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Last evening in Florence and I am determined to see the monks doing their Gregorian chants in the San Miniato church and sunset over the city from there and the Piazzale Michelangelo. Unfortunately these all happen at virtually the same time right now, being 6:30.

We walked down the hill from our hotel to San Miniato, where apparently a million other people had the same idea, including a newly minted bride and groom.

The view from here is quite spectacular.

Not sure what I thought Gregorian chanting would sound like, so here’s a taste before the official told me there was no filming.

And here’s a video of the view

Then it was dash away dash away to get to the lower Piazzale to see the end of the sunset and hear the crowds singing. After a wrong turn and a locked gate, we managed to get there in time for the after glow. The younger, drunker members of the crowd were singing, but not any good old Italian song we might have known the chorus to, they were singing to some electronic music coming from somewhere in the centre of the mix.

But the colour of the sky was breathtaking.

So that’s a wrap on Italy 2026. Thank you for coming along with us and for all your kind comments on the facebook posts. The WordPress site has been a bit frustrating and I don’t think I will use it again for future trips cuz . . . there’s gotta be a better way!We are home now, have had the most wonderful family thanksgiving dinner prepared for us, and are loving being home and snuggled in our own bed.

Ok – it’s 3:46 am and I’m wide awake, but that will morph into a good night’s sleep very soon and we are very grateful for it all.

Jan and Don

Well here we are back in Florence, our last stop before saying arrivederci to Italy one last time.

Just when I have finally mastered our Starbucks order in Italian!

We decided to stay up in the hills behind the historical centre, way up pat the Piazzale Michelangelo and San Miniato – to a sprawling luscious area where the ancient wealthy of bygone days had their summer villas. Stunning views and absolute quiet, our Hotel is surrounded by lovingly tended gardens.

We arrived in the golden hour, after a gruelling day negotiating trains. Never again I say!!

First question – is the bar open? And the very welcome answer of “Si signora!“

A month into our journey, Don thought we should change it up a little so he ordered us up a couple of rum and cokes with lime while I took a few more pics.

We ate at the in house restaurant and Don has changed his mind about gnocchi. Though I don’t know if we will ever find any as delicious as there in Vancouver.

They were to die for.

This morning the clouds hung low but started to lift by the time we had finished breakfast.

Even though there were only two other couples in the restaurant for dinner last night, the place was packed for breakfast.

This little girl discovered that the vintage Fiat outside was just the right size for her.

The hotel has a shuttle, so we took it back down to the centre of Florence for one more walk about and to buy a new pair of leather gloves to replace the ones I bought here on our honeymoon.

Luckily I knew exactly what I wanted because a) there are a million choices and b) the three ladies ahead of me were dithering and wanting different colours and should they be long or short and how many different pairs should I get!?!

Me – black, plain, short, unlined. Easy – done. Two of the other three ladies were still adding to their glove piles, as the line behind them continued to grow.

Another couple of quick stops later and it was time for lunch.

Since he has never had one before, I wanted to treat him to his first affogato.

Here’s how the conversation went:

I’m going to get something for you for dessert and you’re going to love it.

I don’t want anything.

Trust me – you will love it.

If I don’t like it, you can eat it so just get one.

I’m getting two – you’re going to want yours.

So I order them and say decaf espresso please.

Did you order coffee – I don’t want coffee!

Just wait until you taste it

ffs!!

The 2 affogatos arrive.

What the hell is this supposed to be? As he removes the cookies and dabs gingerly at the gelato from the top.

Just take your spoon, go all the way to the bottom to get some coffee and the bring it back up to get some of the gelato too. You order coffee flavoured gelato in a cone, so you’re going to f’ing love it, just give it a try!

Further comments go from, okay, pretty good, to yeah – that is really good.

Whew – okay then – good.

How much is it?

I have no idea – don’t worry about it.

Hmph

And I almost managed to pay without him seeing the damage, but he saw the total with his spider senses and as we walked away said, that can’t be right – let me see it.

At which time we both discovered that they were a whopping 15 euros each! (@ a conversion rate of 1.65).

So okay – ridiculous price but they were sooo delicious and it could have been such a lovely moment of discovery. And not for nothing, this is the guy who happily gave a taxi driver 220 euros for a one hour ride and even shook his hand!

