Sunday, 21st January
Day of departure - we welcomed our exchange family at around 8.30 that morning – Piergiorgio, Alessandra and their 18 month old daughter Viola, as well as one sister-in-law and another family of three, friends traveling with them. Thankfully we were relatively well organized, in no small part due to Carmel and Kate, Maree’s sisters, who cleaned and threw stuff out fearlessly the night before. I think we filled most of the bins in Bunting St.
So after some hectic exchanging of information and a quick orientation to the house, we headed off to the airport at midday. Plenty of time spare – until Ella happened to mention “I feel like we have left something behind.” And sure enough, Chris realized we had left his computer at home – so a quick u-bolt in Swan St, back home, then off to the airport. Farewelled by Maree’s family and away.
A quick stopover in KL – enough time to try and have some sleep, a bit of sightseeing, a bit of swimming and trying to adjust our bodies to a new time zone. The girls were particularly impressed by the hotel pool.
In Rome, we settled into our little flat in Monte Sacro, north of the historic centre, getting used to the noise and the incredibly cold weather. Our first few days saw us dodging thunderstorms whilst still trying to do the tourist thing. Ella was keen to see the Trevi Fountain so we headed there first – let the girls toss a coin in – to ensure they would come back, but discouraged coins two and three as we felt there was enough time in the future to kiss and marry an Italian boy.
There has been some dispute within the family about visiting cathedrals and churches. Both girls have got a serious reluctance to enter churches – Ella would much prefer to go to a museum. No amount of explanation could persuade them that Italy’s churches are in fact their museums. We finally got them to St Peter’s where we think they were impressed with the size and grandeur of it all – they both took enough photos to make us think so.
A week after leaving, we headed off from Rome to get settled in our apartment in Montepulciano. Chris bravely tackled the traffic and got us out onto the autostrada safely – Maree managed to acquire a few more grey hairs – all my driving instincts were in disarray. It had snowed the day before and Montepulciano still had snow lying on the streets much to Ella and Laura’s excitement. They took great delight in showering us with snowballs – until the snow became too wet and we had to put an end to us as targets. Ella still has her pet snowball in the freezer here.
Montepulciano is an incredibly beautiful town, very steep hills so we get lots of exercise walking to and from the shops and we find new and exciting twists and turns – there is not a lot of symmetry in the town plan – lots of little alleyways, steps and hidden piazza. We are hoping this will be adequate exercise to keep the kilos at bay.
The apartment is even better than the photos we had seen – we have spectacular views over the valley and of San Biagio church, one of the defining landmarks here. Our house features on the tourist info brochure so we feel very special.
Monday, 12th February
It doesn’t feel like we have been very busy – but looking back at the last week or so, we have managed to do quite a lot. We have been very slow to get moving in the mornings and with the winter evenings we are cosying down quite early too. So much sleep to catch up on and this huge old building muffles all external noises! Very much cocooned from the world unlike Rome where it feels like we are sleeping in the middle of Piccadilly Circus.
Chris has become much more adept at driving the Italian roads although the Italian road signage has been the cause of a reasonable amount of stress and the odd curse. More of that later…..I have still to garner enough confidence to have a go – however there is a 2-3 hour walk we want to do from Montepulciano to Montefollonico which will require a car shuttle, so I will have to overcome my nervousness soon. We took a drive along some picturesque, pot-holed lanes for a reccy of the walking path – the girls had taken considerable encouragement and the promise of some decent walking boots to submit to a long walk. However, they are quite keen now they know where they are going and the walking boots have materialized.
We have made a reasonable attempt to explore the local area with day trips in the car to Pienza, Montalcino and the gorgeous Siena. The highlights for Laura centre on the quality of the spaghetti al ragu at the local trattoria, (current favourite is Trattoria Latte di Luna in Pienza) the availability of gelato cioccolato and more recently whether she can buy an aerosol can of plastic string. It is Carnevale here – each Sunday in February there are truckloads of confetti and plastic string in every piazza and little children dressed up in costumes. Yesterday in Siena Laura spent a good part of the time collecting as much confetti from the ground of Il Campo as she could (and in fact has just managed to spread it all over the floor right now!)
