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Tuscany
  • Jen Ritchey
Apr – May 2025

Tuscany

A 24-day adventure by Jen Read more
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  • Trip start
    April 25, 2025
    Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    On our way!

    April 25 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Today we set off for 3 weeks in Tuscany! Not an exciting day, we left after lunch and drove to Munich (we are staying on the outskirts by the freeway). The drive was easy peasy (we definitely got lucky and we were going the right direction as there were so many places the other direction were backed up forever! The worst was probably an accident blocking all the lanes the other way and that was backed up with parked cars for at least 5km…luckily it didn’t look like a bad accident and the people were walking around getting all their things when we drove by so that was good). We got here earlier than I had expected (left a bit earlier and the traffic wasn’t bad in the construction spots where I thought it would be) so that was nice.

    I had reserved a compact SUV for the drive so it would be comfortable and have enough room for all our things…but I showed up and they gave me a VW Golf…which is not a compact SUV! They were like I booked that class of car or similar and this is similar…which it is not. It is tiny, though all our things do fit in the trunk, but I feel like I am driving in a clown car. My legs don’t fit very well and it feels like my knees are bent up to my ears and I can’t move my legs around much…for shorter drives once we get there that will be fine, but Raymond will probably have to drive some tomorrow as it will be a long day of driving and I don’t think I can do that without longer breaks than we can afford! I need to be able to move my legs around!

    Probably not much exciting tomorrow either, though if we get in before dark we might be able to see the lake we are staying by! We shall see! I am hoping we don’t get in too late and hopefully the traffic and such are not bad! Long day of driving then lots of days of exploring!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Arriving in Tuscany!

    April 26 in Austria ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    Today was a much better day than I had expected! I had hoped to be at the place we are staying by 8 or 9pm, but we ended up getting here at 6! Much earlier! The traffic wasn’t bad and it was much quicker than it said it would be when planning (10hours driving vs 8.5 today! Plus stops we got here in 9.5 hours!) we got lucky with the traffic again - the other direction there was a good 60km section around Florence that was stopped cars for like 5km then a km or two where they were moving then stopped again. So that was good we were going south! There was also this odd over 20km section in Austria that was just tractor trailer trucks lined up parked in the right hand lane, but the left lane was cars driving, occasionally slowing down or stopping for a minute and then going again, and we were just like what is going on?? Why are all these trucks just parked there? They didn’t look like they were stopped for real, but no one was moving…and we got to the end of that and there was a tiny section of road that was slightly narrower than prior to that and that was the hold up I guess as the trucks there were going. I wonder if they were stopped for some reason so the trucks backed up so so far. It was really strange to just drive by a line of trucks for so long, but I was glad they were all over on the right so we weren’t stuck also as that would have taken forever!

    We drove through the mountains and that was really nice and took a couple photos (I was driving for most of it so the photos are just the tail end). We got to the other side and it was suddenly super flat! Like you could see forever flat. It was odd. Then I looked at the map and we drove through the flat section and then it is mountains/hills again the whole way down the side of Italy. I never really looked at the topography before, but Tuscany is on the other side of the Second mountains we drove through in a hilly area. So that was fun.

    We got here where we are staying and it was sunny and gorgeous! The first photo of the lake is the view from our place! So nice! We ate dinner out at the table on the side of the house, there are lavender fields behind the house and in the front, it is wonderful! After we ate we walked down to the lake to spy and found a porcupine quill on the way and saw some fancy ducks down there (Red-Crested Pochard). There are a lot of fishing/camping spots along the lake right here and lots of people out for an evening stroll.

    We headed back as the sun was setting before it got too cold. I included a photo of the house from the outside with the yard - behind Raymond is the table we ate at. Plus the balcony which is nice and will be good if we do get the rain that is forecast tomorrow so we can still sit outside!

