The Agony and the Ecstasy

Yes, its a cheesy cheap shot I know, but I can’t resist .

So Jock was in a sort of agony when we left Florence. For some days he had had a niggling tension in his lower back , probably from hoisting a case onto the train to Florence from Rome.

Then the day before we left Florence, wham, full blown spasms in his back! I suggested staying in Florence till he recovered but he didn’t want to do that. So there we were heading for another train to take to take us to a small town in Tuscany to pick up our hire car.

We were both pretty tense, let me tell you….. Luckily the regional train station had a lift so getting to the platform was relatively easy. I asked a young man about which platform to go to and he kept an eye on us after that to make sure we got on the right train as there was another one coming through before ours. Of course we were fine once we found the platform and the appropriate signs, but it was sweet of him.

People are generally so kind and helpful aren’t they, and we are finding Italians generally to be friendly , fun loving and helpful.

We met our first fellow Australian travellers on board and filled in some time with them, who also , coincidentally, are on a three month overseas trip.

So after an hour or so we got off and found the hire car place without too much trouble.

But trying to drive it was a lot of trouble. Jock took the wheel first as we tend to think his brain adjusts to the right hand side a bit better than mine , but I’m currently reevaluating that idea.

The onboard GPS was completely new to us, so we were dealing with that, the right hand drive, light showers , and Jock’s sore back. Not good. But we found our way through some pretty countryside to Montepulciano, where we stopped for lunch.

Then on to Siena which we had to get around to arrive at our destination in Corsignano. Bad planning, as by then it was after four and the traffic was heavy.

We had a spaghetti junction to navigate and had the GPS saying things like “Bear right” and only saying it once so of course we missed it. We pulled off when we could and tried to get a different route out of Siena but to no avail. So suffice to say we went round in circles in traffic, in the rain , with the GPS repeatedly saying “route recalculation “. Agony.

Magically, Jock found a side road off the very busy main road that led directly to a hotel. And there we stayed the night , only a short distance from our destination. We asked about somewhere to eat and the lovely young woman at reception said , there is a restaurant just down the road, you just have to go through three roundabouts!!

Luckily we had some food with us and with that and the mini bar made ourselves a dinner as there was NO WAY we were getting back on to that road.

So after a surprisingly good sleep (I was dosing Jock with good medicine) we found that we could avoid that junction, but only if we used my phone rather than the GPS, and that we did.

We had of course phoned our accomodation once we got to the hotel but got no answer, and they had been worried about us.

But all was well in the end, as our accomodation on the agritourismo venture was very comfortable, light filled and warm and had a memory foam mattress!Now we have never slept on one of those before so it was a revelation to us and was wonderful for both our aches and pains but particularly of course, Jock’s back.

The venue, Fattoria Di Corsignano was a very typical agritourismo, or I guess what we call a farm stay. Though in Italy they generally tend to produce wine and olives, as our Fattoria did. We were the only guests, it was pretty and comfortable, ecstasy…..

So we spent our first couple of days there not doing much at all, just walking round the property and village and going to the next village for supplies at the small general store. The elderly man who ran it kindly noticed that I was looking disappointed at only finding sliced bread on the shelves , opened a large draw behind the counter and pulled out a loaf of proper Italian bread. Speaking Italian to me the whole time, we managed to work out between us that I would like the long loaf, not the round loaf, Grazie. He had some pestos on the shelf that we had not seen before such as artichoke and capsicum, and other lovely, useful things that we have added to our basic supplies.

Being out of season a lot of places were still closed but we found our way to a local trattoria where we enjoyed some of the best pasta we have had so far. Jock had rabbit with a curly pasta and I had Gorgonzola , broccoli and nuts with tagliatelle. The pasta of course is all made in house. Superb.

After a few days we did a longish day of driving, doing a circuit of many hilltop villages in Chianti . We went to the highest of them for lunch at a restaurant with a fabulous view and again great food and service. Here I had a dessert which was a highlight, a delicate pear tart that had a custard in the tart and was served of course , with home made gelato.

They brought out the limoncello at the end of the meal – what a lovely tradition that is, to offer a liquor on the house at the end of the meal. This time they left the bottle, but we were abstemious (after one) seeing as we had that huge hill with its narrow winding roads to navigate.

We also drove back to Siena during our stay as we wanted to check out the city centre, the walled city with its Duomo. And we were so glad we did as we found the cathedral particularly awe inspiring . The mosaic floor and the artworks in the library , the Piccolomeno, were truly amazing. There were not many people there so we had plenty of time and space to sit and wonder.

As we were settling the account to leave the Fattoria, we found that my travel cash card was missing. Jock had used it to pay for lunch at that hilltop restaurant……..

We were able to immediately transfer all the money off my card and on to Jock’s , notify the card provider and get the replacement sent to our son in England, but still and all , the travel hassles continue……

But now we are relaxing again, in Umbria, on top of a hill where we are staying at a castle , but I’ll leave that for later. Arrivederci.