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Tuscany
  • Jen Ritchey
Apr – May 2025

Tuscany

A 24-day adventure by Jen Read more
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  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Bagni di San Filippo

    May 5 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    Today was supposed to be severe thunderstorms all day…but we woke up to sunny skies (though clouds around in the distance) and the forecast changed to severe thunderstorms tomorrow. So then it was like okay, now what are we going to do today? I had planned to go to Bagni di San Filippo hot springs this morning and then I looked and found a hike that sounded nice for this afternoon so off we went.

    While driving to the hot springs we kept going straight towards a big black cloud, but luckily by the time we got there it sprinkled on us for a minute and then was sunny and nice. The hot springs were a short walk through the forest from where we parked and we came upon some warm-ish pools first and I was like these are definitely not hot enough for me to get in as it was not very warm outside yet. But then we got to the white whale, where most people go to soak, and the hot springs come out the top and it was lovely. There was some structure set up awhile ago, but then everything gets covered in sediment. We first sat in these pools up on the side of the mound, but they were pretty hot and I couldn’t stay in that long. We moved to a larger one down the side a bit and that was much better, but still pretty hot! We stayed as long as I could manage and then by the time we got dressed and back to the car it was lunchtime and we had our sandwiches before heading on to our next adventure.

    When we got here there weren’t that many people around, but by the time we left it was getting crowded and more and more people coming. I was glad we got there early-ish! It was really nice and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! The whole multiple levels of pools to soak in with different temps was really nice. I was like we should have come down here before now! It was wonderful.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Hike from Pienza

    May 5 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    After soaking in the hot springs we headed to Pienza for a hike in the countryside to a small chapel and by some Gladiator filming locations! I have never seen the movie and honestly didn’t even know what would have been filmed there, but Raymond explained it to me. The walk started in the city and we took this path down that had all of these artistic benches which was kind of fun. Then it goes out into the hills and there was a section of long grasses and there were lots of people in them taking photos and I was like what is going on?!? So then Raymond found a short clip from Gladiator where he is dreaming of running his hand through the wheat by his home and I was like oh! This is what they are doing! Like me and Twilight yesterday! I asked Raymond if he wanted to recreate it, but he did not, so I was like well someone has to! So he played cameraman and got some photos/video to make our own Gladiator scenes running my hand through the grass. I did not know we would be doing another movie today! Now it makes me thing what else was filmed here that we can recreate? After the video is the house that was his house in the movie and it was a pretty nice walk. Pienza overlooks it all which I enjoyed.

    Then the trail goes up to a small chapel that you can also drive down the dirt road to get to and it was super busy! I don’t really know why as it was not really that special, but people loved it so good for them. Then we looped back around to Pienza and got some gelato at the same chain we got it from yesterday in Montepulciano (they have three locations in these tiny towns). I loved the strawberry rosemary so much I wanted more, but this one also had lemon Basil so I thought I would give that a try as well. It was risky as I don’t really love lemon, and I was hoping he would give me move strawberry, but it was mostly the lemon Basil. Once I tried it I was so glad I had more of it! If we were to go back there again I would have just gotten the lemon Basil it was so good. And so refreshing after our hot hike up to town!

    The hike overall was pretty nice. All out in the sun, but luckily it wasn’t that hot and it was incredibly windy for the most part and the wind was cool so we didn’t get too too hot. The last bit up was not as windy so the gelato helped cool us off after the sweaty climb. When we got to the gelato shop there was no one there so we ordered and walked across the street to sit on a bench and enjoy and by the time we turned back to the shop there was a line out the door! And it was like that the whole time we were sitting there! We got there at just the right time!