I’m still going to take it as a win though . . . I knew he would love it.

And with that, we headed back up the hill for a much needed nap.

At 6:30 we will listen to the nightly Gregorian chants by the monks at San Miniato Chapel – I have always wanted to experience that. And if we can squeeze in sunset at the Piazzale Michelangelo too – then our journey will be complete.

Stay tuned for the next blog to see if it all worked out.

Monks chanting – c’mon who wouldn’t love that!?!

Oh. Wait.

The first of the five villages we ever saw was Vernazza in 2007. We had brought the boys for a whirlwind driving tour of Yorkshire (to meet the relatives) and Europe from Bacharach (near Frankfurt), straight down through Germany, and France to the Cinque Terre in Italy and back up to Munich.

I will never forget that first peak of the coloured buildings and narrow roadway leading down to the sea.

There was a weekly market there when we went this time, and incrementally more tourists, but is just as charming now as it was then.

The walk from the train station at the top of the village only takes a few minutes and then you are rewarded with this view.

Lots of activity down at the harbour, with private boat tours, the hourly ferry to the other villages, and guys just out to catch a fish. Or at least talk about catching one.

Our real goal was to get a seat at the restaurant on the promenade and order our favourite lasagne in the world. I can’t put my finger on what exactly makes it the best, but it is very light – despite having at least 6 layers of pasta and both bechamel and meat layers.

Then it was a few last shots before heading back to Riomaggiore by train.

The waterfront area there is also very picturesque.

But this is the money shot.

We kept going around on that path to the right until we reached a little swimming beach. Now is when you would appreciate lugging your water shoes for three weeks – the rocks are very slippery and the waves are crashing. But – undeterred – we both got in the ocean and enjoyed a nice swim. The water is quite warm, warmer than any pool we have been in over here, so go figure. No picture of that, sorry.

Then I woke up with a horrendous head cold. I did bring some appropriate cold medications, but not the one I really need – Nyquil Complete. our landlady offered me some Vicks vaporub, but I politely declined. That stuff is gross.

Seemed like a good day to stay in bed – we had a hellofa thunderstorm last night, with crazy lightning and torrents of rain. Around noon it seemed to be brightening up and

Don decided that what I really needed was more red wine and a pizza!

Anyway – the wine didn’t hurt and when it stopped raining we went back to our place for a long nap.

Tomorrow we need to get back to Florence for our last couple of days before flying home on Sunday.

Pisa train station is still all screwed up until the 11th apparently, turning getting anywhere by train into total chaos.

So we are booked tomorrow with 3 train changes, one of which has a whopping 5 minute connection time. We have made a 12 minute connection before, by the skin of our teeth, but 5 seems like it might be pushing it unless it’s on the next track over (which it never is). ChatGPT said that because of the Pisa kerfuffle, they were laying on extra trains at this particular spot, Viareggio, so we’re not going to panic just yet. We will be at our last change so hopefully can just hop on the next one.

Fingers crossed!!

We woke up this morning to a beautiful day and breakfast delivered to our door. All is well with the world.

Eventually we got ready to walk the famous cliff hugging path from this village to the next, called the via Dell’Amore.

It’s actually quite tame now, after a decade long reconstruction and wall reinforcement. Parts of the original, rickety wood hanging pathway are still visible (but luckily inaccessible) below.

Even the path from our place to the start of the official path is picturesque.

The village of Manarola literally spills down to the sea.

Of course – we need a gelato.

Back to Riomaggiore for another amazing sunset

Tomorrow is our 42nd anniversary. We’re not sure what we’re going to do. Just being here has made it very special, so we’re kind of just thinking that we will just carry on going with the flow.

Good news – our car started up just fine this morning and got us to the Pisa airport car return with no problems at all. Bad news – there have been widespread technical difficulties with the trains both yesterday and today (not a strike, which I checked was not to be happening on our travel days). Meaning that our 1.5 hour journey is likely to take 6+ hours, and we would be lucky to get that. But don’t try coming back to Pisa today because that won’t be possible. Luckily we don’t want to come back to Pisa until next Friday. Fingers crossed for then.

So we are currently sitting in a cafe across from Pisa Centrale train station, grabbing a bite and a beer (medicinal – for our nerves), and watching the frustrated pick pocket teams as they suss everyone out.

