Orvieto
Hotel Duomo, in the center of the historical area, steps from the famous cathedral. Nice that they will park your car in the hotel’s private garage, 10€ additional.
2 nights in Umbria
Underground Orvieto
Orvieto sits on top of of huge tufa cliff and has a network of underground passages in use from Etruscan times. Orvieto was a great place to visit and we are proof that you can see just about every site in one day.
Tip:The Carte Unica (tourist card) gets you into the main sites and saves lots of money. Recommend going to the Underground Tour first, the interesting history sets the stage for the other sites you’ll see in Orvieto.
Highlights: The Underground tour and the Chapel of San Brizio frescoes by Signorelli.
Great Eats: Trattoria La Pergola – Fantastic! First time we ever had gnocchi – we split the “gnocchi con pancetta, spinaci, salsa di tartufo” (gnocchi with bacon, spinach, truffle sauce). Game night – Steve had “cinghiale allo cacciatora” (wild boar) and I had “petto d’anatra al semi di finocchio selvatico” (duck breast with fennel seeds). All with a nice bottle of Orvieto white. 48€. Yes, this was worth writing down. Should have come back here the second night.
Travel: An hour from Orvieto to Montepulciano
Garmin Nuvie 1370T, we love you!
Unexpected surprise – it took less time than the ViaMichelin estimates on all of our drives! We loved having the Nuvi gps navigate for us, didn’t use the map at all.
Tuscany
Montepulciano
Albergo il Marzocco, 2 nights in Montepulciano inside the gate in the historical area. Nice that parking is included – reserved spaces outside the hotel or in their small garden parking space. Finding the right way to drive to the hotel took a little advance reconnaissance on foot.
Montepulciano is a nice place to visit for an afternoon, it’s also the steepest hill town we walked – all uphill from the hotel to the Duomo! We really enjoyed Albergo il Marzocco as a base for the short time we were in the area.
La Foce
From Montepulciano it’s a short drive to the La Foce garden for the 4:00 tour. This interesting tour describes how Iris and Antonio Origo created the estate and farm starting in 1924. It’s all about the garden and views from this famous estate.
Tip: Try a later tour, there were so many people for 4:00 they split the group into 2 and we missed out on a full hour.
Driving tour around Val d’Orcia, a Unesco World Heritage Site
Val d’Orcia is truly a beautiful place. Our drive was paced around the stop at The Abbey of Sant’Antimo for their 12:45 service with Gregorian Chanting. If you miss the service, don’t worry – a recording of chanting is played continuously through their excellent sound system. We spent some time enjoying the minimalist Benedictine abbey and drove on, stopping at lots of towns along the way to enjoy the views, and finally Pienza for a tour of the Piccolomini Palace.
Drive – Montepulciano – San Quirico d’Orcia – St. Antimo – Rocca d’Orcia – Bagno Vignoni – Montichiello – Pienza – Montepulciano
Great Eats: The sign above the door says Cucina Tipica Toscana, but the name of this restaurant is Trattoria il Marzocco. First time we had “Pici” – now we are converts, Pici with duck sauce for the primi, for secondi, Chinghiale with wine sauce and cervo with something great. Centini 2010 Toscana white. We ate here both nights in Montepulciano. Il Marzocco is the name of the lion on the huge column inside the Porto de Prato entrance to Montepulciano. Symbol of the Medici’s, it faces toward Florence.
Travel: 2 hours from Montepulciano to San Gimignano
San Gimignano
(san jee mee NYAH noh)
B&B Palazzo al Torrione, the hotel is inside the city walls, parking is in lot #1 “Guibileo” for 6€ per day.
1 night in San Gimignano
Pretty Tuscan hill town
The reputation of San Gimignano as Italy’s “best-preserved medieval city” and seeing for myself the fantastical landscape of those 15 medieval towers really made me want to visit – despite it’s other reputation of being overrun by tourists. I didn’t know how we were going to squeeze it in but ultimately decided it was a good idea to stop here overnight instead of doing a day trip all the way from Montepulciano.
San Gimignano was GREAT! We really enjoyed it, a very pretty place.
Great Eats: La Taverna del Granducato. Three words – Truffle Olive Oil. Sprinkle liberally over Gnocchetti Tartufati. Gotta get some at home.
Travel: 1.5 hours from San Gimignano to Pisa
Pisa
Building on marshy clay – What were they thinking?