    All in all this was a great day! A nice drive, much quicker than we expected, and we got to explore a little!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Etruscan Roads Part 1

    April 27 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Today we woke up to sunny and gorgeous! We had breakfast out on the patio then headed off to Pitigliano to hike the Etruscan roads! We started at one by a church outside of town (Via Cava Madonna delle Grazie) and it was so much fun! They are these deep paths in the tuff rock that they used to use as roads (but it wasn’t as deep then - erosion has made them way deeper!). It was just walking in these giant rock cliffs on either side of you and I loved it! I had originally planned on going out and back and then driving to the next one, but when we got to the bottom of the first one as realized the others are not very far away so as decided to walk to them instead. We did another short one (Via Cava di Fratenuti - out and back) then realized before we started the next one (Via Cava di San Giuseppe) the we could make it loop and go up that longer one, then walk along the road at the top of the cliffs and come down the one we were going to do after that (Via Cava dell'Annunziata ) so we wouldn’t be going up and down twice. I think Via Cava di San Giuseppe is one of the more popular trails, but it wasn’t as nice as the other two even though it did have some big caves carved into the walls. Still fun though and when we got to the top the road hike was gorgeous! You could see out over the hills and see Pitigliano too! It was great.

    We took a break before heading down Via Cava dell'Annunziata and there was a info map there and I realized they had a whole trail set up from the middle of town going down all the roads and basically making big loops and then around back to town that was only 10km! If we would have continued on the one we turned back on we would have looped back to where we started…so we decided to continue on the trail into town and wander around there. Originally I was going to go to 2 other towns to walk their Etruscan road trails today then explore this town tomorrow, but since we were right there and there was a trail we thought why not? So that’s what we did, but town photos are up next!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Pitigliano

    April 27 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Pitigliano is a small town on a base of tuff rocks! Which doesn’t seem like the best as tuff is pretty soft, but it has survived this long so that is kind of cool. There are lots of caves around town (and on the trails) carved into the tuff which was fun. The town is pretty nice with lots of viewpoints over the surrounding hills, and lots of small, pretty streets. We ate lunch in the one square and then wandered the town! It was fun and we even found some giant barrels that we saw in a history sign (but we couldn’t read it as it was in Italian - looking it up they might be for olive oil?). It was a pretty nice wander!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Etruscan Roads Part 2

    April 27 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After wandering town we went down another Etruscan road trail until we meet up with Via Cava Madonna delle Grazie again and hiked back up to the car. I think this trail was my favorite from today. The rock paths are a little slippery, but super cool and I loved walking around in them! There was also a great viewpoint for the Pitigliano right there where we parked! All in all it was a really wonderful day!

    We got home and relaxed in our lounge chairs until we started hearing thunder from across the lake and saw some lightning so had to move to the deck to see what we could see! It was so fun listening to all the thunder rumble all around us and see the lighting all around the lake! By 5 it had started sprinkling here, then by 5:30 it was so stormy, lots of wind and rain and we had to move inside as the wind was blowing it onto the deck! You also could not even see the lake there was so much rain! So much fun! I was glad the rain held off until we got home as it was a lot! And would have made those Etruscan road trails super slippery! We had thought we might try a nearby restaurant for dinner, but with so much rain that was a no go. Oh well, we made tasty food instead. Such a great day!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Plants & Animals

    April 27 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    All the fun plants and animals at saw along our walk today. The snails were super odd! It was like we were at the beach…We only saw them because we took a break at the bottom of the stairs going away from town and noticed they were in all the holes in the wall! So many tiny snails! So fun!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Eremo di Poggio Conte Hike

    April 28 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    This morning we woke up to some overcast skies, but by the time we got to where we were going it had turned into a pretty nice day! Our hike was up to the Hermitage of Poggio Conte. I had found this on a list of hikes to do in Tuscany and if you didn’t know it was there you would never know. There were no signs, we parked at the end of a dirt road and walked along the road until we got to a big open meadow (usually there are cows in there, but we saw the cows were in a different meadow today). It’s not until you get through the farmland that there is a sign for where we were going. But the walk through the meadow was gorgeous! It borders a river and it is hard to see in the photos, but it was covered in flowers - red (poppies), white, yellow and purple flowers. Towards the end of the field near the forested area there were giant milk thistles! Their leaves were pretty, and we even found a tiny grasshopper on one!

    After the meadow it was a short walk up to the Hermitage and that area was gorgeous! There was a pretty cool waterfall in the natural Amphitheatre and then some stairs up to the caves which were really nice inside. It was hard to see as it is dark and our phone lights didn’t help much, but it was really interesting. We sat and had a break down by waterfall (there were benches there) and I was talking to Raymond in my normal voice and it was echoing so much and so loudly! I had to whisper to not have it echo! Crazy! It was really peaceful and I loved it up there.

