For the last week of our adventure through Italy, we stayed at an Airbnb in the northern part of Tuscany. We soon discovered that we weren’t staying in the center of the wine country, but the house – a converted barn – was a beautiful escape at the base of San Quirico up in the mountains. The closest grocery store was about 20 minutes away in Pescia, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. We spent the days exploring the whole region – Pisa, Lucca, Arezzo, Modena and Florence, along with the wine country, south of Florence.
On the way to the Airbnb from Cinque Terre, we detoured through Pisa. The Tower of Pisa was everything we expected – leaning – and while it is very touristy, it was fun to see the hoard of tourists trying to hold up the tower. It’s always worth doing any thing once!
In Modena, we tasted basalmic vinegar at Acetate Giusti, the oldest acetaia in Modena. The aroma that filled the room of casks was sweetly intoxicating. We also visited the Ferrari museum, a large presence in Modena.
In Lucca, we wandered the streets looking for a highly well reviewed but random gelato shop (as if we hadn’t already tasted our way through Italy and stopped at every gelateria). Finding parking on the outskirts of the fortress proved to be challenging, but once inside, there was a maze of streets to wander through, eating and shopping along the way.
A visit to Arezzo (about two and half hours south) was another lovely day (and one of my favorites) as we wandered through the streets looking for treasures, lined with antique, vintage and art vendors. Held every first Sunday of the month, Arezzo’s medieval city center is transformed into the Fiera Antiquarian di Arezzo (Arezzo Antiques Fair), Italy’s oldest and largest open-air vintage and antiques market. And anybody who knows us well, knows this is totally our kind of thing. It’s no surprise I came home with my own piece of Tuscan art along with some smaller treasures.
We also spent a day driving down to the wine country to visit Castello di Verrazzano and later to visit two more wineries – Sasso di Sole and Poggio Amorelli. On yet another day, we went into Florence for a day to visit the Uffizi Galleries and wandered through Boboli Gardens. (More to come on Florence.)
They were simple, beautiful, sometimes touristy, but also not so touristy days. We ate at local restaurants hidden in the hills that didn’t open until 7:00 PM. Olive trees dotted the landscapes as the sun dropped down over the hills in the evening. If I could have somehow stowed away in that house on the hill, I would have never come home.
Needless to say, it was a bit painful to leave such a beautiful place, but we had one last day in Florence before heading home and it proved to be a wonderful day.
Next up: Florence
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