We had been in Italy for nearly a month now and were about to start doing some seriously big-hitting stuff.
We left our quiet park-up place in Vinci and headed to an aire on the outskirts of Florence. We had both been to Florence a couple of times before and really loved the city so this was going to be one of our highlights.
The aire was safe and convenient, only 2.5km outside the city centre and very reasonably priced. However, the drive to it had our nerves strained to breaking point again as we found ourselves driving right into the heart of the city centre. BigMog isn’t built for busy city driving and we were convinced that our sat nav had taken us through the low emission zone.
When we arrived, the aire was busy and tight but we squeezed ourselves into a spot and breathed a sigh of relief
There was a bus stop right at the entrance so we wandered over and waited for one to arrive. It only took about half an hour but once on the bus the board telling us what the next stop was had just one word on it – detoured! We followed our progress on Google maps and found that we were going all around the centre but never into it. After a while we decided we were close enough and jumped off.
We were near the river so we ambled along in the warm sun, enjoying the beauty of Florence. We looked out at the Ponte Vecchio
Then walked over it
We wandered around the city with no particular destination in mind, Florence is so lovely and crammed so full of art and culture that it didn’t much matter where we went
We found the Duomo fairly easily and were struck by its size
Strozzi Palace was nearby
As was the Palazzo Vecchio
The statues and fountains around the Piazza della Signoria were magnificent
Even though it had been many years since we were last there it all seemed very familiar.
However, whilst you expect Florence to be busy with tourists, today the whole place seemed so full we could hardly move. We struggled to get close to places and there were throngs of people everywhere we looked. The queues into the Duomo stretched all the way around the church and the queues for the Uffizi were just ridiculous.
These immense crowds took the shine off things a little, it changed the atmosphere of the place and it seemed less awe inspiring.
As we struggled to move through the streets we started to notice a large number of people wearing blue t shirts with the same logo on and after a while it dawned on us that there was something going on. We stopped in a shop doorway and looked it up – it turned out there was a special charity event being held in the city. Apparently it’s a big thing in Italy and there were expected to be tens of thousands of people taking part.
So that explained why the city was so full – and we guessed it was also why the bus had been detoured. At least it gave us hope that there wouldn’t be quite such an overwhelming crush over the next couple of days.
Whilst it was already the end of September, we still hadn’t found the right time or place to have my birthday meal and so when James suggested we find somewhere in Florence it seemed perfect. I had found three restaurants in the city that looked great and we chose one in particular for the celebration meal with a table booked for the following day. In the meantime, we decided to try one of the others for a simple pizza.
We were a little worried that there were so many people around we wouldn’t get a table but we were in luck. They seated us straight away and the pizza was amazing
On a high, we decided to treat ourselves to some ice cream and James’ was so artistic we just had to take a photo…
After stuffing ourselves silly we weren’t in the mood for more crowds and we had no idea where to pick up the detoured bus so we decided to work our food off by walking back to the aire. It ended up being a lovely walk and didn’t take very long at all.
It had been a great day.
On our second day, we planned to go into some places – we thought maybe the Uffizi, the Duomo, Pitti Palace and the Palazzo Vecchio. But the Pitti Palace was closed that day, the cost of the tickets into everything was eye-watering and we had seen them all before on previous trips. I don’t think it’s quite fair to say that we were getting jaundiced by the cultural gems of Italy but equally we weren’t sure we wanted to spend all our time or money doing things we had done before. So in the end we chose just one – the Palazzo Vecchio
We started in the ‘Room of 500’, or ‘Salone dei Cinquecento’
It was huge
The frescoes were incredible
And the views from the balcony were lovely
Further on we found the private apartments and beautifully ornate ‘Rooms of the Elements’ all with intricately painted walls and ceilings
My favourite room, however, was the ‘Stanza delle Mappe Geografiche’
The old maps covered the entire world and were amazingly accurate given that they were painted in the 1500s.
The celestial sphere in the centre of the room was apparently intended to portray the world maps in context of the wider cosmos.
After that we found some old artifacts
And a room with a decorated ceiling which is one of the oldest in Italy
We were now ready for my birthday dinner. We were about an hour early for our booking but I couldn’t wait. We arrived at the restaurant hoping they would let us sit down early and were greeted with one of the warmest and most friendly welcomes we had had to date.