    On the way back to the car we saw a weird snake! This isn’t my photo, but one I found that looks like the one we saw! Such a fun adventure!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Via Cava di San Sebastiano and Necropoli

    April 28 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    After our Hermitage hike we headed over to do the Etruscan road hikes we missed yesterday. First up was Via Cava di San Sebastiano and Necropoli in Sovana which was probably my favorite one! It started with a quick hike up to some tombs in the rocks, then a super fun, but pretty short, rock wall section! It was pretty narrow and wet and slippery and I loved it! The walls were so high! I think the sign said they were 20m high!! It was so much fun!

    At the end of the rock section you climb up to the top of the rocks and there is a small cave oratory. Today was the day of seeing all the fun caves! This was a short walk, but I loved it!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Via Cava di San Rocco

    April 28 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Next up was Via Cava di San Rocco in Sorano. This was another super fun Etruscan road walk! It started off with a nice view of Sorano, then into the rock walls and all the caves! This one was pretty steep, so not as many photos as it was also a bit slippery so can’t stop that often, but so much fun! Today was full of great walks that we both loved! Oh the photo after the cave/cave in the wall (it is just of the rocks) - there was a sign that said there were crosses carved into the rocks and we found some! There is a cross just to the right of the green patch at the bottom of the tree roots on the top left hand side of the photo.

    After our hike we headed home and the clouds started to get darker as we got closer…and as soon as we shut the door after coming in from the car it started pouring! So much rain!

    Then we got another crazy understand around the same time as yesterday and we were sitting here watching and we saw a bright flash to the side of the house, heard a pop and then the power went out! We were like…umm…hopefully it is just that a fuse went and not something more serious! So we searched for the circuit breaker and luckily that was it (though the lightbulb in the kitchen burnt out!). So that was fun. And the thunder and lightning lasted forever! Some of the thunder was so loud it was shaking the house a bit. It was so fun sitting here watching it (once we got the power back on!).

    All in all today was a great day! We loved at the hikes we did and had perfect weather while we were out and a fun thunderstorm when we got home! Tomorrow on to the next stop!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Grosseto & Elba Island

    April 29 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Today we packed up and headed off to our next destination, Elba. We had to catch a ferry to Elba and it was a few hours from where we were staying so we couldn’t catch an early one. The schedule wasn’t that often so the one we caught was at 5pm, so I had a couple of options for things to do beforehand, but none were really great. I did want to go check out this National park in the water, but that added more drive time and it would have been tight trying to do a hike and get to the ferry so we decided to just head into Grosseto and see what we could see. I did find an all vegan bakery there so we planned to have lunch and treats so that would hopefully be worth it!

    Well Grosseto was…a town. The old town wasn’t very picturesque or cute or anything. It was just bleh. The first three photos are almost the only photos I took walking around in town (I took one other one of the side of the church. The street that looks nice was one of 2 tiny one block sections of streets that did! Everything else was just meh).

    It was also pretty small, so I didn’t know what we were going to do after we ate lunch…we still had some time to kill, but thought I will look and see what I see while we eat. The lunch place had sandwiches in focaccia which were just alright. The focaccia was delicious, but the fillings were a bit odd. Not bad, but not something I would go back for. But the treats! We got a raspberry pistachio cake which was delicious! Not too sweet and I loved it. Also some pistachio mousse and a chocolate mousse - both were delicious, though very sweet. The chocolate on top of the chocolate one was like hot fudge - yum! It was a big lunch which was good as we would have a late dinner. We also got some treats to take with us - a croissant, a pan au chocolate with pistachio, and a “cinnamon roll”. Can’t wait to try them tomorrow!

    While eating lunch (the restaurant was just outside the old city walls) I noticed that there was a walkway on top of the walls as I saw people up there! So that was our after lunch plan. We wandered until we found a way up and that was much nicer. Still not amazing, but I always love walking on old city walls!

    Then it was time to head on to the ferry which was about an hour and 20 min long and it was gorgeous weather! The city from the water is Portoferraio, where the ferry docked. We headed right to our place and wow! This view is amazing!! Out over the water and mountains and the sun sets right there! I’m still sitting outside even though it is cold as the colors are still gorgeous! Tomorrow we hike around and see what we can see!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Elba Exploring Part 1

    April 30 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    This morning we woke up to gorgeous weather and were trying to decide what to do today. I had originally planned a few hikes, but not much else in the time we had here as honestly nothing looked amazing when I was researching it. Well basically as soon as we got off the boat yesterday I was like yes! This place is amazing!! I wish we had more time here already and we just got here! So I did some more research and looked at the hike we were going to go today - Mount Capanne. I didn’t realize there was a cable car you could take up as well and when I saw what the cars looked like I was like we have to ride in this at least one way! So I looked at the price and it was almost the same for one way or round trip…so then I looked for local markets to see if there were any today and the one town had one so I was like we could either do the hike, or we can drive around and explore, go to the market, see what else we can see and then take the cable car up this afternoon. So that is what we decided to do - drive around the island explore and see what we could see. It was the best! Such a great day!!

