Sadly we now aren’t woken in the morning by the lovely chirping of the swallows but instead by the frenetic itching of our newly acquired mozzie bites. We have been totally overwhelmed by them, covering our arms and legs and some on our faces. They have been building up over the last week and there seems to be no room left for new mozzie bites. Harry seems the most affected and he looks like he has chicken pox again. Jack has scratched all of his so much that they have bled and formed scabs. We all look a treat. Corky only has a few and most surprising of all, Sophie has not one single bite on her despite sharing the same room. Luckily she has been spared and we are envious of her un-lumpy and non-itchy skin.
Beach day today. We headed off around lunchtime and straight down to Florida Private Beach Resort. Probably not the best day to go being a hot Sunday during the school holidays, so the resort was quite packed. Nevertheless, we managed to get a front row umbrella and sun lounges. We settled in for the afternoon. We swam, we relaxed, we watched amusingly at the peddlars selling their wares up and down the beach. Madi was dying to get her hair braided so we negotiated with a lady to do it for her. It took about 45 minutes and looked quite painful at stages when tears sprang to Madi’s eyes, but she was thrilled with the result. We got some lunch from the restaurant and ate it on the beach. It was a lovely leisurely afternoon and we spent about 5 hours here.
From the café we went around the headland and parked our car. We walked along the temporary markets that were set up on the edge of the water and then found a lovely restaurant with views of the large boats and the sunset. Corky and I had a lovely porcini lasagne and it wasn’t until 30 minutes later that the kids got their meals. Not very organised but enjoyable all the same. We found the best-yet ice cream shop and this time I just had to indulge as well.
We finally got home just after midnight.
MONDAY 27 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY
We could tell today was going to be scorching temperatures as soon as we got up and opened the windows. The air was already quite hot and muggy. Great chance to do some washing. I quite enjoyed hanging the washing out here. The clothes line is suspended outside the bedroom window which is 2 stories above the ground (thankfully not facing the Piazza but instead facing the view over the countryside). I have to lean out and carefully peg the clothes onto the line without dropping them into someone’s unknown garden below. I then pull on the line and the clothes move along to the far end so by the time I have finished, I have a whole row of clothes hanging along the length of the back of our house. Goodness help me if a strong wind blows and my underwear goes flying off over the village! Today we drove up to Monte Amrita which is in a northerly direction from Montemerano and into the Siena district. It is one of the highest mountains in the region. It was 40kms of windy roads which took us about 1 hour. The temperature had reached 39 degrees on the way there. We decided to stop for lunch first in the village of Santa Fiora. What a mistake! It was 3pm and there was nothing, zip, zilch open. One could starve in Italy in the middle of the day! We went into the reception of a hotel to ask about getting to the Monte Amrita. We interrupted the social telephone call of the lady behind the counter. Once she addressed us, we asked ‘do you know how to get to Monte Amrita?’ She nodded ‘Si’. ‘Are you able to show us how to get there?’ She nodded ‘Si’. Then nothing more. Uncomfortable silence while we looked at her and she looked at us. I changed the subject. ‘Is the restaurant open?’ A shake of the head ‘No’! ‘Is there anywhere for us to eat?’ A shake of the head ‘No’! We left after such an enjoyable conversation and with no new knowledge.
Being the intrepid travellers we are, we were determined that we could find Mount Amrita ourselves. And we succeeded. How could we possibly miss it at 1738m. The temperature dropped to a comfortably 20 degrees at this altitude and we had to unblock our ears several times. The drive up was beautiful through the forests with incredibly tall trees. During a short snow season of only 3 months (due to being so close to the coast) from January to March, this area is a skiing resort area and you could see on our travels up several chair lifts and pommels. The buildings up at the very top were true snow chalet style and you could see the paths through the forest where the skiing trails are. By this stage I had started to develop a headache, I think a combination of the heat, my cold I was still trying to get rid of and the windy roads.
Soon enough we headed back down to Santa Fiora where finally being 5.30pm, there was sign of life again and the Pharmacy was open. We bought some headache tablets and headed on our way back towards Montemerano. By the time the windy hour-long trip was up, I was verging on a migraine and felt terrible. Corky took the kids to the playground and I struggled my way up to our house and finally into bed. This was one of the worst headaches I had experienced. I slept for about an hour and felt so much better afterwards though my head was still a bit sensitive.