My cross body purse is literally Fort Knox when I attach all the locking carabiners (2 separate ones just to get in, then another one on my phone, attached on a short lanyard to a D-ring that is sewn to the inside of the purse.

So if they really want it, they will get me too and they definitely don’t want that! Not here. Not today.

As we were sitting there waiting, Don wondered how much a taxi would cost. So I go to the taxi stand and ask. Bad news – it’s 220 euro at $1.65 per euro. Good news – Don doesn’t care, and promises to pay it out of his wine fund. Sold.

Here is the only pic I have taken so far today – and this wasn’t even the worst pose.

Just had to share.

7 minute train ride on a regional train after being dropped off by the taxi in La Spezia, and we are disembarking at out final destination, Riomaggiore – 4 hours before our anticipated arrival by train.

We know where we are going, so after a quick stop at the tiny grocer for charcuterie supplies – we headed for Lorenza’s. Guess which way?

I know what this looks like, but he won’t let me take one.

Almost there – “Lorenza – Arrivo!!”

A few minutes later she arrives with a cold bottle of wine, two beer, and the best hugs ever. This is the fourth time we have stayed with her. She says “hi!” to everyone we have brought or recommended: Ayami and David, Tina and Dave, Stew and Laurie, and Joanne and Deb.

It is not easy to get a photo of her because she is always on the move!

Then she insisted on going to get us a pizza to snack on.

Don unearthed this wine we lugged all the way from Chianti just for this purpose (plus 2 more heavy bottles!), and we had a feast.

This guy was wondering if there might be some crumbs for him

But no.

Now we are in paradise for five whole days. If we disappear from here – don’t come looking.

So . . . Our rental car is a hybrid. Very cool. And was working just fine until this morning. We set out to visit an Etruscan archaeological park and weren’t very far from our hotel when Don noticed that the dashboard was blank. Still driving but no idea how fast, and no blinkers either. Pulled over – turned it off and then back on (how many IT techs have told us to do that?) – still nothing. Pulled into a gas station and translated the problem into Italian, just to be informed that mechanics do not work on Saturdays. Limped back to our hotel and asked for the manager guy – Armando. Armando went from psycho to saint when he called Avis for us and negotiated through 15 minutes of messages to finally get someone to come help us.

45 minutes later – with no help in sight – Armando and Don decided to go look at the dashboard again. Just because. And guess what – it was working as if nothing had ever happened!! Madonna Mia!! (Armando and I both said)

Fingers crossed that it keeps working until we drop it off in Pisa tomorrow morning at 11:00. I take back everything – Armando Bates is a saint.

Afraid to drive the car and use up our good luck – we spent the rest of the day in the pool, taking a long nap, and getting sauced in the piazza. Here are some pics

This is the google translation – ?

Saw a wedding shoot with 4 count ‘em 4 photographers in attendance

Walked around a part of town we hadn’t seen yet – guess where? Up!!

And a church

On our way back home from lunch we caught a choir practicing for a wedding

This children’s choir was preparing to perform too.

And there my husband was, patiently waiting, knowing that it would take however long it took to get the shots.

And now it is time to say goodbye to Massa Marittima. God willing and the crick don’t rise, we will drop our car off in Pisa tomorrow morning and catch a train to the Cinque Terre.

But before I get to that, we took a side trip from our last stop in Montepulciano through the Val d’Orcia region to a medieval hot springs village with a hot pool in the centre square and a natural outdoor hot springs that was in the forest. Both are very cool. Warm, but cool.

Then it was back to Montepulciano via the famous Val d’Orcia drive.

Last dinner was in a lovely old restaurant and our lady somehow managed to get us the best seats in the house when she called to reserve a table for us.

Next morning – one last look at the famous chapel and we are off to our next destination.

We are now in Massa Marittima, which is west of Florence and south of Pisa. We have not been in this region before, but in two days we are headed to Pisa to drop off our little car and hop on a train headed for Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre.

We arrived early (of course), only to find the desk firmly “chiuso”. The cleaning lady saw us and motioned that she would try to find someone. About 20 minutes later – not too happy about being disturbed from his lunchtime at home – a man who couldn’t do check in arrived. Tersely told us to come back at 2:00 when the desk was open.

