Sep 06 2016

Italy Day 5: Tuscany, a lovely B&B, and Siena

After four days in Rome, it was time to head northwest to Tuscany, which is arguably one of the best wine macroregions in the world. We checked out of the Assunta Domus hotel, and Alessandro (the inn keeper) hailed a taxi for us. We took the taxi to the Hertz car rental location near Borghese Park. The rental process went fairly smoothly, and we left the car park with a Renault Kadjar. The vehicle was larger than I had anticipated, and that isn’t great for travel within European cities, but we will make it. 🙂

We took the motorway to a small town that is southeast of Siena known as Monteroni d’Arbia. We had booked reservations at a little bed and breakfast called Casa Bolsinina. It was an absolutely beautiful property that took our breath away right when we first saw it!

Casa Bolsinina bed and breakfast in Tuscany outside Siena
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After dropping off the luggage, and getting unpacked, we drove ~20km (~30 minutes) to Siena. Siena is a city where there are many ZTLs (Zona Traffico Limitato), which are places where you may not drive or park. As such, it really makes sense to just park your car. For Siena, one of the best places to do that is the Il Campo parking garage. It’s only €2 per hour, and is just a short walk from main square of Siena, Piazza del Campo. After just standing in awe of the beauty of the square, we had some coffee and hot tea at a little cafe.

We bought tickets (for €10 each) to ascend Torre del Mangia, which is one of the highest vantage points in the city. You really can’t miss it from just about anywhere near Siena:

View of Siena and the Torre del Mangia in the distance
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Though my fear of open heights came fully into play at the top of the tower, the views of the city were absolutely worth both the climb of the narrow staircases… and the subsequent heart palpitations. 😉 The weather definitely elevated my fear, though, because it had started to rain and the wind was very strong! Like I said, though, the views made up for it:

View of Siena from the top of the Torre del Mangia
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After coming down from the tower, the winds and rains had really picked up, and it was actually starting to get a little chilly. I hadn’t anticipated that large of a drop in temperature, but that goes to show what the rain can do. We walked to Ristorante San Domenico for our dinner reservations. The food was a little hit or miss. Some of the dishes were great, and some were nothing more than mediocre. The two that stood out to me were the Gnochetti tartufati (gnocchi with truffle sauce) and the Pizza rustico (white pizza with potato and rosemary). The truffle sauce was delicious, but there may have been just a little too much of it. That being said, the extra was great on some traditional coarse Tuscan breads.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at Gelateria Brivido for some gelato. It was extremely expensive by comparison to the other gelato that we’ve had thus far, but at the same time, it was delicious. Deb got Nutella, and I chose black cherry and cream. Both came with a very fresh cookie sticking in it.

When we got back to Casa Bolsinina, we were warmly greeted by the two owners (Maria and Marcello). They are, without a doubt, two of the most accommodating hosts I’ve ever met in my years of travel! Seeing as Marcello is a Sommelier, I asked if I could see his wine list. I was completely shocked to see the amount of 1997 Brunellos that he had available! 1997 was claimed to be one of the better vintages of recent times, and though they may have passed their prime a little bit, I will likely never again have the chance to taste them. I went with 1997 Poggio di Sotto, and Deb had the Friulano (which is actually a renamed Sauvignon Vert) from Schiopetto.

1997 Poggio di Sotto Brunello and snack tray at Casa Bolsinina
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To go with our wines, Maria made us a lovely tray of snacks which included crisps, peanuts, crackers, and cheese. She brought it up to the terrace near our room, so we were able to sit and enjoy the wines in the cool and crisp air of Tuscany. It was a blissful experience, and one that I’m sure we will be repeating whilst we’re here! 🙂

Cheers,
Zach

Sep 05 2016

Italy Day 4: A private Vatican tour and elegant dinner

We woke up a bit earlier than normal this morning because we needed to be at the entrance to the Vatican Museums at 09:30 for our private tour of the Vatican. This particular tour company (run by a wonderful woman named Livia) was absolutely a pleasure to work with, and our tour guide, Claudia, couldn’t have been better! Not only was she incredibly knowledgeable and able to select the highlights of the museums, she also went well out of her way to make sure that we were treated like the only people there!

After seeing one of the exhibits, we went outside the main museum entrance to the Vatican Gardens. They were very peaceful, and we sat down on a bench to look at a book. At first, we couldn’t figure out why we were sitting there looking over a book when there were so many things to see! However, perusing the book about the history of the Sistine Chapel proved to be a highly valuable experience—one that we would more greatly appreciate later when we actually got to see the Chapel.

Rome - The Vatican Gardens
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As a quick aside, the coffee at the café near the Vatican Gardens was some of the worst I’ve ever had… ever. Okay, enough of that.

Over the course of the day, we saw many different exhibits within the Vatican, and, in my opinion, some of the highlights were the Hall of Roman Statues, and the Carriage Pavilion. The Hall of Roman Statues had many different busts, but also some replicas of famous and not-so-famous Greek statues. Being intrigued by the Greek myth of Ganymede, I was excited to see a replica of the statue of him with the eagle:

Ganymede with the Eagle replica in the Vatican Museums
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The Carriage Pavilion was one of the newer additions to the museums, and contained the various carriages (read: “Popemobiles”) used by the Popes when they travel. There were some incredibly ornate ones, as well as the more modern vehicles (some of which were donated by well-known automobile manufacturers like Mercedes and Alfa Romeo).