About 8.30pm we headed out for dinner. The night was still quite warm and we went down to a different restaurant, one we hadn’t been to before. It was slightly more upmarket than the others we have frequented in Montemerano. There was only one other couple there and we quite convincingly shattered their peace and romantic setting. The Corcoran’s had arrived. Soon enough however another family arrived and they too had 4 children (4 daughters) and the mother and I gave each other a ‘yes, I too am a mother of 4’ look (yes, there is such a thing!) I had a private bet on which family of 4 children would be most disruptive, I was betting we would be. Harry has developed authority in the family and he certainly isn’t quiet about it.
The meal was lovely but of course the kids were picky but we managed to get them fed somehow. Off to the bar for dessert and coffee. Yes, we are definitely locals now!
TUESDAY 28 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY
Another glorious Tuscan day, what shall we do? We stayed around the house for the morning chatting with Francesco and organising our Sorrento accommodation for next week. After lunch, we went down to the river which is only a couple of kilometres away. The day was certainly hot enough for a dip in the river. We parked by the side of the road and walked down under the bridge to the crystal clear water. We found a nice spot in the shade and went straight in, relieved to be out of the heat. The river is incredible and the water a very comfortable temperature. We had the privilege to do what many people pay for in Japan; have little fish nibble at our feet. Incredibly you can pay for this service as a treatment in Japan. The little fish nibble at your dead skin. However here in Montemerano, you can get it for free. At first it is a little odd and feeling them suction is very bizarre but after a while it becomes a bit of a novelty and eventually you shake them off due to annoyance.
There were a few other people there but certainly not that many to feel crowded or overwhelmed and overall it was very peaceful with cicadas chirping in the trees all around. After several hours here, we went back home to get showered and changed for dinner.
First stop before dinner was the Pharmacy in Manciano. We just had to buy stronger mozzie repellant because the one we have just doesn’t seem to be working. We also needed a cream to sooth the itches. Once purchased, we were off to Pitigliano for dinner. We have now been to this town several times however it still wow’s us as we come around the corner and all is displayed on the opposite cliffs for us. We found a park and a fabulous restaurant with views of the lit up city walls above the cliff. Dinner was one of the best we have had, I guess it also helped that the menu was in English so we could experiment a bit more than the usual words we can understand.
I had lovely local mushrooms in olive oil for entrée and for main a very tasty lamb stew. No meals ever seem to come with vegetables so I ordered a side of roasted vegetables. Corky was comfortable with what he knew; ricotta ravioli with bolognese sauce. Sophie helped him with this. Jack and Harry enjoyed lamb and Madi her usual spaghetti bolognese. Whilst I was trying to cut the meat off the lamb bone, my knife slipped and I splashed red sauce all up my top. I think my squeal startled everyone but soon enough the waitress came over with a magic potion and sprayed it on all the splotches. She told me I had to wait 5 minutes and then we could brush it off. I walked back to the table with white blobs on my clothes feeling just great. Sure enough, when the dried white marks were brushed off, voila, no more stains. I still brought my top home to wash. For dessert we couldn’t resist the Panna Cotta with chocolate.
We had a lazy and leisurely walk back to the car admiring the city all lit up because we knew this would be a last visit here.
We pulled up into the carpark at Montemerano, hopped out and had a look into the bushes to see if we could see any firefly’s. There were none but there was a man driving quickly on a small motorbike. He came flying into the carpark and straight out the other side and then up over the road above us and back around again to the carpark. We couldn’t work out what was going on until Jack called out ‘what is that?’ pointing at something running along the road in our direction. It was a huge hedgehog. The poor thing was quite startled by someone chasing him on a motorbike and now being trapped by fences in the carpark. The guy on the motorbike was trying to video him on his mobile phone. We were fascinated to see the hedgehog a bit closer. He kept dodging behind the parked cars and we kept following him up the road. He was easily half the height of Harry and was missing quite a lot of his spikes, we gathered he was very old but all the remaining spikes were up on end. He ran up and down behind the cars trying to find a way out. At one stage, Sophie and I were up further in the middle of the road and everyone else was down looking at him when he suddenly came out from behind a car and started running up the middle of the road towards us. Clearly he didn’t see us because we were standing still but as he got closer I got nervous and moved to the side a bit, this startled him and he dodged off to the right behind more cars. I reckon he would have run right into us. We finally managed to shoo him out of the carpark and he gratefully ran off into the night. That beats firefly’s anyday.