Ella has discovered a love for bruschetta with yummy Italian tomatoes and pizza by the slice. Even Laura has developed a taste for pizza (very resistant in the past). Both girls love the Italian version of a hot chocolate – just imagine a cup of melted Cadbury!
We managed a short trip to Rome last week too – despite the Italian road signs doing their best to scupper the expedition. We left in plenty of time to drive the 20 minutes to the train station at Chiusi, where we wanted to leave the car for 3 days and catch the train into Rome. The 20 minute trip turned into 50 minutes and ended with Chris chucking the girls and me out at the station with 10 minutes to spare as he went off to find the long term car parking. My Italian was adequate to buy our tickets and Chris ran up onto the platform with 2 minutes to spare. I guess we wouldn’t have left without him??? My main motivation was to get back before the winter sales ended, but alas I am not the most skilled or motivated shopper – I need someone like Lyn Farrell to steer me through the shops – bargain shopper extraordinaire! The best we did was buy new walking boots for the whole family (I can hear the groans from here…). We had a lovely day exploring Rome again though. We had anticipated rain so planned an indoor expedition to the Vatican Museums, but it was such a glorious day we spent all our time wandering from church to monument to piazza and exploring the alleyways. We also found a cinema playing “A Night at the Museum” in English. It was nice to hear English spoken by someone other than ourselves!
And now we are back in Montepulciano and have all started Italian lessons at the local language school. Hopefully next time I go to the post office I won’t be the subject of hilarity – which I have tried to accept with good humour…….
27th February
Time for another update as we are about to head off on a little road trip up through Italy, across France and over the channel (the Chunnel refuses to take our LPG car) to London. We are braving the drive and have decided to squeeze ourselves and our luggage into our VW Fox and take our chances driving a left drive car on the left hand side of the road – and we have just got the hang of driving on the right side! In fact, I had my first drive yesterday and thankfully only had to drive for 14 km tailing Chris from Pienza to Montepulciano. I decided it was best that the girls stayed with Chris so I could concentrate and on the whole it was ok. When you are familiar with the route it is not so stressful. My left hand kept going to change gears only to find the door handle, but that was only a minor tic. And I have got over the annoyance of Italian drivers not bothering to stay on their side of the road – they always pull back in at the vital moment.
We now have 2 weeks of Lingua Italia under our belts – I can certainly read it a little more, but as yet I can’t hear it a great deal better. I feel a little more comfortable asking for food and help. Chris is doing well; I tend to rely on him for the complicated stuff. And even the simple stuff escapes me if I am not prepared – today I managed to ask our neighbour Monica, what MY name was - on meeting her for the first time!! I swear Chris blushed. Ella has become more confident in ordering her own food, particularly at Pasticceria della Nonna. Daily visits for a whole week will do that! Laura even went in and asked for “una bottiglia del acqua naturale” today. She forgot to pay in the excitement of it all, but Chris was loitering in the door way and reminded her.
We managed to do an abridged version of the walk from Montepulciano to Motefollonico. Our plans were modified after the second car failed to start and prevented the car shuttle plan. Instead we drove down into the valley and parked half way. We then had a lovely 2 hour walk up the hill to the town; albeit by the long route which we failed to announce to the girls (there had been the odd complaint without telling them we could have gone the short way!) Beautiful views over the valley, through olive groves and grape vines, a deserted Tuscan villa with solar panels on the roof (obviously just waiting for us to buy and renovate it), and one unfriendly dog. A relaxing lunch restored the girls’ energy and we virtually skipped all the way home down the hill. (Those walking boots were such a good idea!!!)