As the reception area was accessible by literally anyone without any employee eyes on anything, I didn’t want to leave our luggage there and asked if it was safe to leave it in the car. Mediterranean shrug, gesture and dismissive “of course” as if just the question was an insult.

So we left everything in the car and started walking – up – to the medieval centre in search of lunch and, as it happens, right past the police station next door.

Found lunch, a couple of beers and a beautiful cathedral.

And a spritz menu! But when I asked the server about trying the one called Cynar Spritz, she made a sour face and shook her head. Better to have the Aperol, she said. Ok – not gonna argue.

So we headed back to try to check in again and maybe go for a swim in the hotel pool. There are lots of rules posted in the reception area, including all swimmers must wear a bathing cap. Which item they do not provide. Can’t wait to get a pic of Don wearing one of those.

And now our room. I made a little video for you (turn sound on).

We are not so fondly referring to it as the Bates Motel. It’s so outdated and tired, and not in a charming way. There is no air in the room – of any kind. The door to the outside balcony doesn’t lock, and since it is on the first floor, it is easily accessible from both sides. The manual says to make yourself aware of the room safe instructions before using, but of course there are no instructions to be found. I asked AI and it provided me with instructions but because it is “an older model” even AI said to double check before putting anything inside. Which I did – the thing is useless. So that all adds up to a thief’s delight as far as I can tell – caribinieri or not!

Of course the reception desk has been closed all morning and my what’s app message has gone unread as of now – 11:51.

So we are taking a pool day today – even though the gate is locked and we definitely do not have pool caps. Maybe someone will show up to give us heck and then we can talk about a few things relating to our room.

Which reminds me – when we went for dinner last night – the Papa at the sweet family restaurant headed my way, seeing that I had not eaten all my pasta. I looked at Don and said, uh oh – I think I’m gonna get in trouble! Which I did, but managed to mollify him with delizioso – molto grande!! Ok then – apparently this is the only acceptable reason for not finishing one’s pasta.

While we were back at our hotel for the afternoon (to hit the pool), there was about an hour of torrential downpour. I had a nap instead. Then I got this photo back up at the cathedral.

Which pretty much made up for everything else. It’s one of my favourite puddle shots.

Today is pool day and we have it to ourselves so far, which is nice. No manager in sight though . . .

Well we never found the particular store we were looking for, but found some corners in medieval Montepulciano that we had never seen before, so that was nice.

Took a few of these beautiful faces in one of the many churches here.

And just in case you aren’t familiar with the Italian version of “up”, here are a few examples. Both ways.

When we got home, I channeled my inner Italian washer wife and hand washed a few things to get us through the next two weeks before coming home. There are probably worse places to do laundry.

We picked up fixings for another charcuterie dinner and Don bought a bottle of wine and we were all set for a nice, budget friendly dinner.

As you can see, Don can’t help buying more wine to hoard.

AND we have limoncello and orange biscotti for dessert. Yay Italy!!

Tomorrow we are doing a day trip to an Italian village with hot springs. This should be interesting!

Tiny Pienza is so quaint, you almost can’t bear it. Things built on top of things, built on top of things, it has existed since around 1100. One shop we were in had a secret tunnel to the Palazzo Piccolomini, for escape during sieges, and a still operating well that was hand dug 20 meters down.

We got up early and headed towards Pienza for a coffee and croissant. Got there about 9:30, which was pretty good for us, and learned that early is definitely the way to go in these picturesque villages. Very few people there at that time – earlier would have been even better. I couldn’t wait to get shooting before the other tourists arrived in throngs – which they did.

Oh to wander in such a beautiful place. We have been here before – twice over the years – and it is still as stunning as ever.

First order of business (delayed only briefly by my shooting the deserted alleyways) was to make a reservation for lunch at the same restaurant we had enjoyed before. I carefully learned how to ask for a reservation at 12:30, but of course their English was impeccable.

Imagine this piazza less than two hours later, teaming with tourists and guides and locals walking their dogs. By then, we were sitting under a grape arbor enjoying lunch.

You simply must put Pienza on your bucket list.

And have I mentioned the cheese!?! Pecorino Di Pienza (fresca – not the old hard kind) – omg, that alone is worth the trip. But don’t try to get it in Vancouver – believe me, I’ve tried. Joan can vouch for how good this is – she’s been here too. Add a little real honey and you have a glimpse of heaven.