    First up we stopped at a viewpoint to see what we could see. In the second photo we are staying on the left slope of the farthest hill back. Then it was off to Marina di Campo where the market was. The market was not quite what I was expecting. Only a few product places (we did get some things that were needed there), but it was mostly textiles which was different. It was really busy with mostly what looked like locals so that was fun. We did find some Briaca cake that is common here on the island - lots of dried fruits and nuts in it and it was pretty tasty.

    After the market we wandered around town some and walked along the beach, found a bakery with Schiacciata (like focaccia, but crisper and flatter) - one was slightly sweet with dried figs in, the other was plain and oh, it was amazing. Olive oil bread and salt = the best!

    On the way through town we found a church and went inside to spy and I was glad we did. They had all these super modern paintings up that I loved. So this little town was a pretty good stop. Better than Grosseto was to wander around!

    Then it was off to see what else we could see. There was a lot of parking at a beach (Spiaggia di Cavoli) that looked fun from the road so we decided to stop and it was really nice. We even put our feet in the water, though the water was cold and it was not quite hot enough to swim.

    Then we went down the road a little ways to Spiaggia delle Piscine which we loved! It was just all huge rocks to walk on and we sat and had lunch there which was really nice. The rocks were very hot thought so after lunch it was time to move on to the next stop.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Elba Exploring Day 2

    April 30 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    After lunch we headed on to Pomonte which was a really tiny town, but there was a place to fill up water by the parking which was perfect! I had drunken almost all of mine and I thought we were going to have to stop and buy some as it was hot and I need water so that worked out great. Once we got hydrated we headed to explore the waterfront and it was another great stop! Lots of rocks to walk on and a rocky beach that we ended up swimming in! The water was freezing at first, but you did get used to it and it wasn’t too bad then. Though the rocks were very slippery and I was glad we had our water shoes with us! When we got out we sat on the beach for a bit relaxing and Raymond realized he got red spots on his legs again like that one time in Croatia last year…it is odd as it was just his exposed skin that got red spots, they are not itchy or raised or anything just a red spot on his skin. Then after a few minutes they went away. I’m glad it is not something worse, but still strange!

    After swimming and a nice sit in the sun we headed on to Sant’Andrea which I almost skipped for time, but was glad we didn’t! It was gorgeous! The rocks, the plants, the water, it was all amazing! Really we didn’t have a ton of time there as we wanted to get to the cable cars with plenty of time before they closed, but I was glad we stopped by for as long as we did. Then off to the cable cars!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Elba Exploring Part 3

    April 30 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    When looking at what to do today I saw the Cabinovia Monte Capanne and knew we had to ride in them once. It was almost the same price round trip and one way so we decided to do a round trip ticket and it was so fun! The “cars” are these little 2 person cages which is…odd. You just stand in the cage as it goes up and down. It was so strange I was like well we have to do this now. And it was nicer than the enclosed cars as they didn’t get super hot in the sun and lots of fresh air. But we tried not to move too much as they would swing a bit. And you basically stopped every time someone got on/off so it can take a while to get to the top. I was glad we decided to ride them!

    At the top you could walk around a bit and go up to a panoramic viewpoint and that was gorgeous! We saw all the spots we stopped at today and talked about where else we were going to go now that we can see everything. It was gorgeous and I loved it! Plus while we were up there we saw some Nubian Ibex! They were running down the side of the mountain then stopped to hang out in the shade so we sat and watched them for a bit. They are technically in the 7th photo, but too far away to be able to make them out. So that was amazing.

    Then it was back down and on to our next stop, Marciana Marina. I had this marked as to go to get some gelato after our hike, but it was some pre-dinner gelato so I don’t turn into a cranky hungry monster before we get home and make food (I knew dinner would be really late so needed something to tide me over). The place has interesting flavors and I tried their Red pepper, melon, and chili which was…odd. Spicy, like not my mouth on fire but it really hits your throat and it wasn’t the best flavor. I definitely couldn’t have eaten a bowl of that, but I was glad I tried it as it sounded odd and was. We decided to get a chocolate sea salt and caramel cup to share and it was just alright. The caramel wasn’t like a gooey swirl, it was hard little pieces that I thought was ice at first. Not awful, but not somewhere I would specifically go back to again.