The girls have enjoyed the routine of language school and doing homework. We have also found some great maths websites and the New York Public Library online. So we have settled into an education routine of sorts. Otherwise the girls have become very creative in their play with their one teddy each and turning cardboard boxes into cities, fairy costumes and decorating pine cone people. My father always said kids enjoy the boxes more than the Christmas presents that come in them. They have also discovered the creativity of Corel Photopaint which has amused them no end.
Today we took a trip over to Cortona, another gorgeous hill town with our new friend Nicole, from Washington DC, who has been in my Italian class. The girls have taken a shine to her. She is a gymnastics teacher and today started teaching the girls how to do “back walk overs”.
In the next couple of days, we will leave our Tuscan home and the hint of spring to head north chasing winter for a few more weeks. Not entirely sure how long we will take to get across to the French coast – maybe a week. The girls are still keen to see some more snow, but in fact the ski season has been fairly poor here. I have fond memories of Chamonix (I can hear a few of you singing Abba songs…) so we might stop off there and take the girls up in the gondola to the top of Mt Blanc. Who knows….we will play it all by ear.
30th March
Our trip to the French coast was relatively uneventful – other than the awful experience of driving from Montepulciano to Florence on the autostrada – skinny lanes, thousands of huge trucks and mad Italians driving up your backside at 160 kmh. We had a night just out of Parma in a grand old house furnished straight out of Franco Cozzo, which the girls were very impressed with. We then drove up the Val d’Aosta towards the Alps and stayed in a great agriturismo on the lakes near Ivrea; bee hives, farm dog, mad miniature pony, ducks, geese, ostriches and rabbits (which we think were being fattened up for consumption).
The next morning we set off for Chamonix being told as we departed that there had been an avalanche and the Mont Blanc tunnel had been closed. We figured we may as well head to the border anyway and see what was happening. We arrived in Courmayeur where there was lots of snow ….and rain (which didn’t deter the girls from trying to make snowballs) to find out we could go through. So a quick pizza lunch and a stroll through the village then we entered the tunnel just as the rain stopped and the snow started to fall. All very exciting for Ella and Laura.
Unfortunately, by the time we got out the French side, it was all rain and it did not let up for the next 48 hours. The pistes were closed because of the avalanche risk and the whole place was shrouded in grey. We had two very disappointed girls who had set their hopes on trying their luck on the snow and going up Mt Blanc in the gondola. But the weather forecast wasn’t improving so Chris and I made the decision to head out of the mountains. Thankfully the girls didn’t mind the rain and managed to make a couple of snowmen (while Chris and I took turns to hover miserably nearby supervising!) I think we were all equally disappointed that the weather wasn’t kinder to us.
Then lots of driving and overnight stops through the Bourgogne, Champagne and up to Dunkerque to catch the ferry across to Dover.
We had a great couple of weeks in London in almost balmy weather, catching up with family and friends and doing all the touristy things. After a month of only each other for company, Ella and Laura reveled in having other children to play with. They were also very excited at meeting and monopolising their 16 y.o. cousin Katrina. So thank you to the Walshes, Moffats, Dales and Kirwins for the timely supply of children and their generous hospitality.
So we have viewed London from the Eye, thrashed the giant slides at the Tate Modern, had multiple museum visits, saw the Changing of the Guards, visited lots of parks, heaths and woods, and even saw Billy Elliot the musical. Despite the strong northern accent, Ella reckoned she understood every single swear word but also announced she loved the show despite all the swearing!! Having not seen the film, we hadn’t realized how much those brawny miners cursed. Too late once we were inside – but it seems all is OK because neither girl has incorporated those words into day to day usage………yet!
Our last day in London we had lunch in the Flask in Highgate, an old pub haunt of mine. My cousin Marcia had just flown in from Australia so we sat by an open fire lunching as it snowed outside.
Now we are back in France having had 3 days in Paris. It was jam packed with going up the Eiffel Tower, visiting Montmartre where we had to fight off the pushy artists, Notre Dame, the Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries. Chris succumbed to a day at Disneyland. The girls had a ball – but it was so cold, my toes and fingers were numb. I hate to think what kind of crowds there must be on a good day. The good weather has definitely deserted us. We are now in the Loire, in fact holed up in a hotel on the banks of the Loire itself. Could be worse….