By now, it was time for lunch. Back at our little restaurant, there was a table, reserved just for us. The restaurant looks empty, but within 20 minutes the place was packed solid.

On the way back to our car we bought the fixings for a charcuterie dinner with cheese, salami, prosciutto cotto, tomatoes, cucumber and real French butter. Oh – and some nice wine.

On the way back we made sure to get a shot of this tiny Cappella Della Madonna Di Vitaleta.

And a pic of this Tuscan Castello.

Here is Montepulciano from a distance.

Finally – after a great day – we are back at our little home away from home.

All is good, all is well with our world – just putting that out to the universe.

Let’s see if my keyboard wants to cooperate today.

We arrived in Montepulciano at about lunchtime and found our little home away from home for the next five nights. What a luxury not to have to pack up any time soon. Also, there is a little washing machine, whose appearance is very timely.

We visited here quite a few years ago and it is nice to be back, and somewhat familiar with where everything is (up of course!).

And a sweet little kitchen – even I am ready for some home cooked dinners. I wonder what Don will make for us?

Here is my favourite photo of the trip so far, a guy from Brazil (as it turns out), playing a wonderful version of Hallelujah on the steps of an ancient church.

Here are some peeks from our wandering to and from lunch.

We can see that beautiful temple, the Temple of St. Biagio from our window. Since we face due west, I can’t wait for the most amazing sunsets from our very own window.

We are now about halfway through our four week travels, and having to come to grips with the fact that when you revisit places you went to many years ago, you may not have the same energy you had then! Good thing that the entire point of this trip is just to wander, and eat, and enjoy and relax. Rest needs to be added in there too now, even for Don, who insists he is just closing his eyes. Also we are very thankful for Google Maps – having negotiated our way from Greece to northern Scotland during our three month honeymoon in 1985, we know it is possible, but are more than glad that we no longer have to negotiate our route using only a paper map.

So many things to be grateful for . . .

If you have been here, you know, if you haven’t, here is a perfect illustration.

Luckily, there is usually a doorway for any pedestrians to jump into. And yet the Italian drivers confidently zoom down at almost normal speed.

Assisi is absolutely gorgeous. If ever you are looking for a wonderful medieval village to spend some time in, where the food and wine is a bit cheaper and the views around every corner are to die for, this is the one.

As one might expect, there are loads of churches, chapels and cathedrals.

We slowly made our way to the highest point at the far end of the village, to the ruins of the Rocco Maggiore fortress. We met a lovely Irish lady who is an artist and here with her son, who is a writer, for an artistic retreat. Though she was out exploring and apparently her son was still in bed.

From up here it is easy to see why this spot was strategically chosen in order to spot any would be invaders.

Definitely would give the home advantage to Assisi.

I might have to revisit my door obsession while I am here.

As you can see, around every corner is a masterpiece.

Don is just finishing up his crossword, so I am going to join him on our patio. I will leave you with the 5:00 pm bells.

So our new friend did not disappoint at lunch the following day. We headed down there at the duly appointed time and, with only four other guests in attendance, were treated to a food and wine tasting extravaganza. Of course Don’s first thoughts were “how much is this going to cost!?!”. That was before I kicked him under the table. Who cares!?! There are times when you will be rewarded by just going with the flow, and this is one of those times.

I already forget how much it was – not that much.

Back at our hotel there is this wonderful vintage picture of a grape harvest parade.

All there was left to do was wait for our much anticipated dinner at our favourite restaurant in the world, Ristoro di Lamole. We have been there at least six times (twice on one trip) and it never disappoints. One of the owners, Phillipo, who has always served us, took one look at me and said “oh. My. God!”. Grabbed my hand and when he saw Don his also and commented that Don’s moustache hadn’t changed!

Yep – we’re back! And we’ll have our usual starters: pear and pecorino ravioli in brown butter, pacchieri with mushrooms and truffles.

The sun set during our meal was spectacular.

As we neared the end of the meal, Fillipo reminded us to save a little room for the. . . And he pointed at me to finish the sentence . . . LIMONCELLO!!

