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

Who knows how many times browsing through a book or calendar on Tuscany you were left enchanted in front of an image of green rolling hills of such an intense color that left you marveling at the great photographer or at at least at the great skill on touching up those photos. The truth is that neither is absolutely necessary to experience such scenery! Val d’Orcia, commonly portrayed on calendars and postcards of Tuscany, is splendid just like that, with incredible landscapes, intense green and yellow hues and stone villages sitting atop hilltops that take your breath away.

This past week we spent two days in the beautiful Val d’Orcia, visiting the towns of Pienza, San Quirico d’ Orcia and Montalcino.
On Sunday the 7th, Pienza hosted the closing day to the traditional Fiera del Cacio, a festival dedicated to cheese and, in particular, to the tasty pecorino cheese made in Pienza and in Val d’Orcia in general. The small village streets were set up with stalls that offered tastings of cheeses as well as other typical local products including cold cuts and honey. A real paradise for foodies such as ourselves!

Read more about our trip in Val d' Orcia

This weekend we took a short trip to San Gimignano, arriving Saturday evening and leaving by Sunday evening. San Gimignano is a small but unique “borgo” or village in the province of Siena, surrounded by 12th century walls and characterized by numerous medieval towers which make the view of the town from afar breathtaking.

Read More about our San Gimignano Trip

Hi! Today we took some more time to visit Gallicano, which this morning was almost a Ghost city. The party after the Palio di San Jacopo went on till late in the night and most of the citizens of Gallicano were sleeping : )

We were pretty sleepy ourselves, but walked around Gallicano to take some pictures, especially of the great duomo that towers over the town. I think Gallicano is a great place to stay if you want to visit Garfagnana: it’s a nice small town in a perfect position to visit most of the point of interest in Garfagnana. Eliseo is definititely a great place to stay and to eat, but for the weekend all the rooms were taken, so we moved to Il Ciocco (www.ilciocco.eu), a beautiful (and huge) resort near Barga. From here we have a great view of the Garfagnana region !

We visited Barga this evening and it is truly one of the most beautiful “borghi” (village, town) in Italy. It was a pleasure to walk up and down its narrow medieval streets and find the many views and hidden corners that deserved a stop and a picture,  sip a coffee while listening to a small concerto,  visiting the duomo.

Now, off to bed, tomorrow we are planning to leave early and  do some trekking, we plan to go up to the Monte Forato!

Greetings! Today we are in Garfagnana, a wonderful green area in northern Tuscany near Lucca that we were planning to visit for some time now. Our plan is to stay three-four days and do some hiking (Garfagnana is one of the best places in Tuscany if you like to walk up mountains!) and visit some of its small towns. We are staying in Gallicano, at the Bed and Breakfast Eliseo which is a very nice family-run small hotel right in the center of the town. We didn’t have a chance yet to visit Gallicano properly, today is the town’s yearly festival celebrating the patron saint of San Jacopo and everyone was busy with bringing together last minute details and preparing the parade floats, and the streets were closed to cars. We spent the afternoon visiting the Grotta del Vento (Wind Cave) a really interesting carsic cave not far from Gallicano, about 11 km. The cave is covered by extraordinary formations like stalactites and stalagmites, and you can admire underground streams and huge caverns. The calcaric formations are elaborate and grand, standing in the first part of the cave you have the impression of being in a natural cathedral. The managers of the cave were very kind in giving us a lot of printed informational guides, so will certainly write about it as we learn more as well as returning to visit again soon!

Read more about our first day in Garfagnana »