We were ushered to a small table inside the cosy and romantic place and treated like royalty
The food was spectacular – probably the best meal I have had in years. I had bruschetta followed by steak with fresh truffles
And catalan custard for dessert
All washed down with a large glass of wonderful wine followed by Limoncello to finish off.
I could not have asked for more – who would have thought that such a wonderful place could be found in the tourist centre of Florence.
We left the restaurant very slightly tipsy and rather full and started wandering around the city again. But after just half an hour we had to admit that we felt as though we had seen everything we wanted to see. We were feeling far too mellow and not in the mood to push our way through the crowds.
So we walked back to the aire again and took a controversial decision – we left Florence.
We drove to the small town of San Gimignano an hour down the road. It was too late in the day to go and visit the town itself so we found a park-up place on the outskirts and settled in for the night.
The next morning we realised that we were not in the most convenient place for the locals. The school bus picked up from here and there were busy allotments behind the hedge. All in all we felt as though we ought not to be there so, despite it being perfectly located for walking into the centre, we packed up and headed for a motorhome service point on the other side of town. After filling up with water and emptying our tanks we pulled in to an aire just up the road, parked up and jumped on a bus. Within ten minutes we found ourselves outside the imposing town walls
San Gimignano is another of Italy’s lovely, medieval hill towns, this one being famous for its 14 towers. Apparently one of the richest families in the area built a tower as a symbol of their wealth and power, so then another family did the same to keep up with them, then another and so on until there were 14 that created a unique skyline.
As we walked through the town gates into the centre, we felt a sense of calm settling over us
There were plenty of tourists around
And a multitude of little shops catering to them
But it was all very peaceful, quiet and small scale. It was a relief to be out of the big, bustling city, somewhere where we could catch our breath
The architecture here was beautiful, in fact the plainest buildings were the towers themselves. Although looking out over the town from the gardens of a monastery, they looked very impressive
We visited the Duomo which looked quite ordinary from the outside but the inside was amazing. The walls and ceiling were covered in richly decorated 14th century frescoes
We had lunch at a pizzeria that turned out to serve rather bad food at rather high prices and that took the shine off the place a bit. As we walked back to catch the bus at the end of the day I lost my motivation to buy wine and nibbles from the various shops as it all suddenly seemed a bit of a tourist trap.
I did buy some white truffle pesto though which I am still eating now and am not regretting that particular purchase.
The next day was to be a day of chores. We went into the town of Colle Val d’Elsa to do some laundry and to the next town over, Poggibonso, for food shopping. We had been looking for a car wash that BigMog would fit into as he was filthy and we thought we’d found one here but it turned out to be a valeting place so we drove on and he stayed dirty for a little longer.
I had found a park-up place that looked as though it was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by green fields and trees, so we headed for it with hopes of finding somewhere to sleep that was peaceful and quiet for a change. When we arrived we were not disappointed
It was not really remote but there was no-one else around and any traffic noise we heard was far enough away not to be any trouble. It was probably the first place we had found to stay since we had left France that was quiet and green.
We sat outside on our camp chairs for the rest of the day until it got too cold then went inside and cooked a very successful Thai curry for dinner
The next morning, neither of us had any motivation for moving on to our next destination. We needed some downtime and a rest from the madness of Italian driving. So we stayed exactly where we were and did very little for the whole day.
We were joined by two other travellers. The first was a French family of a mother and three adult daughters in a motorhome. But there was more to them than that – they were also travelling with two cats. I have often dreamed of having a travel-cat but never thought it would be practical for all sorts of reasons. These four told me that they had been travelling in their motorhome with their cats for a year without any problems.
The cats ran off into the woods to explore and hunt for a while then came back and were typical family pets. One of them was very sociable and came to visit us on a regular basis
It made our whole stay here puuurfect!