10th April
We are now settled back into Italian life in Montepulciano. It has been lovely to come back and find the town a little busier; a few more tourists, more shops opening and hazy, sunny days. Our trip through France was brief but we managed to travel through the Loire from Le Charite to St Etienne with the weather improving the further south we went. We had a surprise drive through some snow covered hills as we left the Loire valley which gave us another opportunity to build a snowman (but discourage Laura from using rabbit poo as eyes) and throw lots of snowballs. This time we were bathed in sunshine – it was hard to drag the girls away. The trip continued through the Rhone valley to Orange for a night then we flew through Provence and hit the coast at Cannes. The affluence of the area was very obvious as we stopped on the hillside to look down over Monaco and yet two minutes over the Italian border the swimming pools and landscaping gave way to market gardens and a slightly grimier and more lived in appearance. Much more our style. We spent a night on the Italian Riviera trying to reacquaint ourselves with la lingua Italia, practicing on our B&B hostess, who suffered it all with good humour. Three weeks away had made us quite rusty. (Not that my Italian is that good anyway). We had plans to head to Pisa for a couple of nights before reaching home, but after a few hours on the autostrada getting somewhat stressed, then getting to Pisa where there were throngs of tourists and trashy stalls, we did a quick climb of the Leaning Tower and bolted for Montepulciano.
Home sweet home……….tired but relieved. (Not to put any of you off Pisa – we were just like horses bolting for the stable.)
A couple of lazy days at home then our friend Arlene arrived from London to spend a little time under the Tuscan sun. Lots of day trips to Cortona, Lago di Trasimeno, Montechiello and Pienza, then a final huge day in Firenze where we farewelled Arlene and caught the train home to put the girls to bed at 11.30pm. Since then we have been very slug-like – lots of sleep-ins, lazy meanderings about Montepulciano revisiting our favourite places (San Biagio, the gelateria and pasticerria della Nonna) and scoffing Easter chocolate. The girls had decided it was best to purchase their own Easter Egg in case Easter Bunny couldn’t find them – as you can see Easter Eggs in Italy are of a grander size than Australia. The girls spent a grand total of $4.50 each on these ones in the photo. (Easter Bunny did remember them too – but in a much more economical Australian way).
Ella took Chris off to a classical music event featuring the conservatorium of Munich in one of the Palazzi last night – Laura decided it wasn’t her cup of tea so we stayed home pursuing alternative cultural delights (Crocodile Dundee II in Italian). Today we are off to a degustation festa in the main piazza – a “traditional day of Easter enogastronomica” which is being hosted by a local contrada (neighborhood). Beef steak, veal, sausage and rabbit look popular. Mmmmmm………..
Tomorrow we head north via train to Bologna and Venice. Ella is particularly excited as she has been devouring a novel set in Venice and is already planning our itinerary.
21st April
Another week or so has gone – it is all going so quickly; so many of the things we planned to do will probably not happen. Still, in retrospect, we have struck a good balance between being tourists and kicking back and enjoying the Tuscan life (albeit on the periphery).
One of the drawbacks of not enrolling the children in school has meant their contact with other children is fleeting and superficial. Although, being kids, they quickly find ways to engage and play despite their lack of Italian.
The past week we traveled by train to Bologna and Venice. I had been to Bologna years ago but had completely forgotten how lovely it was. Beautiful old buildings with huge indoor courtyards and colonnaded marble walkways underneath. It was such an appealing city; assisted by the most glorious weather. It would be great to spend more time there.