    We also saw lots of rain in the distance, but luckily it never got to us. On our hike there were some spots that looked so dark and stormy and I thought for sure we would get rained in, but we never did. I’m hoping we get lucky again tomorrow and have another good weather day as we are moving on to the next place to stay and I have a hike planned during the day…Now the weather says severe thunderstorms tomorrow so we shall see! But today was a pretty great day!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Greve in Chianti Hike

    May 6 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Today we woke up to so much rain! I had been looking at the radar yesterday and all day the area we went to today was super rainy, but not where we were. Today it was pouring this morning where we were, but by the time we got to our hike in Greve in Chianti it was gorgeous out! Still some clouds around, but the sun kept peaking through (and really hiking up the hills with clouds is much better!). We followed the trail from town to Montefioralle, one of “the most beautiful villages in Italy” according to the sign. It was another tiny town that took a few minutes to walk the loop road. On the way out of town we saw a bunch of artichokes growing which I had never seen before! I didn’t know they looked like that. Then it was up into the hills where there are a ton of vineyards. We ate lunch overlooking one that had poppies growing between the rows of grapes and it was really pretty.

    After lunch we looped back to town and found some gelato to cool off (it was so humid we got so sweaty even though it wasn’t that hot out). We had dark chocolate and a vanilla with passion fruit swirl - both were delicious!

    Then it was on to our next place to stay and we found all the animal friends here! There is a dog friend also, but I didn’t take a photo of him. The last two photos are the views from here - the first from our deck and the second a little bit down for sunset. It’s pretty nice! When we got here the guy was like today is so much better! Yesterday it was really bad storms all day and huge hail and today is so much better. Be glad you came today! So yeah we lucked out with the weather so far! We shall see what tomorrow holds, but today was a pretty good day.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Siena Part 1

    May 7 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Today we got up to overcast skies and potential rain, but no thunderstorms called for so off we went to Siena! First up was finding parking which was a little crazy as it was so busy! This is definitely the busiest city we have visited. There were so many people everywhere! We found parking and headed off to check out the market that was happening this morning and it was huge! Probably bigger than Arezzo! It took us all morning to explore and see all the things. They had a bigger food and produce section, a big section of plants, and then of course all the textiles and home goods. Their things were much nicer than the other markets, if I was in a buying mood I might have gotten a few things! It did start raining on us, but it was just light rain and we had our umbrellas and stayed dry. The rain only lasted about an hour and then the skies cleared up off and on the rest of the time we were there.

    After the market it was on to lunch which was a place that just makes Pici pasta so we got some to go and sat in the giant square in the center of the city. The whole thing is a half circle slanted down towards the center on the one side. There is also a fancy fountain just kind of on one side randomly. It was fun sitting and watching all the things and the pasta was pretty good. This is the second time we have had it and I don’t know that it’s my favorite, but pasta is pasta and I will eat it!

    Then more wanders around town. We had gone by this square before lunch that had all these cars with taped things on the top and we were like what is that?!? After lunch we walked by again and there were all these young guys on top of the cars singing and yelling things at the window across from them. No clue what they were saying or what was going on, but we saw the guys afterwards wearing purple capes and hats and their families hugging and congratulating them so something was happening. I tried looking it up but couldn’t find anything, but it was fun regardless.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Siena Part 2

    May 7 in Italy ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Our last stop before we headed back to the car was the Duomo which was gorgeous from the outside! So colorful which is unusual. Then it was down a very steep hill to the car (there were escalators we took up to the top this morning) with some really nice views of the city and a 13th century fountain with gold fish in!

    Siena was fun to wander, but not our favorite town we have visited. The buildings did seem taller than other towns, but it wasn’t as pretty overall and there were way too many people there! I was glad we were there on a weekday and not on the weekend!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Monteriggioni

    May 7 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    After Siena we headed over to Montereggioni, a super tiny little castle town. Being generous it might take a minute to walk from one end of town to the other, and maybe 15 seconds to go the width of it. There were three streets so we walked them all and spied on the views which were meh, then back to the car. We could have walked on the a section of the city wall, but it cost €5 which seemed way too expensive for what it was. I honestly don’t see how it would have taken us more than 5 min to walk the whole thing including stopping every 2 feet for a photo. So we skipped that and were back to the car 15 min after we left. The parking cost too much too…when we were walking around Raymond was like that tiny town with the Vegan restaurant felt like a town…this feels like a tourist trap. I was like that’s cause it was a town and this is a tourist trap! So i would not come back here again as it was nothing special and only for tourists (though a pilgrimage route does go through there!)Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    San Gimignano Part 1

    May 8 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Today we got up and headed to San Gimignano, the town of towers! So apparently there used to be 72 towers in this tiny town as all the rich families built their own tower to show how rich they are, but most were destroyed during WWII, though 14 still remain! So it was fun wandering the town with all these towers everywhere.

