Final week I embarked upon a street journey journey by the rolling hills of Tuscany. With a number of stops, accommodations and cities to go to, it’s a visit I had been planning for fairly a while. This time I used to be very fortunate to have the ability to convey my boyfriend alongside, who didn’t take a lot convincing to be my plus 1! Fortunately he additionally doubled up as nice journey buddy, driver and photographer. Right here is an element 1 of my Tuscany street journey…
The journey first took place as I used to be invited to go and expertise a keep on the Castello di Casole, a wonderful 5 star property within the Tuscan countryside. Being equal in distance from each Pisa and Florence, it offered an opulent base for exploring the encircling space.
Due to Castello di Casole’s wonderful location, I made a decision to show it in to a possibility to go to as many Tuscan cities as doable in a bit of 5-day journey. So as to optimise our time, we strategically booked flights into Pisa and out from Florence. We additionally collected our rent automobile in Pisa and dropped it off in Florence. This manner we might plan an A to B route with out having to retrace any floor. Excellent! Our route for the journey was as follows;
Day 1 – Pisa Day 2 – Casole d’Elsa and San Gimignano Day 3 – Siena Day 4 – Florence Day 5 – Florence
Right here’s Half 1 of what I obtained as much as on my Tuscany street journey.
Day 1: Pisa
Our British Airways flight from Gatwick landed into Pisa at about 1.30pm. The flight solely took 1hour half-hour and after taking a number of lengthy haul flights just lately, it felt as if we had been within the sky for no time in any respect. As quickly as we landed we jumped on a switch bus to the automobile rent terminal and went to gather our rent automobile. After a little bit of tedious admin and grown-up insurance coverage talks, the keys had been handed over and freedom was ours!
We had initially booked a brand new Fiat 500 however we ended up with a Silver Corsa, completely zippy for getting across the winding nation roads. We took the automobile for its first take a look at drive into the centre of Pisa, our first cease of the journey. Being solely 25 minutes from the airport and with pretty easy roads, it was a straightforward drive for Scott to familiarize yourself with driving on the fitting hand aspect of the street (his first time driving in Europe).
After all touchdown in Pisa it will have been impolite to not make the Leaning Tower our first cease of the journey, so off we went into the centre of city to see one of many 7 Wonders of the World. The Tower is positioned within the Piazza dei Miracoli together with the cathedral, baptistery and cemetery, which collectively make up one of many best architectural complexes on the planet. Earlier than visiting Pisa I had no concept that the leaning tower is simply one of many many beautiful buildings within the advanced and due to it’s fame it outshines the spectacular cathedral, which can be effectively value a go to. One factor I didn’t realise in regards to the tower earlier than visiting is you could truly nonetheless climb up it to the highest!
We had simply sufficient time to walk across the walled piazza, take our compulsory photographs and cease for our first gelato earlier than heading again to the automobile for our 2 hour drive to Castello di Casole (preserve an eye fixed out for a full lodge evaluate on the weblog quickly)
Day 2 Morning: Casole d’Elsa
After a scrumptious breakfast of omelette and an Italian cappuccino, we had been up and raring to go on our first full day of the street journey. Casole d’Elsa is the closest city to the Castello di Casole and was the smallest of the cities we visited.
Positioned on the highest of a hill and surrounded by inexperienced countryside, Casole d’Elsa is a sleepy little Italian city with picturesque streets, historic buildings and never a single vacationer in sight! There are solely a handful of eating places and also you wouldn’t want greater than 1/2 a day to discover the entire city, so we arrived mid morning and stayed ’til lunch.
The concierge at Castello di Casole kindly advisable a pleasant restaurant for us to have lunch in, which we stumbled throughout earlier than we even went on the lookout for it. The restaurant was known as Caffe Casolani and was a couple of minutes stroll from the principle piazza of the city.
Tables stretched alongside the road and exquisite vines grew up the edges of the wall. I had the sensation this place hadn’t modified a bit because it opened. When the waiter introduced out our menus we had been offered with a bit of paper with Italian scribbled throughout it, so it needed to be genuine! Asking for an English menu most likely would have been out of the query (not to mention very uncool) so we did our greatest to translate and took a big gamble on what we ordered!
My dish turned out to be a easy pasta dish with essentially the most scrumptious and contemporary pesto. With a glass of purple wine on the aspect, it was completely excellent.
Day 2 Afternoon: San Gimignano
After lunch we discovered a wonderful panoramic spot on the finish of the city earlier than leaping again into our automobile to proceed our Tuscany street journey in San Gimignano. This city had been advisable to me by a contact who had additionally visited Castello di Casole and it turned out to be my favorite cease of the entire journey.
San Gimignano is way bigger than the sleepy city of Casole d’Elsa, however nonetheless a lot smaller than the likes of Pisa, Siena and Florence. The walled medieval hillside city is brimming with historical past and well-known for having the most effective gelatos in Tuscany. San Gimignano is dwelling to a complete of 14 medieval towers which have been amazingly preserved and make for a wonderful terracotta sky line when approaching the town.
The solar was out and there was an actual buzz within the air as we walked by one of many walled gateways of San Gimignano. It instantly felt way more touristy than Casole d’Elsa with plenty of individuals wandering round. We made our approach by a winding avenue lined with ceramic outlets and arrived on the central Piazza del Duomo seeking Gelato.
While we had been informed that San Gimignano was the place to get THE finest gelato, we didn’t know precisely which gelataria to move to. So we took our probabilities on one of many two institutions within the central piazza known as Gelateria Dondoli. Each had enormous queues outdoors them, however after we noticed that this place was named ‘Gelato World Champion’, we determined to hedge our bets and provides it a go.
As with a lot of the gelaterias in Italy, there have been limitless decisions by way of flavours however I went for a hazelnut and nutella combo. Was it the most effective gelato I’ve ever had? Completely, unquestionably, 100% sure!
Gelatos in hand we discovered a sunny spot within the piazza to take a seat and soak within the environment. Musicians stuffed the sq. with music and we stopped to observe a conventional Punch and Judy puppet present which had a crowd of youngsters engrossed. High issues to do in San Gimignano embrace climbing the Torre Grossa (the city’s tallest tower with breathtaking countryside views), the collection of City Museums and the marginally darkish however ever so fascinating Museum of Torture.
What did you consider half certainly one of my Tuscany street journey? Have you ever visited any of the cities talked about or are you planning an identical journey? I’d love you to depart a remark for me within the field beneath if you happen to loved this publish x Keep tuned for components 2 and three hitting the weblog later this week!
