The Road to the Horizon: Tuscany

Showing posts with label Tuscany. Show all posts

Snapped: Lunch on the beach

It is sizzling hot here in Italy. The best place to get a refreshing breeze is... on the beach.

We love to just drive off, and see where we end up. This time, we got lost somewhere a 100 miles north of Rome, on the coast. We found a small stabilimento in what must have been the southern part of Tuscany.

"Stabilimenti" are the Italian version of "beach resorts". Some are just wooden shacks on the beach, nothing more than a bar which rent out beach chairs and parasols. Others are more luxurious settings with a swimming pool, renting surf boards or canoes... but always much lower key than in many other countries. And there are thousands of them.

All in the Italian tradition: if they offer food, you will not find hotdogs or hamburgers, but fresh sea food, salads, fruit.

Some pictures from lunch from a stabilimento we ended up in:

The setting...

A view from our spot.

The breeze.

The view from within the stabilimento offers different frames as if in a movie set.

Lana, 15 now...

And Hannah, turning 13!...

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Snapped: My favorite blogging position

My favorite blogging position. Outside, legs up, with a view on the world. This one is snapped in Tuscany, this summer.
(bad for your back, though... The blogging position, not Tuscany that is)

Views from Tuscany (6)

Here is the last series of shots taken during our two weeks in Tuscany, Italy. They more or less sum up our holiday, and the experience...

Summarizing, all I can say is: Tuscany is one of the most welcoming and tranquil places we visited. The variety of the landscape, the history, its towns, welcoming people and food are all simply remarkable.
It was my first holiday in Italy in 30 years. The only regret I have is "Why did I wait that long?"..

Sunrise, taken from our house.

Views from Tuscany

A typical Tuscan view: rolling hill after hill after hill...

Views from Tuscany

It was harvest time in Tuscany

Views from Tuscany

A sunset view, taken from the terrace of one of the restaurants we discovered.

Views from Tuscany

Another sunset view, taken from Montepulciano

Views from Tuscany

A view from our house at 10:30 PM

Views from Tuscany

Nature is one of Tuscany's aces. And beauty can be in small things.

Views from Tuscany

Taken at sunset at another place we discovered for dinner,
with an amazing view over sunflower fields.

Views from Tuscany

Look at those shades of pink, taken at sunset in Montepulciano

Views from Tuscany

Another view from the hilltop of Montepulciano. Tuscany is dotted with churches, castles and medieval towns.

Views from Tuscany

The girls loved visiting the old towns.

Views from Tuscany

The girls enjoying sunsets in one of the freshly harvested fields.

Views from Tuscany

Hannah found her spot to watch the sunset.

Views from Tuscany

This was our first holiday with "Mr H", our 10 month French Bulldog pup.

Views from Tuscany

One of the beautiful sunsets, taken on the road between Siena and our house.

Views from Tuscany

Does it show the girls enjoyed Tuscany?

Views from Tuscany

Amazing what a few glasses of "prosecco" would not do...

For those interested, we staying in the Podere Ampella, in Southern Tuscany, between Montisi and San Giovanni d'Asso:

Podera Ampella is a typical example of an Italian "agriturismo" holiday formula, rural country side cottages. It is small compound of a few brand new fully furnished and equipped independent houses. Ours was a two bedroom, two bathroom house with an astonishing view. The compound has a shared swimming pool. The hosts, Robert and Paola, are a very warm and welcoming couple.

And to finish off, a panoramic view on the road back from Tuscany to Rome (click for a hires picture):

10 seconds of Tuscany (9)

On the road between San Giovanni d'Asso and Siena, my GPS decided to guide us onto an unpaved road, obviously a short-cut.
The road serpented through valleys and over hill tops, much of it unspoiled nature, and the purest of Tuscany.
The last stretch went through amazing fields of sunflowers, poured over the rolling hills in between cypresses and farm houses.

sun flower field in Tuscany

Even without image enhancing, the pictures of the sun flowers resembled cells of something in a microcosmos. Almost psychedelic...

Which inspired me to make this short video with music by Neil Young, performed by the Belgian group Lais.

10 seconds of Tuscany (8)

10 seconds in a Tuscan forest...

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10 seconds of Tuscany (7)

On our way to Siena... We all stopped at the track crossing, but so did the train. Apparently the local traffic controller had forgotten to put his light on green. We all stood there waiting for a guy to wake up.. Until the train conductor got impatient and blew his horn until he got a green light...

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10 seconds of Tuscany (6)

On our way for morning coffee in the town of San Giovanni d'Asso.

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10 seconds of Tuscany (5)

July is harvest time. Farmers are working on all the fields around us.

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10 seconds of Tuscany (4)

A 10 second impression on the piazza in front of the Florence Duomo.

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Views from Tuscany (5)

For those of you who followed my tweets this afternoon: I posted 4 pictures and asked you to guess where I shot them from... You can still see them on my TwitPic account.

Some of you guessed The Vatican. Some said France. Others were closer with Verona,... But some had it right: today we got lost in Firenze... Or "Florence" for the anglophones... ;-)

Ok, I have to admit, the first picture was not a good hint... Could have been pretty much anywhere in Italy.... Why Italy? Well, they sell leather in stalls on a market with statutes around it...

Views from Firenze

But a few pictures later, this one should have given it away...! This is one of the most famous sights of Firenze: The Piazza del Duomo with the Bapistry on the left and the Duomo on the right.

Views from Firenze

In the 13th century, the city decided to build a cathedral here, but it was not until 1436 when the Duomo was actually finished.

Views from Firenze

The Duomo's main facade is a 19th century imitated Gothic front.

Views from Firenze

A detail of the front door of the bapistry, which is the oldest building in Florence, dating back to the sixth or seventh century when it was a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Its bronze doors are from the Renaissance times...

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