We found it took so little time to drive anywhere that we decided to make a stop in Pisa on the way to Lucca. Great idea! It really was something to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. All the buildings are leaning a little bit, but that bell tower is quite a sight. It’s a beautiful structure, pictures don’t do it justice. Didn’t go up the tower, did kick around the Duomo and Baptistry for awhile.
Travel: Half hour from Pisa to Lucca
Lucca
Albergo Diana, just inside the city walls, private parking near the hotel for 5€/day
1 night in Lucca
Pleasant afternoon on the walls
Lucca was another city I really wanted to see. The wall fortifications are tree lined paths where people ride their bicycles and enjoy the view. In fact, bikes are everywhere inside the walls instead of cars. The streets of Lucca were packed with people on Saturday, then at night – where did they all go?
Travel: 3 hour drive to Piazzale Roma in Venice to return the car before the office closes at 1:00 pm. → The rental return was unbelievably easy – drove to the top of the parking structure, elevator down to the office, signed return document, handed the keys to the agent and walked away.
Venice
Palazzo Guardi Venice, Dorsoduro area, near Museo dell’Accademia and Peggy Guggenheim Collection
4 nights in Venice
Special Tour: Doge’s Palace Secret Itineraries
The Secret Itineraries tour of Doge’s palace was a fun behind the scenes tour – you need a reservation, the tour is limited to 25 people. You can buy the ticket online and skip all the lines. Pick up an audioguide before the tour so you don’t have to come back downstairs for it after the tour.
Tip: I bought the ticket online at the 12€ reduced rate for people who have the St. Mark’s museum pass, and bought the museum pass when at the Correr museum. Interesting, the ticket agents at the Doge’s Palace weren’t interested in seeing or validating the museum pass we presented – they just wanted the Secret Itineraries receipt. Looks like I could have skipped buying the museum pass and skipped the Correr museum, which wasn’t too memorable anyway. The Secret Itineraries ticket gets you the tour plus you can wander around the Doge’s Palace on your own before and after the tour. If you want to go to the Correr and Archeology Museum then you DO need the museum pass.
On our last day in Venice we gave our museum passes to a couple from Boston we met in line at the Campanile – the Doge’s Palace entry wasn’t used – they were happy to see the Doge’s Palace for free!
Special Tour: Basilica tour led by a Docent (free)
Basilica di San Marco – pre-book an entry time online and skip that long line (1 Euro service charge each person). Meet inside the entrance door at 11:00 for a free guided tour of the Basilica. This hour long tour was great! Our docent, Laura, was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. There were only about 10-12 people in the group and we got to step inside the roped off areas, away from the continuous line of people and tour groups.
Impromptu concerts
• Hanging out watching the traffic in the Grand Canal near the Fish Market – and a men’s choral group starting signing! Warming up to their reception they moved into the great acoustics of the Pescheria space and entertained with a few traditional songs before heading off wherever they were going.
• Touring the Frari church we were treated to a classical concert rehearsal filling this awesome space with music – voice, string, organ and oboe. Wonderful!
Great art
Last day in Venice and we decided to go to the Accademia – walked up to the ticket booth and found that they were closing between 12 and 3:00 for a meeting! That would have given us only an hour in the museum. Instead of the Accademia we went to the Campanile and then over to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco. The Scuola is referred to as Tintoretto’s Sistine Chapel – two floors with more than 50 paintings on walls and ceilings – but the stunning carved wood sculptures by Francesco Pianta turned out to be the highlight for us.
Milan
Venice to Milan for our last night in Italy
Travel: 2 hours, 35 minutes on the high speed train from Venice to Milan Centrale, 50 minutes on a bus to get out to Malpensa airport.
Lessons learned from our last night in Milan in 2000 was “always have an exit strategy”. Our flight back to the States was at 10:30 the next morning – and we’d spent time in Milan before – so we booked a night at First Hotel 1 km from the airport with a shuttle service to pick us up and get us back to the airport. It wasn’t the cheapest place near the airport but the idea was to have a good night’s sleep before the long trip home. The king size bed jiggled like jello so it turned out the best thing about the stay was the great food at the trattoria next door.
Great Eats: La Quercia – next door to the hotel, closes at 10:00pm. REAL tiramisu!
Travel, Education, and History
Travel has a great bonus – an education. Learning the history of a people and a place turns a trip into more than a photo album at the end.
