Under The Tuscan Winter Sun
Italy, Still Mid December
To Rosana’s chagrin, we wake early and escape Imola, taking a twisty turny road through a gorge to Firenzuola. It’s a joy to drive, even in a 30 year old overloaded camper van.
It’s probably not a joy to be stuck behind us so I try to be considerate. Despite my fears, Italian drivers do not seem to be as suicidal as I was expecting. I only experience one person on my side of the road on a corner. So I try to be considerate and let people past safely.
Firenzuola is a small and pretty town and it is overlooked by Monte Coloreta. There is a path up it, more than one, in fact. We pick the wrong one and have to turn around. We get up early the next morning to try again and the cloud is low. We’re parked at over 400m already and can’t even see the town. By some miracle, the cloud lifts in less than thirty minutes, leaving clear blue skies and the summit in full view. We head up the other path.
It’s not a difficult walk and in many ways is reminding me of walking in the Peak District. The views all the way up are beautiful. Someone has put goldfish in a horse trough along the route. Summiting, we meet a group of brightly clothed Italian hikers who make us feel a little dowdy and underdressed. Rosana takes their photo for them and we eat our lunch with a view over the valley.
Poppi is a quintessential Tuscan hilltop town. Castled, walled, steep and very, very pretty. In the dark I take a wrong turn and end up driving through the old centre, petrified we’re going to knock down some ancient archway with our high roof. Safely parked up outside the historic centre, I notice that one of our shock absorbers is no longer absorbing shocks. The bolt had snapped back in September when the shocks were replaced.
Drilled out, the errant bolt was replaced by a stud which was now conspicuous by its absence. By luck I find a suitable bolt in my toolbox but i’s too long. I commit crimes against mekaniking and bodge a solution before we go in search of a better solution. By now it is lunchtime and I get my first real introduction to Italian opening hours, the shop will reopen in a few hours. When they do reopen, they not only have a suitable parts, but also some junior hacksaw blades to replace the ones I blunted on my first failed attempt to fix the problem.
Testing the bushmechanic’d fix we head for Verdi monastery, located high in the Tuscan hills. We start on a gravel road before snaking higher along narrow mountain roads, hairpin corners turning us this way and that. The road surface is poorly maintained, pot holed and often falling away down the side of the hill. Visibility reduces as we get deeper into the clouds and we loose our view of the spectacular autumn colours that the trees are wearing. When we reach the monastery the gloom has closed in completely and we can barely see the road, much less anything else. We decide to give it up as a bad job and another location is added to the future trip list.
Italy, Mutiny on the Godzuki!
The weather is better in Monteriggioni, an ancient and well preserved walled city and we can actually see it. We camp at the Sosta at the base of town and Rosana immediately tries to trade our van for an imposing 4×4 Sprinter that is parked across from us. We’ve only been on the road for 25 days and she’s already looking for a bigger van. While I am sympathetic to her wants and needs, I have limits. About five and half metres of limits.
Montiriggiono is really very pretty, but it is lacking in any kind of atmosphere. I think this is a problem with touring out of season rather than with the town itself, which is devoid of people to bring it to life.
Siena offers the almost exact opposite experience. It’s heaving with people, even in mid December. It’s quite very stressful driving in. The place we’ve identified to park doesn’t seem to be available, there’s a traffic zone I have to avoid, but I’m not sure where it is and there are roadworks, diversions and traffic jams. I accidentally drive into a fuel station so fill up and calm down.
Eventually ending up in a grubby little parking area on the other side of the city, I think I’ve avoided the zone of big fines. I’m in two minds about leaving the van here, but there are more impressive motorhomes parked nearby so we hope that they’re more interesting targets.
Siena’s standout attractions are the Piaza del Campo, where horse racing was one held, and the Duomo. Both are impressive and worth the hassle of visiting. The narrow streets retain a feeling of age and history, while the shops mostly cater to people with bigger spending budgets than our own.
Italy, It’s a Long December
Who doesn’t love a Christmas Market? Well, the Italians don’t seem to be all that hot on them. There are a few stalls in Siena, but we see that the nearby town of Montepulciano is advertising the biggest Christmas market in the whole of Italy. That was an easy sell.
We park up in the bus station car park and we are not alone. It starts with just four of us, or rather three large motorhomes and little old us. By the end of the weekend there will be upward of fifty vans lining the edge of the car park. At €10 a night, that’s a good income for the local council.
Montepulciano is spectacular. Another walled town sitting atop a hill and I’m not bored of them yet. Add a smattering of Christmas lights and the market and it’s all the more magical. The town is busy with people and it feels alive. We wander the cobbled streets, and visit the market which while not huge, is big enough. It’s brightly lit, joyous and brings a feeling of warmth, if not actual warmth.
The local variation of hot wine is Vino Brûlée. It’s not overly strong in flavours, but it’s hot and it really does warm the bones on a crisp evening. Rosana insists that we buy a Chocolate Calda. It’s not a solid bar of chocolate and it’s not a cup of hot chocolate, but something in between. You can stand a spoon in it and it’s slurped rather than drunk.
A hyperactive brass band wanders the streets performing Christmas songs and contemporary hits. We’ve experienced this kind of thing before and while I consider a growling bassist, guitarist and drummer to be the ideal combination when it comes to music, these guys know how to play a crowd and you can’t help but smile and, yes, I admit it, indulge in a little bit of foot tapping.
We are in love with Tuscany, but it’s getting colder and it’s time to follow the geese further south.
Flickr Albums: Firenzuola | Poppi | Monteriggioni | Siena | Montepulciano