    It was also market day and I had read somewhere that it was a food market today, but it was just a normal market with a mix of things. I did find a porcelain bowl that I loved and had to bring home with me! It is a small town so the market was pretty small, but it was fun wandering. I don’t think Raymond liked the town as much as I did as he said it was a lot of tourist shops, which it was, but nicer ones that I liked so I didn’t mind ;)    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    San Gimignano Part 2

    May 8 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    There were lots of places in town to walk up on the city walls, or their towers, and look out over everything which I always enjoy. It was a pretty nice day especially since it was raining where we were when we left the house this morning. We did get done bread from a bakery while wandering and it was the best we have had outside of Elba, though it still wasn’t as amazing as it should be! The courtyard of the Duomo has this art exhibition going on which was fun and the old church bells on display. Even though it was a pretty small town we still spent all morning wandering around there.Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    San Gimignano Hike

    May 8 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    My original plan for today was to go to town this morning then go do a gorge hike this afternoon. Well this morning I was looking at the hike again and it is in a dry riverbed…at least if it hasn’t rained recently. If it had it was not recommended as you would be walking in the river…and it has been raining a lot in the area so I looked for a different hike to do. I found one similar to our Pienza hike where it started in San Gimignano and you walked a loop through the countryside and had great views of town and everything along the way. We decided to do that one and it is probably good we did as we noticed the rivers on the drive this morning all looked a bit flooded!

    So after wandering town we headed out on our loop trail. At first we kept seeing these plants that had odd balls at the top by the flowers. Thanks to the plant identifying app we learned that they were Rosy Garlic plants! I broke one of the balls off and it definitely was garlic, it had a very strong smell. We had never seen garlic growing like this so that was fun! We learned something new! Basically the whole plant is edible!

    After our first break we stared walking and all of a sudden it started raining pretty hard! It had also gotten pretty cold so we put on our rain gear as it is very warm and used our umbrellas to stay dry as it wasn’t windy or anything. I don’t mind walking in the rain when it is like this. It is kind of miserable when it is windy and stormy, but this was fine. The trail is actually dirt roads that cars occasionally come down and while it was raining a car went to pass us, but stopped and asked if we wanted a ride. That was super nice of them, but we thanked them and said we were fine as really it was a nice walk even with the rain. Though after it stopped raining it was soooo humid! Walking back up into town we got so hot because it was so muggy even though it wasn’t that hot outside! So of course we got some gelato to cool down! I got peach and melon which was amazing, Raymond got dark chocolate which was by far the best we’ve had. It was very dark which we love, but it also was somehow like melted chocolate but cold. It was weird, but delicious. It was a bit rainy eating the gelato, but we made it work.

    Then we headed home to relax before dinner and it was sunny and gorgeous when we got here!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Dinner

    May 8 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    This evening I had booked a fancy vegetarian restaurant nearby to try out. We were sitting at our place and it got pretty cold and started raining, but it looked like there was a chance it wasn’t raining where the restaurant was so we headed off to see…and it was raining the whole way there until just before we got there. The sun was out there and a big rainbow over the buildings and it was perfect! They dried off a table for us outside and we had a lovely sunset view while eating. The food was…just okay unfortunately. We are finding that a lot of places here don’t really use salt for some reason. Like everything would be way better if they added just a touch of salt, but instead most things are kind of bland. It is odd.