WEDNESDAY 29 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY
We decided today to make another attempt to see the deers down near the coast. The first time we went it was way too hot to bother and headed to the beach. The second time we went on a Sunday and it was very crowded and too hard to find a parking spot and finally this time we managed to get there OK. We parked the car and walked across a little bridge and through a gate into a forest area. The area was well covered with the trees but very bare on the ground. The whole area was several kilometres long stretching from the mainland and across to the island. It was all national park where 1600 deers lived. A beach also stretched right up the side of the park. We walked for about 15 minutes down the shaded track in the middle of the park. We couldn’t see any deers and I guess there was no wonder with all the noise we made. We eventually decided to turn around and give up all hope of seeing any when just ahead in a clearing two little deers were feeding on some grass. We were excited to see some and gave us hope of finding more. We made our way carefully over to them and eventually they heard us and ran off into the trees. We followed, not very deer-like, and we managed to see a small herd of them. We were finally satisfied that we had seen Bambi.
It was nice and cool under the canopy of trees along this long tombolo but once we had got back to the car, the heat was intense. It was about 4pm and we headed down to our favourite little internet coffee shop on the port at Porto San Stefano. We ate a very late light lunch and had some drinks and enjoyed checking our emails and the kids playing on their iTouch’s. The owners were always happy to see us and finally after a couple of hours we needed to leave because we had to get back to Montemerano to go out for dinner with Francesco. We said fond farewell to our ‘internet friends’ because this would be the last time we were visiting here and we started back to Montemerano. The trip usually takes about 50 minutes. As we were heading off the island and along one of the tombolo’s, we could see off to the right two sea planes flying over the other tombolo – at the end of where the deers lived. The two seaplanes were picking up water from the ocean and dumping it over the land. We couldn’t see what they were dumping the water on because there was a hill in the way but we parked to the side to watch for a while. There was also a helicopter with a large bucket helping out. There must have been a bushfire.
We only watched for about 5 minutes but as soon as we joined the road again, there was a huge traffic jam. This would mean we were going to get back late to Montemerano and Francesco would be waiting for us. We had a reservation at a restaurant in Saturnia (10 minutes drive) for 8.30pm. The Sat Nav predicted we wouldn’t get home till 8.30pm – no time for a shower and change!
Corky drove like a racing car driver to get home quicker and we pulled up into the village at 8.25pm. Jack, Harry and I jumped out so we could take the short cut up to our house while Corky, Madi and Sophie took the car to park. We were out of breath by the time we got up to our house and we went upstairs and called out to Francesco. There was no answer. I found the mobile he leant to us and I called his number. ‘Francesco, hello it’s Katrina’ …. ‘Ahh, Katrin, I was hoping that it would be OK if perhaps we could go out tomorrow night for dinner instead, I have been caught up in another town’. Of course it would be alright I said as slowly my heart rate returned to normal. The others arrived puffed through the door and were actually relieved when I told them they had no need to rush anymore.
We took our time and got ready and then went to a lovely restaurant in Montemerano called Il Moro that we haven’t been before. It has a deck out the back with glorious views of the sweeping countryside below – similar to the view from our bedroom window but we are higher and in a slightly different direction. We sat out in the lovely evening temperature and ate pizza which was all that seemed to be on their menu tonight and then we wandered up to the Bar for dessert.
Our time in Tuscany is quickly coming to an end so we are enjoying all the little things we have been doing for the last time.
THURSDAY 30 JUNE – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY
Today is our sightseeing day with Francesco, who is proudly our Tour Guide for today. Francesco use to be a Guide for the local area, in particular the all the Etruscian sites. He also was a Tour Guide in Australia for 15 years, taking Italian Groups on tours even out to Ayers Rock. He is extremely knowledgeable about the area he lives in but more importantly, he is extremely proud and passionate of his homeland and also about the history.We started off by driving for about 30 minutes in a direction we have never been before. We went through the old Etruscan town of Sorano. The Archeological park “Citta del tufo” is situated in the territory of this town and it consists of many archeological, historical and naturalistic sites of great Etruscan importance. Located in the archeological park we went to is the largest Etruscan tomb found. We walked around the area they lived and you could see many tombs and remains of old buildings (ornate columns etc) dating back about 5000 years ago. We walked down into one of the tombs and Francesco explained in detail about how they use to store the bodies and stories about how the tombs were robbed but also treasures that were found by current man. You could also still see coloured plaster they used on the buildings. One tomb was only discovered about 4-5 years ago so the area is still relatively new in discovery and importance. Francesco says it is still a bit of a secret and thankfully not very touristy.