We did not have a repeat performance of the year that we pretty much finished the whole bottle of complementary limoncello, but we enjoyed a glass each before rolling down the hill to our hotel, only about five minutes drive away.

This morning we headed for Assisi. Travel days are not always our best days and for some reason Google Maps thought we should take the scenic route over the hills and onto Don’s new favourite, narrow winding gravel roads.

Jumping forward 2.5 hours, we caught sight of our destination: Assisi

So close, we could almost taste it.

Back on speaking terms, we wound our way up through the town, following Google’s instructions faithfully. Until it said we were there and there didn’t seem to be a there there.

“We passed it”. “What do we do now?” “Find a place to park and I will walk back to see where it is.” “I can’t move – the line of cars in front of me is backing up!” “Well then back up!” I shout as a tiny car threatens to back right into us, followed by three giant busses.

So Don does a U-turn on the spot and pulls in, as much as is possible, to let everyone else go by while we figure out where we are going. The little car zooms by, but the bus driver starts to honk. Not just any honk, but the king of all honks.

Don moves forward a little bit, but he is not going anywhere without his navigator and I am out of the car by this time and about twenty feet behind him and the bus. He moves an inch forward,

But not good enough for the bus driver, who wants him to keep going – HONK! HONK HONK!

By this time, I have seen the driveway to our hotel, so am hurrying up and level with the bus and can see that he could just go around – no one is coming the other way – but he doesn’t want to do that. And just at that moment an Italian angel comes out of nowhere, pounds on his door to make the bus driver open it, and gives him holy hell for making so much noise and telling him to just go around for God’s sake – Mamma Mia!!

I joined in in English, yelling – Yeah! Just go around for God’s sake as I passed by him and managed to get parallel with Don to show him the driveway to our hotel, which was right there. Unfortunately by the time I got to him, he was just a few inches too far to make the sharp turn, so we waited ever so patiently for the nasty bus driver to just go around, before making the turn to our own little sanctuary.

Don’s quote of the day: I’m not getting in that car again until we have to leave!

So that’s our little drama for today. The room though – is totally worth it. Check out this view.

We didn’t want to leave. But we were hungry so headed out to find somewhere nearby for a quick bite.

Now we’re back here enjoying our view, a bit of white wine, and just waiting for dinner so we can go to a place someone said had the “best lasagne anywhere”. I sure hope so!

As we bid arrivederci to our place at La Rimbecca, we were not altogether sad to see the last of that damn road!

First stop enroute to our next lodgings – lunch at Osteria Fonterutoli. Reservations duly made in advance, we had a lovely table in the garden.

Here comes the food porn:

Then it was off to another previously unknown accommodation, Castellinuzza – way up in the hills above Greve, on the road to Lamole. This place is stunning, so I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Of course, there is always “something”, and the something here is that there are no restaurants nearby, except the expensive (but so worth it) Ristoro di Lamole (where we have reservations for tomorrow night) and a place with a handmade sign saying “Monday night sunset pizza!” That we had driven past on our way up to Castellinuzza. These are the only two options within ten miles of us on a narrow, steep, and winding (but paved) road.

So after a lovely swim and a glass of wine that our hostess poured for Don when he just went looking for two wine glasses,

we headed back down the hill to try the sunset pizza. Monday nights only apparently. Good News! It’s Monday night! Bad News! No reservation!!

Turns out it’s a tiny little spot way down a gravel drive (grr) with a few tables outside all set up – totally empty – but the owner called to us and after determining that we did not have a rezzo, he was very sorry but no pizza for us! I assumed it was due to seating, and suggested that we could eat our pizza on the bench nearby, but no, alas, it was the fact that he only had enough pizza dough for the number of reserved guests, and could we come back tomorrow?

With Don growling and hangry behind me, I said yes please! Lunch? To which the owner said to come at 12:30 and he would make us something special because we were nice. Oh yes . . . We’re going!

Since we were halfway to Greve anyway, we went back to our pizza guy at La Cantina and he was so happy to see us again – shook our hands and chef’s kiss. I’m not sure his English was proficient enough to catch Don’s “it’s the only place to get a good pizza around here”, but he appreciated the repeat visit.

