Discover Tuscany’s Blog: exploring Tuscany and all its hidden corners…

The old locomotive of the steam engine train to Marradi

We took a beautiful trip to Marradi a few weekends ago, a mountain village located in the Tuscan Apennines near the border with Emilia Romagna, to go the town’s annual chestnut sagra or food festival.

The Mugello chestnuts are famous and are protected by the IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta, or Geographical Protected Indication) trademark and the festival was a wonderful occasion to taste and buy not only chestnuts but many local products as well. We bought chestnut flour, several pieces of local cheeses and a small chestnut cake to take home, in addition to all the other chestnut treats we had that day.

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The waterfall at Marmore

We recently spent a few days in Umbria and even if we generally write about Tuscany on our blog, on this occasion we’ll make a small exception to tell you about this region bordering the south of Tuscany. You have to travel through Umbria if you’re traveling between Rome and Florence, so many visitors to Tuscany often stop along the way to visit a few of the beautiful towns in the region.

 This isn’t the first time we’ve visited Umbria: we’ve returned on several occasions because we’ve enjoyed its wild nature and its cities rich in history, while the great food and good prices have called us back time and again.

 Our small trip lasted four days in which we visited the waterfall at Marmore, the small city of Narni, Spoleto, Assisi and Gubbio.  

The waterfall at Marmore was our first stop. This beautiful waterfall, one of the tallest in Europe, is in southern Umbria in the province of Terni. The waterfall offers an enchanting spectacle: the water falls on three separate levels over a height of 165 meters. To visit the entire area of the waterfall you can choose among the 5 walking paths, each offering a different difficulty level and lasting from 20 to 60 minutes. We highly recommend following at least two of the paths to see different views of the waterfall and if you’re in good shape, we recommend doing all of them! Once we arrived to the top of path #2, a magnificent rainbow was waiting for us.

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When we visited Volterra last year, we passed by Colla Val d’Elsa which seemed to be a beautiful medieval town. We didn’t have a chance to stop then to visit it, but this past weekend, taking advantage that we were in the area for the medieval fair at Monteriggioni we decided to spend a day exploring Colle. It was a very pleasant discovery.

Colle Val d’Elsa is about 15 minutes from Monteriggioni which is where we were staying, right below the castle at the Residence La Rosa. The residence is very nice and small with only a few rooms and two apartments. We got the small apartment for 2 nights. The place is very close to Monteriggioni but being between the castle and the Firenze-Siena roadway took away from some of the tranquility we were expecting to find. The owners, father and son Aldo and Paolo were welcoming and nice, offering us a bottle of wine they produce on the farm.

We had no problems finding parking once we arrived in Colle, there were several parking lots right below the historical center (since Colle means hill you can clearly understand the old town is foun on a hill). The modern part of the town spreads out in the surrounding valley.

We followed a path from the parking lot up toward the Porta Nuova, or New Door, that guards the city’s entrance from Volterra. Imposing, with two large round towers and medievals walls to the side and a moat! It seems we have stepped back in time but we are brought back to our time as a car comes out of the medieval door .

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We were in Pisa last week to witness the beautiful  (but very crowded) Luminara along the Arno river and then to attend the late afternoon regatta of San Ranieri. We spent a little more than 24 hours in Pisa. Most everyone who tries to fit Pisa in into an otherwise crammed Tuscany itinerary generally only dedicates a few hours to Pisa. Get in, see the Leaning Tower and Piazza dei Miracoli (main square where you find the tower, cathedral, baptistery and monumental cemetery) and leave.

Continue reading about our visit to Pisa »

Photo by Pierpaolo Putignano

The last time I visited a zoo, I was a child.

I remember it was a zoo-safari: visitors crossed huge areas directly aboard their own cars, passing through fields where lions and monkeys made their home.

To my young eyes, these great fields were the savanna and reminded me of Tarzan movies. I couldn’t imagine what enclosures were and I certainly didn’t intend on walking through the big cats to ensure myself that these walls existed (I was a wise guy at the time).

I let my fantasy do its job and I looked at the animals full of delight.

More than thirty years later, I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and photograpg something different. Somehow I decided to go to the Pistoia Zoo to take some shots.

Continue reading about the Pistoia Zoo »

This Easter and the day after we took a short yet relaxing vacation in the Valdichiana area we like a lot. The valley lies between the Tuscan regions of Arezzo and Siena and the Umbrian regions of Perugia and Terni. Our destination was Cortona and Montepulciano.

