“O Rome! my country! city of the soul!”
Lord Byron
Click here for a bit of Italian atmosphere
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| Smoochin at the Colosseum |
We kick started our grand Honeymoon tour of Tuscany with Roma, home of the Pope, Ennio Morricone, Sophia Loren and Fellini amongst others. It was hot! And crowded!
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| Trevi fountain |
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| Atop the Spanish Steps |
But hey, you've got to do the Trevi, and the Colosseum and the Spanish Steps and the ole' Vatican...
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| Scott in the Vatican |
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| Triton Fountain, Piazza Barberini |
...but once the sight seeing is over, you MUST head to the west bank of the Tiber, and relax with the Italians in the Trastevere area, when the sun is golden and men dangle their legs off bridges to play their guitar.
And you MUST choose an ice cream from a gelateria, which may take a while, but I pretty much always have pistachio and coffee.
Have a stiff drink, unwind, eat a lot of pizza, then go back to your amazing hotel room, organised for you by the fabulous Daisy Finer (brilliant and talented Spa Editor for Tatler)
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| Happy |
Bagno Vignoni
Scampering from the heat of the city, we drove through Tuscany's bucolic landscapes, with hilltop villas and Cypress trees, and found ourselves in Bagno Vignoni, an ancient village in Val d'Orcia.
The heart of the village is a large 16th century tank containing volcanic water, and that's about it. A perfect Tuscan getaway in which to do absolutely nothing but drink wine, munch on parma ham and look at the views.
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| Steam from the thermal waters rise in the cool night |
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| The town's emblem: a she-wolf suckling infants Romulus and Remu |
Rocca d'Orcia
Rocca d'Orcia is a little village that we could see from our hideout in Bagno. We decided to explore one evening with a picnic of bread, ham, cheese, strawberries and wine. It stands high above the Val d'Orcia so we walked up and up through the narrow side streets, until we reached the top, and settled down on the roadside, awaiting the sunset.
She came and delighted us. Probably one of the best evenings we had.
Pienza
We wound our way to the sleepy hill town of Pienza. Renaissance in style, designed by Pope Pius II, in the centre of the Val d'Orcia valley.
We hung out with the old boys in the piazza pio ii and pranced and dawdled about subscribing to frivolous holiday meanderings. Squeezing down the alleyway behind the square we were met with delicious sounding streets of kiss and love - Via del Bacio and Via dell'Amore. These were enclosed by a walkway with fortressed walls, looking out onto olive trees, grapevines and rolling hills.
We soon came across some fat cats, an old lady noticed us taking this photo and whispered authoritatively, We have no rats in Pienza!
Montepulciano
Another lovely hill town famous for it's wine greeted us further along the line with steep climbs, lined with wine shops, cool boutiques and cheery fiat 500's (old stylee).
The Coast of Maremma
It was time to see the sparkling sea and hunker down by the coast. We stayed in Poggio ai Santi, a lovely pine-laden hideaway with the island of Elba glinting in the horizon.
We idled round the pool mainly, watching the dragonflies dipping into the water whilst mating and bees buzzing through the lavender.
When we weren't doing nothing much at all, we wandered around nearby villages such as Sassetta and Bolgheri, having a bite to eat and a glass of wine.
Before we headed off to the heat of Pisa, we dipped our toes in the cool Mediterranean sea of Marina di Bibbona.
Pisa
Next! Slow down you say, relax! I've come to realise we don't really do that, and have 3 more cities to discover on our moon journey. Firstly it's the infamous leaning tower, remembered fondly in Superman III when our comic hero is faced with some nasty kryptonite and becoming moody and dark, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake - one such act of vandalism is the straightening of the Tower. But never fear, he leans it back again later.
I was a little grumpy to say the least as we'd missed Italian "lunch time" and had stepped into "Siesta time" And I was hungry! I'd previously bookmarked some lovely looking restaurants but all were closed or belonged to the ongoing frustration of Guidebooks - they no longer existed, grrrrrrrr, annoying. After moodily meandering the streets, we did find a touristy but tasty cafe which served chips, so I was happy again...and had the energy for some sightseeing.
Oh there she is!
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| The Baptistry |
Ok that's enough of stoney landmarks, let's make our way to Lucca - one of our favourite cities!
Lucca
These are some of things we did. Ambled along the Serchio river, cycled round the ancient city ramparts, wrote postcards whilst sipping Campari in the Piazza del Mercato, shopped along via Fillungo, stared up at the architecture of the San Michele church, photographed white Magnolias in the Botanical gardens, hung out in our glad rags in bars nibbling olives, drinking negronis and kissing.
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| Cycling along the city walls |
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| Magnolia tree, Botanical gardens |
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| Hibiscus, Botanical gardens |
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| Cocktails |
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| After dinner walk |
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| San Michele Church |
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| Writing postcards |
Last stop! Florence... we gave back our hire car and chugged along on the train...
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| Waiting for the train |
Florence
Ah, the lovely Florence, my 3rd visit and it never disappoints. My absolute favourite things are sculptures, and this is the place to see them. Gorgeous, nubile, tactile stone nudes cast in romantic or destructive poses.
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| Rape of the Sabine Women |
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| Neptune's buttocks |
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| Scott at the Bargello Museum |
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| Policemen hanging out by the Duomo |
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| Lemon trees, Boboli Gardens |
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| 3 Graces, Boboli Grdens |
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| Chef having a fag break |
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| Us having a Negroni break |
The End
