Vinnie's Trip to Tuscany

 In August 2001, I got to go to Florence, Italy and then to Chianti. It was one wonderful vacation. I returned just before the terrible events of September 11th.

What amazed me about this part of Italy is the friendliness of the people and the cleanliness of the area. This whole area of Tuscany also appears to have a strict recycling program.

I stayed at the Hotel Pendini (pendini@florenceitaly.net) (Pendini Hotels) in the center of Florence (Plazza della Republica). Florence is a walking city. Very few vehicles are allowed in the city. This part of Italy is eats boar and pasta and drinks Chianti. Dinner is routinely eaten from 8pm to 10pm. I must admit that I was not used to this but I had no trouble at all making the transition to late dinners. I could not get used to the 3 hour siestas in the middle of the afternoon. Many people in this part of Italy do speak English. Even when they did not we could make it known to them what we were looking for and got a decent directions.

Two restaurants that I enjoyed in Florence were 'il Latini' (www.illatini.com) that was family owned and run. A friend and I sat at a table for eight with people from Milan and Germany whom we did not know; had a great time talking to these people; had a great inexpensive meal; and wonderful entertainment from the family running the restaurant. Another interesting but more refined restaurant that also serves typical Tuscan cuisine is the White Boar (Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco) (www.cinghialebianco.it).

Friends and I rented a villa on a mountain just outside Gaiole in Chianti which is in central Tuscany. I took a train from Florence to Montevarchi-Terran where my friends coming up from Rome picked me up. The trains running from Florence left every 20 minutes were on time and well used by many people. I got the train schedule from the Internet (Trenitalia) before I left the US and had plenty of time to plan my short train trip.

The villa (Mocha di Sopra) (European Escapes) had 4 bedrooms with baths upstairs and 1 bedroom with bath downstairs.  There were 8 of us. The villa was beautiful and well maintained. Chianti was in the midst of a drought and we were asked to conserve water. Our villa had a deep well and we had no problems with washing or doing laundry there. The toilets were interesting. They were the overhead tank kind and during the middle of the night would all of a sudden flush with no warning. The first time this happened was a surprise. After that I got used to it.

We traveled about in rented autos. The whole area was covered with grape vines and olive trees. Again I was surprised to see the cleanliness of the area. we went to the Castello Banfi (Tel: 011 39 0577 816 001) for a wine tasting and 7 course lunch (not dinner but lunch). I left there with a great dessert wine and a bottle of their best grappa. It isn't worth while buying wine over there. You can usually get their brands in the US. I only bought what I thought I wouldn't be able to get back home.

Sorry, but we did too much to really present here. All I can say is that Chianti was a great place to visit and it was one of those vacations that one wishes went on indefinitely- but then again that never happens.

Photos -- Not too many
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