    We had gotten this typical Tuscan bread to try yesterday and we toasted it up this morning and were so disappointed! Somehow the typical bread is just flour water yeast - no salt! Which…I don’t understand. Apparently forever ago salt was taxed so the bakers stopped using it and never started again, but bread is just infinitely better with salt! You need salt! I saw someone posted asking if this no salt bread was something people actually eat or a prank played in tourists and people were like no, we eat it! Once you get used to no salt it is delicious! I…I don’t get it. You don’t use a ton of salt in bread, just a little bit and it makes a huge difference! Even the bread we had this morning in town didn’t have salt on, but definitely wasn’t unsalted completely, but it would have been better with a bit of salt in top. We did have really good food on Elba (everything was better in Elba!) and that one little Vegan restaurant, but everything else needed a bit of salt (and they don’t have salt at the table to add your own). It is so strange. It’s not like I want super salty food or something, I just want the food seasoned! I still can’t believe their normal bread doesn’t use salt!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Colle di Val d'Elsa

    May 9 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    This morning we headed to Colle di Val d'Elsa because once again the Internet said their market was a food market today, but alas it was not. So we just wandered a bit and then headed off towards Volterra. I keep forgetting to mention that driving around a Volterra in the fields are these giant circles or giant sticks. We were like what are these?!? There are a bunch just off the road and we finally looked them up and they are by an artist from Volterra. There are 12 around the countryside near the City, but we only saw 7 or 8, but it was fun driving and spying for them! We finally stopped today to take a photo with one!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Volterra Part 1

    May 9 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Our real stop for the day was Volterra! We have driven by there every day since we got to the new place, but today was finally the day we explored! We parked at the bottom of the hill and went by their community fountain on the way up the stairs to the city. We had planned on eating lunch at this vegan restaurant, but unfortunately they were closed unexpectedly so we wandered and found another place with bruschetta, that bread and veggie soup we had before, and a chickpea cream soup. The air was cold today even though technically it was warmer than yesterday and we were freezing so hot soup sounded great! And surprisingly it was really good! The bread and veggie soup was amazing and I was like we should have just gotten 2 of them! Oh well, the other thing were good too. Finally some Tuscan food I would go back and get again!

    After lunch I bundled up in everything I brought with me, which wasn’t much as the last two days it has been “colder” but so warm walking around I didn’t wear all my layers…so I left some of them at home today. It was a weird temp, we were cold but hot at the same time. The air was really cold, but it was warm walking around and it was odd.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Volterra Part 2

    May 9 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Walking around Volterra was pretty nice. When we got there this morning it was really busy and we were lucky to get a parking spot, and we learned it was because a car race is happening tomorrow! We are just missing another one! This one is classic race cars and we saw them driving down the road as we were headed to the city. Apparently they had been in the main square in the morning so we missed that.

    It was a gorgeous day even if a bit cold at times. Volterra was really not that big, it seemed like it was going to take a lot longer to walk through than it did. We kept ending up in red main squares. And there are lots of shells in the stones in the ground which was fun to try and spy. There were also some pretty nice viewpoints plus a Roman amphitheater! And my friend asked if I would pick up an olive wood spoon for her so I found some here that were pretty nice and picked up one for myself as well. It was a nice city to wander and much less busy after lunch!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Volterra Hike

    May 9 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    After wandering the town I had had another hike planned, but again it was one that you should only do if it hasn’t rained recently and it has so I found a walk through the countryside around Volterra hike and since we’ve enjoyed the other ones so much decided to do that one. Only…it wasn’t very nice. Most of the hike was on a paved road with cars going by fairly often and no views as there were too many trees and things in the way. It was a long one too so I was like this was kind of a waste, but now we know. Towards the end of the hike we did find some Necropoli Etruscan tombs! There were two big ones and they were pitch black inside so we used our phone lights to see, which didn’t help that much so they were pretty spooky. As we were leaving someone else was going in and we said you need a flashlight and he was like really? I was here last week and there were lights that came on and lit everything up! So no clue why they were off today, but it was fun exploring them in the dark!

