tuscany, 8/27-29/07

so we were in our tuscan suite. this was our room:

nice, eh? we thought so. since this was the room we were splurging on, we’re glad it was cool. however, the coolest thing about the suite was the view out of the windows:

it really was a nice hotel. the pool:

the following evening we enjoyed a stimulating dip alone in the pool under the tuscan moon.

the first night however, was all about sleep. we passed out all afternoon after settling in our room. we woke up just in time for the restaurant to close, but they were kind enough to let us in (without pasta, the water was no longer boiling). we were famished, but we were perfectly willing to skip the pasta course, since there probably wasn’t another option available to us. after a delightful meal, we returned to bed and crashed once more.

the next morning, refreshed and without an agenda, we hopped in our rental car and explored tuscany!

our first stop was chianciamo terme; a quaint little town that we briefly walked around and shopped in.

we were still figuring out what all the signs meant, so we weren’t sure where to park. we didn’t want to get stranded without our rental, so we didn’t stay too long. we continued along the same road out of town and on to montepulciano.

we found a little parking lot with an open space just outside the walled portion of the city, where no cars are allowed. it was a small pay lot, with one way in and one way out for cars via a narrow opening. we shoved coins into a machine until the display told us we had a couple of hours. we hit the button and a little ticket popped out. we returned to the car and placed the ticket under the windshield of the car. we did this as a cop with his uniform pants tucked into his shiny black boots checked the other cars for their tickets. with our parking paid, we proceeded into the old part of the city:

we walked up and down the streets, admiring the architecture and ultimately buying some cheese and wine (that we’d later consume on the cruise).

after sitting down for lunch, we descended the city streets and walked once more through the walled gate leading back to the parking lot, only to find we were blocked in. the one way in or out was blocked by some moron who decided to park in the entrance. as nicole was asking what we’re going to do, a british gentleman standing near us asked if we spoke english. after confirming that we do, he explained to us that he too had been trapped in the lot, and that he’d been waiting for an hour. he’d found the cop we saw earlier, who called a tow truck. he said it was due to arrive at any moment.

“what do we do?” nicole asked me.

“we watch the show,” i replied. we crossed the street to a short wall, where we sat and waited. sure enough, the tow truck arrived to remove the obstacle.

we were hoping that the driver would show up while the towing people hooked the car up, causing a big scene in the middle of the street, but alas, no one showed.

finally, the car was taken away.

i actually cheered aloud when the car left, which i was hoping would cause a riotous cheer from the crowd on the scene, but i was the only one. everyone else simply flocked towards their freed cars so that they could leave. we followed suit and were on our merry way. nicole commented that she was glad that we didn’t wait as long as the british guy. that’s all well and good, but it still would’ve been better if the offending parker showed up.

from there we headed back to the hotel to regroup, then we hopped back on A1 to return to firenze for the evening. as it turned out, we parked pretty far from the action, but we didn’t know it at the time, since we didn’t really know where we were going. after walking for half an hour, we stopped for dinner and figured out where we were. when we started moving again, we ended up passing the ponte vecchio (literally, old bridge).

from there we made our way to the piazza della signoria, the square in front of the palazzo vecchio.

we didn’t know any of this at the time. we just knew we were in a cool place. it turns out we made it to one of the more interesting parts of florence.

of the various statues and buildings in the piazza, the most famous would be the copy of david by michaelangelo, standing where the original once stood. the original was moved over a century ago into a firenze museum, but the copy was good enough for us.

we were getting tired, and had a long walk back, so we bought some gelato and ate it on our way. she wanted to take a cab back to the car, but we were both a little drunk from dinner, so i decided a walk is our safest bet, knowing we still had an hour drive on the crazy italian highway in the middle of the night. we had already done a lot of driving that day, and we knew the next day was going to be a challenge, since we were driving up to como. my judgement turned out to be a good idea, because we were back to normal by the time we reached the car, although nicki was beginning to get tired at the wheel as we neared the villa. even though we were tired, we weren’t quite ready to sleep once we were back in our room. it was our last night in tuscany, and we hadn’t yet been near the pool. just before bed, we changed into our bathing suits and ventured out to the pool in the darkness of night. it was as romantic as a night in tuscany on a honeymoon should be.

in the morning, we packed up and left. nicole wanted to head towards siena, and pisa, and take the coastal route up to como, instead of taking the direct route via highway. the direct route takes about 5 hours. as it happened, we drove for five hours simply to get out of tuscany.

the scenic route didn’t really work out. once we finally arrived in siena, we were getting frustrated, because we didn’t know where to go, we couldn’t park anywhere, the signs were thoroughly useless, and we were getting more and more irritated. nicole was sick of driving, and my navigational tools weren’t being very helpful. ultimately, we stopped at a pizzeria that wasn’t serving pizza for lunch outside of town, and passed siena by. it took us a while to get our bearings, and to find roads with signs that actually helped us. the signs were pointing to towns that weren’t on our map, and the winding mountain roads looped right and left and around. once we did finally hit the highway between firenze and pisa on the coast, we cheered. we were still, however, haunted by the relatively little distance we’d covered to como.

the time was 3:00 and we weren’t even halfway there. we jammed down the highway towards pisa at crazy italian speeds. our original intent was to stop in pisa, too, perhaps see the leaning tower. we skipped it, though, cos by then, we just wanted to get to como. on the road, i snapped one picture that, to my surprise, contains the leaning tower. if you look at the horizon, where the city meets the sky, look just to the right of the middle, where the mountains meet the horizon line. you’ll see the top of the leaning tower.

that’s it, folks.

when the highway ended, we headed north on A12 towards Genova, catching only occasional glimpses of the sea in between mountains whenever the road was close enough to shore. from there we took A7 up to milano, where we met our next obstacle. we meant to catch the bypass, but we missed the exit and ended up in the city. i had a decent map of milano, so i was able to take us west and north and then east again on the outskirts of the city. we started seeing signs to como, so we followed them. signs for como were rare, so we thought we were lost a couple of times, but we finally made it into the suburbs and then onto a highway that led to como. it was after 8:00 that night and we were in the home stretch. just another half an hour to go.

once we were in town, we had some difficulty finding the hotel, but vague signs eventually led us to the correct place. the hotel metropole suisse. finally.

our five hour trip…took us more than ten hours. we were exhausted, and our room was a closet compared to our tuscan suite. but that’s all right. we were here. and we were in one piece. we ate dinner at a nearby restaurant. como looked beautiful, we couldn’t wait to explore it. first, though, we had to drive into milan the next day and return the car. we were talking about spending the afternoon in milan before taking the train back to como.

“oh shit!” nicki exclaimed suddenly.

she left her toiletry bag in tuscany. deodorant, some costume jewelry, other random things…all in tuscany. we actually had free wireless access in our room from some source in the area, so we looked up the number to the villa and called them. it was after eleven at night. they told her to call in the morning, as housekeeping had gone home for the night. she still had her makeup, and most of what she needed could be replaced, and none of the jewelry left behind was priceless, per se, but still, she wanted it back. so we settled for bed. she zonked out immediately. i checked e-mail, started uploading pictures onto flickr, then finally went to sleep myself. tomorrow would be another day. like i said, at least we made it in one piece to como. we were looking forward to dumping the car. we had our fill of driving.

next: the fate of her bag, the free art galleries around milano, and the sheer beauty and tranquility of como.