The other couple were Swiss, travelling in a Citroen 2CV. We got chatting to them for ages and James helped them fix the springs on their car with the use of our jack
We said our goodbyes to the beautiful park-up spot, the Swiss couple with their Citroen and – of course – the cute cats, and drove to another pretty town. This one was Montepulciano, renowned for its Renaissance buildings and production of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
We found a great park-up spot about 1.5km out of town in a large car park with an amazing view
It was a good walk uphill into town but when we got there we found another historic, peaceful town full of tourists but relaxed and enjoyable
We had booked a wine tasting and cellar tour at one of the local wineries for the next day so today was just about seeing the town itself. There was plenty of interesting architecture
An art gallery
And fabulous views over the countryside
But I was strangely keen to try the wine and by 3pm had managed to persuade James to pop into a wine bar for an informal tasting. The owner was very friendly and informative about the wines – which were delicious
Tipsy again, we sauntered back to the truck for an early night.
The next morning, I did my training surrounded by a dozen or so cats which was not a bad start to the day. We were in no hurry to get going as our wine tour and tasting was not due to start until 12:30pm. In the end we arrived half an hour early but it turned out to be a private tour just for the two of us and they were happy to start straight away
The tour of the cellars was fascinating
Our guide was very interesting and we learnt a lot about the wine and the wine makers
After seeing all there was to see of the cellars, we were expecting to be taken to the public tasting area to try six wines with some nibbles. But, to our surprise, we were taken past everyone else and downstairs to a private dining room where a table was laid out with all sorts of wonderful delicacies – crostini, bruschetta, cheeses, hams, spreads of all types
We felt like royalty again.
Our private guide talked us through the six wines we were tasting, poured each one out in turn and said we were welcome to ask for more of any we liked.
We were even given a tasting of their very expensive dessert wine which we had previously been told was not available at the ‘public’ tastings – that was one of the ones we asked for more of and she happily poured us both a second, large glass.
Half way through our wines, we were brought a large plate full of truffle pasta and ragout, by which time I was beginning to worry whether I had booked the wrong tour and we were about to find ourselves penniless until the end of the month. But no, we had just accidentally landed on one of the best wine tours we had ever experienced.
We bought olive oil and dips in their shop
And by 3pm were back at the truck, snoring gently with full stomachs and big smiles.
After a good night’s sleep we headed for Orvieta where we wanted to visit the cathedral, known to house some beautiful 14th century frescoes. Despite having found a car park that appeared to be well out of town, we had another nightmare drive getting stuck in the middle of no-traffic zones, 3.5 tonne limits and narrow streets. We tried three different options before eventually finding success in a tiny car park in the next town over. It was so small that we had to park horizontally across four spaces but had pretty much stopped caring by that point.
There was a furnicular railway nearby that took us up into Orvieta itself and a bus was laid on to cart tourists from there straight to the cathedral.
From the outside it looked very striking
Being a Sunday, it wasn’t open to the public for another hour so we wandered around the town to see if there was anything else to spot. It was pretty and historic but we didn’t find anything of great interest. Apart from this
Which was not exactly what we had expected to see in the heart of Italy!
Back at the cathedral we paid our entrance fee and had a look around, admiring the frescoes that it is famous for
As well as the cellars which were partly closed for renovation but still housed some old artifacts
There was also a small museum dedicated to a famous local sculpturer, Emilio Greco, full of quirky sculptures and drawings but no English to tell us what we were looking at.
That evening we stayed in a layby by Lago di Corbata, a small reservoir
There were a few fisherman around trying to catch carp but they were all friendly and, after a few smiles and comments on the truck, they left us alone. It wasn’t as remote as it looks but it was quiet.
We were about an hour away from a place that we had both been intrigued to see. It was called Sacro Bosco which translates as ‘Sacred Grove’ but is also known as the ‘Park of Monsters’. I had read that it was the oldest sculpture park in the world and was a ‘surreal landscape dotted with grotesque sculptures’ created in the 16th century by a man driven mad by war and grief who was trying to rid himself of his demons by carving them into stone.
It sounded fascinating and a complete change from historic medieval towns and cathedrals.
We have had a few disasters with sculpture parks and only one or two real successes but I keep on trying with eternal optimism. So when we arrived at Sacro Bosco it was with mixed feelings and not a lot of optimism.
But we needn’t have worried – it was amazing
I suspect that many of the more bizarre stories written about this place are made up or at least wildly exaggerated. There was nothing in the information provided by the park itself about grief-stricken madmen but rather some fascinating descriptions of the artists and architects who worked with the founder, Vicino Orsini, to create his vision of ‘a labyrinth of symbols, where Ladies and Knights might look for their wishes to be fulfilled and wander till they get lost’.