We walked up and through a gorge that the Etruscans dug out over a period of a couple of hundred years. It was quite narrow, just enough to fit a car through and incredibly you could see how much lower the road has become due to 2000 years of rain washing away more of the rock. They use to have religious parades up through these gorges and there are many of them around. Francesco showed up further a large swastika that is engraved in the wall. The swastika in Etruscan times (about 4000 years ago) was used as a symbol of sun and life and they use to engrave it on their ceramics etc. The symbol was originally taken from India where it too depicted sun and life however sadly many thousands of years later Hitler took this symbol to depict his Aryan race ideologies and shamefully has changed the image of the swastika from life to a symbol of death.
We could have spent a long time here learning so much from Francesco because I doubt there is an end to his knowledge of the area however it was time for lunch and a glass of vino. We went to Pitigliano and to a lovely restaurant with views from the cliff we were dining on the edge of. The restaurant was in an open courtyard but above us was an extensive growth of vines sheltering us from the hot sun. Sophie tried some of Francesco’s proscuitto and loved it. Harry enjoyed tickling Francesco and playing ‘round and round the garden’ on his hand. We enjoyed a few glasses of wine so to wake up for the afternoon we decided to go to an indoor pool nearby for a swim. The water in this pool is very pure and clean, obviously due to all the natural springs in the area. We all had to wear caps on our heads but we managed to have the pool to ourselves because no-one else was there. It was very refreshing because the heat is quite oppressive.
Home after our swim to put our feet up for about an hour and then get ready for dinner. Tonight Francesco was taking us to a favourite restaurant of his in Saturnia. We got there as the sun was starting to set and the restaurant looked out in the direction of the setting sun. We had a lovely meal with more local wine but not too much that we couldn’t drive to Manciano to see the horses racing through the streets at 9pm. We got there in time but we found out that there was a problem and the horses weren’t racing tonight. Instead we wandered around the town which was in a festive mood with markets and stalls and activities for children. We separated from Francesco who had some business to take care of and we got an ice-cream and then headed home.
FRIDAY 1 JULY – MONTEMERANO, TUSCANY, ITALY
This morning we spent the time to pack out belongings that we had managed to spread from one end of the house to the other. We were cramming and squashing things in, clearly we needed another suitcase. For lunch we went into Manciano and ate in a restaurant there and then we went over to Saturnia to the Thermal Spa’s. It was quite expensive to get in but we just had to try the thermal spas. These spas are built on the source of the spring water from underground. When it rains on the mountains (Monte Amrita where we went a few days ago), the water seeps down into the bowels of the earth where it stays for up to 400-500 years and becomes exceptionally pure and very hot. The water eventually comes to the surface at the Saturnia Thermal Spa. It gushes out at a rate of 800 litres per second at a temperature of around 37 degrees. The swimming pools are sulphurous (hydrogen sulphide) and rich in carbon dioxide. There were special pools for the kids and many different areas for the adults. It was the perfect day to go because finally the temperature was below 30 degrees and it was overcast. We would change between pools because you weren’t meant to spend more than 20 minutes at a time immersed in the water. It really was invigorating and is very good for your skin and muscles.
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| Town of Saturnia on hill in background |
For dinner we went back to Il Moro restaurant in Montemerano and sat on the deck again. The sky was threatening to rain but it held off but it was quite dramatic to see the thunder clouds over the mountains in the distance. Tonight being Friday night, there was a keyboard player who sang as well. It all made for a very nice atmosphere.
At the end of our dinner, Francesco and his son Lorenzo who had arrived today from Edinburgh where he has just finished his studies, came by to let us know they are going into Manciano to see the festivities and if we would like to join them there later. The bubble blowing for the children was at 11pm up in the square next to the tower. We decided to go since Francesco was so excited about it and it was our last night in Tuscany. We met up with Francesco and Lorenzo in the square and watched the clown bubble show. The kids loved it. Another very late night so straight home to bed.
Till next instalment .... x
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