    Then we wandered that waterfront which was pretty nice and then it was back to our place to eat dinner. It was a long, but relaxing day. We left here about 9:30 and got home around 7 so a full day! I loved it! It really made me think we could have used a few more days here. At least one, though we kept seeing road closed signs and caution tape up all over with signs says “pedestrians can’t cross the road during the car race” so we looked that up and there is a rally car race this weekend (starts on Friday afternoon so we need to actually look at the signs tomorrow to see when the roads are going to close to make sure we can get to the ferry). So an extra day wouldn’t have worked out well as we wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere. Next time though I will plan for longer here!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Capoliveri

    May 1 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today was another amazing day, though we walked forever! 26km which is way more than we normally walk (I normally don’t plan more than 15km, 20 maybe once and a while if it is flat), but somehow my feet are still good and not hurting from all the walking (and we just took an after dinner wander cause we were both doing well after a long day)! So that is great!

    So we got up and got going this morning and headed into town to check it out. There is supposed to be a market on Thursdays here, but I forgot it is a holiday so there was none, but we still enjoyed wandering the town. It is small and overall not the prettiest town we have been to, but the vibe is really great and we both really loved it. I thought we should have gone into town before now cause it was so nice! I loved just walking around and seeing all the things. And in our wanders we found another bakery with that Schiacciata bread - this one was almost a cracker. And I asked what the other one was and had corn in it so of course we had to try that. Both were delicious!

    Then we headed off for our hike for the day which I will put in a different post. When we were wandering this morning we spied on the menus in town and found a restaurant that sounded good for dinner that was in the main square so we went back there this evening and oh, it was wonderful! We got beans and onions for an appetizer and it was so good. Then I got aglio olio pepperoncini which is my favorite and so good as well. Raymond went for the veggie pizza and it was huge so he was cutting off the crust for me to try and the dough was delicious. After eating my pasta I was dipping it in my spicy garlic oil and if that was an option for dinner, spicy garlic oil and Pizze dough, I would have ordered that and been so happy! Oh it was amazing! And not very expensive. We keep being surprised at how cheap the food and drinks are when we go out.

    After dinner we had another little wander going down some roads we missed this morning and found a gelato place with peanut gelato I could eat so we decided to try that. I was expecting like a peanut butter taste, but somehow it tasted like eating salted peanuts which is not what I was expecting. It was almost savory and really good even though I am not a huge fan of peanuts. Much better than the last gelato place!

    I’m already so sad we are going to be leaving here tomorrow! I did look to see if we could catch a later ferry, but the car race starts right after our current one so no point is spending more time (and the roads going into the ferry town close right after our ferry). But man I wish I could have a few more days! I feel like we could easily spend a week on this island and go to the beaches and hike around and go try all the restaurants in town and it would be wonderful. It’s not that big, we drove most of it yesterday, but we would have a great time exploring! I’m currently sitting outside on our patio enjoying the sunset which is just amazing. I did not expect to enjoy Elba as much as we have. I did think about doing 4 days instead of 3 when I was planning, but then I was like what are we going to do on the 4th day? As I didn’t have that much to do here. Now that we have been we will definitely be back for a longer stay! Tomorrow we explore the rest of the island we haven’t seen yet and then on to the next stop.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Hike Around the Penninsula

    May 1 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    When I was planning our trip I found a hike here that looked pretty nice walking around this peninsula we are staying on. Once I booked this place to stay I realized it starts right outside our door so that was perfect. After our morning wander in town we headed off to walk the peninsula and it was such a nice hike! It was all along a road (mostly dirt road) and looked out over the water the whole time. Lots and lots of flowers blooming everywhere which made it even prettier and even a section of lots of cacti. This morning it was pretty nice, but by mid day it was getting hot! Super hot when it was not in the shade and there was no wind…we kept going in to an inlet and it would get stifling, then out and go around a bend and the wind would pick up and be nice and cool and it worked out great. Just when I was getting too hot we got to windy section to cool us down. Without the wind it would have been a bit miserable! And we made really good time as it was mostly flat until after lunch when we headed downhill to the beaches. We saw a little caterpillar that kept almost falling over while it was walking…and it was so warm that by the time we got to Spiaggia di Buzzancone o Cera we decided to go down and take a dip in the water. Though the water was freezing cold! So much colder than yesterday! My feet didn’t warm up at all until I got out, but it was nice. Since we were making such good time in the walk and were way ahead of schedule to be back for dinner we had a nice 2 hour break on the beach. Whenever i got to warm I went in and cooled off and then back to lounge on the beach. When we got there there was only one other person there so it was almost a private beach! When we left a few boats had come and as we were walking back a bunch more people with beach gear seemed to be headed there so it was going to get busier!

