When asked the question, “What is the most beautiful view in the world?” I now have an answer: rural Tuscany, Italy. We Ragazze Americane along with the Meredith College faculty here in the Palazzo Alberti spent last weekend in the Val d’Orcia area of the Tuscan countryside, admiring breathtaking views and experiencing authentic Italian life for three days straight. The area is literally the most stunning thing I have laid my eyes on, and I’m a person who has spent her summers on the coast of North Carolina—itself arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world. In the Val d’Orcia There are rolling fields of varying shades of green with so many little yellow wild flowers that it looks as if somebody sprinkled the valleys with gold dust. The introverted part of me has always wanted to grow up and live in rural countryside far away from noise, hustle and bustle, and other people. When I win the lottery this area will be where I decide to relocate and live in my renovated Tuscan Villa with future husband, miles away from other civilization—nothing but an Italian cypress tree lined driveway and green pastures for miles.
With an itinerary consisting of at least eight different stops, we were a busy bunch taking it all in. First on the list: Buonconvento and a museum featuring the life of Italian farm workers from the region through the years. After grabbing a quick lunch within the city walls of Buonconvento we headed on to Montalcino (Twilight series fans may know this as the city where the Twilight movies were filmed) to enjoy some time in a small Tuscan town known for its wine. After visiting some cute shops and having a tea and coffee break, we loaded back up the bus and drove on to Abbey di Monte Oliveto, a still functioning Abbey with beautiful frescoes lining the walls and a gorgeous chapel where we were able to stay and listen to Gregorian chanting during the monk’s afternoon mass. After a busy first day we headed to our accommodation for the weekend—Sant’Anna in Campiena, a beautiful old monastery with simple yet spacious rooms (there is a room in this monastery that was used to film a few kitchen scenes in the movie “The English Patient,” for those of you who have seen it). The hotel served dinner to its guests every night, so for two nights in a row we were spoiled with a large, traditional Italian meal complete with four courses and red wine. Delizioso!
Saturday we awoke to more sun shining and more beautiful rural Tuscan scenery as we made our way to La Foce in Val d’Orcia, the large property of Iris Origio who hid Jews and P.O.W.s on the farmland during WWII. First we saw the cemetery where Iris, her first son, her husband, and several people who lived on the property were buried. La Foce also runs an olive oil business, using the olive trees grown on the property to make several different kinds of olive oil that we were given a chance to purchase. Our visit wrapped up with a tour of the extensive and beautiful gardens on the property, which of course was beneficial to the science class some of us are taking this semester.
By the time we left La Foce it was time for lunch at Ristorante Pulcino, a large restaurant operated by family members of the original owners, a couple who bought the restaurant several decades ago only to discover artifacts in the cellar dating back to the Etruscan period, which are now on display in the cellar and in a mini museum set-up inside the restaurant. I enjoyed wonderful bruschetta, delicious vegetable soup, and the best bread I have ever eaten. We left as happy campers from our delicious meal and drove down the street to the center of Montepulciano, another adorable Tuscan town with narrow streets and stone buildings. If you were to be blindfolded, picked up, and dropped onto a random street in the middle of any of the towns we visited this past weekend, you wouldn’t know which one you were in based just on looks; you have to find a feeling for each place that helps you distinguish it from the others. Montepulciano felt slightly eccentric and funky to me, very fun. The boutiques and stores all had something unique to offer and the feeling was down-to-earth and relaxed. I liked it! The only time it rained the entire weekend was while we were eating lunch and visiting Montepulciano, but the sun came out again and beautiful it was still. After another long day we headed back to Sant’Anna to explore it a bit in the daylight before another tasty dinner that evening.
Sunday we squeezed in a visit to San Gimignano, a tower city that originally boasted 72 towers, of which 14 still exist today. Obviously it is the towers that set this town apart in my mind from the others, but it also helps that the “world champion” gelateria for two years in a row is in San Gimignano. It was really, really good gelato—comparable to the Goblin’s here in Sansepolcro, but I dare not say better. After San Gimignano and some shopping around the many, many tourist traps, we headed to Volterra. While the Twilight movie series was filmed in Montecalcino, Volterra is the city named in the books as location (Vampires in Volterra—sounds catchy, right?). Volterra is known for its alabaster, of which several different things can be made—jewelry, lamps, clocks, picture frames, vases, bowls, etc. Alabaster is a mineral, an almost translucent white that can be dyed any color you wish. There were alabaster shops all over Volterra, so we spent our couple of hours there exploring what each had to offer, poking our head in a few churches and snapping a few pictures along the way. After Volterra it was back to Sansepolcro, leaving the incredible views of the Tuscan countryside out of the bus windows behind us. It was an enjoyable weekend, for sure.
Rewind about two weeks back; prior to our weekend in the Val d’Orica our time here in Sansepolcro has been jam packed with lots of other fun activities. I’ll go in order of events—first being a group outing to neighboring Anghiari, a small town that sits up on a hill and overlooks Sansepolcro. It has great views, cute shops, and precious winding roads. The weather cooperated and we had a fun few hours getting to know what is just down the road from home.
