Europe Report #8 - Surprised by Tuscany

Autumn in San Gimignano, Tuscany

It is early morning -- well, half-past eight.  I'm sitting on our patio in Tuscany, watching the sunshine edge up over the fields of grape vines, olive groves and forested hills.  Periodically, I hear gunshots in the distance and sometimes closer, followed by the sound of tracking dogs barking frantically. This surprised me at first, but I suppose it is October.  They must have autumn hunting here as we do at home.  The only real difference is the temperature.  Sitting in the shade here, I'm wearing a light sweater; at home, I'd be bundled up in woolens.

Our accommodation is
in a renovated barn/farmhouse.

We were only able to squeeze two nights and one full day of Tuscany into our schedule and it is turning out to be a wonderful place to visit.  We have just been knocked out by the beauty of this place.  Everyone talks about Tuscany in superlative terms and they don't exaggerate.  The rolling hills are dotted with fertile fields and rustic farmhouses.  Various hilltops are dotted with walled medieval villages like San Gimignano which is is within sight of our cottage.

We wish we could explore this region for a much longer time.

We are staying in what was once a farm.  The current owners bought the farmhouse and farm buildings in the 1970s.  They remodelled everything from sheds to barn to create a group of apartments for visitors.  One of the largest units, our two-bedroom apartment is in what was once the ground-level barn under the farmhouse.  The grounds are beautifully landscaped and, sitting on the brow of a hill, the entire property has the most beautiful views of the surrounding fields, homes and San Gimignano itself.

San Gimignano was clearly visible from our accommodation.

San Gimignano was once a bustling hilltop town, filled with wealthy merchants and travellers on their way to and from Rome.  The walls protected it from intermittent attacks and regional wars.  In its heyday -- about 1300 -- the 72 towers it was known for were a symbol of the power and authority of the family groups that built and owned them.  Today there are just a handful of towers left, but they create a most distinctive silhouette on the horizon. 

Our one day in this region was dedicated to relaxing, laundry at the farm and a few hours of shopping in San Gimignano.  Too short by far, but so pleasant! 

On Sunday, we left early and started heading south again toward Civitavecchia where we were to pick up our cruise back across the Atlantic.  Driving along winding roads, around hills and through forests, we marvelled again at the beauty of this region.  There was mist hanging in some of the valleys.  Sometimes we saw distant plumes of smoke from an autumn fire.  Other times we'd have a glimpse of a hilltop village in the distance; sometimes eventually driving through the village after a long, twisting route.

Many of the hills are heavily wooded.  We started noticing the occasional car parked at the sides of the road.  At first we assumed they belonged to hikers or hunters, but as the next two hours wore on, we estimated seeing more than 200 parked cars.  They couldn't all be shooting up the forest!  Eventually, we also saw some of the drivers and passengers coming and going with baskets and bags.  Mushrooms!  They were all picking mushrooms!

Fumaroles

The ground was warm.

Tuscany is a volcanic region, but rather than suffer from the destructive power of volcanoes, it is spotted with thermal vents or fumaroles   These don't occur in our part of the world, so I wanted us to stop and see some of these up close.  

We were heading for Parco della Fumaroles near Sasso Pisano, halfway to Civitavecchia.  As we drove through the beautiful hills and valleys, we caught a glimpse of what looked like a pair of nuclear reactors -- those gigantic eyesores that provide our modern world with so much power.  We thought it was such a shame to have these things cluttering up the beautiful Tuscan landscape.  As we drew closer, I began to remember some of my research on Tuscany.  These weren't nuclear reactors.  They were collecting thermal energy from this volcanic region!  Then we realized we hadn't been seeing smoke from autumn fires in the valleys.  The smoke was really steam escaping from harnessed and unharnessed thermal vents in the earth!

We soon drove through the sleepy village of Sasso Pisano and up the hill behind town.  We pulled into a small parking area with a sign marked Fumaroles   There was a huge pile of barren earth beyond a small fence; it looked like it was a bit of landslide that had recently come down the hillside.  No plants grew on it and the colour of the rocks was different from the surrounding area.  As we approached, we could see tendrils of steam floating up from the ground into the morning air.  It was amazing.  It was hard to see exactly where the steam came out of the earth; it just seemed to be there above the rocks.  We felt the rocks themselves and found them quite warm, but not hot.

We drove about a kilometre further into the valley and walked into another park area.  It was closed off to visitors (it was still early on a Sunday morning), but we could see through the fencing that this was an even more active area.  There was hot, steaming water running through the valley with large plumes of steam rising in several places.  Hot, bubbling mud was also clearly visible.  Quite fascinating!  I wish we could have had a guided tour of the area.

Rome's Port - Civitavecchia

Port of Civitavecchia

We continued to head south and, driving along the coast, reached our hotel in the port city of Civitavecchia by early afternoon.  We unloaded all our luggage and left Mom and the Kid enjoying the sunshine on the hotel patio.  Dad and I still needed to drive another hour south to the Rome airport (Fiumicino) where we would leave our car.

When we arrived at the remote drop-off point at a very distant airport parking area, Dad and I again marvelled at the ease of the Renault Buy-Back program.  It took us less than five minutes (including chit-chat) to enter the Renault parking lot, park the car, sign a paper, turn over the keys and board the shuttle back to the airport.  They didn't ask us one question about the car and never looked at it themselves.  A great system!

The shuttle took us to the area of the airport where a train station is also located.  We purchased train tickets for Civitavecchia and immediately caught the train.  We travelled toward Rome for about eight stops, then changed trains.  It was a little confusing; I wasn't completely sure which platform we needed, but we followed some signs and other travellers also trying to reach Civitavecchia.  We thought that, if we were lost, we'd be lost together!  The second train arrived within a couple of minutes; that ride lasted about 45 minutes and did, in fact, stop in Civitavecchia.  Whew!  Our connections were perfect and far faster than I'd anticipated.  We didn't see any cabs heading toward our hotel, so Dad and I began walking.  Our hotel wasn't more than two kilometres away; we made it in record time, but were very hot and tired. 

Tomorrow we board our ship and start heading west.  Thanks for reading!

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