Then Venice – a little more ambivalence felt about this city. It is impressive in so many ways but it is hard to maintain this feeling of awe as your hip pocket is being emptied so frequently. Paying twice the amount for a meal that is not even half as nice anywhere else in Italy niggled a bit. Thankfully, we found a great little trattoria and bakery in the Jewish ghetto in the back streets of Canareggio. We wandered the canals and alleyways for hours, took a gondola ride, multiple vaporetto rides and felt a bit overwhelmed by the crowds of people in St Mark’s Square. The girls got into a buying frenzy and bought lots of mementoes out of their rapidly dwindling pocket money. So then we escaped to the public gardens for a calm down gelato and play.
We had gleaned some information from the free Venice equivalent of the Metro newspaper that a rail strike was in the offing, so rapidly got ourselves reserved seats on an early train out of Venice the next morning before they all walked off the job. I had some nervous images of being stuck in Venice on Friday night with no accommodation available. So our little stay in Venice was cut short by half a day, but we got home to Montepulciano easily.
Now here the trees are greening up nicely, the poppies are out (much to Laura’s delight) and the evenings are delightful. The girls have been collecting porcupine quills on our walks and we have seen some incredible sunsets from our window but of course none of our photos capture the actuality. Being up on top of this high hill town means it is still a little cooler than some of the towns surrounding us – but it suits us pale, freckly types.
Also, Aunty Carmel has arrived for a visit and the girls are very excited. So are Chris and Maree, as the first thing she offered was babysitting duties! They are also brimming with anticipation at catching up with Kate, our school principal, who will be in Rome for a few days.
Now we are off to see Mr Bean’s Holiday in Italian. We figure the gags aren’t in its subtle dialogue anyway.
3rd May
It has been a lovely couple of weeks since Carmel’s arrival. We were all indulged big time. The girls (well, Laura in particular) were instructed by Carmie to go straight to her in the mornings and not wake up Mum and Dad. This resulted in lots of lazy sleep ins and reading of books. Not that we had been really deprived of these, but it was nice to have Laura distracted from an immediate breakfast by countless games of Yahtzee with Carmel.
There were also countless games of Scrabble between Maree and Carmel (those of you who know the Nihills won’t be a bit surprised) – occasionally with the girls and even with Chris in the end.
We introduced Carmie to the art of hill climbing, porcupine quill collecting (of which she became master quill hunter) and morning coffee at Café Poliziano. We attempted a night jaunt with the torches to spot a porcupine but only scared a few pigeons much to Laura’s disappointment. Carmie in turn introduced us to much more frequent dinners out and about in Montepulciano. Our cooking is obviously not up to scratch.
We did the 7km walk to Montefollonico which yielded lots of encounters with nature - a tiny squirrel, a dead mole, lots of lizards, ducks, pheasants, hoopoes and sheep. The countryside looks beautiful with all the spring flowers, the flourishing crops and the greening vines and trees. We rewarded ourselves with a long lunch on a terrace overlooking the valley. The gnocchi with creamy truffle sauce was a highlight. The lowlight according to Ella was the bruschetta with dogsick (duck liver in fact).
With Carmie here we decided we needed to expand our explorations. We had another jaunt to Firenze, a great juddering car ride on the dirt roads exploring around Montechiello and La Foce (where we think half the postcards of Tuscany originate) and a lovely afternoon resting our weary bones in the thermal pools of Bagno Vignoni. Not sure what the exact composition of the water was, but the tadpoles loved it. They also loved Carmie – there seemed to be a constant three tadpoles latched onto her legs or shoulders much to our amusement. The kids had enormous fun catching them and playing with them – not sure how relaxing it was for everyone else reclining quietly in the pool.
We also headed to Rome for a few days, to catch up with Kate, our school principal, and her husband Robin. The girls chewed her ears off over a lovely lunch. It was great to see them both and catch up on school news.
We also explored ancient Rome and Trastevere. Then the following day Chris and Ella opted for the Vatican Museum while Maree, Carmel and Laura met Maree’s girlfriends, Fiona and Ruth at the railway station and went out for lunch – one highlight being the loss of another of Laura’s teeth while she was munching on pizza. The tooth fairy has been busy this trip.