The Saturday prior to our Val d’Orcia weekend I made it back to my favorite Italian city, Florence, and met-up with a long time camp friend of mine, Beth. We matched -up our individual itineraries and made it to the Pitti Palace, Michaelangelo’s Piazzale, a few churches, the San Lorenzo market, and Il Papiro! Pitti Palace is HUGE, each room a piece of art in itself, and filled with actual paintings as well. We admired some pieces of famous artists such as Rafael, put kinks in our necks staring up at the beautiful ceiling in each room, and made personal commentary on the bedrooms of the Duke and Duchess. After making our way through the large interior, we had an equally large exterior garden to spend time in, as well. This wasn’t a problem, because the weather was in our favor, spring had awakened in Italy and it was hot outside that day. We wandered around the gardens for a while before deciding we had seen the majority, grabbed some sandwiches and walked up a very steep hill across the Arno river from the Pitti Palace to Michaelangelo’s Piazzale, one of the most popular locations for stunning views of the city, as confirmed by the FOUR different wedding parties we saw getting their pictures taken in the piazzale. We enjoyed the sunshine, the views, and our sandwiches, chatted for a while, and got up to see some churches nearby (we had to make that trek uphill worth it). Beth hadn’t yet been to the San Lorenzo market, which is an experience anybody visiting Florence just has to have. So we took our time walking through Florence towards the market where ironically enough we ran into another Seafarer friend of ours studying abroad this semester. We did eventually reach the market which is always a fun time checking out the various goods being sold and the people trying to bargain, and of course I had to show her Il Papiro, my new love. It was a great day getting to catch up with an old friend and share study abroad experiences in one my most favorite cities of this most beautiful country.
The next week we were busy students as we took three mini excursions in the afternoons. The first was to a goat farm just outside Anghiari where we saw what went into the care, upkeep, and production of a goat farm. There aren’t many small, independently managed goat farms such as this one because of the strict regulations put on such farmers, so it was interesting to get Brent, the owner’s, perspective on the life on a goat farm. His farm consists of about 200 goats, some babies, and he plus one worker are the only ones to manage the farm and take care of the goats. They are milked twice a day, even when they aren’t pregnant, in order to keep up milk production. The goats are allowed to roam freely for four hours a day, and eat whatever they would like—which inevitably affects what their milk tastes like, and therefore what the cheese that is made from the milk tastes like, meaning no two goat cheeses that are made from Brent’s goat’s milk taste the same. We were able to sample some of the cheese, though, and I can tell you that it doesn’t matter what the goat eats, all the cheese tastes delicious. Cute goats, beautiful countryside, and delicious cheese made for a winning mini excursion number one.
After the goat farm we headed to the San Lorenzo Archaeological Arboretum. This large arboretum is run by and maintained by one hard-working woman, Isabella. The intent of the arboretum is to preserve heritage trees—those apple and pear trees that are native to Italy but are quickly disappearing from existence because of selection. She works hard to graft and grow a few of the hundreds of varieties of apple and pear trees that once existed in abundance in order to preserve some of the natural heritage of Italy. We were given a tour of her orchards where we saw many of the several varieties she grows, all flowering and looking beautiful. She was given a grant by the government at one time to do this work, but that money has since run out, so she is individually working hard to preserve this piece of history that was so important to her father, is so important to her, and can be very important to botanists and scientists all over the world.
Last but not least, my busy week included my first host family dinner! Jess and I are partners and have been matched with the Alberti family. Sound familiar? We live in the Palazzo Alberti and our host family is related! Valentina (Vale for short) is our host mom, Daniela (Danny) is our host dad, and Riccardo (Ricky) and Martina are their children. They served a typical Tuscan appetizer of a cheese and apple crostini, sausage, and pieces of meat, followed by roasted duck and French fries (which Europeans call roasted potatoes) and fruit salad and chocolate rice krispy treats for dessert. Delizioso! We had an absolute blast with them, taking a tour of their house (which was larger than I was expecting), looking at their family photos from their trip to New York City in 2005 (which they still talk about excitedly—maybe because we are American and they felt it was a connection?), and watching family videos of Ricky’s final martial arts performance, Martina dancing around the house, Danny’s birthday sky diving trip, and his flag throwing performance as part of a cultural, traditional celebration in the piazza of Sansepolcro. Their English is about as good as Jess’ and my Italian, which isn’t saying a lot, so together we were able to figure out enough to carry on conversation. They even used Google Translator a few times, which cracked me up. Time flew by while we were with them and Jess and I are both eager to return for our next dinner.
Whew, I think that about catches me up to speed on all that has been happening. This Saturday we’ll take one last excursion to Gubbio before we begin our last two weeks here in Italy! How time flies…
Ciao for now,
Hilary
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