    After the beach we kept seeing these weird bugs where when they walked they would curl their back part under them and I looked them up when I got home and they are European Glowworms! So that was fun! Oh the photo of the beach after the bug is the one we spent so much time at! As we went farther along there were a lot more beaches, but they are closer to town so they are much busier. We stopped at the last one before going back uphill to our place and they had Vegan ice cream cones and it was so hot we were like yes!! Cold treat! And sat in the shade and enjoyed them. That beach was super busy, but incredibly quiet which was odd. No one was making any noise!

    After that it was a 4km uphill hike in the heat which was a lot, but we were pretty quick to do it! Normally I plan 2km/hour uphill (really that is 2km in 45min as we walk 45 min and then take a 15 min break for water and snacks). But today we did that 4km in 50min which is crazy fast! Especially since it was so hot by then.

    Today was such a nice day. The walk was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun seeing all the things!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Last day on Elba

    May 2 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today we got up, packed up, and went off to explore a little more of Elba before our ferry. First up was Spiaggia di Terranera - one side is a green lake, the other side the Mediterranean! So that was fun. There were also signs about calling if you see any sea turtles babies as apparently they will hatch there! We didn’t stay too long there as there was no air movement and it was soooo hot! We headed on to go to another town and spy, but the road was closed and we would have had to go out and around a long way so we decided to just head into Portoferraio. Once we got there I was glad we did as the traffic was crazy and it was so busy with the car race people! We wandered the town a bit, spied on the market and looking at restaurants and bakeries to see what we could find and the town itself wasn’t anything special.

    We did look at a few restaurants and found one that sounded okay, but it was a bit hot and not very scenic so we went to spy on a few more I had marked and the last one we looked at was right on the water at the beach, we got a table overlooking the water, and they had fancy Vegan options that were so so good! The water there at the beach was gorgeous, probably my favorite we saw! And eating lunch there with a slight breeze was wonderful! We had Vegan risotto, a vegetable pie with potato sauce, and tofu with sesame and ginger. Everything was amazing! I was so glad we went to check it out instead of settling for one of the earlier restaurants! Such a great lunch spot!

    After lunch we grabbed our swim stuff and headed to the beach. It was again super busy, but very quiet. The water was pretty cold, but we did kind of get used to it and swan for a good 45 min! There were also lots of fish around and I was proud of myself for not freaking out that they were all there! Go me! They were kind of camouflage with the white rocks! Really the rocks were all weird and spotted which I haven’t seen before so that was fun. Really a gorgeous day!

    Then it was time to head on to the ferry. We got there and wandered the waterfront a bit waiting for the boat and saw all the rally cars. The ferry was nice, the water was smooth and we had gotten this very light sweet bread to try from one of the bakeries. It was so fluffy and tasty.

    After the ferry it was a bit of a drive to where we are staying - the second last photo is the view here. It is no Elba, but it will do ;) it does have some pretty fun decor! Tomorrow it is off to explore more around here!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Arezzo Part 1

    May 3 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Today was another unexpectedly great day! It was much cooler which was really nice for walking around towns. We started the day in Arezzo which we really loved. It felt more lived in and less tourist centric which I like. We went there first as I had listed a weekly market today so we went and spied on that first and it was huge! There was a row of textiles which I did find a few things I liked, but had no use for…and then there was a row of food and produce which was fun. It took us about an hour to walk through the market it was so big! So after that we got a piece of pizza Rosa and sat in the big park next to the market and had a rest and even that was great. Lots of people out and about enjoying this sunny Saturday!