Cortona welcomed us with beautiful sunshine despite the uncertain weather forecasts and we had marvelous weather throughout the day and evening, giving us the chance to enjoy a relaxed stroll through the city and enjoy splendid views over the surrounding countryside.

Cortona’s historical center is built atop a hill 600 meters high, and once you park your car outside the city walls be prepared to climb a bit. The most difficult path up is the one that takes you to the Santa Margherita Sanctuary and to the Girifalco Fortress but both are worth it. As we climbed the hill, we found ourselves following the outer walls and from here the  beautiful view of the countryside gets better as you climb (we were able to see as far away as Lake Trasimeno!).

Continue reading about our trip to Cortona »

View of the Cinque Terre coastline with Vernazza poking out at center

We spent last weekend at Cinque Terre, planning to hike and visit all five of the towns along the beautiful coast that give the name to the area. Even if the Cinque Terre are in Liguria, we are just a few kilometers out of northwestern Tuscany and many people visit the coastal towns as part of their vacation to Tuscany. We thus justify our choice to explore the area .

We took the 7:50am train from Florence, and two and a half hours later we arrived at Monterosso, the town closest to Genova to the north. At the train station you’ll find the office for the National Park of the Cinque Terre – here you can buy the Cinque Terre Card, a must if you want to hike along the main trail, Sentiero Azzurro (n.2), that connects all five towns. The card costs 5 euros per person for 1 day, 8 euros for 2 days and includes free use of the shuttle buses that connect the towns. For an extra fee, you can get the card that also includes unlimited use of the train – the 5 towns are connected by train, which is without a doubt the easiest and fastest way to move between the towns.

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Today I read on il Corriere della Sera (see the article in Italian) that Lucca’s center-right city government has passed a local law that will not allow the opening of new restaurants preparing dishes “of a different ethnic origin”. So no more Kebab or Couscous shops at least within the old city walls, the most beautiful, historical part of Lucca. The existing restaurants are “encouraged” to add to their menu a few typical dishes from Lucca, like minestra di farro or castagnaccio.

The first impression I got was that there’s something very wrong with this law, that it somehow seems to be inspired by some sort of gastronomic racism! Then, reading more about it (like here) it turns out that the law also regards other fast food type of places, such as pizza shops that sell pizza by the slice. It seems, however, that the kebab points are particularly under fire because it was said that “there are too many, they are ugly and smell”.

A representative of the city government explains that inside the walls, in 4 square kilometers, there are already 5 kebab places and several other fast food establishments. These places are often really small with no place to sit down and eat. In their opinion, they constrain people to eat in the piazzas sitting under the city’s main monuments, often leaving the remains of their meals on the streets. The new law is intended to maintain the city’s decorum by limiting the growth of these type of food shops, while at the same time promoting traditional restaurants that prepare typical dishes of both Lucca and Tuscany.

Explained in this manner, the law does not seem that bad. There are already similar laws in other cities. For example, on the boardwalk in Viareggio only certain types of shops, those that “increase the touristic value of the city”, are allowed. Still I believe they could have been more diplomatic and not refer to food of a “different ethnicity” in describing the fast food places that will no longer be allowed to open within the historic walls.

It would be interesting to hear the opinion of someone living in Lucca.

In the area of the upper Maremma hills where we went to explore, an agriturismo (farmhouse) seems to be the most common form of accommodation. The area is largely cultivated and is home to the Montecucco DOC wine region and, while it is lesser known than its neighbors, the Brunello di Montalcino or the Morellino di Scansano, it is no less good and enjoyable. For our last minute trip to Maremma we searched online and finally decided on contacting the agriturismo Il Passo degli Ulivi which offered independent apartments.

Continue reading about our stay at Passo degli Ulivi »

We have just returned from a short vacation in Maremma: we decided at the very last moment to leave on this trip, taking advantage of the warm sun and nice days this mid-October was giving us.

We had never visited the upper part of Maremma close to Monte Amiata, between the Tuscan coast and Val d’Orcia. It was a nice surprise. The landscape reminds us of the Crete Senesi which so often are potrayed in postcards from Tuscany: soft hills of vineyards, brown and yellow fields with big, isolated trees in the middle of a cultivated field, woods with oaks and chestnut trees. There are few houses, mainly farms that often offer accommodation and may also have a restaurant where you can have a good typical meal.

Continue reading about our Holiday in Maremma »