Day 18 and 19 (4/22 and 23) Tuscany

We set out in the morning to go to Tuscany to visit our friends Phil and Sybill. The first stop was Siena. It is a very old city which rivaled Florence for prominence 800 years ago. It is a beautiful city with a famously beautiful Piazza di Campo and a very impressive cathedral. Also impressive was all the stores which were open on Sunday and did not close for 3 hours in the middle of the day. Bo was in heaven shopping for all the pretty Italian designs. From there we went to San Gimignano. A completely walled city with 7 big towers. Back then wealthy families competed as to who could build the most towers. We knew that San Giminiano was very popular with tourists, but we didn’t expect it to be so crowded in April. We called Phil who agreed to meet us at an intersection in a town near his place. With a little difficulty we met him and started following him along narrow deserted roads. He then led us down a very hilly dirt road for half a mile to his place. The house is beautifully situated in a very remote place surrounded by vineyards with views of hills, vineyards and meadows. The only sounds you hear are occasional birds. After cocktails and conversation we set out to see the closest little town of Montespertoli and a nearby castle called Montegufoni, which has been converted to a hotel. Phil asked the nice receptionist if she spoke English. She replied “no”, only Italian and Polish. Bo and she spoke for quite a while then she called her husband (also Polish) to give us an extensive tour. One suite was 5 or 6 bedrooms with 3 or 4 bathrooms (all immense) with painted ceilings like in the cathedrals. Wow. From there we went to a 4 star restaurant in a converted farm house, also in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know about it, you would never find it. Next morning we had breakfast on a terrace overlooking the vineyards and a nice walk along a country road, and then we set out on the way back. We stopped in a little walled-in town called Bertolino and then again, quite by coincidence, in a big outlet village with about 100 stores before Perugia. When we got home we were treated to a lovely meal home cooked by Lucy and Reni.