    Then back home where it was still nice out and we relaxed outside after dinner. Oh, one other thing - we found a radio station that plays mostly good music (which for some reason is hard to find as they all play like all genres so they might play a couple things I like then a bunch of stuff I can’t stand) and they have a jingle they play after saying the station name and I kept hearing them say “very normal people” as the jingle, but I was like it is in Italian so it must be something else that just sounds like that. So I looked it up today and their slogan is “Very normal people!” That is what they are saying which is a strange thing for them to say all the time. I love it. Tomorrow we head on to our next stop!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Livorno Part 1

    May 10 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today we got up and packed up and headed on to Livorno to explore before heading on to our next place. We got there and headed for the indoor market to see what we could find and I enjoyed that so much! Yes, there were lots of meats and fish and cheeses, but there were also a lot of bakeries and produce stalls and even ones that had crackers I could eat (though we didn’t get any as we have too many snacks like that already!). It was more what I expected from the other markets and that was fun. Afterwards we stopped to try a local speciality - a 5&5 sandwich. We got it on focaccia and it is cecina (that chickpea pancake we tried the other day, but this one was soooo much better) and grilled eggplant as the filling. That is all they serve - either with or without eggplant and oh it was amazing. It doesn’t look like much, but if we lived nearby we would stop by often for one.

    Then we headed out to explore the city! It is not the prettiest city or the most pedestrian friendly (there were cars and mopeds and stuff everywhere!), but I enjoyed it. I didn’t think I had that many photos to post until I stared to go through them. We wandered through another market and then headed towards lunch - a vegan restaurant that sounded good.

    The restaurant was a bit odd. There main restaurant is up on the second floor, but there is no one at the door on the first floor so it looks empty and I wandered up the stairs to see if they were open and it is set up in all these different little rooms. Like it was an apartment at one time, but with very small rooms. It was odd. We sat out on the sidewalk so if we needed anything we would have to go upstairs and try and find someone. Maybe it is not always like that, but they also seemed to be behind and prepping and the food took forever to come, but it was really tasty when we got it. They make their own cheeses and we got the stuffed zucchini flowers (with potato and cheese filling, served with pickled onion, balsamic, and puffed rice cracker). This was so good!! And it was nice it was one serving, but they plated it for two! Then the mains were seitan with radicchio, sousvide pear and feta mousse - I know it doesn’t look like much, seitan is not her most photogenic thing, but it was really good. And then we tried their Pici pasta with sun-dried tomato and strawberry pesto with their Parmesan cheese on top. I wanted to try this one as it sounded odd, but we both loved it. I never would have thought to put strawberries with sun-dried tomatoes on pasta or that that is a flavor combination that would work, but it did. So that was fun! Fancy vegan food! Oh they also had some odd people cutouts in the bathroom…

    After lunch at headed towards the waterfront. The directions were to turn left after the Spider-Man statue so I was looking for that and didn’t realize it would be on the roof!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Livorno Part 2

    May 10 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The waterfront was gorgeous! It was a beautiful day and luckily quite cool even though it was sunny. There was a cool breeze most of the time and we didn’t get that hot all day which is good. We headed towards this big square that was as south as we wanted to go and found a craft market set up there! That was a fun surprise as I always love looking at crafty things.

    Then as we headed back towards town we found a giant antiques market! I was like this is like Arezzo all over again! Markets everywhere! I do love seeing all the things while seeing the city!

    We did try and go see the old fortress, but there was a medieval fair going on that you had to pay to get in to. I would have checked that out as it looked fun, but by that time it was getting late and we didn’t have time if we wanted to get to the next place before dark. I feel like we stared to run out of time and we could have used a few more hours in Livorno! Even though like I said it wasn’t the prettiest city I still really enjoyed it and would have explored a bit more if we could have.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Livorno Part 3

    May 10 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    On the way back to the car we stopped at another Vegan place that had treats and got a bunch of tiny things that were delicious! All the super tiny tarts, a small berry tart, and a palmier like cinnamon roll thing - all so tasty!

    Afterwards I was like there is another with a case with just Vegan treats just outside of downtown if we want to stop on our way and see what they have so we did and they had all the things! We got a couple tarts and a chocolate cake and a filled pastry. We had the cake for dessert after dinner and it was so good! Likes chocolate brownie cake - delicious! Livorno really has some great Vegan options! Really we kept seeing places that looked good, but we can only eat so much in one day! It wasn’t until right now writing this up that I was like we could have stayed a bit longer and gotten takeout for dinner instead of making it! That’s why we had to get to the next place before too late as I would turn into a hungry monster of we didn’t (and making dinner takes bit of time). Oh well. Next time I will plan more time there or closer to a Livorno and eat all the things!