Tomorrow – now that we have lunch and dinner reservations nearby – is going to be about relaxing, Don doing his crosswords, me taking pics and reading my book,

swimming in the beautiful infinity pool and having it all to ourselves (where is everyone!?!) and probably throw a nap in there somewhere between a big lunch and a big dinner. All the while taking in the most glorious 180 degree view of absolute perfection. This is exactly why we love Italy – not necessarily the things you do, but the feeling you get when you just take the time to look around you and appreciate the timeless beauty here.

Having done nothing but swim, eat and drink all day, I am a little short on content this evening. So here is an immersive video for you to experience the Ancient Roman Road right along with us. (Though just having watch it, it really doesn’t do justice to the roller coaster feeling from in the car.)

We decided to skip the crowds at the Panzano wine festival – we’ve been there before and you pay for a glass, which entitles you to tastes from all the winemakers, but you also have to pretend to be interested in their spiel about their techniques, yada yada. Instead, we headed back into Greve for a little lunch and then to take a round out of the huge wine cellar that has a huge selection of pour it yourself wine from the region. You get a little card, put it into the slot above the wine you want to try and select from three different size pours. This way you can try a lot of wines, including the pricier ones, by choosing the smallest pour (taster sized) at a reasonable price.

So that was fun.

Here is a photo of the main square in Greve

For some reason, we had a guest at lunch. He didn’t eat much . . .

Then it was back to the pool for the afternoon. Tough, eh? Tomorrow we change locations, but not too far. We are heading up into the hills of Chianti to another place we have never been before. Although the family who runs the place we are in now are absolutely wonderful, we have not loved the road (having chosen not to take the Roadside package!) or the inability to just walk to a grocery store or restaurant of any kind. I’m not sure about the next place either, except that it closer to our favourite restaurant in the world – Ristoro di Lamole – and I am pretty sure that the road is paved. Fingers crossed. If not, I am never going to stop hearing about it.

Two nights there and then we are on to Assisi, which should be fun because we have only seen it from a distance and never actually explored the historical village at all. Stay tuned for that one!

We had nothing to do today but go to lunch. So we had a little swim, read our books and did pretty much nothing until it was time to get ready to go to lunch. Made a reservation yesterday – these days a reservation is totally necessary if you want to sit anywhere but the back bench beside either the kitchen or the bathroom.

The place we had chosen for today was recommended on a Facebook page I follow, but also by our host, who is a friend of the owner. He told us, if you want to go, just let me know, I will WhatsApp him and you will have a table. But we made it the old fashioned way, by ourselves, and set out to find this new off the beaten track hidden gem.

And off the beaten track it really was. Basically ”the other way” from anything.

Don’s new favourite phrase is “where the hell are you taking me?”

But we did find it and the view was spectacular.

The couple ahead of us didn’t have a reservation (!) – they got a table against the furthest wall away from the view. Then us – ah! Reservation? Si? Please follow me.

This was our table:

Here comes a little food porn for you, you’re welcome.

Chef’s kiss.

Thinking ahead to our next meal, as you do, we don’t have a restaurant within walking distance of our place, so thought we would take home about half of our lunch to reheat for dinner.

Don called the server over and asked if it would be possible to take the rest home.

“Take out! Eat later is dog food! Eat it!” Was the passionate reply. I said a vehement “No!” To the dog food comment. Defeated, the server shrugged and said, “so you want a box?”. Sorted. Then of course we ordered Tiramisu and limoncello.

Happily heading home on the gravel road, we came across a lot of men surrounding a van that got stuck in a giant divet in the road, of course blocking passage by anyone going either way.

Luckily, the guy in front of us came to the window and said that there was another way out if we turned around, so we actually got out and with the help of Google Maps, headed in the direction of our accommodations again.

The one downside of our place, which is actually very nice and run by a lovely young family, is that it is at the end of 1.6 kms of the original Roman road between Greve in Chianti and Rimbecca (where was are staying, which was originally a lookout).

And believe me, it is no joke! Another kudo to zero deductible insurance.

Once home, it was nap/pool time, depending on which of us you are, and the hens were all over the place, including a very vocal one. I will try to upload the video.

Now we are watching the European swimming championships with Italian commentary and waiting until we can turn out the lights. Still not sleeping well even though we are into the new time zone. We are hoping for a decent night’s sleep tonight!

Bonne Notte a tutti . . .