Fellow bloggers, Monday the 23rd of August was the day I'd been waiting for. . .a visit to Tuscany was planned. More importantly, we were going to Montepulciano. This beautiful cliff top town is not just any Tuscan town; it was the setting for part of the "Twilight: New Moon" movie. . .need I say more fellow twi-fans??? Of course, I got lots of eye-rolls and "can't believe we driving all this way just because of Twilight" from Steven and the boys. . .but I could put up with all of that to see this fab town.
We set out from Florence to Montelpulciano (about 1 and 1/2 hours drive) on another hot and sunny Italian day. It was an easy drive and we got as close to the centre of town as we could and parked the car. From there we walked a little ways into the town - not quite reaching the Piazza Grande before we came across the restaurant that I had researched for our lunch: "Il Gambe di Gatta". This restaurant received rave reviews on TripAdvisor so when we walked straight past it and there was no one there, we decided to sit down and eat. It was amazingly small, but was run and owned by a husband and wife team. The husband in particular was very accomodating - nothing was too much trouble. We were even offered a full wine-tasting experience in the restaurant at no charge. . .I must mention that Montepulciano is a well-known wine-producing region and produces a particular red known as "Nobili di Montepulciano". Well we started our lovely lunch with this wine-tasting - sampling reds and whites from the region. Fantastic! The Nobili was unreal - had to buy a bottle of course! Not only did we sample wines, but different olive oils, vinegars and limoncello. All produced in Tuscany. I tell you people, this was unreal! The ravioli was simply heavenly and the panna cotta was sooo delectable we were all literally licking the plates.
So, we hadn't even seen Montepulciano yet and we were very impressed! After our stupendous meal, we left the restaurant and headed into the centre of town - which was up a steep hill! Not so good after a gastronomic 3 course meal + wine!!!!! Finally turned into the Piazza Grande - the setting for that infamous scene where Bella races through the streets of Volterra and jumps through the fountain to stop Edward from revealing himself to the mortals. . .It was remarkably recognizable from the scenes of the movie and we sat in the Piazza for a while taking in the scenery and imagining the whole place as a movie set.
After more walking around the town, we said goodbye to Montepulciano and headed back to Florence. I think we all agreed (even the non-Twi fans) that this town was definitely worth the visit.
Next day, I took a nice long walk along the Arno and over the Ponte Vecchio very early in the morning before heading back to the apartment to get the troops up and out to the post office to offload some more excess baggage and then more pavement pounding. The tourists were out in force this day and our plans to visit the Uffizi in the morning had to be postponed until later in the day as the queues were so long. We enjoyed a simple lunch in the shadow of Il Duomo and then back to the apartment for a few hours before heading back to the Uffizi after 6pm. In the interim, we all agreed we'd have home-made crepes for dinner so this time Dean made the mixture and Steven cooked while I organised our luggage for our departure from Florence the next day.
On Wednesday, after another early morning walk, we packed the car and headed out of Florence for our long drive down to Positano on the Amalfi coast (about 6 hours south of Florence). It was a long and hot drive and truly frustrating as there are very few signs which indicate the speed limits and most drivers seem to just do whatever speed limit suits. Tailgating is very common and even when there are speed limits posted, everyone ignores them!!! So, when we arrived in Positano at around 4.30 that afternoon, we were very relieved to have arrived safely!
The Amalfi Coast is truly a beautiful part of the world. The cliff tops rise dramatically from the shimmering blue of the ocean. The roads wind precariously around the cliff faces up and down and are so narrow that we found it hard to believe they were actually two-way streets!
As I mentioned above, the roads are notoriously bad and the aggressive driving practices and limited (or complete absence of) signage makes it a risky task negotiating the hair-pin bends - often to face cars, trucks or scooters coming directly at you (ie they are driving on the wrong side of the road) at great speed!!!
Having driven across and through 9 different countries now, Steven and I agreed that we found Italy to be the most dangerous for driving.
Notwithstanding, we enjoyed Positano. We had superb views of the bay from our hotel and were fortunate our hotel had a pool. . .so there was no great urgency to make the trek down the treacherous roads to get to the beach. We did venture into town on the shuttle bus for a look around and to have lunch down by the beach on our second day. But, it was stinking hot so we raced back to the hotel pool to cool down.
Friday 27th August, we farewelled Positano and travelled 3 and 1/2 hours to Rome - our final driving destination. Steven did some quick thinking and organised for us to hand-back our Renault one week early (as we didn't really need it while in Rome and it was going to cost a bomb to park it in the hotel for a week) so we also farewelled our trusty Renault after 9 countries and nearly 7, 500 km!!
No comments:
Post a Comment