    Then it was off to our next stop which is up in the start of the mountains! We were driving and I was like yes! Real mountains! The photos of the view from here are kind of washed out as the sun was bright, but it is really nice. Lots of patios and places to sit with slightly different views, but some mountains and you can see the Mediterranean too! Tomorrow we explore this area which I am excited about!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Monte Forato Hike Part 1

    May 11 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Today we did the first big hike of the trip - Monte Forato in the Apuan Alps! I was so happy to be in mountains again! I love hiking up and seeing all the things! The trail was marked as hard which usually means technical so I wasn’t sure if we would actually do the whole thing, but it was fine. Not even as difficult as some trails were have done in other countries so that was good. The hike starts in this tiny town and we got what we thought was the last parking spot in the parking lot, though when we came back at noticed an upper lot as well (there had been no one parked there this morning). The town was super tiny, but very pretty with the running through it. The first part of the hike was up to a ridge, mostly in forests with occasional breaks to see the views! And lots of old abandoned buildings. It started raining while we were hiking up, but it didn’t make it to us as the trees covered us, but we could see the ridge where we were going and it looked likes blue skies so we walked until we got to the ridge before we ate lunch and the views were amazing! You could see the valleys on either side and all the mountains! And no rain! I was glad it wasn’t warmer today as the hike up was hot, but there were breezes and at the top it was perfect temp for sitting in the sun. When we started the hike the one mountain had clouds on it, but once we got up there the clouds had cleared up, but you could see rain in the distance then. After lunch we headed off along the ridge to hike over to Monte Forato!Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Monte Forato Hike Part 2

    May 11 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    The ridge walk looked kind of crazy from afar, but wasn’t too bad when we were doing it. In the first photo you can see some red markings in the rocks in the middle - that is the trail! The walk over to Monte Forato was all exposed and we saw some little roe deer on the path! They let us get pretty close before running away so that was fun. Just below the peak there is this rock arch that people were rock climbing on that was pretty fun! Then at the top a giant cross (and there were a ton of people there when we got there!). We looked around at the views and over where we ate lunch the mountain tops were in dark clouds and it looked like it was raining! We had a break at the top and when we started walking again it stated raining on us! I thought oh no…cause I had forgotten my rain jacket and I was hoping we would get lucky with the weather…I just thought well I guess I will get wet cause there is nothing else I can do…but as we started walking the rain stopped. It went down the valley we passed so it didn’t get us! Plus it turned into a thunderstorm so I was really glad it wasn’t right where we were (and that we were going down and getting into forest again in case it did start thunderstorming over us) as you could hear loud rumbling thunder echoing in the mountains. That was kind of fun since it wasn’t coming towards us!

    The first part of the climb down was through rocks and kind of steep and we took a break at one point and all the people that had been at the top were very slowly making their way down and I thought this is going to take forever waiting for everyone to go down the steep rocky parts one by one…but luckily it was just a very short section before we got to a trail junction for the trail coming up the other side of the mountain and everyone went down there. There were very few people that went up/down the way we did. We only really started seeing people around Monte Forato! I was glad we took the way we did as it was not busy! And the rest of walk back down was through the forest and a gentle path along the river (which had a lot more water than this morning! It was so loud!).

    All in all this was a great day! We got super lucky we didn’t get rained on, the temp was perfect for hiking, and we got incredible views! Tomorrow is another town day so we shall see what we see, but I loved being up in the mountains today!    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Lucca Part 1

    May 12 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Today we explored Lucca which i was pretty excited about. I knew there was a city walk to walk along which I always enjoy and it had some good sounding food options. We wandered around spying on all the things before getting a pizza snack…which was disappointing. The dough wasn’t very good so the best one was the eggplant one just because eggplant is good…but again it needed salt. Seasoning. Then we wandered some more and Lucca is not the nicest for wandering. Lots of churches and statues but not much else so it was just meh. Not sure why but the vibe didn’t work for me like some of the other cities that weren’t the prettiest.Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Lucca Part 2

