Podere La Selva Casole d Elsa

December 7, 2009



Didn't know what to expect of Perugia, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It actually have a very medieval feel to it. It sits atop a mountain and I can see why it was originally located here as one gets a very beautiful view of the valley below….and any wandering mauraders! Italy is on a 4 day holiday since the Feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on Tuesday. The ...

arrive hier en fin de journee a orvietto. pour atteindre la ville de orvieto, a partir de la gare, on doit prendre un funiculaire qui nous amene a l'entre de la ville. apres avoir fais un petit tour de la ville pour s'orienter un peu, nous avons rencontrer un couple d'irlandais a notre auberge et on a passe une tres belle soiree en leur compagnie a deguster le vin local au restaurant de l'auberge

Comme plusieurs ...

... was out for their evening passeo - walk. The gelateria's and cafes were overflowing with people. I spied a deli with a spit raosted pig lying on display in the window and got the best pork sandwich ever!!! Too late to go on we decided to park up. We had accidentially drained our leisure battery so Kim had to cook by torch but the torch battery was running out..so no other choice, we headed for a bar! Life's tough.

From the Med we drove inland to the east and into Southern Tuscany. We drove through some plain countryside and were about 2 kms from our destination when we commented on where is the town as we could not see it. Around a hair pin bend and we went wow! There in front of us was the walled city of Pitigliano nested on the top of hill surrounded by deep gorges. We found the perfect park for the night which looked across at the old city, with the highlight being its 16th ...

All vitamin D'ed up we arrived at our destination for the evening - Bagni di Petriolo - hot springs. Soon we were lounging in the hot sulphur pools watching the sun set. A fresh water stream ran alongside the springs and a dip in the water was very refreshing, although a little breathtaking at the same time! The pools were popular with the locals young and old as well as travellers as there were about a dozen campers parked nearby. As lovely as ...

Down the road from Montalcino we popped into St Antimo Abbey where the local monks say their (7!!) daily prayers in Georgian chants. We caught part of the 12.45pm prayers and enjoyed some down time while listening the chanting. The afternoon was glorious and once again we were in tshirts, so we made the most of it and had a picnic in the sun beside the Abbey.

... harvest, so were tried a tipple from a "young" 2004 bottle, which was a 5 star harvest year. For such a world famous wine I was not overly impressed. They say the flavor develops with age so maybe I should have splashed out and bought a bottle of 1997...but the price tag was above our daily budget...oh well can't try everything.

From Chianti went south to the Le Crete region. The drive provided us with more quintessential Tuscan scenery. We stayed overnight in Asciano as we could not make it to Montalcino before dark. We had vowed not to drive in the dark as the small windy roads and excessively erratic Italian drivers are not good for our nerves!

... family, the mastery of English was limited to about ten words between them all, none of them "passport." This was highly annoying as the Italian word for passport is said like "pass-port-eh." More like "pass-port-DUH". We did get the passports back (they had both, not just Jay's) and we then continued in the other direction from Montepulciano to Montalcino. There is shopping in Montalcino, if you want to buy WINE. Pretty much nothing else ...

... After a few hours, we went to the patio where we had a proper beer (in a glass) and some snacks - really good spicy ricecakes and pistachio nuts. I did get a bit burnt though. No biggie, it turns into a tan in a few days. We went halfway uphill for dinner, eating at a small restaurant that overlooks the beach (Ristorante Vittoria). Julie had a huge ass serving of fried calamari and tagliatelli with shellfish while I had penne with red sauce and grilled fish. Despite my fish coming ...