The sculptures were incredible
From elephants
To tortoises
From temples
To precariously leaning houses
From Gods
To Roman columns
And everything in between
Apparently the whole place fell into disrepair after Orsini’s death and we saw old photos of it overgrown with shepherd’s grazing their sheep around the statues. It was only when the current owners, the Bettini family, bought the land that they decided to renovate it and bring it back to life
It was brilliant – definitely one of the best things we saw in Italy and that’s saying something.
It was still only lunchtime by the time we had finished so we had a quick bite to eat in the truck then decided to find somewhere to park-up for the rest of the day because we had huge plans coming up – it was time to go full-throttle Italy, we were heading for Rome.
James had been before, about 25 years ago, but I had never seen it and it had been on my bucket list for a long time. I love to read historical fiction which includes a lot of books about the ancient Romans and had images of the city in my mind of endless Roman ruins, stunning Renaissance buildings around every corner, fountains and piazzas as far as the eye could see. We were planning three or four days and I feared we would barely be able to scratch the surface.
By now we were at risk of being completely citied-out but Rome is Rome, it stands apart from everything else and we were both excited.
Between the extensive low emission zone around the city, the high crime rate and the high costs, we had decided to park BigMog up well away from Rome itself and rely on public transport to get us in and out. We had booked three nights in a small, family-run campsite on the outskirts of Tivoli where we hoped that BigMog would be safe and we would have a respite from the busy city to come back to at the end of each day.
But for tonight we needed to find somewhere closer to where we were at Sacro Bosco to recharge our batteries and ready ourselves for the sensory assault that was certainly coming our way.
I had found a place that looked quiet and out of the way but we couldn’t squeeze BigMog down the narrow and overgrown road that lead to it. Next we tried the car park of a nearby cemetery that had good reviews on our park-up app but when we arrived we didn’t feel comfortable – it didn’t seem appropriate to park a large overland truck there.
So I did a bit more digging and finally found what looked like a lovely place, a bit further away by a river. The reviews on the park-up app warned that the direct route to it was densely overgrown with low hanging trees but advised of an alternative option – a long, dirt road that wound through cornfields. It took a bit of finding but we made it through the fields and ended up in what I can only describe as paradise
The view was gorgeous
And there was no-one else around
There was no noise from anywhere apart from the rippling of the water and the birds singing – and there were no mosquitoes!
We could have stayed there for a week but we had tickets and campsite bookings in place for Rome so actually only had a few hours to enjoy the tranquility. I was kicking myself.
And sadly most of those peaceful, idyllic hours were taken up desperately trying to find new tickets to the Vatican after the ones I had booked a couple of days earlier turned out not to exist. Technical hiccup apparently and we had a full refund but that didn’t help when last-minute tickets to the Vatican are as rare as hens teeth and ten times more expensive.
I managed to get some in the end, possibly even better than the original ones, but it took up my entire evening when all I really wanted to do was sip wine and enjoy my surroundings.
Ah well, you can’t win them all – but when you find an oasis of such tranquillity in Italy you kind of want to grab it with both hands and not let go.
I had intended to write about our few days in Rome here but it feels wrong to squeeze it in at the end of an already busy post. We saw so much and there are so many photos that it deserves its own post – I shall do it as an Interlude like I have done with the national parks in Africa.
I don’t think it will do any harm to keep this post slightly shorter than my more recent ones. I have a self-imposed word limit that I have previously stuck to but all through Switzerland and Italy our days have been so frantic with so much running around that I have started to go over my limit on a regular basis just to squeeze it all in. Plus I am in danger of my posts becoming nothing more than a list of things we did and stuff we saw with no feeling in between.
Hopefully, one day soon our lives will calm down and we can get back into the rhythm of slow travelling and enjoying the moment that we perfected in Africa. And with it this blog might stop exhausting you, or me, quite as much! I long to find beautiful, remote parts of this world where we can slow down and just be, where the world is not constantly pushing us onwards to the next thing and the next. But I suspect we will need to leave Italy, and probably Europe, before we find that kind of peace again. Life is just so busy here, so crowded, so fast…I need a holiday!
The Sidetracked Sagas 