We are Facebook friends with many, many people. Our connections with Landmark Education, our large and extended families, lots of friends and living in two different cities has created an enormous circle of friends and acquaintances for both of us. One friend of Richard's had protested last year when we went to Venice but didn't go visit her. Suzie lives in Tuscany, an hour south of Florence.
Leaving Rome and heading back north towards Zurich and our flight home, we had three days to pick and choose what to see on our way back. We got directions and headed north. Siri made good time, getting us to the Castle near her home just before dark. Unfortunately, the GPS won't provide directions to their Villa, so she had emailed instructions. We tried following them three times with no success, guessing at several points, and finally called Suzie to come meet us. Again, Richard had to go to the bathroom, so there was more urgency to get there than usual:)
She talked us into "one more try" and this time we went far enough to see the turnoff onto a dirt road. It certainly felt like home to me, having lived off a dirt road for nearly ten years. But what a different view. Instead of rolling hills and saguaro cactus, mesquite and ironwood, there were rolling hills, olive groves, villas and grape vines. Much, much greener, too. We pulled into their gate just at dark and marveled at their 14th century villa. It was just as gorgeous as a picture. Did I mention Richard had to go to the bathroom? That was the first room he saw:)
We had originally just planned a "real Tuscany dinner" that Suzie was going to cook but at some point on the way in from Rome she had also extended an overnight invitation. She showed us to our room, up an old, old stone circular staircase and into a beautiful room with a day bed. Pointing to the day bed, she said, "There's your bed, that's big enough for you two, right Richard?" Well it was a suite of rooms, this was the sitting room, complete with candies, cookies and candles. The bedroom was beautifully appointed with a net over over the bed, water pitchers on both nightstands and a small room heater blasting warm air. The bathroom was a bit more modern than the rest of the rooms.
Once settled, we joined Suzie down in the kitchen. The eat in kitchen was a grand space with high ceilings, and a reach in fireplace next to the modern, six burner gas stove. This "old meets new" was all over the house, and eventually we learned that the original building was the center section. Built with three stories with cooking on the bottom, living in the middle and sleeping at the top, along with a guard to keep watch. We were directly above the kitchen so part of our rooms were the original structure. We ate a delicious caprese salad with olive oil produced from their very own olives. This was a working farm that also included a winery. Suzie had made spaghetti and meatballs, which we learned are traditionally served as two courses, and then we had a wonderful time with Suzie and her husband Jerry, listening to youtube videos of Patti Lupone and Lea Solanga. Wow, what amazing voices those dames have!
Jerry put together a great three day tour of Tuscany, we slept well, then packed up the next day. At breakfast they issued another invite to spend the night. We left undecided, but if we were staying again, they must let us treat to dinner out.
Jerry's plan included a trip to Siena and San Gimignano. Siena has a great piazza that they still race horses in today. Twice a year they run around the clam shaped Piazza del Campo. It was amazing to see the piazza and also to know that their cathedral was completed in the 13 century. In another amazing "old meets new", this town up on a hill is equipped with a series of escalators that take people up almost six floors to the town.
San Gimignano was incredible. The original sky scrapers are here. The feudal warring of the medieval ages took many of the towers in the region down but several survived here and it is an amazing skyline to come up on for an ancient town. As an added bonus, this place had the best leather shopping I had seen, so to fulfill on my obligation to go home with some Italian leather, this was where I shopped! Suzie had told me this was the place and I could see why she recommended it.
We were still listening to the church bells and I took some video of them here as well, so that tells me they were still "magical" at this point.
Suzie and Jerry took us to a great neighborhood spot that had wonderful food and Jerry shared more about his executive training programs that he is setting up to be delivered from their Villa. This was one of the restaurants they intended to support with program attendees. He also shared the veteran "get the house wine" suggestion that we'd heard elsewhere. It's true, in the heart of the Chianti region there was no bad house wine. After dinner they recommended yet another day plan for travel and invited us for a third night to stay, but we knew we were ready to move further north after Florence.
While we were in San Gimignano, we weren't certain we would stay again or have the opportunity, so we ferreted out some gifts for our generous housemates. In Siena, Richard had found a universal remote too, as Jerry said the TV delivery didn't have a remote, or forgot to bring it. So Richard programmed everything to work before we left the next morning. Then I found the aged Balsamic vinegar for Suzie and bottle of Barolo region wine for Jerry. I hope they know how much we appreciated their hospitality, it was an amazing gift.
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