    May 12 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    After wandering the inner city we headed to this place that supposedly had all fresh pasta and got lunch…which was also disappointing. The ravioli had peas and fresh herbs with cherry tomatoes…and needed salt and flavoring! It didn’t taste like much which I have made this same thing before and it was delicious so not sure why theirs tasted so bland. The other pasta had a sauce with all kinds of things in, but again it needed salt! And flavor! Like I could have made that better at home with boxed pasta and jarred sauce…we were talking about the food after lunch and how they don’t use salt and Raymond was like maybe it Is because they usually use cheese? And he confirmed the cheese is salty (he got a couple things with cheese here) so maybe that is it? I really don’t know. But if you are taking away the source of the seasoning then you need to add it!! The bread they gave you was also unsalted and there was a table of ladies sitting next to us and when we got there they were eating the bread and the one was like is it just me or does this have no flavor? I laughed cause I was like must be the normal Tuscan bread! I would think there is something wrong with our taste buds if our hiking snacks didn’t taste the and as always…

    After lunch we walked up on the city wall…which was also disappointing. It is not very high - like a story-story and a half tall so you can’t see over the buildings. And there wasn’t much up there to spy on. The inner city was nicer than Grosseto, but Grosseto had a nicer city wall to walk on.

    Then it was on to get some melon and dark chocolate gelato. I wanted the melon and that was again disappointing! Not a strong flavor like I wanted. The dark chocolate was pretty good though. Overall a bit of a disappointing day. I didn’t like Lucca as much as I thought I would and so…we had fun of course, but I wouldn’t go back.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Colonnata Marble Mine Hike Part 1

    May 13 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Today at got up and packed up and were able to check in this morning for our last place in Italy - just down the hill from where we were staying. We dropped our stuff off and headed off for our hike for the day - a hike from Colonnata amongst the marble mines! We got there and there were lots of clouds in the mountains, but like the other day they came and went all day. The trail starts in a tiny town and as we were trying to decide what to do (there were two hike options, one slightly longer that went up another smaller mountain) and this guy walked by and was trying to tell us to go up the other smaller mountain and he kept pointing to the map was there with a photo of something and speaking Italian and would not that we did not understand him and finally I was just like yes! Okay! Okay! To everything he said and pretended like I understood it all and then he left and we went other way (we did end up going where we was directing us at the end of the trail).

    The trail went through a super small section of town then basically went straight up the side of the mountains we were climbing. There were a lot of rocks to climb up and we were glad it was not wet as they would have been slippery! Lots of photos of Raymond hiking today as he was in front (I normally am) because the trail wasn’t really a trail and I am terrible at finding the way. It wasn’t too bad of a hike up to the highest point and it had great views of the mines and the mountains the whole way up. We did find this weird bug - an Owly Sulphur, which apparently are not very common so that was fun! He was sitting in a blade of grass and kept moving around the grass as I tried to take a photo like at wouldn’t see it if it did that. It was pretty funny.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Colonnata Marble Mine Hike Part 2

    May 13 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    After walking to the highest point we started to go back down and the trail was more of a trail (though it was very narrow on the side of the mountain). While we were hiking up Raymond did say “this is like hiking in Norway, but safer” with yes, yes it was. Norway hiking was crazy, but this was fine. In the eighth photo the ridge in the foreground is what we hiked up!

    The mines were fun to watch and I didn’t really notice as it fell into the background, but they were very loud! After the high point we started to head back down and went on the other side of the ridge and it was instantly so so so quiet! Only a couple birds chirping and you couldn’t see any signs of civilization. It was a very stark difference and we stopped to eat lunch in the valley because it was so peaceful.

    The trail went by another, smaller mountain and the views from there into the valley were great! The clouds had cleared up so we could actually see once we got there! We took a break to enjoy the views…and I found a ton of tiny ticks on me! Luckily just on my legs, and we got them off quickly, but I think they were all where I was sitting as they kept coming! It was crazy so we didn’t stay there long (plus we kept hearing thunder in the next valley and couldn’t tell if it was coming towards us or not and the clouds were getting dark and we didn’t want to be caught in a thunderstorm on an exposed ridge) and kept checking for ticks after that (Raymond only found one in the zipper of his pant leg when we got back to the car). I don’t think any of them bit me, but it was a lot.