Chris and Ella and Laura then headed back to Montepulciano while Maree stayed in Rome for a girls’ weekend. Lots of walking, talking, lunches, dinners and shopping. Brief but good fun. And we farewelled Carmie – a lightning two weeks but she is already planning a return trip to Tuscany.
Chris and the girls made the most of their weekend with day trips to Siena where they visited the Children’s Museum and were lucky enough to have an afternoon workshop on stories and illustration with two great teachers. Ella and Laura had them suspicious that their legs were being pulled about the existence of bizarre creatures shaped like ottomans called wombats that do square poo. The next day Chris and the girls took a big drive to San Gimignano and Volterra.
Montepulciano has also been a hive of activity. The first of May is a huge holiday event here and Montepulciano celebrates with an enormous market and fun fair. The girls managed to go trampolining in harnesses and commandeered the dodgem cars and dodgem boats. Ella even managed to crash hard enough to give Chris an open shin wound. We offered to call the ambulance but he bravely declined.
And now the countdown begins. Only two weeks left in Italy. We are all feeling a little sad about leaving.
26th May
The last two weeks in Italy proved very busy – we all had a sense of urgency to revisit all our favourite haunts before our departure and we welcomed more visitors. Chris’ brother and sister-in-law, Peter and Evelyn, visited from London for a long weekend, giving us a chance to show them our little spot of Tuscany.
Not sure any of us will easily forget that weekend. We thought it was a great opportunity to do the walk to Montefollonico again, however the weather was a little unpredictable and the Italian Meteo website’s forecasts were (as usual) not very helpful. So we chose to be optimistic and set off. We had to take shelter in a deserted farmhouse for the first rain shower which gave the girls the opportunity to explore this huge old place and Ella the idea that we really should buy it and renovate it. If only……
We made it to Montefollonico between thunderstorms and rain showers, hiding under trees and in doorways then made ourselves cosy in a gorgeous little enoteca/restaurant which had a wine list the size of an encyclopaedia. The trip home was rain free but the previous downpours had turned the farm roads into great sticky clay pits. We all struggled through with about 12 inches of clay stuck to the bottom of our shoes, much to Laura’s delight. But then she was in walking boots and poor Peter and Evelyn were in sandals. We were a very mucky lot by the time we got home.
Thankfully the next day was better and we drove off to Bagno Vignoni and Castiglion d’Orcia. The thermal pool at Bagno Vignoni was completely empty of people this time so the water was very clear allowing us a clear view of the tadpoles but more significantly, the very graceful snake that swam across the pool and then slithered out into the base of the fig tree growing out the side. Logically, we know any self respecting snake wouldn’t bother swimming in a pool with lots of humans flapping around – but still…
Castiglion d”Orcia gave us some fabulous views of the Val d”Orcia and Laura the opportunity to take far too many photos.
Once we farewelled Peter and Evelyn, we had a couple of days to ourselves before the Georgakas family arrived from Paris making their way to Greece. We managed one last day trip We don’t understand the true significance of this shrine – it may be for a very serious reason – but being completely ignorant, we just found it very amusing. We also managed to check out more thermal pools in Bagni San Filippo – much smellier than the last one but also much more impressive geologically – cascading pools of stark white calcareous rock formations. Unfortunately we hadn’t gone prepared with bathers – but then again we didn’t end up smelling like rotten eggs. out and about, traveling up to the top of Mt Amiata where we found the “Madonna of the Underpants” – who was in fact the Madonna of the Italian Scout Association but had become a shrine of sorts where people had stuck handkerchiefs, toys, socks and ….underpants.
With the much anticipated arrival of the Georgakas family, the girls had fun showing them around Montepulciano and made the most of the new games they brought with them. It was lovely to have time connecting again with Melbourne news and to share in the excitement of their travels. The kids had lots of fun comparing notes on their travels.
Then it was the sad preparation to leave – cleaning, packing, last minute photos and finally a very teary farewell to Montepulciano. It has been a fabulous time for us all.