    Then we headed more into downtown and I had forgotten it was the first weekend of the month so there was a giant antique market basically everywhere, but also a bunch of other smaller markets like a craft/art market and a food market (where we found some cookies - the last photo - pistachio which are delicious! And energy cookies they called them, they have dried fruits in which were alright but not as good as the pistachio. And they were both made with spelt flour which added a nice flavor). I really loved wandering the city and seeing the sights, but also spying on all the market things. We spent way more time in Arezzo than I expected! We really could have spent all day there and it would have been good. I would definitely go back again!

    We spied on restaurants and found a pizza place with fun Vegan pizza options (and Neapolitan pizzas which so love). We got one with wild mustard greens, pumpkin cream, vegan mozzarella, lemon oil, and olive oil and one that was made by a 1 star Michelin chef that had 3 types of tomato, olives, thyme, wild garlic pesto and olive oil. They were both super tasty and the dough was so so good! It was another great lunch and it was fun sitting outside as the lady who ran the restaurant across the street at first was sitting drinking wine and talking to everyone who walked by. She was super happy and complimentary and was really fun. When Raymond went to use the restroom I was there and her restaurant had gotten busier and she was clearing a table and she looked over at me and was like I love that hair color on you! It looks great! So that was nice :) it was a really lovely time. Afterwards we walked by a gelato place that had peach gelato so I had to try it as I love peach and you don’t find it often. It was also amazing and tasted like fresh peaches. We didn’t eat it all as they give you so much, but it was nice and refreshing.

    We wandered some more after lunch and ended up at a park on the top of the hill that had the view in the second to last photo and there was also a small Greek food festival going on! All the things were happening today!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Arezzo Part 2

    May 3 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    We finally made it to the cathedral, which originally was going to be the first place we went as it was on the top of the hill then work our way back down, but all the markets had us wandering all over the place until it was almost the last place we went! It was close to the park and we had parked on the other side of the park so we wandered back through there to get to the car. It was really nice, lots of trees with shade and it was lovely. There was a huge cemetery by where we parked that was right next to the fort on the hill. We saw all the things! I loved Arezzo and it will definitely be in the list to go back to next time!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Cortona

    May 3 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After Arezzo we headed over to Cortona to check it out. We were driving and there was a city up on the side of the hill and I was like is that it? And it was! We were actually eating dinner here at the house this evening and were wondering if we could see where we were today and I was like wait a minute…The city we can see on the hill from here is Cortona! If you look back at the photos from yesterday in the view photo there is a light spot in the hills in the middle of the photo and that is Cortona!

    Cortona is pretty small with so many steep hills. It was nice, but not as nice as Arezzo. We enjoyed our time there and we did find a fancy Vegan restaurant and we debated sticking around for dinner, but we would have had to kill 2.5 hours and well…by the time we got done exploring the city and taking all the breaks to waste time we still had an hour until they opened so we decided to just head home. It was starting to cool off as well and we didn’t bring lots of warmer clothes as we didn’t expect to be out for dinner. We might try and go back tomorrow or Monday night, but we shall see. We have more places to check out tomorrow so if we find something else fun we might not make have time.

    All in all it was a really fun day!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Montalcino

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    This morning we got ready and headed off to Montalcino. We had driven by there in the way to where we are staying on Friday evening and it was super busy so we thought we should head there first. Probably a good choice as parking was easy peasy and there were not that many people there yet. The town is pretty small and was less than an hour to see everything, but it was a nice, quick stop.Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    San Quirico d'Orcia

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    After Montalcino we headed on to San Quirico d'Orcia, another small town that was also super quick to walk all around. There was a nice park to wander and was a cute town. We had talked about eating lunch in one of the towns we were going to today and when were left this morning I figured it would be here, but we were still way too early for lunch by the time we saw everything. The towns are super small and close together so they don’t take much time, so we headed on to the next stop.Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Pienza

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    After San Quirico d'Orcia we headed on to Pienza which was the busiest town with tourists we have been to so far (not counting larger cities where it is mostly people who live there). I’m not sure why this one was more popular than others, but it was another small cute town. There was a small food market at the entrance to the town and a small food festival as well! They didn’t have a lot of vegan options, but we spied just in case. We were just in time for lunch and tried a place that had a lot of Tuscan food that happens to be vegan. We had a tomato bruschetta, Fagioli all’Uccelletto (beans in tomato sauce - this was so good! By far the best of everything we had!), Ribollita (bean and bread soup - we both agreed this was way better than we expected), and pici pasta with garlic tomato sauce. All of it was pretty good, but the beans were amazing!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Montepulciano

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Our last stop for the day (before dinner) was Montepulciano. Now I had originally planned on going here tomorrow, but there are severe thunderstorm warnings with heavy rains and strong winds all day tomorrow and Montepulciano was a must visit for me so this morning I said we will see what we see this morning and then this afternoon we will head here. Well we saw all the things I had planned for today this morning so we had plenty of time to explore Montepulciano! Now this was a must see for me as the last part of the second Twilight movie was filmed here! They call it Volterra in the movie, but it is really Montepulciano. We recreated some of the scenes, but I will save that for a different post.