    Before we headed back down to town we walked up to the picture of David on the wall above the one mine. That was what the guy this morning was trying to get us to go to (and the only people we saw all day, besides people in town, were three people hiking up to see David). It was not what i was expecting, but it was right above the one mine so pretty cool to see that up close.

    We stopped for one last break to enjoy the views since the dark clouds had started to break up and the thunder stopped, and on the way down we saw a lot of those Owly Sulphur bugs flying around. They look so strange flying as you can’t see their full wings.

    This was a really nice day. We both really enjoyed the hike and the views were great even if the clouds kept rolling in and out. Oh, one time on the way up we walked through a patch of clouds and they were moving so quickly! I thought we were going to be stuck in clouds forever, but no, a few minutes later it had cleared up again. Lots of fun! And the mines were fun to hike around and watch. Then back to the house to get changed (and do a more thorough tick check! Didn’t find any more luckily) and have dinner before going to spy on town a bit, but that is for the next post.    Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Viareggio mini explore

    May 13 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Our last few days we are staying in Viareggio. The past few days we were up in the mountains above town and this morning we moved down into town so we could go to the beach if we wanted! I had thought it was going to be much warmer so we might want to swim after our days exploring and I couldn’t find anywhere with a pool so the beach it was! Only it hasn’t been that warm out so even if we had a pool/went to the beach it was too cold for swimming for me (especially if the water is cold). The place we are staying at doesn’t have a view, I couldn’t find anywhere that did, but it is a block away from the beach so that works! It was nice sitting by the water and watching the sunset :) Though there are not many public beaches in the area - most of it is private places you have you pay to get an umbrella and chair. You could see all the umbrellas folded up lining the beach as far as you could see…but they close at 7pm or 8pm so then everyone can enjoy the beach after that.Read more

  • Jen RitcheyTravelerTuscany

    Pisa Part 1

    May 14 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Today we went to Pisa to explore. Now when I was planning the trip I was excited to go to Lucca (not sure why, but I like the name) and pretty eh on Pisa. I thought we will go and see the tower and wander a bit, but eh. Maybe it will be a short day.

    Well we got to Pisa and I loved it! We parked close to the tower and all that and that was gorgeous. All the buildings there were amazing and it was busy, but not the nightmare of tourists I thought it would be! Though there were a ton of people waiting to get into everything when we got there so I was like okay we probably won’t do that as we had markets up explore! And fun tower photos to take. I was trying to get Raymond to take ones with full body me and the tower and he kept saying that will break the illusion!! And I wanted to be farther away from him and he was like that doesn’t work! So he finally took the first one of me holding up the tower and I laughed so much cause I was so tiny! so I made him take a full version of that. Then we tried what he was trying to do the whole time, but got all of me in the shot which he was still like that breaks the illusion! Oh it was fun. And I know I have seen pictures of the leaning tower and stuff, but it is leaning so much! More than what the pictures show (I kept saying I see it is tilted so much, but when I take a photo and look at it it doesn’t look like it is as much as it is in person!). It really does look like it should fall over, and does look curved as they tried to compensate for the sinking. It was a lot cooler in person than I thought it would be and we spent way more time there throughout the day than I thought we would.

    After exploring that area we headed on to spy on the markets and explore the town…and the markets were extremely disappointing. There was a food one that was like 3 produce stands and no one was there…but the produce was gorgeous! The best we have seen the whole trip! And the other one was a handful of stands and again no one there shopping which was so odd. There was a third one, but it was about a 40 min walk from the second market and they were so disappointing we decided not to walk out to it (it was outside of downtown). Wandering the town outside of the big tourist spot was odd. It was almost like a ghost town. Only a handful of people about which for the size of the city was very strange.

    The one thing we did find was lots of fun art. There was even an art alley that was all local artists who had donated their works which was nice. I love finding all the art everywhere.    Read more

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