After viewing many of the exhibits, we ended our tour of the Vatican with a visit to the Sistine Chapel and lastly St. Peter’s Basilica. The beauty of the Sistine Chapel can’t really be captured by words, and we were certainly glad that Claudia had told us some of the history behind the paintings. The only downside was that people were very rude and disrespectful in the Chapel. They were talking, and taking photographs, even though both are prohibited. Frequently, priests would proclaim “Sliencia!” in effort to quiet the masses, but it seemed of little use. St. Peter’s Basilica was remarkably beautiful as well, and the most stunning part (in my opinion) was seeing Michelangelo’s Pietà:

Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
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We exited St. Peter’s into the main square, and looking back, the main façade was beyond grand!

Front facade of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City
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There was a near-disaster when I was told that the Vatican Museums had already closed, so they weren’t sure how I would pick up my camera bag (which had to be checked at the beginning of our tour). Fortunately, though, there was another entrance to the Museums, and I was able to get into the coat room, and grab my bag.

After quite the full day, we walked back to the hotel, changed clothes, and headed out for our dinner reservations at La Fata Ignorante. The restaurant came very highly rated, and the owner (Gianluca) was an exceptional host! He indicated that the key to a nice restaurant is balance between food, service, and ambiance. I have to agree, and say that La Fata Ignorante had a wonderful combination of all three elements! Deb and I again split three dishes. This time, they were Pappardelle (one of my all-time favourite pastas) with wild boar sauce, Risotto with saffron and mushrooms, and Carbonara. I think that both of us greatly preferred the Pappardelle, but all three dishes were quite nice.

It started pouring down rain, so we took a taxi back to the hotel. However, we stopped in at Café Friends near our hotel for one last bottle of wine before ending our stay in Rome. We headed back to the hotel, packed our bags, and prepared for our journey into the heart of Tuscany tomorrow.

Cheers,
Zach

Sep 04 2016

Italy Day 3: The Zoo, Roman Forum, and the Knights of Malta Keyhole

Today, we woke up and were greeted by another sunny (and hot) day in Rome. The schedule today was a bit more lax than yesterday, but there were still several things that I had on our “to-do” list. We started out by walking to Bioparco di Roma (Rome’s zoo), which was about 35 minutes from our hotel. As the zoo is situated in the northern portion of the beautiful Borghese Park, we took our time getting there. It ended up being much like Saint Louis in the fact that the zoo is surrounded by a nice park (in our case, Forest Park) with lots of pretty scenery.

A view of Rome from Borghese Park
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The zoo itself was a bit expensive (about €20 per person, with the aquarium passes), but it was nice to see some of the different animals that we don’t have at our zoo in Saint Louis. Also, there was a new baby monkey, and who doesn’t love baby animals? We were lucky enough to see him and his mother eating some grapes as a mid-afternoon snack:

Baby monkey eating grapes at the Rome Zoo
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After a nice relaxing morning and early afternoon at the zoo, we started walking back toward the Colosseum. Though we toured it yesterday, our ticket also included the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We didn’t have enough time to see them yesterday, and fortunately, our tickets were good for additional days. The ruins of the Roman Forum are certainly not to be missed, nor is the view from atop Palatine Hill:

The Roman Forum - ruins
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The Roman Forum - Temple of Antoninus and Faustino
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After that, we headed southwest along the River Tiber for some lesser-known sights. The first was Santa Sabina cathedral, which is situated on the top of Aventine Hill. It was a lovely church surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds. There was an event taking place that evening, though, so it was a bit busier than I had anticipated.

Rome - Santa Sabina church
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The second place on Aventine Hill was the Knights of Malta Keyhole, which is exactly what it sounds like—a keyhole. You may ask yourself “why would I want to see a keyhole?” and you would certainly be justified with that question. The reason is that through the keyhole is an astonishing view. It was difficult to photograph, (especially at dusk), but this will give you an idea:

View of Rome from the Knights of Malta Keyhole
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I was surprised that there was a queue leading up to the door, but I guess that the secret is out about the neat view. 😛 We didn’t have to wait very long, though, and getting to see St. Peter’s Basilica from this unique perspective was well worth it!

Our dinner reservations for the evening were not very far from the Keyhole at a restaurant named Lo Scopettaro. It is known for having simple and traditional Italian dishes, so we decided to order three different pastas and share them. We went with Tonarelli al norcino (a thicker spaghetti with sausage, onion, milk, and nutmeg), Tonarelli with tomato and basil, and Fettucine with porcini mushrooms. All three dishes were nice, but none of them jumped out at me as particularly fantastic. What did strike me, though, was a wine that I never saw coming. Lazio (the Italian region that encompasses Rome) has always been trumped in the wine world by Tuscany (its neighbour to the northwest), so when I ordered a relatively inexpensive IGT blend (of equal parts Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot), I wasn’t thinking that it would completely wow me! The 2012 Casale del Giglio Madreselva definitely changed my perspective on not only Lazio as a wine region, but also blends with such high concentrations of both Merlot and Petit Verdot. Simply outstanding!

2012 Casale del Giglio Madreselva red blend
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We caught a cab back to the hotel, and decided to make it an early evening since we have a private tour of the Vatican scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Cheers,
Zach