    Now Twilight not withstanding I really liked Montepulciano. I expected the streets to be steeper as I had heard it was a lot of that, but really Cortona felt like it took more effort to wander around. Those streets were pretty steep, but these were not bad. We basically walked every street too see if we found any filming locations we could identify (we watched the scene again when we got there so it was fresh in our mind) and see what we could see. There was some interesting art and it felt like a fancier town and is one I would go back to if we were in the area again. We had some pretty good gelato (dark chocolate and strawberry rosemary which was way better than I expected. Definitely a rosemary flavor but not overpowering. It was delicious and I thought I should have just gotten that!). After seeing all the things we headed back home to relax until dinner time. So many towns today!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Montepulciano - Twilight Edition

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    For those of you who don’t know Twilight we “recreated” the scenes from the movie that we could). 1 - Alice is driving Bella up to the main square as far as she can, but there are so many people around (in the movie it was during a festival). 2/3 - oh no! The cops have stopped Alice! She can’t drive any farther! 4-10 Bella must run for the square! And run, and run, and run, until finally she gets to the clock tower! That is where Alice said Edward would be! (In the movie they added a fountain to the squares that she ran through). 11-12 - oh no! Will Bella be too late?!? Edward is trying to expose what he really is (in the movie Edward is trying to get the ruling vampires to kill him, they won’t, but if he takes off his shirt and exposed what he’s really is, his hideous sparkly skin to a crowd full of people, then they will have to). He is already starting to take off his shirt!! 13 - Success! Bella saved Edward! She got there before it was too late!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Trequanda

    May 4 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Last night when I was looking at the food options for today I saw there was a fancy Vegan place a 10 min drive from where we are staying. This afternoon we were talking about what to do for dinner and since it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and therefore won’t be able to eat out we decided to try it out. I’m so glad we did! It was amazing!!

    The restaurant is in this tiny town of Trequanda. We got there a bit early so we walked the loop road around town and that took all of 10 minutes with stops to take photos and such. It is really tiny. So it is a bit odd there is this fancy Vegan place there, but it worked out for us! There were flags for “Beata Bonizzella Cacciaconti Trequanda” all over town so while we were waiting for food I looked up what that was about and found a page with the history of this town. Apparently they don’t know where the name came from, but the town adopted the interpretation “three cups” and you see them all over the place (once we knew this we saw three cups everywhere! They are in the corner of all the building numbers and stuff) and Beata Bonizzella Cacciaconti is from here and was married into a wealthy family. After her husband’s death she bought a farm nearby and used her wealth to help the poor and vulnerable people. She is also said to protect young women - when they are threatened by shady characters if they implore her for help the shady characters temporarily lose their sight! Her body was found entombed in the church and said to not have decomposed, but they found it when bees were seen swarming out of the church wall and when they opened it up they found her with a goblet made of beeswax in her hand. This week they celebrate her life every year so another thing we just happened upon! If we were not here this week and those signs were not up I never would have looked them up and found all this out. So that was fun!

    As for the food, it was amazing! We got a polenta trio (mushroom, lentil ragu, and mozzarella and sausage - Raymond had the mushrooms, but the rest was delicious!) and a bruschetta sampler (mushroom, leeks, peppers, and cherry tomatoes - so good!! Raymond again had the mushrooms, but the rest were amazing!) for appetizers then turmeric ravioli with tofu and spinach filling in a cherry tomato sauce and gnocchi with peas and broad bean cream and both were so so good!! Since everything was so good we decided to try the lemon cake with chocolate ganache for dessert and even that was great. I’m not normally a citrus cake fan, but it has a light flavor and paired well with the chocolate. All the food! If they would be open tomorrow I would consider going back again, but alas they are not. Oh well, the weather might not be good anyways.

    So today was a great day! We saw all the tiny towns, we recreated some Twilight magic, and ate all the delicious foods! We’ll see what we get up to tomorrow!    Read more

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