Certaldo Part 1
(28 November - 2 December)
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| Settle down... this is NOT Certaldo |
We received notification that there was a train replacement bus for part of the morning's trip to Zurich, but we fortunately negotiated that smoothly. It does raise the blood pressure, however!
It was really pretty travelling through tunnels and passes and alongside snow covered fields and trees as we rode along valleys through the alps.
We had about an hour's wait at Zurich for our Milan train, enough time for a coffee without stressing about the connection - because we'd been there three weeks ago to catch the train to Gengenbach, knowing the lay of the land means we were just more relaxed.
We stayed the night in a hotel in Milan. We'd always planned to do this, regardless of the aforementioned train situation, as in our planning we had already decided we didn't want to spend more than (say) 5 or 6 hours in a day travelling on trains - there's just too much than can go wrong with missed connections.
We picked up the hire car and... wow! Italian traffic! Red lights being just a suggestion, the first hour getting two or three kilometres away from Milan central was a nightmare. Because everyone's more important than everyone else on the road, their need to get through the intersection trumps everyone else's, so as a result, gridlock. Another reminder that rules, while a pain in the @r$e sometimes, are in place for a reason.
We arrived at Certaldo just after nightfall.
We rang the Airbnb owner and there was a significant language problem. Fortunately a police car was being towed from the street we're living in, so we were able to ask the Carabinieri to speak to the owner. Good timing!
Certaldo is in the middle of Tuscany, near a few places you've likely heard of... Lucca, Sienna, Florence, Pisa etc.
Because we had a car for three days, rather than look around our local town, we made use of the car to explore a few places that are difficult to get to otherwise.
We drove to San Gimignano, a town famous for its towers that are scattered throughout the old town's twisting, winding paved streets.
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From there we drove to Voltera, a small town close to San Gimignano with a history dating back to the 8th century BC.
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We drove to Monterigioni, a medieval walled town built 1214 as a fortification when the local people were waring with Florence.
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Sunday, we drove through the Val d'Orcia, a beautiful drive that is so Tuscan, (! yes, we know we sound like Wallies saying that!) Looking at any of the photos and video we took, one look and you'd know it was Tuscany.
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Pienza is another hilltop town, full of twisting alleys and small squares around every turn. It's famous for being the birthplace of Pope Pius II, as well as the Piccolomini Palace, his summer residence.
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We ended the day at Montepulciano, another medieval and Renaissance hill town, famous for the vines that make award winning wines.
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It was a rainy day so we only spent three or four hours there before training it back to Certaldo. We'll return to Florence one day in the coming weeks, having made sure we've booked a couple of tours first (to avoid some of the queues, which were significant even in this, the off-season.
And so without a car, we spent the next couple of days checking out Certaldo.
We caught the funicular to the top of the hill behind our apartment.
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Sienna on the train next.
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