1:200,000 which we picked up in a shop in Montalcino to be a great help.
You’ve probably read about the heavy rains in Tuscany. I wouldn’t venture any dirt roads unless I was absolutely sure what I was going to find. Washouts could be a real hazard.
On the positive side, paved secondary roads in Tuscany are very well-maintained. I never saw an accident in 14 days of driving. Most drivers of slow-moving vehicles (farm equipment, large trucks on hills, etc.) were very helpful in letting one know when it was safe to pass. I found the 4-lane AutoStrada and the SuperStrada easier driving than the 2-lane country roads. While cars in the passing lane would go very fast, in the right lane, most cars were doing the same 100 kph (about 60 mph) as I was.
Public Transportation
We did the trip to Florence from Buonconvento twice by train. A two-hour trip one-way, on time, comfortable and smoke free. Scheduling was a bit of a problem. The last train from Florence to Buonconvento leaves at 5:10 pm. That means one doesn’t have the opportunity to stay in the city for dinner or a cultural performance.We found the scheduling on busses and trains in general something of a disappointment. Trips were so infrequent that one was left with very little flexibility in making plans for a day trip. Except for the trips to Florence, we drove everywhere else we wanted to go. The other thing one has to watch out for is that particularly in small towns, the train station can really be several kilometers distant from the town itself.
Language
We took 24 hours (8 weeks, 3 hours a week) of Italian lessons before we went. In some ways, it was either far too little or almost too much. I found that when I tried to use verb tenses or complex sentences, my tongue snarled into a knot I couldn’t untie and I was reduced to pantomime and grunts. I found simple constructions with a few all-purpose verbs plus infinitive to be the most useful. Examples: PossoWe also brought along an Italian phrase book which helped in a few situations – don’t know how I would have managed asking for garbage bags otherwise. Of particular use was a small menu translator which easily fit in my pocket. It covered just about everything we couldn’t figure out with the exception of a few Tuscan dialect words.
The phrase that was the most useful, particularly on the telephone was “Non parlo l’italiano molto bene. Posso parlare in inglese?” “I don’t speak Italian very well. Can I speak English?” My Italian teacher recommended it and I liked it because it didn’t immediately shift the burden to the other person by asking them to speak in English.
Accommodations
Excellent. We stayed in Le Chiuse apartment V, “La Capella.” We had a large bedroom, a large sleeping loft and a very large main room which combined kitchen, dining area and living space. The rooms were attractively furnished. The bath was better equipped than I had been led to expect. We had no need to mop up the floors after showering as described in the Idyll guide. Closet and storage space were more than adequate. The kitchen was modern with a 4-burner gas stove, an electric oven and broiler and the standard small-size European under-the-counter refrigerator. The kitchen was better stocked than I’ve seen in any rental unit with plenty of china and glassware and really good cooking utensils. We were glad to have the fireplace on some of the cooler, rainy nights. The heating system was modern, easy to use and very comfortable.The dirt road into Le Chiuse is narrow and got narrower after the shoulders started to fall away in the rains. It was difficult for two cars to pass; however, there’s very little traffic and the few encounters we had, we managed to squeeze by without ending up in a ditch.
Local Food Shopping
This wasn’t just easy; it was pure pleasure. The Coops in both Montalcino and Buonconvento are small but modern supermarkets. The quality of food in all the local shops was superb. We pretty much followed Idyll’s advice on which shops to frequent. When we ventured into other shops, however, we still found high quality. The local shopkeepers were friendly and very helpful.The produce from the greengrocer in Buonconvento was as good as or better than I can find in the most expensive gourmet shops in Manhattan. Memory of the tomatoes, the salad greens and the porcini still make my mouth water. The local olive oil and the honey are worthy of their reputation. I got our cheeses from the deli counter in the Coops and they were all good, some excellent.
Tuscan bread is something you either like or you don’t. We like it. We found both the unsalted version from the bakery and the salted version available at the Coop delicious. We also liked the “pane de sante,” a slightly sweet multigrain bread, sometimes with nuts, sometimes with fruit, sometimes with both. We liked all versions. It made an excellent breakfast bread and a nice tea time snack. In this case, the quality of the pane de sante from the bakery was far ahead of the one from the Coop.
The one thing to be aware of is the hours that the Coop markets observe - a very long afternoon break from 1:30 to 4:30 in Buonconvento and to 5 pm in Montalcino. They’re open in the evening to 7:30 and 8 pm, respectively.
Walking Trails
We did a lot less of this than planned largely because of poor weather. The book Walking and Eating in Tuscany and Umbria has many good walks in the area. In fact their recommended trail to Montalcino from Buonconvento goes right by Le Chiuse. One caveat – the marked trails have changed in some places since the book was published. A good trail map is an important adjunct to the book. The map is also necessary because some of the trails are washed out and you’ll have to find alternate routes.For anyone staying at Le Chiuse, a really pleasant short hike with great views is to follow the dirt roads from Le Chiuse to Montalcino and then on the descent take the marked trail (the one to the left when the road forks) back to the foot of the Le Chiuse road. It should take about an hour and a half or so.
Recommended Sites and Restaurants
I’m a little hesitant to offer suggestions because people’s experiences in these areas depend so much on individual interests and tastes.Idyll and several other guide books recommend a trip to the Sant’Antimo abbey. The one point not necessarily emphasized is that one of the glories of the place is its acoustics. Do go when there is a service in Gregorian chant. The acoustics make four male voices sound like a heavenly choir.
We found the Orto Botanico in Siena a haven of peace and quiet, a wonderful place to refresh oneself after dodging one too many taxi, listening to the whine of one too many Vespa, and having one’s way blocked by one too many large tour group. The garden is associated with the university and obviously not a pleasure garden but one intended for research and instruction. It’s about nine very steeply terraced acres; open to the public and free. There are easy to walk paths and convenient benches. The specimens are very well marked and many are beautiful. Potted datura were in bloom when we were there. We stayed about an hour and were the only people in the place. The views of the city wall and the countryside beyond are wonderful and look as if they haven’t changed since the sixteenth century.
The small museum in Montalcino is easy to miss. If you’re at all interested in the Sienese school, don’t. The collection is small but first rate. The museum site has been remodeled very recently and is beautifully done.
We found Idyll’s restaurant recommendations very good with the exception of La Casalinga in Florence. It was patronized by locals and cheap, but the food was not that good. The problem was lack of attention to the quality of ingredients. The tomatoes, for example, were worthy of the worst one can find in American supermarkets, hard, tasteless and mealy.
Our best dining experience was in San Gimignano at the restaurant Dorando. The restaurant itself is in a beautiful setting. The service is excellent (though a little pretentious – e.g., decanting a 1994 vintage). The presentation was handsome (the woman at another table was so impressed she took pictures of the food). The menu was an imaginative re-working of traditional dishes and the wine list was very good. We had five courses and there wasn’t a miss on any one of them. Everything was delicious. Many of the dishes are cooked to order and this all takes time. With the five courses and coffee, we were there about two hours. Two hours well spent from our point of view. The cost was about $50 per person including the wine.