I don't know if I've mentioned but the drive from Calci up to our little house in the Tuscan hills is, in a word, harrowing. So, the day after our return from 5T I decided I needed a day off of driving completely. Here is an example of the Italy driving experience:
I guess 700 years ago when the inhabitants built their original dwellings they didn't have the foresight to build them far enough apart for proper 2-way traffic. Outside the villages it's not so bad, and the roads are wide enough to pass other cars without danger of a heart attack.
In the morning we walked down to Calci (about a half hour stroll through the backroads) for a cappucino and pastry at our favourite local cafe. Then we picked up some groceries and found that the return was not quite as casual a stroll - it was all uphill! Jack repeatedly reminded us of our 5T pledge - No more hiking! In the afternoon we went for a drive and visited Vicopisano, which is a nearby town with a very medieval feel to it. It has a portion of the old city wall, and several towers, but when we were there everything was closed! We still haven't quite adjusted to the Italian clock, which dictates that everything is closed from about noon to 6 PM.
For dinner, pizza-oven pizza, and this time we also attempted focaccia bread, yum!
Warming up the brick oven with a roaring fire.
The finished product. (No we did not make 2 half pizzas! As usual we dive into the food and the meal is half done (or even completely done) by the time I remember I'm supposed to be documenting it.)
The next day we visited our local Italian pool. My verdict - not terribly impressive. It was about 30 Euro for the 3 of us to get in, and the pool was small and crowded. There were a few people swimming lengths - there were no lanes marked off so they had to weave through everyone who was just playing or standing around (like me). However we made the best of it, had a burger and hot dog for lunch (my advice - stick to Italian food in Italy) and lazed about in the sun.
In the evening Sonya took me to the local fancy restaurant - Il Conventino - for dinner. It's a short walk up in the Tuscan hills.
About halfway, the view back to our house in the Tuscan hills.
That's the restaurant on the right. On the left is the convent, hence "Il Conventino".
We decided to eat full Italian style and we each ordered our own pasta and secondi (usually we just order a couple of dishes and share, Chinese style). After dinner we rolled down the hill to our little house in the Tuscan Hills.
A mixed appies plate to share.
A nice local wine :-)
Some kind of pasta, I forget ...
Prosciutto ravioli :-)
Some kind of secondi, I forget :-S
Wild boar!
Nothing like a nice espresso to chase down a rich meal.
Here's the Pisa skyline on the way home:
The next day (yesterday) was very exciting! We decided to visit a "traditional" Italian beach. We drove to the recommended Marina di Pietrasanta, which is about an hour drive from our little house in the Tuscan hills, and rented a couple of beach chairs at one of the beach houses. The beach was quite impressive. We were at Beach House "Sebastian", which was about halfway down the beach, and was beach house number 101. (Meaning there were about 200 beach houses? At least!) For 30 Euro we got an umbrella, 2 beach chairs and a lounger for the day, along with a little patch of beach to call our own. This also gave us access to the beach house changerooms, wc's, cafe, and they also provided a shower close to the water to rinse the salt off. It was a long day, and our busy hectic schedule included the following:
- sleep in
- throw towels in the car and drive to the beach
- rent our beach chairs and lounger
- have a cappucino and snack at the beach house cafe
- short nap (just to test out the lounger)
- swim in the warm Mediterranean Ocean
- another nap
- walk to a nearby pizzeria for lunch - I had the set menu, which consisted of bruschetta, spaggetti al ragu, and a large "biera ala spina", which meant that after lunch I needed:
- another short nap
- another swim in the warm Mediterranean Ocean
- glass of Prosecco and a gellatto at the beach house cafe
- another short swim
- another nap, and then the drive home.
Today we're going to visit San Guiliano Terme (another nearby town in the Tuscan hills), catch up on our laundry, and pack for our next trip. Hey, not every day can be a rollicking adventure!
(PS I've gotten a couple of "complaints" that I haven't been very regular in updating my blog recently. I hope that now that you've seen my hectic schedule over the past couple of days you can be understanding! However if you post comments occasionally then it may spur me on to posting a few extra entries. We're on our way to Venice tomorrow for a few days, and afterwards are planning to attend a Medieval Festival at Volterra, which is near San Gimignano. I'll try to post regularly but no promises!)
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